Baby Cole Meets Mr. D

This has been an extraordinary Christmas! We were visited by our daughter, Mindy and her husband Carl with our new grandbaby, Cole! The 11 days they spent with us were great! It has been a long time since we've had a baby around, and Cole is the greatest! On the day he left he met "Mr. D" and they "bonded"! It was pretty funny to see each of them checking the other out! We can't wait until they come back and Cole can really get to know the alpacas!

Christmas Baby!

We had a late Christmas present from Minnie...a new boy cria born on the 28th! His name is "Mr. D" and he is the first cria of Rigoletto (a Dom Lucilio son). He was born without any problems and everyone is doing fine. His face is great and he's got a great personality! We're having a great time!

Green Grass for the girls!

Kim bought some fence panels and we have created a new pen for the girls that has lots of grass in it! (The biggest problem we're having is getting rid of sand burrs and growing grass in the pastures for the animals!) They absolutely love it! When I go out to open it in the morning they make a dash for the grass! (The boys already had a lot of grass in their pasture, so can't say we're not equal opportunity! )

Of course, the grass is always greener.........

Starting a Petition to Enlarge the Pool!

MAN! IT'S HOT!

Honeymoon and Shearing!

Last Thursday Silhouette went to visit Poseidon. Rhonda reported yesterday that they "got married" on Monday and seemed to have a very enthusiastic honeymoon. They will behavior test on Saturday to see if she is pregnant.

We are still breeding S'mores, will behavior test tomorrow to see if we have been successful.

On Saturday night, we got a call from the rancher in Del Valle (Jan and John Pierce) saying that the shearer was going to finish early on Sunday at Rhonda's, and they could come over to her place and shear her animals and ours! We were thinking that it would be in May, but turns out that this was more convenient for the shearer. They are a bunch of guys from Australia and New Zeeland and all they do is travel around and shear alpacas. They were really awesome to watch. So, we borrowed the trailer from the Pierces, and tried to get out as many of the burrs as we could and we got them over to Jan and John's about 1:00 on Sunday. They finished about 3:30 and we were all bushed! John recommended that we keep our animals separate from theirs, and it's a good thing, because some of them were really quite unrecognizable when they were sheared. (Cambridge had 7 pounds of fiber!) It was pretty successful, considering that we haltered the little girls for the first time...that was fine, but they didn't lead very well....good thing they are small enough to pick up! And we had our first experience of loading animals into the trailer (boys were a piece of cake, but the girls were a little difficult).

Angel at 3 months

It's fun to see how fast the babies are growing. Angel is three months old today, and she is growing very fast! I have to weigh her and see how much she weighs now, but I'll bet that she is more than fifty pounds. Her fiber is very fine and silky, while Carmella's is longer and more dense. They have a lot of fun playing together, but Angel is clearly the "boss". Here's a photo of her with her mother, S'mores, who has been a wonderful mother. We'll find out soon if she is pregnant with Rigoletto's cria. It will be interesting to see what color they make!

And there was Rain!

Finally! After months and months of no rain, we finally had a gully-washer last night! The pond had been going down steadily and is now full again! Every one of the animals seems to have a new attitude today!

Rain: Part Two

Cagney and Lacey are so happy to have water to play in again! They chased, ran, wrestled and rolled in the stream until they almost dropped!

Rain: Part Three

And most of all, the alpacas were grateful for the rain that will bring some great grass to eat!

In this photo the girls are watching Cagney and Lacey play in the water.

Minnie's pregnant!

Well, I guess that this breeding stuff isn't all that hard, after all! We got the progesterone results back today and Minnie is pregnant! Her due date is December 27th! Guess Mr. Rigoletto is "proven" now. It's weird, because we were sure that he wasn't successful. We bred him to S'mores earlier this week, and will put them together again tomorrow, so hopefully this will be just as easy. Cambridge will have to wait his turn, and hopefully he will be mature enough when he has his next opportunity. (He's really got beautiful fiber, so I'm sure he will make pretty crias).

Silhouette goes to see Posideon just as soon as we get a health certificate back from the vet. This is a match that we've planned since we bought her in December of 2004! Can't wait to see this baby!

Cagney and Lacey's Birthday!

Today Cagney and Lacey are one year old! We're hoping that the bad habits of climbing the fences and digging holes will disappear with "adulthood"! They are calming down a bit and Cagney hasn't escaped for a couple of weeks, now. (Kim has put electric fence around the first three pastures, so hopefully just knowing that it is there is enough deterrant for Cagney to stay inside...she's awfully smart!) Right now they stay with the male alpacas and visit the girls on a daily basis. We haven't quite felt like they should sleep with the girls in the barn area, because it is so small, and we do feel like they are pretty protected there! It's amazing how big they are (about 70 pounds each) and they tell us that they will continue to grow for another 6 months. They are both great dogs! (despite the bad habits!) It is worth noting that since we got them, we haven't spotted a coyote on the property!

Girls Day Out

We've been pretty busy, as usual. We cleared the corral of Fawn's poop and leaves and now we let the girls out there during the day. They were like little kids when we first let them out there, running and jumping and chasing each other. (The pen by the barn is really too little for them, but its smallness does help us to take care of them better). The babies have outgrown their coats and the cold weather is just now starting! I'm going to try and figure out how to make some extensions, because their fur is not quite full enough yet to keep them warm.

Escape Artist!

The babies are fine. I've stopped giving Carmella a bottle and she still seems to be gaining weight (28.2 today) and Angel weighed 35 pounds the last time I caught her to weigh her (she's a brute)! We've had quite a battle with Cagney getting out. She actually got out last week and was gone all night. (she hasn't gotten out side then, but we'll see...it's a challenge!) Kim has put up fence extensions, and finally an electric fence, but she actually climbed out twice with the electric fence on! I hope that she learned that being out all night wasn't a lot of fun, and won't try it anymore!