Current Updates

Saturday, January 31, 2004 6:57 AM
There's a saying among veterinarians, "The number one cause of infertility is pregnancy." Dr Thacher was out yesterday, and Linda is pregnant. She's a wild one, and even after some sedation, she fought the idea of the ultrasound. it took about an hour and a half to find the baby in there. It looks like she's about 5-7 months pregnant, we could see the heartbeat. Now, if we can just track down who the sire is...
Today, my father-in-law comes home. I'm off to Hemet to pick him up. Now maybe I'll have a little spare time.

Friday, January 30, 2004 6:43 AM
Yesterday I was way to busy for an update. The day started with a trip to help my mother-in-law get the stuff to retrofit her house for disabled access. My father in law is coming home Saturday, and he still has some problems getting around.
Then it was home for poop patrol, and get Lady Linda up to the upper paddock so the vet can check her out. A ranch visit, finish up the catch pen in limbo, spit tests on Suni, Carmel Sunday, Snickers, Fudge, Sunflower, Mare, and Snowberrie. By then it was treat time, then over to my mother-in-law's to make some modifications to the house, remove doors, hook up the sattelite, re-arrange the living room, and she cooked up a great quiche. Yep, quite a day yesterday...
Today, a ranch visit at 9:00, Dr Thacher at 2:00, and probably treat the wounds from struggling with Linda by 4:00.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 6:52 AM
Prissy and Sandi Spit off yesterday. I was trying to work on the inside of a 12X12 catch pen for a while, but it soon got crowded as everyone needed to know what I was doing. We've had lots of ranch visits, so Rose is really happy, and makes sure everyone gives her lots of neck rubs.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004 7:24 AM
Lots of spit testing to do here, everyone should be pregnant, just have to double check. Brown Sugar surprised me by putting on 8 pounds last week. She may just get to breeding weight after all. Yolanda is inching up in weight, 108 now. We'll wait for 110 to breed her.

Monday, January 26, 2004 7:46 AM
Oops, forgot the update yesterday. It's foggy this morning, but still nice and warm. We're going to start breeding Chloe, and she and her 3 crias will be going up for sale on the fiber page. Everybody enjoyed yesterday, as we had a lot of visitors. Pati gets to spend some time here today, so we'll get to work together.

Saturday, January 24, 2004 6:29 AM
With Bob's help yesterday, got Linda "bumped". I know no more now than I did before, she spits off, is porky, and supposedly is not pregnant. But, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's usually a duck.
We also got Nora's teeth trimmed. She wasn't excited about having the trimmer inserted into her mouth, but when we gave her a little sedative, it was fine. I put pictures at nora.html Gotta go get a few things done, then head to the SoCalPaca meeting in Tehachapi

Friday, January 23, 2004 7:29 AM
It's another beautiful warm sunny day. Bob will be coming over so we can "bump" Lady Linda to see if she's pregnant. As wild as she is, I just hope to come out of the pen unscathed. We're also going to trim Nora's teeth, I'll get before and after pictures.
Yesterday, we had a ranch visit, and Leon took a fabulous picture of Shogun whispering sweet nothings to his wife, Valerie. Looks like Leon has some serious competition. The picture is here.

Thursday, January 22, 2004 7:32 AM
Yesterday, we spit checked Magnolia and Armana, yep, pregnant. When we were breeding Prissy, Whitney walked up, and through the fence, spit at Shogun. I guess that told us how she felt.
I've been working on getting pictures of all the new alpacas so I can get them on the website. Hopefully I'll have everyone done today.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 6:22 AM
Another great day! Prissy dropped her pregnancy and bred again, so that was kind of a bummer, but Victoria and Windy bred for their first times yesterday. Windy was the first girl to be born here and later bred here. My little girl has grown up.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 4:52 AM
Yesterday was a GREAT day! Having been away for three days really energized me. I got weights on all the crias, they're all doing well. Yolanda is up to 107 lbs. Mare and Snowberrie both spit off, so they should be ready to go home to Gwen and Duane Doty at Alpaca Passion Farms soon. It wasn't a big surprise, as when we got home from Vegas, Pati pointed out what a "huggable investment" Mare was being, she was definitely in a foul mood.
I also got a new catch pen put up in an area I call limbo, and got Sandi bred to Ambush. Yep, a great day yesterday. This morning I woke to a message that Cantana has been bred to McGyver, so today isn't starting out too bad either. Life is good!

Monday, January 19, 2004 4:56 AM
Yes, I know there were no updates over the weekend, Pati and I went to Vegas for the weekend. We had a great time, had a chance to see lots of alpacas, and even bought one, a beautiful brown suri girl bred to a grey herdsire.
It was nice to get home yesterday, and see our alpacas all looking well, and we were surrounded when we walked in the paddocks like "where were you all weekend?"

Thursday, January 15, 2004 4:52 AM
Tomorrow it's off to Vegas for the weekend. Pati and I haven't had a chance to get away together for two years! We're really looking forward to it.
Today will be last minute preparations, making sure there's lots of hay out, packing, etc.
The kid down the road is going to be scooping poop, and making sure that there's plenty of water, etc, and as a plan B our other neighbors are going to double check it, and cover it should the kid not do it.
All the alpacas are doing well, I had to do a head count, because I lost track. 52 alpacas out there now.
When I get back from Vegas, I have lots of spit testing to do.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:00 AM
Well, things look like they're going to settle down soon, my father in law is back out of the hospital, and into a much better skilled care facility. I have all of the alpacas' names memborized, and no babies due.
This weekend, it's off to Vegas, Pati and I haven't been able to do a trip together for two years. Yahoo!

