Life lessons

Chantica has finally joined our herd. She was the last of our agisted (boarded) alpacas, remaining down south until she'd weaned her cria and been rebred for a spring birth. She's the daughter of our Sheba, and half-sister to Jedlicka (f) and 4-month-old Sarek (m). Sheba greeted her daughter quickly, then returned to grazing. It's been two years since they'd seen each other.

Hopi takes her new guardian duties seriously -- when she met Chantica, she chased her. I stepped between them, held my hand wide in front of Hopi's face, and told her "Stop! -- she's OK, she's one of us now, too."

The other dams and cria came to check out the new girl as Chantica surveyed the landscape. For the first few days, I kept her in small groups so she could become accustomed to her new home and learn the daily routines. At feeding time, Hopi tried to segregate her once more, but again I firmly told her No, and she backed away.

Chantica is in with the weanlings, maiden females, and a couple of dams with cria, including Sheba and her crew -- here the 'little family' is seen sharing the hay bin. I selected a range of ages and sizes to be in this mini-herd so the separated babies won't feel so alone.

It's been a full week now, and all is well. Chantica and Black Sable are both due mid-May, the first births of 2010 here at Aragon Alpacas.

On Friday I spent awhile mucking out a couple of barn areas where the weanlings and companions are penned at night. It rained most of the morning, and the dams chose to remain out in the hay field, obliviously grazing. Their fleece is so long and thick that only the top gets wet, they're still dry at the skin.

Getting ready for a trip to the feed store, I looked out the window and noticed Blackberry had come back up toward the barn and was all by herself, cushed or laying on the ground. At 18, she is our eldest, and her fleece is shorter because of her age. I recognize that she gets tired now more easily, too, and lately she sometimes cushes to eat. With a halter and some pellet treats, I went out to check on her.

Blackberry stood to eat from my hand and I haltered her easily, led her back to the barn where I toweled her off, put on a jacket, took her temperature (it was low), and gave her more food. Before leaving for the feed store, I put another alpaca in with her, as companion -- they stress when left alone.

Mulling all of this over as I drove down Dillard Rd, I glanced over at a pasture of sheep and goats. Down away from their house I saw a white animal laying on the ground, head in an awkward position, and thought, "Oh no, another animal in trouble. I hope they do not come out to discover a dead one."

That concern hovered in my thoughts as I did my errands. Driving back, I looked in the pasture again to see if anyone had noticed the downed animal. To my great surprise and delight, there was a white goat standing with two little bright, shiny white kids nursing! It wasn't a death, as I'd feared, but Life!

Blackberry was fine. I took off her jacket so the afternoon sun could continue to warm and dry her, then unloaded bags of supplies, and went to check on the weanlings. The clever girls discovered that I hand not quite closed a partition in the barn, and next I saw Blackberry and Jedlicka in the gated driveway, headed toward the pasture.

This time when I tried to get Blackberry back to the barn, she steadfastly refused to go. It's always preferable to their well-being that they're not stressed, so I took the cues from her. Since she really wanted to be back out there with her herd, I let them out and both girls ran down to rejoin them.

Blackberry's boy Toledo is one of the weanlings, and now all of her resources can be solely for her. For the first week I day-wean, allowing the pairs back together at night. This way they are not quite so frantic, and the moms' milk can begin slacken off. Then it's 24/7.

Since we have so many cria of similar color and size, I put bandannas on the weanlings for simpler sorting. The three girls who generally stayed near their moms have had less trouble adjusting than the two free-lance boys who are now whining and crying until distracted by food.

And Hopi the llama just observes all of this, not quite understanding what all of the activity is about or why her herd is in different sections now.

We are preparing to plant our spring garden. First of all, deer fencing is going up. Mike has designed a gate with an arbor above it, yet to be built. We're researching roto-tillers, trying to decide if we really need one, and if so, which brand and style? Laying out a bit more cardboard (from a neighbor's new stove), lasagna-gardening style; and marking pages in the Territorial Seed Catalog. This will be quite grand in size, since I've only gardened in a small backyard plot until now.

Lastly, we have finally installed the walls on the back of Galileo's shed, and painted on the primer coat before the weekend rains. He seems quite pleased with it! A sliding door is next, so we can store hay and supplies for him there instead of bringing feed up from the boys' barn each evening.

