Saturday, February 4, 2012

And his name is....Kokopelli

When we bought Q'Inti and her nameless cria, we decided to hold a Name the Cria contest at the recent Green Home & Garden Show. From almost 100 entries, we selected Kokopelli, a playful trickster and pied piper.

Kokopelli is the youngest of the six weanlings. Yesterday, Cindy and I weighed them all and took the opportunity to assess their fleece. Our little suri boy's is gleaming white fleece up close, and very fine.

The biggest surprise of weighing was that Ruana (female) weighed in more than either of the two slightly older males. Her fleece is dense and soft, but I really thought Tondero was the heavier. Can't tell by looks! ~ the scale is an important tool for herd health.

Today we had return visitors from last week's Open Farm Day -- two girls who where completely taken with the alpacas. After doing a bit of farm chores (spreading shredded bark in muddy walkways), they broke out the bags of carrots they'd cut up to share with the alpacas. When they walked into the hay field where the dams were grazing, alert eyes and ears quickly spied the orange-colored treats in crinkly plastic zip bags, and the excited girls were practically mugged.

Another visitor, a neighbor who is an artist, came with camera in hand to take photos of Kokopelli. It was her first time to meet a suri. Her paintings are quite remarkable, capturing the personality of each of her subjects.

All of this while Mike busily dug post holes for the vineyard fence!

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