OUR CHRISTMAS CARD TO YOU!

To our dear family and friends we want to thank you for your encouragement and support over the last year.  All of you were indispensable in helping us bring our dream to life.

We would like to offer our prayers that you will have a blessed and beautiful Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  May your day be overflowing with love.

From Rafael and the girls...

 To Daisy Mae

And the cluckers, Dolores and Winifred

 Our wish is that you will be blessed with a New Year full of God's grace and bounty!

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Developing a strategy plan.

The perfect Christmas tree is best found on your own farm and requires careful consideration.  This tree was chosen because it sits so close to it's two neighbors.  The previous owner planted many evergreens but forgot to take into consideration that they grow into towering giants.  So we decided to thin the flock.  

Getting ready for tree cutting action!

That tree didn't stand a chance!

Naked and awaiting adornment.

In all the years of cutting down our own trees this year's was the largest by far.  We've never had room for a 10 footer before.  Isn't she grand?

Her beauty shining forth!

Silly Beasts All Around

Here at Zephyr Hill Farm (can't believe I can say that now) our alpacas, chickens and cats, all have their unique and quirky personalities.  Let the shenanigans begin!

Linus enjoying his favorite toy, a paper bag.

Zoey enjoying her new favorite spot to sleep, the master bath sink.

Moses enjoying keeping Zoey company.

Twizzler enjoying digging deep for tasty hay morsels on the bottom of the feeder.

The end result?  A new do.

"Hmm, whatcha think?"

Birdie enjoying Twizzler's idea.

Daisy Mae enjoying a little milk weed snack.

 

The cluckers, Dolores and Winifred.  No joke, chickens enjoy constantly clucking.

The bounty I get to enjoy.

Top, Winifred's egg, bottom, Dolores' egg.  They always look the same.

The cluckers enjoying their new ramp and chicken door, complements of me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a few extras for you to enjoy.  :-)

 

Right to left:  Miscellaneous stuff, the 1st cutting hay (not a favorite with the beasts), the treated plywood (waiting patiently to be installed), the straw, the 2nd cutting hay (the favorite of the beasts), the tools I enjoy using to clean up the paca poo.

The bags of fleece ready to go to the fiber mill yesterday.  Jeff and I took a little road trip to drop them off at Stonehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan.  One more thing I can enjoy marking done on my to-do list!

I never get tired of enjoying the sunrises.  Hope you don't either!

Alpacas In The Field And Chickens In The Coop!

Meet Dolores and Winifred!  Names compliments of Hannah.

Yes it's true.  We now have chickens.  Thank you to Joe!  These two chickens are Isa Browns.  That's about the extent of my chicken knowledge.  Sad but true.  What I do know is that I'm excited for my first eggs from the girls!  Dolores is a smidge larger and darker, I think.

Nesting crates.

As you can see I went all out in providing them with luxury nesting crates.  I also gave them a top of the line roosting perch!

A little left over lumber and some dead branches and voila!

 We'll see how they like it and how it holds up.

Hanging feeder.

I'm finding that I'm becoming quite adept at utilizing "found" materials to create the latest feeder, perch, wind block, etc.  There seems to be a never ending list of livestock accouterments that require my resourcefulness or money.

Squirreling In For The Winter

In the midst of all the higher alpaca learning Jeff and I are soaking up, we have also been like the industrious squirrel, readying the farm for winter.  We've stocked up on hay and straw.  Though I'm convinced we won't have enough of either and I would like to get more.  We built a wind and snow block on the girls side of the barn so the barn door into the stall can stay open 24/7 without the southwesterly winds howling through the whole barn.

Daisy Mae modeling the new girls windbreak.

Jeff organized the shed and the work bench in the basement.  He also moved and stacked all the left over lumber from the barn build under the deck.  He's put away the outdoor table and chairs.  I've been busy painting the house and barn exterior doors red.  I've put my garden to bed and put away all the flower pots.  I still want to line the lower third of the stalls with plywood to prevent any accidents.  I also set up the heated water buckets.  This morning there was a good 1/4" of ice on the outside water buckets.  We've been fortunate that the first weeks in November have been so mild.  So sad that it can't remain that way.