Slowly, our plans continue to take shape!

Much like a website, a farm is never 'done.'

"Green" Alpacas

The fifth annual Eugene Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show has a few new stars this year: Alpacas! What better place to showcase how connected these unique livestock are to sustainable living?

Aragon Alpacas has joined with a few other local alpaca farms to form the Alpaca Breeders Connection, (ABC) and this Show is our first group outing. The response from the organizers, Berg Productions, was immediate enthusiasm. As we set up our booth and the pen for guest alpacas, other vendors came to greet us. And the public flocked to our booth non-stop, full of wonder and questions, and eager to purchase alpaca products.

Our goal is to introduce folks to the entire process of raising alpacas, harvesting and using their fleece, and creating warm, wearable art and useable objects.

Each day, two alpaca ambassadors fresh from our pastures braved the crowds of curious people. Baskets full of fleece elicited many Ooohs and Aaahs when touched. Folks gathered to see yarn being spun on a spinning wheel — an old-fashioned machine that you don't plug in!

Hand-knit or crocheted accessories, commercially made sweaters and coats, socks and gloves — all lined our booth. And there are so many earth-friendly things you can use this "wonder fleece" for:

• line hanging baskets to keep in the soil and moisture
• embed seeds in a roll of the fleece for planting
• stuff a pillowcase for a cozy pet bed
• put a bit in your shoes for warmth and comfort
• felt it around a bar of soap for a gentle scrub
• endless felting possibilities: hat, purse, rugs, chair seats, placemats, 3-dimensional designs
• and of course knitting, crocheting, weaving...

Even beyond fleece, there is the final product: "alpaca gold". Since alpacas are ruminants, their manure does not have to be composted before applying to plants. Vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, vineyards — all will benefit from direct application or manure tea. We even spread it in our hay field, completing the circle of life.

We often state that alpacas come in 22 natural colors,

but all of them are "Green."

Next Saturday, January 30th, the ABC Farms (map!) will host Open Farm Day from 10-4:00. Seeing alpacas in a show setting is one thing, but seeing them in their home pastures, grazing and resting and playing, is much more fun, for both the alpacas and the people!

Thank you to all who visited us at the Eugene Home Show! We love what we do, and we love sharing that with you!

(And if you are reading this and you are nowhere near Eugene, Oregon, I invite you to find an alpaca farm near you and go for a visit. That's what we did five years ago...)

Happy New Year!

In this New Year, we have a new addition to our herd: Hopi is a stately llama lady who formerly lived with horses. Her llama companion was killed by a cougar last year, and she mourned him, so her caring owner wanted to place her with other camelids.

Overwhelmed by all of the curious alpacas for the first few days, Hopi has made a good adjustment to life among them in less than a week. Surely they must seem like munchkins to her! Most of our adult females have lived with a llama in the herd before, at their other farms.

Now Hopi lopes and frolics with the dams and cria down to the big pasture each morning. She is a watcher, a sentinel guardian. And she gives us llama kisses.

Once again we prepare for the onset of the Winter season at Aragon Alpacas. The indoor barn areas are fluffed with bedding of the generic "horse hay" we grow in our hayfields during the growing season, and a solid wall built from a couple of tons of bales stands against the Norwest-wall incursion of cold winds. It's actually great hay for horses, cattle, sheep, and other livestock, but the alpacas only seem to be interested in it when it's either growing in the field or they can pilfer it from somewhere they're not supposed to be. (Did I mention they can be a little on the mischievous side?)

A cold snap rolled through a few weeks ago, driving daytime temperatures into the "teens" for a week -- it was 7° on our front porch one morning! -- and the studio and barn water pipes froze solid. Each primary water bucket in the pens had a heater, but they had to be resupplied daily. We experienced firsthand the age-old Pioneer Method of dipping water by the rope-and-bucket from the underground reservoir, which was fortunately being refilled by the well pump. We insulated it last year when the well-head plumbing froze. We also lost the rechargeable Ni-Cad batteries from our cordless power tools to the cold.