Monday, January 12, 2004 7:11 AM
Well I'm not the smartest person in the world. When the eight alpacas arrived on Saturday, I didn't put name tags on them. I spent a good part of yesterday memorizing who's who, and with fawns, browns and bays, it was no easy task. I felt like I was in "Romper Room". "I see Nora and Suni and Expresso and Snickers..."

Sunday, January 11, 2004 8:18 AM
Oops, forgot I had a ranch visit today, guess no golf. The new girls are all doing fine. Off to poop patrol.

Saturday, January 10, 2004 8:53 PM
What a day! Eight alpacas got off of a transport today, I expected four or six. Oh well, we have room. Gavin and Holly were here for the rancher for a day, along with Debra, their 8 month old foster child that hardly made a sound all day. Rich from Michigan was here, Cathy, Eve, another Debra, AlpacaBob took pictures, Bill, Michelle, Paola and Sven were here, and on top of all this, I memorized the names of the eight alpacas.
I didn't realize until she arrived, one of our new girls was Chloe. Who's Chloe, you ask? She was featured on Animal Planet's "That's my baby."
Snowberrie, Mare and Manda all spit off today, tomorrow I'll either test Prissy, Armana and Magnolia, or go to the golf course.
Life is good...

Friday, January 9, 2004 9:30 AM
As I went down to the paddock yesterday, my comment was wow! These are some big healthy girls!
I wanted to get them aligned with our worming schedule, so it's ivermectin time. They're in a paddock with just the three of them, and as luck would have it, no catch pen.
With their size, and not knowing their temperament, I decided to try this cool way to do sub q injections I'd read about.
I walked into the paddock, looked at their size again, and said "okay girls, this is going to hurt you more than it does me." I think I was just trying to assure myself that I would walk out uninjured. (Ivomec does sting, but so does having your knuckles scraped along a fence)
One by one, I got them, and bada bing done. Number three, Carmel Sunday, thought she could distract me by standing on my foot, but we have 2 llamas, so it was a lame attempt.
This method might really be good for right after shearing, when there's no fiber to use to tent the skin.
I like it. It's at http://alpacaweb.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=1272

Thursday, January 8, 2004 7:54 AM
Sunflower, Snickers and Carmel Sunday arrived at 9:30 last night, I was pretty fired up, and didn't get to bed until about 1:30 this morning.
It was a beautiful full moon, and I was very pleased, they looked nicer than their pictures.
Sunflower woke me up this morning with a warning call, she spotted Cisco for the first time. Pati had already returned from the paddock, and let me know all was well. I'm on my second cup of coffee, heading down to see the new girls.

Wednesday, January 7, 2004 7:20 AM
It's overcast, but nice and warm. Every field except one has someone that likes to play in the water bucket on hot days, and even though it's only hitting 70 degrees, they're all at it again. Oh well, I guess I have nothing better to do than clean buckets.

Tuesday, January 6, 2004 7:20 AM
Another beautiful day. I heard yesterday that Aria dropped her pregnancy, so she's not coming home yet. She spit off for about 35 days, and now we begin again.
Everyone that should be is spitting off here, and in a few days we'll start with Sandi.

Monday, January 5, 2004 7:26 AM
We had a beautiful sunrise this morning. "Sir Earl Grey" is the new cria's official name. I think he likes it.
Pati's dad is really starting to improve, we may be able to move him closer soon, which will cut the workload quite a bit.

Sunday, January 4, 2004 7:39 AM
Yesterday was a great day, nice and sunny, went to lunch with AlpacaBob, and the new ranch helper did poop patrol for me. First day I haven't had to do it in a long time. It looks like we may have settled on Earl Grey for the name for the new cria, yep, he's turning grey. Yahoo!

Saturday, January 3, 2004 6:07 AM
I guess it's apparent that I got busy yesterday, I never finished the update. I started by tarping the hay, then a ranch visit, then the vet. The vet was checking out Cantana, she's ready to start breeding. To whom? We'll tell later...
The alpacas had a blast playing in the rain, adults and crias were pronking. Yep, life is good.

Friday, January 2, 2004 6:55 AM
We had a beautiful sunset last night, it looked like Arizona. We've had warm nights, so no cria coat for Sir Lawrence (aka AJ) It's overcast with a chance of rain today

Thursday, January 1, 2004 7:21 AM
Happy New Year!
Pati and I were able to stay awake to see the ball drop for the fourth year in a row. Having satellite with New York stations sure is cool.
All of the huacayas have spit off the last couple of days. Time to double check the suris. Yolanda shows great interest in Shogun, and yesterday Linda showed interest in Vivace. It figures, the suri likes the huacaya and vice-versa.
I enjoyed reading the update on Jo's page, it's been too hot (over 30 degrees) to halter the alpacas there, and here it was warm enough (38 degrees) to leave the cria coat off of Sir Lawrence.
Sonata and Ringo went to their new home yesterday, and we eagerly await the new arrivals from Indiana and Oregon. It's going to be a good year...

Heat index for alpacas
Formula: Temperature (F) + Humidity = Heat Index
Source: Llama*alpaca field manual
C Norman Evans DVM
Note: We're 5-20 degrees cooler than Murrieta and have a constant 10-15 MPH wind

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