Another long time between postings, but we have been busy. Sometimes I’m not sure doing just what, but the days go by quickly. We are working with Llewis and Cllark for the ‘On the Trail with Llewis and Cllark’ hikes, and getting ready for last weekend’s National Alpaca Farm Days.
This was the first year we were part of NAFD. I think last year we were at the Llama Futurity Show winning 4th place in a class of 22 beautiful female suri llamas. I’m still proud of my girl for doing that! This year the Futurity was a week earlier than the NAFD, so we could do both! And by the way, Sweet-n-Tart, the girl who did so well last year, is becoming a mommy now! She is in Michigan at New Venture Suris being bred to M.R.S. Night Vision — a VERY nice suri boy who is producing exceptional babies. It will be rough to sell her and know I’ll probably never see the offspring of that match, but sell her I must.
At any rate, NAFD went well for us. We had a at least 60 visitors, possibly not as many as some, but enough for us for our first year. We had interest in llama and alpaca buying, and did sell some fiber and one of my llama dolls. We got our store set up in a better way than before, and now it is set up smaller than for the weekend, but still very nice — and permanent. I also learned what to do to make next year’s NAFD a bigger success – it may be as the Hot Mama Llama, but that’s okay! As long as people come, enjoy themselves, and spend money!!
Next thing on the list is getting Spicey Hot ready to sell, and send out the e-mails and other advertising for her. I do hope she sells, but I will bring her home rather than give her away. One thing I’m going to do is offer to bring her to her new home if it is somewhere other than the east or west coast, and will share the cost [or keep her until spring] for those too far away to bring her myself. Maybe that will spark some interest. The prices at LFA were not bad, and some were pretty darn good, so we’ll see.
Enough for tonight. I still have to put some numbers together for our meeting tomorrow and check on the LFA prices I didn’t get before — oh yes, we also found a great new home for Kitten Kaboodle at the LFA! YAY!!!
Filed under: Humming | Tags: alpaca breeding, fiber, Llama Futurity Association, National Alpaca Farm Days, selling llamas, Sweet-n-Tart
Well, again I’ve managed to not write regularly. I’m going to STOP that by making this my journal — isn’t that much of what a blog is, after all? A public private journal. Ah well –
At any rate, this past week has been a flurry of getting ready for this and next weekend. This weekend Carl and I are going to the Llama Futurity Sale and Show — not to buy or sell, but to take EDR Chilean Sweet-n-Tart to be bred to New Venture’s M.R.S. Night Vision. I bought the breeding at last year’s LFA auction, and hope it will help sell my gorgeous little girl next spring. I may put her in the Suri Llama Association sale next May, if I can’t sell her on my own. I’ve got a picture of her at the end of this blog note, so anyone interested in buying a beautiful female who will be bred to an exceptional male [and no, it's not going to be at a 'giving her away' price, but will be fair], let me know!
The next thing we have been working on is our participation in National Alpaca Farm Days, atwww.nationalalpacafarmdays.com.
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We will have llamas and alpacas for people to see and pet, brochures to hand out, things to sell, and all sorts of stuff. I’m even going to have unprocessed fiber to sell. Wow. Hope this goes well! I’m going to send individual e-mail and maybe post card invitations to people who have been here for activities, and just about anyone else I can think of. I’ve spoken with two of the farms in the general area [in Metamora and in Bloomington] and they had, respectively, 200 and 300 people show up. Much work to be done!
The OTHER thing we have going is that two of my suri alpaca females, Amber Glo and Lady Astor, are headed off to Dos Donas Alpaca Farm in St. Louis to be bred. I hope they get Amber Glo pregnant — she’s not been happy with Chacana for the past couple of years. Then they will be sold, hopefully fairly quickly. At least I’ll be able to put them on AlpacaNation with Bolero. Lady Eleanor is going along to head toward Julie Weir’s farm to be sold. I also have a possible interest in the three guys [Day Dream Believer (Rabbit), White Knight, and Midnight Idol], and in October, when Otis heads to the ‘boy’ group, Hokatika will probably go to a local alpaca farm as a herd guard.
