How big is your stash?

In recent posts by Laura Fry, she talks about finishing projects that are using up her stash. If I was as prolific as she is, my stash would be gone after a few projects! Here's every piece of yarn I have:

What does your weaving stash look like?

We have a name!

Our newest cria, the carmel colored one pictured in the previous post, shall be named Darby O'Missy but we'll call her Darby.

I'm still having to go to the ranch daily to give Bliss an antibiotic shot. We got the test results back yesterday and it showed she had a form of e-coli in her bladder causing an infection. So now she's on PenG (a form of Penicillian) and NuFlor. I sure hope this cures her. I feel so bad that she's having to get shots twice a day for the PenG. My fear is she's going to associate bad things with being haltered. I'm just going to have to work extra hard after this is done to keep haltering her and find something that she likes as a treat. She has eaten grain from my hand once so my plan is to give her some of that at the end of each round this week.

Newest, and last for the season, Cria

Here she is! We still haven't settled on a name.


She's standing next to mom in this photo. You can see she's similar in coloring to mom. It'll be interesting to see how her coloring flushes out as she gets older.

I need to buy a lottery ticket!

It's ANOTHER girl!!! That makes 4 in a row.

I'll head down there later today. First I have to collect the kids at the end of school, drop them at their respective activities and then I can head down there. Ethan will come with me so I'll have him take pictures.

Hmmmm.... need a name that starts with "D". Any suggestions?

Speaking of quick

Just after I posted my last entry, my cell phone rang. It was Wayne - "You have another cria on the way." The torture of having animals 40 minutes away!

That was quick

This morning I drove down to Hollister to check on my girls. Actually, I had to stop along the way at Costco to fill up the gas tank and buy a cat tree. Yesterday we were at this same store and the kids insisted we get our cats a tree. At $50, it was a steal but we didn't have room in the car for it so I told the kids I'd get it today. Ethan'll be thrilled - he made sure to remind me this morning of my promise to get it.

While at the ranch, I had 3 tasks to accomplish:
1. give Bliss her Naxcel shot for a bladder infection
2. weigh Ciara
3. catch Ciara visiting the poop pile to make sure all the plumbing works properly

I arrived at the ranch around 10:30am. I figured I'd be there a few hours trying to accomplish the third of my tasks. First, I cleaned up the pen. It gave me a chance to watch the girls. Kay (due sometime in the next few days or months) was laying down and shifting from side to side. Bliss is still going to the poop piles and peeing teaspoons at a time. Murphy is a phenomenal mom - she stands so well for Ciara when she wants to nurse, even moving a leg out of the way if it's needed. Ciara is growing like she should be. She was 19 pounds at birth and was a little over 21 pounds today at 5 days old. Perfect weight gain!

I've been giving Bliss her Naxcel shots (4 so far). This is a first for me - giving shots. Saturday we (Wayne and I) attempted to have me give the shot on my own (i.e. without him holding her). It didn't work - I wasn't confident enough. Today though, I caught her, haltered her, tented the skin, and gave the shot. When I was done, I looked at Wayne and said "Oh! I guess I did that all by myself, huh? Cool!"

A few minutes later, Ciara went to the poop pile and did her business. Steady flow of urine and a nice mass of feces. All's well on that front! Guess I'm done for the day! 11:30 and I'm outta there.

Look who showed up!

Thursday morning I got a call from Wayne to tell me I have a cria on the ground. Yippee!! But wait, it's not October. I wasn't expecting any deliveries until October. Hmmm.... I must have "misfiled" the information the breeder gave me. I'll bet she said she bred in October (which means deliveries in September) but I misheard it as they'd deliver in October. Oops. So while I was at the ranch checking out our new cria, I checked the other mom-to-be and sure enough she's bagged up. That means she'll be delivering soon. Or not - it could be a few weeks from now too. Darn alpacas refuse to read the instruction manual.

Oh - I guess you want to know whether the cria is a girl or a boy? Well, our first two crias were girls so we fully expected to have a crop of boys this year. Not so. It's another girl! We've named her Ciara - pronounced KEE-ra. It's Gaelic for "dark one" referring to coloring as in dark hair and eyes. The name definitely fits her!