Alpaca Shearing Day!

 It's been in the 80s the past few weeks and the alpacas were getting uncomfortable. Paco would stomp and wade in their water trough and we'd set up Atreyu with a mister during the day to sit by and keep cool. It took awhile but we finally found a shearer to come out and cut their fleece for the summer. Our shearer was Joe Moore, out of Western NC, and if you are in the South Eastern US, I would highly recommend him.

First up was Paco. To say that Paco is uncooperative would be an understatement. He's untrusting, rowdy and likes to spit. They had to carry him up because he wouldn't walk on the lead even with Atreyu leading the way.

But once strapped down and stretched, he had no where to go. He could still scream and carry on though.

Paco is a Suri, and is very soft. Compared to Atreyu the amount of fleece given was very small, but it's dense and beautiful.

The boys helped to gather up all the fleece as it was cut. It was pretty windy, so they had some catching to do!

All done! He had to be carried back to the pasture as well before he was set loose. I am sure he's much cooler now!

Then it was Atreyu's turn. He's much older, gelded and has been trained. So he was very well behaved.

His fleece was pretty thick since he's a Huacaya. We got about a half a bag full from Paco and 2 over stuffed bags from Atreyu.

I bet he feels 15 lbs lighter now! 

This post is linked to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, The HomeAcre Hop, The Homestead Barn Hop,

The Kidding Kit

You can now find this post on my other site, The Free Range Life. Here is the link to The Kidding Kit.

On Burnout, Writer's Block and Moving On

I've been feeling rather burned out lately. Well, make that very burned out. You know when you feel stressed and exhausted. Physically, mentally and spiritually.  It tends to happen when I put on a happy face too long. When I smile and push back and ignore that stress.  But there comes a point when you just can't anymore.

I used to write a lot when I was younger. Being published was a big goal of mine.  Then along came a time of extreme burnout and I got blocked. Sometimes I joke that I have had writer's block for over 10 years. Words used to flow from me- poetry, stories, etc. But they stopped. In the basement I have a box full of pretty books and journals filled with words. And seeing those books make me a little sad. Sad that I don't write much anymore and sad to see how my pretty books have been replaced with cheap 17 cent notebooks bought during school supply season at Target. And those notebooks don't exactly scream inspiration!

I think that tends to be the cause of burn out in moms. They put themselves last in a long line of responsibilities. They don't feed themselves and they lose their identity as a person and become simply "mom".  So I am trying. I've admitted to myself that if I want to feel better- I do have to take care of myself some.  I am trying to relax some of my requirements and checklists. I am trying to find time to do something for me- that has nothing to do with the kids.

But still, life goes on. Kids still need me, dinners need to be made, laundry needs to be done, the house needs to be swept and animals need to be fed and cared for. We sold Johnny last week. That was hard for me. Animals are a soft spot for me and I need to learn that we can't keep every animal that lives here on our farm. Especially the bucklings. Johnny was the first kid born here. And he was very sweet.

But in exchange for Johnny, we got Poppy. She's a Nubian doe, with one kidding under her belt. That is about all I know about her and she is still pretty skiddish around people. We are slowly trying to warm her up to us, but she still runs and comes back to eat once we've gone.

We should find out in the next couple days if our bid for the Nubian buck from the Carl Sandburg Farm was accepted. And if it was we will also be looking to rehome Thor...which I am sure will be equally as hard to do.

The Bird Boys and Other Fowl Updates

 My boys love their birds. I think I may have mentioned that before. They spend more time with their chickens than they do their dogs or other cuddly pets. And if you think you can't pet a chicken, don't tell them that. Our newer chicks are now out and free ranging with the rest of the chickens. They still have separate coops, and I am wondering how I am going transition the old birds to the new coop. I have a feeling they will just go back to the old one every night.

We've had a couple broody birds over the past few months. Muh- yes, Muh, said like Duh! Is what they named the poor bird. Sat on eggs for the whole 21 days, a few exploded on her and had one partially formed chick. But she wasn't a very good sitter and left them often. The turken, named Turken Lee Jones, goes broody, but only in the old, broken down chicken coop in the goat's yard. She refuses to sit on eggs in a safe place. Then there was Black Hat, Lakin's crazy chicken. After attempting to break her since her choice of laying spots was the tool shed we finally gave up and gave her some eggs. She's due to hatch any day now.

The guineas are out and about too. I can hear them squawking right now. We started with 10. We had to cull one because of a nervous disorder. And on the 3rd night out we didn't make it out to make sure they all got inside before dark. About 5 min after dark we went out and couldn't find them. They had scattered. Armed with flashlights we found them- in trees, under bushes, etc. But we only found 6 of the 9. Hoping for the best we went back inside. Only one remained in the morning, and we found 2 piles of feathers. So we are down to 7 guineas. I think we have 3 girls and 4 boys.