Two other items — see, I said we are busy! One is that we are being audited — the IRS seems to think I enjoy getting up at 4:30 and working my buns off all day long and then trying to figure out how to make more money half the night, and this is nothing more than a ‘hobby farm.’ We’ll see what happens, but if nothing else, I feel good about knowing that I have been and continue to do everything I can to make money; and for me this is as much of a real business as I can make it.
The other item is almost as bad, but still can be good. Spicey Hot [Sweet-n-Tart's mom] is being put up for sale at Bob LaMorte’s Herd Dispersal sale. That’s a sad one — personal reasons and he has to do it NOW rather than being able to wait until the Celebrity Sale next spring when he would have all sorts of people there — and it is the first big sale of the year. At any rate, she and her M.R.S. Soul Majic boy, Mocha Latte, are being offered, so right now I’m spending lots of time getting her clean to the skin. She’s not happy, needless to say, since she is full of mats, but I’m about done with her third leg, leaving only one more, and then we can let her be for a while to get her fiber to get back to its lock structure. She is a fantastic female, and I hope she and her boy bring some good money. As my vet said, now that I’m not breeding anymore, I’m getting all these exceptional animals — just the way my life goes! At any rate, I’m going to be walking Sweet-n-Tart around so people can see what Spicey Hot produces and have fliers ready to hand out once the LFA sale is over.
Oh yes, and I forgot that I’m working on a scholarship for the Illinois Agri-Women Association and have helped a friend start a prayer shawl group. I’ll start one at the River’s Edge United Methodist Church in Spring Bay in November in case anyone in the East Peoria area is interested. It will meet on Thursday nights at the church — this is in addition to the fiber group that meets at the ranch on Monday nights.
So that’s it for now. Hopefully this has been enough reason to not write regularly. I may not get to write again tonight or tomorrow night, depending upon whether Carl takes his computer to Cedar Rapids, but I will be back Sunday night briefly.
Sweet-n-Tart -- isn't she!
Not much time tonight for talking. After a GREAT trip to see the cranes [I'll put some pictures up when I get them to the right size], I went to an excellent llama and alpaca conference put on by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Carl picked up the moms and their boys. Mocha Latte is better looking now than when he left us! And he is actually bigger than Otis. I have some pictures of Mocha Latte, one of which I’ll load in after this, and will fix some of the pictures I have of Otis so you can see him.
That is all I can write for tonight. I’ve been up since 4:445 a.m. and it is now almost 10:30 p.m. So enjoy the pictures!
Check out the ears and the facial markings!
Filed under: Humming, Uncategorized | Tags: burrs, cranes, Lewis & Clark hike, llama conferences
This will be the last post for a couple of days because I am combining business with pleasure this weekend. We are heading up to Wisconsin tomorrow and will see all sorts of cranes at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI on Friday. That’s the pleasure part! On Saturday, it is business, but also quite a bit of pleasure for me because I will be learning all about llama parasites and other fun stuff that can make my ‘nanner-eared kids’ sick. I realize that doesn’t sound like much joy in mudville, but for once there isn’t a Llama 101 attached to it. I certainly understand the need for Llama 101, and have been to many where I learned quite a bit, even after several years in the business. But I’ve been doing this for around 14 years now and figure I’m about ready to attend vet conferences to learn more — except they won’t let me. Ah well . . . . This one should make up for all the beginner conferences I’ve been to. I will say there is a llama conference held annually in MA that sounds excellent, but that is a bit far for my pocketbook.
One great thing happened today, which reflects back to my posting last night about how boring my life is: I got lots more burrs out of Sweet-n-Tart’s fiber. I’m done with the neck and just about done with the front legs. Now comes the FUN part — the back legs and tail. She’ll deal with just about anything except that tail, and of course, she has lots and lots of burrs in it. I’ll let you know if I get kicked — which I probably will. I saw more burrs on Kismet’s legs, so if Cherity comes on Friday, I’ll ask Josh and her to take them out. They should share in the fun, right?
