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!

to Bend and Back Again

Hopi the llama has been a such good 'visual' for farm visitors to see the difference between the camelid cousins that I have wanted to get a suri to demonstrate the two types of alpacas, too. Suri fleece drapes from the animal's body in silky locks, rather than fluffing outward like the huacaya's crimpy fleece.

My good friend Cindy, of Hum Sweet Hum, and I made the trip to central Oregon (near Bend) on Thursday to pick up a suri dam and her young son. We are the proud new co-owners of Q'Inti, a multi-award winner before beginning her breeding career. Her name means "hummingbird" in Quechua (Peruvian Indian).

Although recently weaned, we rejoined dam and cria for the ride to their new home in the back of Cindy's Honda Element. To minimize stress, I have left them together for the first few days of adjustment to a new environment, new herd mates, new routines. The Kid is asking to nurse again, Q'Inti is stepping aside. No, no, no!

Soon I will reshuffle the groups so all 6 weanlings are in a pen by themselves, the Kindergarten class. Meanwhile, the Kid is getting to know Smuggler and Trinket and the others, and the dams are accepting Q'Inti. Bred to Cha'ska, another show-stopping suri, Q'Inti is due in June.

Now to come up with a suitable name for the Kid! He's our candidate for "Name the Cria" contest at ABC's upcoming booth at the Eugene Green Home & Garden Show next weekend.

Q'Inti and her current and coming offspring are all full Peruvian suris. Their fleece just shimmers. New spinning experiences await!

Around the Bend

Winter Solstice was just three weeks ago, and already we notice the difference in length of daylight. Solstice is a welcome marker to the shift in natural rhythms -- and I inwardly celebrate passing it.

Besides the inevitable season of mud, winter brings foreshortened days and I am time-challenged by solo farm chores. But now we've rounded the bend, and darkness before 5:00 p.m. has stretched to dusk at 5:15. Wow, simple pleasures! A minute per day gain may not seem like much, but the affect is noticeable and welcome.

On my iGoogle home page I have a map that displays the dark/light phases across the globe. By observing these shifts through the seasons, it helps me to feel more connected with folks I know in other parts of the world: family in Southern California and Texas, friends in Michigan and Massachusetts, and wishful travelers to Ireland or Japan.

The continuous, inevitable shifting of daylight to darkness and back again is the earth breathing in-n-n-n-n and out-t-t-t-t, yoga-like. And the moon phases to and fro, accompanying the melody.

And so the seasons flow one into another.

Avoiding Weaning Woes

Our 2011 cria arrived in May and June, their births grouped together and timed so that they would grow and develop over the summer instead of during Oregon's sun-challenged fall and winter. However, that means that weaning at six or so months of age comes in the midst of winter.

Rather than segregating the young alpacas from the main herd, I chose to take their moms out and group them with newly pregnant dams. This way, I could continue to "feed 'em up" with extra calories. And the weanlings were well supported by remaining with their buddies and aunties.

Garamond and Tondero (photo taken in Sept) were the first two to wean over Thanksgiving weekend, when Mike was on hand to help me with sorting into feeding areas until they learned the new routine. I think Murphy Brown and Gracie missed their boys more than the boys missed them, even though both are experienced dams. But they soon got over it when they realized extra food was involved.

The next set of cria were old enough for transition on Christmas weekend. I checked the weather to make sure the nights were not too cold since they wouldn't have mom to cuddle with. Two of the nursing dams are rebred, so for the mom's health, it was important to separate the cria from them. Again, I moved the dams to the other group.

The moms and weanlings could visit over the fenceline for reassurance. For the first few days it was a challenge to urge Smuggler out into the pasture with the rest of the herd -- his buddy Trinket would call to him to come along. After a week of lagging, I decided to allow his mom, Jedlicka, back into the main herd. She is not pregnant so her health is not compromised. Jedlicka's presence had a calming affect on the other weanlings, and I have not observed Smuggler nursing any more. That's an unusual bonus.

Gradually I have shifted the two female herds from "main" and "young females" to "main" and "pregnant/weaned females" -- the feed 'em up group. Plus Blackberry, our lively 19-yr old who has lost a tooth.

The weanlings continue to eat pellets in their kindergarten group at evening feeding. During their transition, I added probiotics to the bowls to alleviate any digestive stress. One of the most fun parts of my day is to spend some time in with them as they eat, and they are accustomed to my presence among them.

Trinket and Smuggler (unrelated)
are best friends, born a day apart.

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!