Our "alpha" male herdsire, Peruvian E Galileo, has a new feature in his pasture - a small but heavily engineered and constructed pole barn to keep the rain and snow off his ears. He, of course, doesn't seem to care much, but we got worried about him when, last year, we could only see a flat field of snow with a "bunker" in it that got up and shook it off every once in a while. He actually didn't seem the least bit cold while doing his "day job" of managing All Things Alpaca, but it offended our sensibilities that he had no place to get out of the weather should he want to, not even a tree. So in addition to the new pole barn he has a new apple tree that will eventually diffuse any wind from entering from the lower pastures. We have yet to enclose the back side of his barn, which is the direction from which the wind-driven snow and rain arrive. We may only get to putting up bales of horse hay or a tarp wall this year.

Last year, the Beekeeper [shameless and unsolicited plug: Rowan Beetanical Apiary, Creswell, OR, 541-942-6479] who keeps hives at the other end of our ranch gave us some of the honey, with which we made Mead (honey wine). Not being real fans of sweet wines, we fermented it down to a standstill, and the initial tasting proved it was going to be great. At four months, it's still technically "too young" to be tasted, but it seems to be losing the dryness a bit as it ages into the bottle. Impatient, we toasted Thanksgiving and Christmas with sips of our "Druid's Nectar."


We just received a batch of this year's honey, which Jason says is a richer flavor than the first year, so when we get a breath we'll start the 2010 Mead. Most likely in the spring -- one of the hard parts of wine and beer-making here is keeping a room up to 70 degrees to keep fermentation going.

We also homebrewed two beers this year, a Porter that was quite good while it lasted, and a nearly-extinct "WWI Flying Ace pub" chewable brown ale called "Yorick Ale." We generally try to make a lighter beer for summer cooling off and a heavier winterbrau for winter settling in. We planted four varieties of hops last year which I hope are wintering over to be back in the spring: Willamette, Centennial, Goldings, and Mt. Hood. We know the Goldings didn't make it. The rest are all patent OSU clones.

Winter also brings the opportunity for more indoor activities. Even though there seems to be endless computer work to be done (basically we are still nerds, after all), delving into handcrafts is much more satisfying for us. Mike crafted a new niddy-noddy for Ann, and Ann is spinning more, and knitting and crocheting hats and scarves and such for sale in our farm store and at event booths. One client commissioned a dozen hats to be made of sari silk yarn combined with yarn from our herd, destined for a retreat group in Germany.



New Year's Day dawned with a rainbow of promise above the barn. May 2010 be happy and prosperous for us all!

Alpacas in Bethlehem

Gryffin and Lincoln visited Bethlehem's manger in a local stable last week, participating in a living Nativity scene presented by the youth group of Grace Lutheran Church. The Christmas story of Jesus' birth was staged in the church parking lot in a 3-sided 'stable' with sturdy fence, good lighting and sound system. At first the yearling boys were overwhelmed by traffic noise, lights, and people, but then they settled down and nibbled the at the straw bales. Sheep and donkeys were unable to come this year, so alpacas represented the animal kingdom at the humble birth.

Early in December, Eugene experienced a week of below-freezing temperatures. The great challenge was to make sure water buckets remained liquid, so we invested in some floating warmers. Another technique is to mount a light just above a large bucket so that the air flow continues to move due to the heat of the bulb. But that method did not work well in 7° weather! Pipes to the barn and in the studio froze, but nothing burst. (View to the barn through the frosted sliding door.)

Freezing temps made cleaning up simpler since the 'beans' remained solid. And I listened to several audio books to distract me while raking the barn pens each day, all bundled up in hat, gloves and thermal boots. All 13 cria snuggled up next to their mamas and did well, even though a couple of them are only a few months old. I jacketed two of the older dams whose fleece is shorter than the younger ones. I am not sure they appreciated it, but it made me feel better!

There was no precipitation during this frigid weather, and I am healthy, so the cold did not bother me. In fact, it was preferable to working out in the 105° weather of August!

The pacas have a natural rhythm to their day -- the girls and cria all return from grazing in the big field about the same time every afternoon. Yesterday a movement caught my eye, and I glanced out the window to see the young ones running in circles and racing back to the pasture up again. Such delightful dancing, even the teenage girls joined in, and a couple of the moms, too. Maybe they were celebrating solstice and the return to lengthening daylight hours!

I wasn't able to capture that cavorting on film, but here are a few of the cria playing in the leaves.