This weekend we also pick up Spicey Hot and Mocha Latte [naming lamas is fun!] and Hokatika and Otis [NOT my name!] and Sky’s the Limit. Sky is such a neat guy; I hope his breeding expedition didn’t spoil him. I will get pictures of him on sometime — he looks like a clown.
Finally, I’m getting the On the Trail with Llewis and Cllark started — see the picture above of Carl walking a Llewis and Cllark type llama. I’m looking forward to putting the information together for the folks to pick up, and am REALLY looking forward to the ways the stories will be told. It should be great fun.
Enough for now — time to ‘fly away’ to be ready for the cranes tomorrow!
Have a hummer of a day.
Filed under: Humming | Tags: Burdock burrs, geo-caching, knitting patterns, llama dolls, rescue kitty, whooping cranes
It is sad when, other than getting Nitrous Oxide for my crowns being put on [breathe deep!!], the best thing that happened to me today is that I got a huge knot of Burdock burrs out of Sweet-n-Tart’s neck fiber. Josh put Cowboy Magic on the burr mats on her neck this morning, and it worked through the day. Tonight she got TWO loads of hay, so stood pretty still through the process. But how boring is that!
Our rescue kitten, Kitten Kaboodle, is settling in very nicely. We are going to take her to Wisconsin with us in the motor home this weekend. Not sure just how we are going to do that, and I do truly feel sorry for Toby having to put up with her [she LOVES playing with his tail] while we are out hopefully watching the whooping cranes learn to follow the ultra-light for their migration this fall. We may have to put her in a dog cage thing so she doesn’t get into everything – yucko. As I said, it should be interesting. Again, how boring is my life that this is something to write about.
What else did I do today? Not much with the llamas and alpacas. I am trying to figure out how to do geo-caching in the woods, but am not sure just how I would charge for it, and I don’t want just anyone coming onto the property — which means charging. If anyone out there knows much about geo-caching and can help me [e.g., are there places that charge for groups? does the fact that we have poison ivy in the woods cause a real problem?], that would be great.
Also, I’m going to start knitting/crocheting bears/llamas, and want to try to figure out how to make my sewing llama doll pattern into a knitting pattern. Anyone able to help me? I designed the llama doll pattern, so there isn’t a problem with copywriting, just knowing how to do it. Thanks!
May or may not get on tomorrow night — I have a date with my hubby, and no more said!
Filed under: Humming | Tags: Burdock, casting on stitches, hunting, Kismet, matted fiber, prayer shawls, weather
It seems quite unfair that after all this time I’m back — writing about cockle burrs! Actually, the plant is Burdock, or Arctium minus, if you please. What I please is to get totally RID of it! And of course the animal that got the most in her fiber is Sweet-n-Tart, my suri llama whose fiber is exceptional, and who is going to Iowa to be shown off some (and maybe help sell her mom in the sale in October) before she is bred. She is one big burry mat. I should have taken a picture of her with all of the burrs, but I was too busy trying to take some of them out. I did get the ones off the top half or so of her neck, but there are still so many to get out. I’ll have to try to put some Cowboy Magic on the biggest messes on her neck and maybe her front legs tomorrow before I go to the dentist and then work on them some more when I get back. At last she was pretty good about it all. She did want to move around too much, and Lady Eleanor kept getting in the way . . . ACH!!
The frustrating thing is that the grass looked so good in that pasture — our Pine Tree Pasture — and I went all around it looking to see if there was a patch of stuff I needed to get out. I didn’t see anything, but obviously it was there. Oh, sick, sick, sick.
I know this isn’t anything as serious as the problems a lot of others have, but I have been working so hard on getting the general mats out of her fiber and she has been so good, and now this! Bummer!!
