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!

Another Beautiful Day on the Farm

It is another beautiful day.  So nice to have the sunshine and temps I can work in.  Rich is doing the grocery shopping and I am checking on straw prices.  I am anxious to get out to the Fiber Cottage for some spinning and weaving.  It sure would be nice to get my shawl off the loom.
The alpacas love this weather  . . . they are grazing, playing and rolling in the dust.  They look happy and that puts a smile on my face.  I separated J. Arbuckle and Priscilla for the first time.  I want little Alexi to have time with another cria.  Since J. Arbuckle insists on making life miserable for Alexi I separated him into a pasture with older animals.  I wish I could make him understand that with a behavior change the three crias could be frolicking together.  Geez, I sound like I am talking about human kids. 
I need to price all of the things I have to sell and get them down to Good Nature.  Good Nature sells my things on consignment.  I just need some motivation . . . today I am turning over that new leaf and becoming more productive.

Cool and really crisp this evening.  Alpacas love this weather, me too.  Downside, my annuals have bit the dust.    

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.

Weaving Day

I spent most of my afternoon working on a shawl for my sister. The shawl, made from fiber from our alpacas , is being woven on a triangle loom. It is so pretty and I feel so good about it. I spun all the yarn. The yarn is from Dalcie, a dark, dark, rose-grey that we recently sold; Bess our beautiful medium brown dam; Royal Sigmund, an extremely shiney true black who we sold this summer.