Lovely Day in the Pasture

Once again we had a beautiful day, we will miss them in another month.  Rich and I spent the day working out on the farm.  He attacked the plum trees and helped me tackle the large poop pile in the lagoon pasture.  My there was a lot of beans to scoop.  It may sound awful, but  I really don't mind.  I mowed in several pastures knocking off the seed heads.  We have had such little rain that the dust clogged the mower and Rich had to blow the dust out of the engine to get it running again.
I was able to get a little time in the Fiber Cottage.  I am spinning the beautiful fiber I dyed with pokeberries.  I even managed to work on the triangle loom.  I am getting very close to finishing the 7 foot shawl.  
We let all the girls + J Arbuckle and Eddie be together all day.  J Arbuckle didn't give Alexi any trouble.  They are together tonight, so I have my fingers crossed they will begin to get along.

Oh, yea  . . . the unlady like Lady Bugs are back.  Ugh!

Bess

When we put Arbuckle back in with his dam, Bess, she let him nurse briefly then started  kicking him.  she knows this big baby needs to be weaned!  Her weight is way down and he is a  big boy.  We will continue to separate them in the day time and put them back together at night for a while.  But soon we will separate him from her.  It is hard for me to watch, but I know it has to be done.  I think it will really be hard for him when he has to separate from Priscilla.  Being only two days apart they have never been separated and are best friends.  Priscilla is not ready to be weaned.    We will have to watch that Arbuckle does not start nursing off of Freja.  I have seen him do that several times and she has not seemed to noticed.She too is very thin and nursing an additional cria would not be good for her health.


We got some rain later in the day.  The rain is not much, but we are so dry, anything helps.  I worked in the fiber cottage for a good part of the day.  I have a shawl on the 7 foot triangle loom and I am spinning up the fiber I dyed with pokeberrys.  The pokeberries sure made colorful fiber that is making a slubby yarn.

Another Snowy Day

The snow is falling and it very pretty, but I am tiring of winter.  I must admit snow beats just gray, dreary days, but I am longing to find the bulbs blooming and warm sunshine for my alpacas to sun bath in. 
My son, home from school because of the bad roads, helped me out in the barn.  I had expected mile high piles of beans, but instead just found a couple of small piles.  A blessing on a snowy day.  Perhaps the alpacas will realize the snow is just fluffy and will meander out of the barn so tonight will be a repeat of this morning.  I am not holding my breath on that one!
     Taking  a good look at the herd, I noticed we have some very long nails.  As soon as the weather improves and Richard is home to help me I will be trimming nails.  If you have never trimmed nails, you really don't realize how some alpacas are very compliant, but there a a few alpacas that are a real challenge.  Trimming nails has to be done to keep the herd healthy.
     The middle of winter is a great time to start making serious lists, so when better weather arrieves you have a game plan.  We planned our vegtable gardens a couple years ago.  Last night Richard and I planned for our new blueberries and rasberries.  This will be exciting to get some more fresh berries on the farm.  We have strawberries and wild blackberries already growing on Sycamore Creek Farm.  My daughter, for Christmas,  gave me some seeds from Thomas Jefferson's home.  so we will be planting nutmeg, artichokes, alpine strawberries  for the first time this year.
Time to get to work,
Alpaca Lady