Other than that, this has been a somewhat normally frustrating day. I started the prayer shawl again, using Lion Homespun ‘wool’ and can see why people like the feel of it. But in a shawl that is supposed to be 51 stitches wide started out at 49, so I took it out and started again, and it went to 52, so I started again and this time it was at 55 (I had decided to try for 54 stitches). I tried just decreasing a stitch, but I can see that it isn’t what I want it to be, so it’s back to taking it out and casting on again. I suppose I should be happy I’m doing this at the beginning of the shawl so I’m not taking out lots of rows of knitting, but I really want to get this going.
The weather, on the other hand, has been gorgeous! It was in the low 80s today and should be in the high 50s again tonight. So too cool! I think Kismet was shivering a bit this morning, but she was fine once she got started. I don’t know why she would be shivering, though, because she is the one with all the fiber on her. She is growing quite well. I’m going to figure out how to put pictures on the blog so I can keep track of her while she is so young. Change of subject, but I’ll put pictures of our little rescue kitten, Kitten Kaboodle, on, too. She is special — and lucky to be alive! But that is another story on another night.
What else happened today. Someone was chain-sawing something, but it turned out not to be on our property, just on that Other Guy’s property that is on our private road. At least they came in a different way and didn’t use our road. We think they are getting ready for hunting season. Hopefully they will use that other entrance for their cars this year and not chase off all the deer by driving down our road. That did tick off the other guys who we allow to hunt on our property. And before anyone gets upset that we allow hunting, as much as I like deer, they carry a parasite that can kill our llamas and alpacas, and if I have to choose between my family (llamas and alpacas) and someone I don’t know (the deer), the ‘don’t know’ guys get the short end of the stick.
I did get rid of a whole row of burdock bushes along the drive to the barn, so they won’t spread around (YEAAAA!) in years to come. I am thinking about burning the back pastures and the Wooded Pasture, to get rid of the weeds, but I need to do a lot of research on that one before I start. I would do it in October before we head off to vacation with Jay, Angelica, and Ben (our youngest son, wife, and 20-month old grandson!). Then I figure we can plant the new grass when we get back (it’s not a long vacation) and it should start growing before we get a really hard freeze — at least I hope so! It’s supposed to be a particularly cold winter this year — hopefully a good time to sell alpaca sweaters! Anyone interested?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: craft tour, hikes, IgG, M&M Labs, Tea on the Trail, TidBits
This has been an exciting week or so for EDR Lamas. First of all, the IgG for Kismet, the baby alpaca, was borderline okay, 738. That isn’t even beginning to be borderline okay for me, but my vet accepts something less than perfect [which I don't do well]. They had some plasma that I had sent over a while back for someone else to use who then decided not to use it, so we put that in her last Friday. I sent the sample out to M&M Labs in Michigan to be checked on Saturday. I didn’t hear anything on Saturday, so decided it must be okay; even if they didn’t get the results Saturday morning [and I didn't expect them to], my vet would have called me if the number was still low. It came back at 1216, as I recall, which is much better. And she is running around and having a wonderful time, gaining weight and everything. I know — I’m supposed to be putting pictures up here. I will by tomorrow or Friday evening. Tomorrow evening I am finally getting my garden set, unless it rains.
We are picking up on tours and hikes –even have a craft tour! I am now trying to figure out how to do a Tea on the Trail [without llamas because it will be in August and too hot for them to go on the trail]. It should be fun, but I’m just not sure about the best way to do it.
We’ve started advertising again, too. Josh isn’t happy with what I did because he doesn’t think it will bring people around, but if I can get them to the web site that is a start. Basically, I ask a question that we get asked a lot in the TidBits ad and then give the answer on the web site. Nothing new about that, but I think it may be okay. We’ll see.