And, then there are these 4, who I am not sure I have ever mentioned. They are Timber, Maple, Twinkle and Hank. They are Swedish Blue and Swedish Black ducks. I am not sure if they are hens or drakes yet, but so far I am leaning towards hens. They are about 7 weeks old now.

And finally, thanks to a customer at Paul's work, we have these in the incubator. 2 peacocks eggs. I am not sure what type yet, and it can be hard to hatch them out of the incubator. If we get another reliable broody chicken we might move them to under her. I am excited to see them hatch and what breed they are!

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What's Cluckin'  
Homestead Barn Hop

Critters

In my home:

The birds who have outgrown their indoor living spaces and no longer need a heat lamp. 

Including the lame guinea, who needs to be culled, but we just can't bring ourselves to do it.

And the a wild turkey poult, the last remaining of 4, taken from their nest by a well meaning person thinking their momma wouldn't come back. He can't be rehabilitated by a center here in NC, so it is up to us.

And the critters who end up in my milking bucket:

The big brown toad, whose reflection in the shiny steel bucket made the kids laugh for a very long time.

 

 And the tiny turtle who had a close encounter with a lawn mower. 

And earned himself a couple hours in the observation bucket.

 

Apparently he liked his reflection too. 

 

Getting my Vet Feet Wet

 When you own animals, especially large farm animals, the cost of running to the vet every time a problem arises can be quite high. Luckily we have never really needed the help of a vet. Living on 1.5 acres in a subdivision where no animals had been pastured in decades, the parasite load was small and predators beyond the neighborhood dogs were a non-issue.  

But then we moved. To 10 acres. In and near the woods, with animals around and a pasture previously used by a horse. 2 goats fell ill, but not extremely so. We used our herbal dewormer which eventually kicked the parasites from Scout, our nubian wether. But, Thor, was another story. His case was more persistant. Herbal didn't help. Safeguard didn't help. He was losing weight and less energetic. After some research we went with orally dosing injectable Ivomec. And then, he was fine. Better than fine. He was a new goat. He played with the wethers. He called louder than he ever had before. We weren't sure what the problem was, but it seemed to be resolved. 

But the damage had been done. Thor shared his yard with the Alpacas for a few months before we moved them to their new pasture.  And looking back, it could have been the reason we lost Two Socks. But we are green. We don't know alpacas well. And they are stoic creatures who don't necessarily show a problem until it's too late.

Friday evening I found Midnight on the ground. I thought he was dying right then and there. But we got him up and he walked away. We gave him a shot of Ivomec and some probiotics. I was up half the night checking on him, but he made it through the night. I contacted a local alpaca farm for help. She gave me a list of alpaca-knowledgeable veterinarians- and I started calling down the list. I found an amazing one who talked to me on the phone for at least 10 min. He told me about the worm that is accountable for 90% of goat deaths, that alpacas are also susceptible to getting- the barber pole worm. This worm is a blood sucker and causes severe anemia. The females lay an amazing amount of eggs. And they are resistant to most of the commercially available wormers. It is  He thought the Ivomec would help since it helped Thor. Told me to keep him eating. That I could give him RedCell for iron and to check all the other animals. Midnight was weak, but he was eating. He was getting up some, his eyelids were getting pinker. All good signs.

He improved most of Sunday too- though he didn't get up on Sunday at all. Then last night I checked on him at 8pm and I could tell he was going down hill. His neck was weak, his eyes were back to white- meaning severe anemia. Within 5 min he couldn't hold his neck up. I started doing some last resort stuff- Safeguard, electrolytes, LA200 (which is the treatment for another anemia causing problem in alpacas). Paul called the vet back who gave us the number to the closest Vet Hospital who could do a transfusion. Unfortunately it was UT Knoxville, 2 hrs away. We didn't have much hope, but Paul took him anyway. He didn't make it out of North Carolina. 

Things turned fast. They were improving and then BAM he was going down and it couldn't be stopped. We've given all of the others their shots. We are dosing with a second wormer as well that is supposed to be the best for barberpole worms. We will keep a close eye on the remaining 4 in hopes that this won't wipe out our entire herd. We will send out fecal samples to the State Lab in hopes of definite answers, but in the meantime we will treat as the barberpole. 

So we start our journey to learning how to care for unhealthy animals. We learn to give injections and to check eyes and gums for signs of anemia. And we try our hardest to get them back strong and healthy. 

It's been a hard week. With a sick kid. A sick cat. And a sick alpaca. The alpaca didn't make it. The cat will follow soon, most likely today. At least the kid is okay. And the hard part of farm life continues.

linked the Homestead Barn Hop

and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Let the Training Begin

We aren't new to new animals around here. When we first brought Bertie and Bella home, as well as Thor, we had to spend a lot of time out in their yard talking to them, sitting with them and getting them used to us. Now, of course, we walk in to the yard and they come running for attention, but it takes a lot of work to get to that point.

