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!

Happy Birth Day!

Today was a long time in coming. 20 months in fact. That's quite a feat considering the gestation for alpacas is supposed to be 11 months. Our first dam, Melody, was bred and set to deliver in September 2006. Unfortunately, tragic events took her from us in December 2005. We acquired a replacement in August 2006 after confirming pregnancy. Her due date, according to her former breeder was May 21, 2007. As you can see, she was nearly a month overdue!

This last month has been incessantly nerve wracking for everyone. There was even a debate this last week as to whether or not she was even pregnant. Um, there's no doubt as of this evening - she's definitely not pregnant! Kissy Missy - aka Kay to us - delivered a 17 pound dark rose grey girl this morning. Textbook delivery; textbook postpartum; textbook newborn antics.

And now we have to give this precious creature a name. I may have mentioned in a previous (very previous) post that we use the alphabet as our naming structure. Our first cria was named with an "A" name (Aria - who sadly died at 29 days old back in 2005). So this one must be a "B" name. We first decided upon Beatrice. While the name does have some family significance, we picked it because my second most favorite 'paca at Foothill Llama and Alpaca Ranch was named Beatrice. She lived a long life and recently passed away. We also chose Baltane (bal'-tan-ah) which is Gaelic for the month of May. Although I'm not a fan of using names people can't easily pronounce let alone remember, I liked the idea of using a Gaelic word because our family has such an affinity for Ireland. But as the May 21st due date came and went, and then so did the entire month of May, Baltane had to be set aside for possible future use. Wanting to keep with the Irish theme, I looked up town names in Ireland. When I happened upon Belleek, I knew we'd have to add it to the list. Belleek is also the name of exquisite Irish Bone China. I have a few pieces from our trips to Ireland and simply love it. But Belleek china is light beige in color so a cria in any other color would have to use another name. As we were crossing our fingers and wishing very, very hard for a grey cria, I became less and less attached to the name Belleek and put it on our list for future possibilities. I also considered Bisbee Blue (a quaint town in southern Arizona - one of the VERY few that I actually liked in that state and "Blue" is another term for grey).

Then just as we passed the 11 month 2 week gestation point (nerve wracking for some; right on time for others - it just depends on how you calculate the due dates for Spring births), a friend of mine passed away suddenly. While I am thankful for the distraction, I'd like to point out to God that there are a million other things he could have chosen to distract me. My friend was a great mom to three wonderful kids ranging in age from 17 to 6. She was only five years older than me and the other day I realized that when I'm 46, I'll have a 17 year old child too. This whole event hit very very close to home for me. As I was thinking back on Kristine one day last week, I was remembering just how open-hearted she was and how happy she always made others feel. She was practically blissful. Blissy Krissy. Yes, I'm being silly - Kristine was fond of doing that too! Ah, but then that very pregnant dam 'o mine's name popped in my head - Kissy Missy. And Blissy does start with "B". (Starting to see the gears turn here?) How wonderfully silly it would be to have Kissy Missy give birth to Blissy Krissy! While I think Kristine would actually get a kick out of having a cria named after, I'm not sure her family would feel the same way.

So without further delay, let me introduce you to Bliss. She may at some point in the future get a more formal name, but she'll always be Bliss to us. In fact, we're quite blissful Bliss is with us and here to stay for a very, very, very long time.



Click on the photo for a larger version

Cria photo

I downloaded photos from my digital camera today and found this cria picture.

This is FTHL Regal. His dad, Regal Escubo, is an award winning rose grey alpaca. Although all of Regal Escubo's other crias bear his signature rose grey spot on the side of the blanket, this one has his mom's silver markings. I suppose we should really wait until Spring when he's shorn though. It's always interesting to see what the true markings are after cria's first shearings so we may indeed find Regal Escubo's marking on this boy as well!

Doesn't he just live up to his name? He's truly the most regal of the summer crias. FTHL Regal lives at Wayne and Eileen's ranch.

Kimberly, off to find more cria pictures...