I've also been busy skirting and washing the paca fleeces that we a acquired from this springs annual shearing.  That has been an enlightening lesson.  Alpaca fleece is dirty, very dirty.  After spending an hour painstakingly extracting bits of hay, straw, burrs, and sometimes dung from each fleece it is then "washed".  

Notice the clump of hay.

I keep each fleece separate by putting them in mesh laundry bags.  

A fleece ready to be washed.

Washing the fleece.

Then they are put in a the utility tub with a mild detergent and water and soak for at least 20 minutes.  Each fleece bag is then put in the washing machine and run through the rinse/spin cycle three times.  Then the fleece is spread out on a drying rack made of a 1x2 frame stretched with hardware cloth.  It takes several days for the fleece to dry.  Then I bag each one separately in a plastic garbage bag. Next stop will be the mill, where the fleece will magically be turned into rovings (precursor to yarn for hand spinners), or yarn. 

This is Rafael's and Comanche's fleeces on the rack to dry.

From front to back these are Andraya's, and Caroline's 2nds and prime fleece.

This is Birdie's fleece.

I am fortunate that I have a wide variety of the 22 alpaca colors available.  The next step in the process is to deliver all these fleeces to the mill.  There they will be processed.  First they'll be carded (2 metal brushes pull the fleece strands apart as they are brushed in opposite directions) creating separate strands of fibers that are light and airy.  Then they will be turned into rovings or yarn.  Rovings are basically just strips of the carded fleeces rolled into a ball.  Hand spinners create yarn out of roving.  The mill is not located around the corner, unfortunately.  It is in Wolverine, which is located north of Gaylord, but right off of I-75.  It will be about a two hour drive.  I'm thinking it will be cheaper to drive the fleeces there instead of mailing them.  I have about 40 pounds of fleece.  A chore to be completed soon.

I created a hay feeder recently out of a large pvc barrel I had acquired from my sister.  I've been wanting to feed the hay off the ground.  The alpacas step on it and drag it around.  They also seem to waste a lot of it.  I'm hoping by containing it and elevating it there will be less waste and it will be more sanitary for them, reducing parasites.

Blue barrel donated by my sister Karen.

The barrel cut in half.

The "plastic hairs" that needed to be filed off.

The finished hay feeder.

 I had created a screen to sit on top of the feeder out of left over fencing and lumber but it needs to be tweaked a tad to operate properly.


We have been busy, with more left to do.  I still have the other half of the barrel to turn into a 2nd hay feeder.  I still need to line the lower 1/3 of the stalls with plywood.  I'm sure there are other "chores" lurking in the shadows that haven't made themselves known.  I'm just sorry the warm weather has fled!  

Figuring It Out

Beautiful Morning!

Since Sweet Caroline's demise I've been concentrating on raising the alpacas we have.  I've spent the last month getting to know these eight strange but wonderful creatures. They are graceful when they run and are beautiful to watch.  They are curious, never too bored or nonchalant to not check out a Linus cat silly enough to wonder into their pasture, bounding up to and after him with unbridled passion.  Good thing Linus can run fast!

Home, sweet alpaca home!

They issue an "alert" when they notice something out of the ordinary (like a Linus cat or a deer) sounding short high pitched squeals to put the rest of the herd on their toes.  They are enthusiastic about eating and the queen and king have first dibs, usually snatching bites out of each kibble bowl before allowing the rest of the herd to commence eating.  The queen of the girls would be Miss Felicity.  The king of the boys would be Rafael.  Some of the herd are non-stop "talkers".  Rafael is famous for humming, grunting, squealing or just making noise.  The guy never shuts up!  

Rafael -  Even though he never shuts up he is quite the handsome boy.

As they have gotten used to me I can now walk in between and around them without having them flinching and running off.  Twizzler and sometimes Daisy Mae will allow me the honor of touching them.  My hope is that they all will eventually allow me to touch and halter them without any drama.

I've bred three of the "girls", learning important lessons each time.  Like, always have a halter on the male and female.  Don't breed in the paddock with the other females.  If the other females are available they may lay down next to the one you're trying to breed making it hard for you to direct the male to the correct female.  Too many choices! 

Rafael and Miss Felicity having a moment.  Notice they both have halters on and they are separated from the rest of the girls in the small catch "pen" I constructed.

Especially don't breed in sight of the other "left out" males.  They get a tad competitive and start fighting amongst themselves.  Much spitting, squealing and general mayhem may ensue.

