The lazy blogger...

That would be me. Totally lazy blogger.

Ithought I'd get to blogging about our adventures getting the alpaca sheared, but I barely got photos, we were just so busy actually getting the animals sheared. I got blasted with spit by the baby... He got my entire front, down my purple tank top and my pants. It was wildly fun. Not. It smelled awful. It always does.

And I haven't done anything yet with the fleece, I need a fleece mentor. I've been looking into owning the Suri alpaca association, but I think they are currently busy, their head quarters is in Estes Park Colorado.


W planted a garden this summer, I really hate to garden alone, and I don't like the heat at all. I definitely need help weeding, of course the hubby needs to weed a bit more judiciously next year. He killed the snap peas.

W have had some good tomatoes, and sweet corn, and green beans. Everything went in late and some things didn't go in at all.  Next year will go better, the hubby says.

Fibery Creatures part two: The Girls

Back in November we acquired two male alpacas from a neighbor. My husband agreed to buy the rest of the herd from him, too. Now we also have four female alpacas, three of which are pregnant.

Aren't they cute? 

The boys don't seem to be particularly impressed with the fence that separates them from their girls; they spend quite a bit of time looking at them through the fence.

 They seem particularly impressed or concerned, or maybe jealous when the girls do something exciting. In this case they all went out to the edge of the pasture and then spooked when Amtrak went past blowing his horn.

The boys like to rest their chins on the gate.Scott and I find this quite amusing.

 This is Dee, she is pregnant, due at the end of the month. She is the first one to take food from your hand if you offer it. Her color is Medium Fawn and she has a white patch on her neck.

This next girl is Spice. She is not as quit to an offered snack as Dee, and wont get between her and food. She is quiet and sweet. Scott and I think her hair style makes her look like one of the WB cartoon sheep dogs. She is Medium Rose-Gray. She is also pregnant, and due at the end of the month.

This is Pearl, I like to call her Pearly Girl,She'll take treats from my hand if Dee doesn't bully her out of the way. She is only two years old this year, and not pregnant. She's White, no fancy term for the white, just white. She is Crescendo's daughter, she stayed with her at their old home for an extra week.

Crescendo is wearing the halter in this picture because we are waiting on her to drop her cria at any moment. Cria is the term for a baby alpaca. Crescendo is Light Fawn, and (obviously) pregnant. She is very cautious about treats from the hand. And yesterday when everyone wanted squirted with the hose she was not interested. She stayed at the neighbors for an extra week, because he thought she would drop at any moment, but nothing happened so he brought her over.

She has been here for a week and a half and still nothing has happened If she grazes 30 feet from the others we start to think something is going to happen, if she lays down we start to think something might happen. if she flips her tail we think something might happen. And yet, nothing has.

 I guess a watched alpaca does not drop a cria. It is making Scott very nervous, more nervous than when his own children were born.

the Boys, fibery creatures.

We bought a couple of Alpacas from a neighbor to our north. Two males,

Bad Karma
and Phenomenon.



The first thing they did was find darn near every burr in the pasture. Scott and I removed what they had picked up in their fleece, and then walked the pasture and pulled the burdock up that was still out there. I had high hopes that that would mean there would be less coming up this spring. HA!


The boys have big beautiful "doe eyes" under all that fluff.




And they have these cute nibbly noses, and it tickles when they eat out of your hands.


Compared to the horses the alpaca are very timid, unless you are the dog or the cat. Karma tree-ed my favorite cat, not long after we got the alpacas, and a couple weeks ago he gave the dog a lesson in who rules the pasture.He can run as faster or faster than Gypsy, and if he'd wanted to stomp all over her he could have. Good for her that he didn't.

Dr Bronner's Magic peppermint soap.

A couple of years ago I bought some of this stuff on a whim at Target. I have used it very sparingly in the shower ever since. I love the tingle of mint soap and a cool shower when it is hotter than blue blazes outside. I have never tried it on anything else. Until now.  I just used about 7 drops with a very small amount of water to clean the hardwood floor where my nephew just vomitted, vomit smell eliminated. Next, I'm going to use a few drops in the wash to see if it takes care of kid or cat urine. I'm betting a definate yes on kid urine and I'm hoping for the best on cat urine.

Little House on the prairie

The little playhouse in our yard, mostly the loss store toys in it. It's awefully cute.

Rainstorms

I may be tired of the rain, but the clouds are certainly picturesque.

Land mines

So, maybe they aren't land mines. Maybe they are just toads, but sometimes its awfully hard to dodge them in the yard, an,d they really don' t seem to be aware of the fact that toad versus size 8 1/2 shoe always ends badly. They are welcome to stay and hang around to eat the bugs, but I dread the day I step on one of them.