Alpacas in general are more skittish. They take a little longer to come around and trust humans. Ours come for food and hay, but we still have to walk very cautiously and stay quiet when we are in the barn while they are eating. They will eat grain out of the boys' hands though, which is a start. 

So this weekend we started our halter training. We have 2 older boys who have been halter trained previously and 4 younger ones who have been on a halter but aren't completely used to it yet. The goal is to be able to walk into the pasture and walk up to the animal without any resistance, or at the very least be able to corral them into a small space and still have them calm enough to approach.

We only have simple rope halters at the moment, which aren't ideal but will work for training while we order the appropriate type. The halter needs to be high up on the alpacas face, close to the eyes. Having it too far down on the nose is dangerous for the animal as it can compromise the nasal passageway. These rope halters are good on the nose, but pull from under the chin which can make the alpaca uncomfortable. 

We don't have a good corral set up in our pasture, so we use the barn as place to herd them in order to handle them. Atreyu is the biggest and oldest alpaca we own. He is trained well on the halter and lead so he is a good one to take out with the young ones. He isn't quite used to us, so he was unsure of me placing the halter on his head, but calmly allowed Cale to lead him in the yard.

When training a younger alpaca is a good idea to take him out with another who is already trained. They will follow behind and see how the other acts.  Lakin's little black boy, Midnight, has only been led a handful of times but after he got over his initial upset he waked very calmly- enough for Lakin to walk him alone .

Midnight went for a walk with Two Socks. He was rescued by the farm we bought him from and was in pretty bad shape when they brought him home. In the 2 times we visited their farm, he always came up to the boys, which is one of the reasons Rylan chose him. He is by far the most trusting of us, and will eat grain, hay and grass from our hands. He is halter trained but because of his previous treatment, I think he has some issues and he let us know he was unhappy:

We are new alpaca owners and I have never seen an animal fall like this before. He just collapsed. Fell over and refused to get up. He had an obstinate look in his eyes, like our goats sometimes get when they don't get their way. But after some research tonight, apparently this is a common thing for alpacas to do. It's called cushing. And it can happen for a variety of reasons. But I assume in this case it might be the rope halter that he doesn't like combined with his history of mistreatment. So until we get a new one we will only use this halter on Two Socks to hold him near us and get him used to us approaching and touching him. We'll try walking him again once we have the correct halter type.

Blaze is Cale's little brown boy. He was a little less agreeable to being led, but he calmed down quickly and Cale led him on a short walk. We plan on spending time each day working on getting closer to our new animals and earning their trust. Our 2 Suri boys are by far the most skittish and will take the most time to train. One is fairly young and relatively easy to handle if you can get close to him. The other is a bit older- and bucked so much the day we got him that he bloodied his face when he was being unloaded from the trailer. The breeder said he has always been less than trusting of people and has always put up more of a fight than the others. Hopefully with time he will come around to us.

And speaking of the 2 Suri- they are still unnamed. Any ideas?

linked to the Homestead Barn Hop
and

Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

One Step at a Time

 You know things around here have seemed to snowball on us. We've been working on one project after another, trying to finish before our deadlines. 

 

My To Do List is a mile long, some what prioritized for what has to be done NOW. This week was a lot. We needed to get the pasture fence complete. Really it should have been done before- but as I have realized, everything I think will be quick to do, takes hours.

We finally got all of our demolished barn taken apart and moved so that the fence could go through where it was piled. I won't say we are done with that, but it is out of the way for now at least. 

The gate was hung, the wires strung, the charger plugged up, and now we have a 4 strand electric fence up and running, and so far it is containing every one nicely.

Johnny and June are growing nicely. Playing all day, out with all the other goats. We lock them up at night with their mama still. One more week and I can start milking her for our use. I've got my pail, my strainer and my jars ready and waiting. Cheese and Yogurt are on the top of the boys' lists of what they want to do with our fresh milk.

This week's deadline came around on Friday afternoon:

We had to move the goats down to their new, finished pasture in time for the arrival of 6 new boys- Alpacas. 

The 2 below are Two-Socks and Midnight.

They are somewhat fearful creatures, but come around when it is feeding time and will eat out of the kids' hands and not run away. We have 4 Huacaya and 2 Suri. 

The light brown one below is Blaze. The other 2, the two Suri, are still yet to be named.

And the big white guy in the back is Atreyu. He's sort of the leader of the pack. 

And now we can relax a bit. We have a couple more things to do with the animals- build a milking stand, build a stall in the shelter for Johnny and June, and put up our portable shelter we brought with us from our old house. All of that has to get done by next Saturday. And then we can switch focus to the garden and get ready to plant my nearly 300 seedlings in the ground.

(Linked to The Homestead Barn Hop)