Thankfulness

For so many things on our farm, I am thankful...
That all 13 of our crias this year were born healthy, and that they continue to grow and flourish. Seven boys and six girls:

• Trinity, Valrhona, and Roark (girl/girl/boy, aka, the Triple Fudge Brownies)
  
• Cadence, a maroon and white female (gig 'em, Aggies!), from Autumn Sun
  
• Toledo, fawn boy with a black nose, born to our spunky old dam, Blackberry
  
• Celeste, our only Galileo daughter, out of our first alpaca, Flora
  
• Ramiro, a red-brown boy from Sonnet ~ named for a king of Aragon
  
• Latakia, a brown boy (pictured) from Murphy Brown and Galileo ~ name of a spicy tobacco
• Juliaca, a light fawn girl from Nutmeg ~ a city in Peru
• Rigel, brightest star in constellation Orion, his sire, and mom Solstice Summer
• Sarek, from Sheba and Galileo; named for Mr Spock's Vulcan father
• Tecumseh, meaning 'shooting star' because he has one on his forehead; from Amazing Grace and Orion
  
• Mariquita, 'ladybug' is a red-brown girl with white face, from Black Lace and Orion.

I am thankful for clients who entrusted the care of their alpacas to us, adding new dimensions to our herd. Some have now gone to live at their newly prepared farm in Texas. And 4 of our boys are delighting a young family near the coast with their charm and antics.

I am thankful for the bounty of our land:

• tons of hay our field produced
• 68 volunteer pumpkins in the plot we are readying for the garden
• the first pear from our little tree
• gallons of plums we harvested for cooking and eating and wine
  
• blueberries ~more than last year, not enough for a pie yet
• wild blackberries offering juicy treats and possibilities
• honey from Jason's hives, and the tasty mead we brewed

I am thankful for friends and neighbors...

• with their unique sets of ideas and enthusiasm, challenges, frustrations and laughter
• sharing their friends, expanding our circles of connection
• celebrating birthdays and holidays, achievements and surprises
• visiting us on their travels, bringing news and reminders of other days
• helping when extra hands are needed.

I am thankful for our families...

• grandchildren that delight in visiting
• a house for nesting Jennifer and family
• extraordinary experiences and connections for Paul at Ephemerisle, and for Erica rebuilding homes in New Orleans with her Americorps team
• cousins who stay in touch across the miles and years.

I am grateful to our country's service men and women who give so much more than has ever been asked of me.

I am thankful for the grandeur and bounty of this place on earth and for the privilege of caring for it. I am ever-grateful to my dearest Mike who has consciously postponed his dream for a time to support mine. I am thankful for our continued health and well-being and mindful creativity, the very spark of life.

For all of these things and more, I offer humble thanks.

Roark ~ Valrhona ~ Cadence

Mariquita & Tecumseh ~ Juliaca ~ Sarek

Celeste ~ Toledo ~ turkey basket of yarn

Triple Fudge Brownies

Cria #3 (of the June set) arrived last Thursday morning, another flawless birth in the field by Windancer on day 354 of gestation (first photo at 5 minutes old). And another dark brown cria with black points, this time a male.

Galileo is the sire, and this was obviously a great pairing!

Windancer was very patient as the other dams and yearling girls in the pasture came over to greet her baby.


This boy's fleece is curlier than I've ever seen on a newborn, even though Mike claims "you always say that!" We are still contemplating his name: Galileo's _________. Perhaps something astronomical and suitable to the human namesake. Herdsire Galileo already has sons named Aries, Cassini, and Callisto (moon of Jupiter that the astronomer discovered). Since we have other Galileo cria due in the fall, perhaps a theme of names from Star Trek...

Galileo's son with Aunt Summer and cousin Gitana.

Now there is a trio of dark chocolate brown babies dashing through the fields, and usually I can only tell which one is which by the mom it's next to. Perhaps I could get colorful ribbons to pair the sets: green, yellow, and purple. ~ Just kidding, I would never put a nametag on such young, adventuresome animals...

Rockford half-sisters and their moms

Dependable Moms

Killdeer, the Sequel
As predicted, the killdeer parents took turn sitting on their eggs and protecting the nest. Whenever I ventured through the gate to check on any progress, the resident one would go to another area, feigning lameness to draw me away. I'd quickly snap a photo and exit.