Major Update

Life has been quite demanding these past 6+ months. Here's a quick synopsis:

North Fork House and Land
Right around my last post we started having trouble with the tenants/former owners of the North Fork house. They stopped paying rent and by mid-March, I had to start eviction proceedings. We finally got possession of the house in late May. But oh my, what a mess! Nine trips to the dump later (the trailer we used was 10' by 5' by 6' and we piled it higher than the 6' walls) and we have a house we can start remodeling. Anyone know of a way to clean 30 years of smoker's soot from a pine tongue-in-grove 21 foot high vaulted ceiling?

On the herd front...
We were expecting two crias this summer - one from our own female Melody, and one from a female we don't own but chose the stud for breeding. Melody graced us with a beautiful white female cria on June 26th. We named her Aria to start us off with our alphabetical naming tradition. Sadly, Aria only lived 28 days. The necropsy showed her intestines were just not working and any hay she ingested sat in C1 (the first stomach) fermenting to the point it released toxins which shut her system down. So $2908.00 later we are back to square one. The second female, Halley, slipped her pregnancy at some point because a blood test taken a month before her due date came back negative (she's now months beyond her due date). The stud we chose to use with Halley died about 2 weeks ago so we can't try that match again.

After all that's happened this summer, if I was in this business for breeding, I'd have thrown in the towel. As much as I love the animals, this was just a heartbreaking summer. Thankfully, I also love alpaca fiber and thoroughly enjoy spinning, weaving, and felting. Running a fiber ranch of males is looking more and more appealing. But we're not quitters, so it's off to Derwydd Alpacas to breed Melody and get ready for Round 2 next summer.

Fiber Arts Competitions
My daughter and I both entered things in competitions the last few months and Dana even competed on several Sheep to Shawl teams.

The first judged event was in April at Monterey Pronk. My woven suri scarf won a first place! Every yarn I entered also got a ribbon. Dana entered a knitted pencil holder necklace and got first place. Hers was the only entry in the kids category and she said she wishes more kids would enter so it would feel like a real win. Her lace weight suri yarn competed with the adults and she got second, only because she didn't set the twist. (DH chided me for not doing it for her.) The judge was very impressed that a 10 year old spun such fine yarn.

The second competition was the Alameda County Fair. The same woven suri scarf got third - and when I saw what got first and second, I understood why. First and second were very complicated weaves that must have been woven on 16+ heddle looms. They were very pretty and very well done. Dana's pencil holder necklace got second - we never did find first place (They display entries by themes, not by category.) Her yarn got third - again competing against adults. Pretty awesome!

The Alameda County Fair is where one of the sheep to shawl competitions Dana participated in was held. She was on a kid's team against four adult teams. They placed third!! Dana will get to keep the shawl they made - for now all of the shawls are making the rounds of the guilds.

Dixon Lambtown (July 30th) was Dana's second sheep to shawl competition this summer. The same kids from Alameda participated along with two adult teams. This time they came in second!! The organizers of this event solicit prize donations from the vendors. All of the kids were awed with the prize table and took home oodles of goodies.

Meet Melody

She's the new member of our herd. We bought her a few months ago. She's a 2 year old pregnant female who should deliver in mid June. On the other hand, as a maiden she might not deliver until July or maybe even August. As you can see, she's a tuxedo. We bred her to a true black male. Should make for a dreamy cria! Then again, is there any other kind? :-)

"I tried to tell you!",

said the pregnant female alpaca.

Today was more breeding and testing for pregnancy. The very first female on the list was Halle, a rose grey female who throws very nice babies when paired with Regal, another rose grey. Both alpacas are mature, experienced animals. Halle has had several crias and is a phenomenal mom. Regal is a stud the Auslands have used for quite a few years. Actually, he was retired until I came along. Because Halle is not for sale, I requested this mating because their crias are so nice. They were bred earlier and now it was time to behavior test her.

So we caught Halle, haltered her up and Wayne walked her out to take her to the breeding pen. Halle's first step outside her paddock triggered a spitting right at the back of Wayne's head. "What did you do that for?" Wayne rhetorically asked Halle. Being more cautious now, he made sure she walked next to him so he'd not be in the line of fire should anything else bother her. Well, something was bothering her because she spit again. And again. And again. She spit the entire walk back to the breeding pen. Why? She *knew* where she was going and was trying to tell us "I'm pregnant." She didn't feel the need to wait until in a pen with a male and spit him off. Did the dumb humans catch on? I didn't. But I'll be smarter next time, you can bet!