Whoever said alpacas don't spit was confused.  I've been spit at for putting a halter on an alpaca (Birdie) and asking said alpaca to walk with me.  I've been spit at for not allowing more than the chosen male to breed with the females (Comanche).  How dare I be so exclusionary!  I've been in the cross fire between alpacas "expressing" their displeasure with each other. The good news is that it isn't painful just kinda stinky and gross.  Fortunately it does wash off.

Their daily care is easy.  Feed hay, alpaca kibbles and fresh water morning and night.  I like to also clean the stalls and clean up the paca poo piles daily.  Did you know alpacas all use the same area for their bathroom?  It makes clean up so much easier than cleaning up after any other type of livestock.  They do generate a lot of manure though, or maybe it's because I have eight of them?  No matter, I'll just have a generous amount of paca poo for the garden in the spring!

Andraya working on creating that paca poo!

When the girls get to squabbling, they tend to spit and squeal and wrap their long necks around each other.  The first time I observed this I was ready to throw a bucket of water on them.  How would they ever unentwine themselves from each other?  After having an altercation, the two combatants will walk around in a daze with their lower lip hanging down for several minutes.  Silly animals.

For the record, the females tend to be messy.  They have decided they need three paca poo piles.  One in the pasture, one in the paddock and unfortunately one in their stall.  Cleaning the stall is the most cumbersome because I keep it bedded with straw.  Since their poo resembles large rabbit pellets, it is sometimes challenging to extract just it and leave the straw behind.  The boys only have one pile and it is located in their paddock. To date they have not soiled their stall.  Good boys!

The females also don't like to be out in the rain.  The boys are much hardier and don't seem to care.  It will be interesting to see how they handle the snow.  Also the girls like to eat their hay lesiurely, often laying down while they chow down.

Birdie and Felicity having a lesiurely hay snack.

  
It has been quite the tutorial learning their habits and personalities.  I'm excited to learn more.

Done.

Sunrise the other morning.

The vet came out today.  We chose to end Sweet Caroline's suffering.  I couldn't post about her condition this past week because it was just too agonizing.  She never started eating. If she had I feel she would have survived.  Due to the nerve damage the vet observed on her right side or injured eye side her ear and lip drooped.  That I think was why she wouldn't eat.  She just couldn't figure it out.  I spent the week hand feeding her with a syringe a mixture of water, alpaca pellets and molasses.  She lost weight and was down to skin and bones.  On Thursday the vet came out and removed her stitches from her eye surgery.  The incision had healed nicely and her ear was clean and infection free.  Because she wasn't eating, however, the vet said her prognosis wasn't hopeful.  As a last resort he started her on a steroid in hopes that it would repair the nerve damage and encourage her to eat.  By Friday evening I noticed a small area of cloudiness in her good eye.  By Saturday evening her good eye had completely clouded over and was oozing.  Possibly the infection from the damaged eye remained in the optic nerve and as she became weaker she was more vulnerable to the infection.  I found her out in the middle of the pasture by herself in the dark with a cold rain coming down.  I had trouble getting her up but was finally able to lead her back to the barn.  I put her in a stall by herself.  She was now totally blind.  I honestly thought I would find her dead on Sunday morning.  She made it through Sunday but when I went out this morning I could smell death on her breath.  The vet arrived about 11:30 a.m.  It has been a heartbreaking experience.  She was so stoic and brave and refused to give up.  I'm sorry I won't have the opportunity to share life with her.  I buried her out back behind the pastures.  We have a sand "pit" there will a mini hill.  This way she will be close to her alpaca companions.  RIP Caroline!

Caroline's grave marker.

I found a nice selection of granite rocks to mark her grave and celebrate her life.

Grave site at the bottom of the hill.

View from the sand "hill" looking towards the pastures, barn and house.

Caroline's grave is just in front of this view.  It was hard to let go and "give" up on her.  As the week came to an end, however, I could barely stand to go out to the barn because it was so disheartening.  Every time I looked at her I wanted to cry.  Though this was not the outcome I envisioned when we brought her home three weeks ago it was for the best.

Now it is time to move forward and concentrate on fiber, halter training, and breeding.  Life goes on and the best tribute I can pay to Caroline is to do just that.