On Day 24, I noticed both adult birds present in the dirt. Thinking this signaled hatching, I checked the next day and was completely surprised to find no evidence of birds at all -- no discarded shells or feathers or poop or any other traces of their almost month-long habitation of the dip in the dirt that had been their home.

The dams were quite happy to have that pasture again, only now the grass was so tall that Mike had to mow it. Pacas are particular and will not graze tall grasses, preferring shorter, more tender (sweeter!) shoots.

Cria Watch
After waiting almost a year, due dates for three of our dams were this week: two due June 9th, and one on June 11th. They are all experienced moms, and as the days drew nearer, I kept the herd close to the house so I could observe through the windows. Cria are generally born between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., so they will be up and running away from predators by evening.

There are definite physiological signs to watch for, such as a softening and stretching of the tendons beneath the tail, frequent visitations to the poop pile in response to the internal pressures, and perhaps laying on one side or the other, to get comfortable as the cria repositions itself.

Once I saw Disa head back up towards the barn, where her daughter was born last year -- sometimes they return to the same place for birthing. But no, she was simply grazing along the driveway. She moved to different areas frequently throughout the morning, and was humming a lot. The next time I glanced out the window, I noticed another dam peering intently towards a tree. There in its shade was Disa, and a baby on the ground. None of the other alpacas had noticed yet, so it had just happened.

I grabbed a notepad and my iPhone, and ran to the barn for my 'cria kit' and towels. The cria was already sitting sternal (upright), and Disa had delivered the placenta. Flawless alpaca births are essentially bloodless. The baby was wet and easily chilled on the overcast day, and laying in the dirt, so I scooped it up with a towel and carried it to a flatter area in the grass. A girl! Very dark brown, graduating to black on feet, ears and nose.

Once I was sure that mom and baby were safe, I dialed Mike to let him know, sent him a photo to show around the office. And called neighbor Elissa to come see.

There is a post-birth checklist to step through, so the notetaking began: time of birth, first standing, first nursing, dip the umbilical cord, etc. All of this while sitting on your hands as much as possible and observing from a distance, to allow bonding. Disa did good: got pregnant on the first breeding, and her delivery was "textbook" quick and clean.

This was Disa's third pregnancy and third daughter, all by the same gray champion herdsire, Aussie Rockford. Hence, we're considering the name "Trinity." She is of solid coloring, whereas her two older sisters are light/medium rose gray, with unique markings. [photo: Ladyhawke greets her little sister.]

Night temperatures are in the low 50s, and since crias do not regulate their body temp well the first week, I put a jacket on our new little girl. It's a toddler-size flannel one that I got at a thrift store and cut off the sleeves, buttoning along her back. She only needed it for the first couple of nights.

One Down, Two to Go
Windancer is a small-framed dam and it looks like she swallowed a watermelon. However, it was Fabia that birthed next, in 15 minutes from start to finish. Like Disa, she's a push-button dam: one breeding, quick delivery, and she knows what to do. This time Fabia was in the field (with Disa, her baby, and Windancer) -- they are so much happier there than being confined, stressed and nervous, in a pen away from their herd. I was watching through binoculars as she paused in her grazing and began pushing. Fabia lay down a couple of times, readjusting.

By the time I got out there with cria kit, towels, etc, the baby was on the ground, cushed (sitting upright). Only when she rolled to her side to stretch did I discover that we had another girl (!), and almost the identical color of Disa's cria. Again, the papa is Rockford, and Fabia is also gray, but their daughter (the 5th pairing of these two) is dark brown with black points. Wow, half-sisters and so very similar!

I took a lawn chair, clipboard with checklist, a knitting project and audio book out to the edge of the field to observe. This little girl is strong, too.

Thankfully we've had overcast days, so the sun has not been too hot for these dark little ones. I try to shoo them into the shade so they don't overheat, but the moms often have different ideas. Here, gray Fabia is checking on her daughter, with Disa (sitting) and her cria in the background; Windancer looks on just behind Fabia's head.

Name choices will be announced as soon as Windancer's cria births. She doesn't appear to be in any rush!


The photo of the "sun goddesses" was snapped the previous week. Pacas love to soak up rays, belly-side to sun. They can lay very still for many minutes, even the blackest alpaca on the hottest day.