About the visitors: this may be short because I’m getting tired. We got a call from some people who were moving from Delaware to Colorado and needed someplace to keep their animals during the day between what they expected was going to be two nights of driving. I’m not sure about the two nights of driving from Delaware the Colorado, but was more than glad to let their guys run around the front/riverside pasture since no one else is on it. The people, Olin and Becky, got here almost at noon and we put their six intact males in the front. I wasn’t concerned about fighting because the one thing that are does have is lots of green stuff! And I was right — the only one that got upset was the bluebird who was trying to protect her nest box. She finally gave up and flew into the tree until the boys quit jumping around for joy. Then she went back and all was fine. I checked on her later and she was in the area. So the boys ran around and ate, getting over their first 18 hours and ready for the rest of the trip. Olin and Becky refueled and sat in the back woods resting and getting themselves ready to go. Finally the time came, and we went down to round up the boys. This proved to be easier than I had anticipated, using the Marty McGee roping system to urge them along. We used a couple of wands to help guide them, too, but they were really easy. We got them on leads again and took everyone to the trailer. Not a problem!
Well sometimes the bad guys do win — harassment and hassle worked. Some of us have a real life and enough work to keep ourselves busy so we don’t have to ride others to their graves, so to speak. The ILLA has lost a valuable member, and I don’t mean the one sending all the negative e-mails. I think I had better leave this topic for the time being because I will end up breaking my own rules on the type of language to be used on the blog. I am simply very disappointed that it has come to this, but I don’t blame the person leaving AT ALL.
On another, and much more positive note, our baby has finally arrived! Edelweiss had a baby girl –Sweet Peruvian Kismet — on Friday the 13th. For once it was a lucky day for me! She is gorgeous and so cute at the same time. I need to get pictures of her to Jen to put on the web site. And so little! She weighed 14.5 pounds when she was born, which is less than our Bichon weighs. Of course he is a pound or two overweight, but not that bad, based on what I’ve read. She is a very light fawn, and a little rascal. I will have a good time working with her, once her mom is over the initial nervousness of actually having a baby. The birth was quick, like I thought it would be, since she had been working on it for two weeks prior to it actually happening. One funny thing is that when Kismet’s legs and head were sticking out, the legs bopped Edelweiss on the legs, and she kept looking around trying to figure out what was happening. It was almost like a dog chasing its tail! Kismet is running around the pasture now, and having a super time.
So good news supersedes the bad for today.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: abuse, field breeding, neglect, rescue, selling crias, volunteers, waiting for babies
We have one more baby due — overdue, I think. And of course it is an alpaca and of course it is her first and of course I have no one else in the herd due so I can’t tell if this is just the way it is going to be this year.
I did something last year that I don’t think I will do again: I field bred my alpacas. I only have four females and one breeding male, and I watched very closely and wrote on the calendar when I saw someone being bred. Only one of the three ended up being bred, which could have been caused by the field breeding or by the fact that the male was 13 years old at the time. I don’t think his age is a problem, though, and he did take each of them down several times. The issue I am having is that I know this female was bred the first time out — at least he was sure doing his thing. And I’ve been around the block enough times to know first-time breedings, no matter how wonderful they look, don’t always take. I’m just feeling very insecure and am tired of waiting around for her to do something. It will probably be a light fawn, which I do not want, but the male is red/brown and the female is white, so I think that is what I will end up with.
On the subject of waiting for babies, one other thing that is really bothering me right now [maybe because I'm sitting around waiting for this blasted baby to drop -- watch, it will not only be light fawn but a boy] is that people in both of the state organizations I belong to, IAOBA and ILLA, are taking life too seriously. Hey, folks, things happen — spit and shit both, you know. None of us is perfect and by-and-large we are volunteering to to what we do. We do have lives outside the organizations. If you want to take something that seriously — not trusting people, being negative, acting like a toddler whose candy was just taken away — spend some time in a cancer ward. Check out the kids UNDER TWO YEARS OLD who are bald because they’ve been getting chemo. Get a real life and let the rest of us enjoy our animals. If having llamas and/or alpacas is the your total livelihood, then spend your energy doing that, not sending e-mails and talking to people and generally causing problems because something ‘wasn’t done right’ according to your rules. Even if it wasn’t ‘right’ according to the procedures, I doubt it will cause the world to end, or even the llama and/or alpaca industry to cease and desist.
