Alistair with new goat kid
Yes, the first alpaca cria of the “2009″ season was born on 11/11. A little brown male with a white face, who was named Marcel Marceau.
Alistair has joined the Able Oaks Ranch, and we shall expand the dairy goat operation. For more info see Able Oaks Dairy Goats.
Filed under: Uncategorized on November 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
That’s right. My 6th racoon caught in the barn trap this morning! I swear that there’s a bulletin board down in the woods that says, “This way to Virginia’s barn —->”
Filed under: alpacas, ranch life on October 15th, 2008 | No Comments »
Now that Silver Splendor has been here for a few days, I’ve had a chance to spend some time with her and check out her conformation. I think that she is really very nice. Perfect little bite and a very straight front. Her fiber is dense with a high amplitude crimp, and the crimp is consistent. I like her head piece with a nice short little muzzle. She is quite dirty however.
She is a little wild thing. I don’t think that her breeders haltered her much. So I’ll need to work with her every day. She is a little cutie. It’s nice to have a gray girl back in the pasture.
Filed under: alpacas, ranch life on October 15th, 2008 | No Comments »
Faith, Piper, and Splendor — all alpaca females — arrived last night. Faith and Piper had been out for breeding, and Splendor is a little gorgeous gray girl that was finally old enough to leave her Mommy and come to me. The trailer, Caliente Transport, was so long that he couldn’t safely drive over the culvert without getting in the ditch. So we had to lay boards over cow grate and walk the girls over it. Only little Splendor was reluctant to walk. She actually went off the boards and her front feet went off the boards and down between the grate. But I quickly lifted her back on the boards to no ill effect.
They all literally pulled us up the hill and were quite happy to get into the pasture and pronk around. I look forward to spending some time with them this morning–especially Splendor. She is very very nice.
Filed under: alpacas on October 13th, 2008 | No Comments »
Yep, found my 5th raccoon in the barn trap this morning. He was a hefty boy with a mean snarl. I had to be real careful to make sure that my fingers were well aware from the sides of the trap when I lifted the carry handle. My neighbor says that she’s seeing lots of coons and armadillos out at night. Must be a seasonal Autumn thing. Anyway, this boy was set free behind the Church of Christ. hehe.
I’d love to catch an armadillo, but they really are not interested in the livestock feedbags. “Dillas” like to root for grubs and worms. They leave triangular dibbits in the ground where they have furrowed.
Filed under: ranch life on October 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
Take the handmade pledge to buy only handmade items for your Christmas presents this year.
Hand-crafted items are beautiful and unique. They tell your family and friends that you took extra special care to select just the right present just for them.
Filed under: Alpaca Resources, alpacas on October 10th, 2008 | No Comments »
I caught another critter in the barn. This time a little possum dude. That makes 4 raccoons and 2 possums that I’ve captured This fall–all in about 3 weeks time. Possums are such ugly, nasty creatures. I think that all the critter babies born this year are out feavorishly trying to earn a living and get some calories on before winter. This was a smaller one that is probably on his own now and away from Mom.
I don’t like to kill wild animals. Reverence of life, etc. But darn if I want ‘em breaking into my pellet bags and leaving their saliva all over everything and drinking from the alpaca water bowls. There’s rabies in my county. So I prefer to trap them and move them far away from the ranch. I put this guy out behind the new Baptist Church in town. Serves the damn Baptists right for making my county to be a dry (no liquor sales) county. Besides there’s a nice dense wooded area back there and creek at the bottom of the hill.
Filed under: alpacas, ranch life on October 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Well I caught another raccoon yesterday in my nifty animal trap. This one was smaller and probably the baby from this year’s litter. I think there must have been a whole family hanging around the barn. I found a big hole that slanted down at a 45 degree angle under the trailer, and a distinct animal trace along the perimeter fence leading to the trailer. So hopefully I have transported the whole family off the ranch premises now.
Filed under: Uncategorized on September 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
I dusted all but one of the alpaca and llama adult males with Sevin dust today. I ran out of dust, so I’ll need to get some more tomorrow to finish the rest of the herd. The weather is starting to get a little cooler at night now. It’s the weather change that causes lice to seek warmth in all that luxurious fiber.
Last year, 2 of my crias went buck naked because of lice. So I wanted to get a head start this year. I’ll finish dustingt the girls and weanlings tomorrow when I get some more dust. For more information on lice, see Lice Infestation on alpacas and llamas.
Filed under: alpacas, llamas, ranch life on September 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
Look what I found in the barn this morning. Rocky Raccoon! I think that a whole family of them have been hanging around all season. This is a male. I saw his testicles when he was grooming his tummy. I caught a female raccoon a few weeks ago, and a god-awful- ugly possum a few days ago. I knew that I still had more “visitors” around because someone was getting into the sunflower seeds that I feed the goats.
Sunflower seeds provide extra protein and oil (fat) for my little goaties. But something was getting into my black sunflower seeds and chewing them and then spitting out wads of the hulls. Very messy. Notice that I use a very humane trap.
Here he is in the back of my truck. Around here, many people just go out and shoot them in the trap. But I don’t like to do that. They are, afterall, sentient beings and just trying to make a living. I prefer to capture them and then drive them about 20 miles away to a wooded, undeveloped area and then release them. Lots of bunny rabbits are running around the ranch now. They are very small brown things–smaller than my barn cats, Buster and Lulu.
Filed under: ranch life on September 25th, 2008 | No Comments »