Okay, one more rant and I’m done for the night. This is the problem when I’m tired and also tired of w-a-i-t-i-n-g [and yes, I've done this lots of time before and gotten just as frustrated]: I say what I want. The best part is that the ways things are going, no one else is going to know! So HA!! At any rate, I am fed up with people who buy animals and don’t know anything about them and then abuse or neglect them. I’ve been involved with two llama rescues in the past month, and both were totally ridiculous. One involved a male cria [baby] who was taken away from a perfectly healthy mom and sold to a lady who had the sense to check around [after the cria quit eating] so that it ended up at my ranch with an adopted mom and seems to be doing well. The lady who bought the cria is somewhat to blame for not doing some research before buying the little guy, which she acknowledges, but the real problem is the person who sold him with the advice that the lady could bottle feed him like a goat. Berserk male, anyone? The other one was a neglect situation — an intact male kept in with a stallion and a mare and none of them fed properly until last January. Needless to say, it was originally a disaster. However, in January, a wonderful lady [who again didn't know anything about llamas] started feeding all the animals at the place [horses, ponies, birds, pigs, and the llama] and fell in love with the llama. We helped her move it to a much better facility after she had to buy it from the person. Last I heard it is doing well, but what a rotten situation. I asked about calling Animal Control, but apparently in that area AC only deals with dogs and cats — makes me really appreciate David, the previous Animal Control person in my county. And that isn’t anything near what the true rescue people see, from what I’ve been told. It is so sick, sick, sick. I would take along to a rescue some of the people who have nothing better to do than complain about how things are done in the ILLA and IAOBA, but I probably wouldn’t be doing the rescue “correctly,” and I would haul off and hit the person when he/she starts in on me. I do not hit animals, but like a spitting llama or alpaca, I do my own version of spitting on people when they deserve it.
So much for tonight’s temper tantrum from me. The one thing I do take seriously from tonight’s rant is the treatment of llamas by unethical and stupid people. The rest is just a game.
Today we had five young folks [in their 20's] do the take a llama to llunch, and it was fun! They came in and saw the babies and, of course, asked all the normal questions. Then we met the llamas we were going to take and I told the stories of their names and backgrounds [boring, probably, but they were polite]. Then we loaded the llamas into the trailer, which no one understands until they have come back with a llama who knows it is on the way back to the barn, and Carl drove the trailer to the back of the property. The group and I walked back in the woods — I’ll have to post a picture of that walk. It is just about worth the money of the day all by itself!
At any rate, we did the normal hike, which wasn’t long for them, and we had lunch. Then the real fun began. We tromped through the mud and muck, including a very mucky stream, walking the llamas in a majorly unstructured walk. One of the llamas, Kniggett, even got caught in a vine, and I was seriously afraid he was going to hurt himself, but thank goodness he didn’t! I did not take a llama on the walk. Sometimes that seemed to be a bit of a bummer, because the llama I would have taken, Minnett Mann, would have enjoyed the ups and downs, but then quite often I had to help get a llama to come down a hill [they were slipping and sliding because of the mud and steepness of the hills], so it was the best way to go. I would sometimes go ahead to see what way would work best, but most of the time we just kind of figured it out by ourselves as we went along. The group members made suggestions, and sometimes decisions, and off we would go! I will attach pictures tomorrow, once I figure out how to do it. I’m not sure the pictures show how much of a stretch it was for the llamas, but you figure the llamas had never done anything that steep before, and the group members had never handled llamas before, and I had never taken a group on that type of hike before. So it was all quite interesting.
Starting to get a thunderstorm, so I’ll finish this tomorrow.
