The Beginning of Summer

There has been a lot of work going on around the farm since May.  Hence, I've found it difficult finding spare time to keep up with my blog.  Today, however, I've found a few minutes to post pictures and do a farm update.

The pasture grass is green and abundant.

The garden is planted.

The net for tomatoes, cukes and runner beans is in place.

Rafael's fleece is in the process of being skirted and the bags contain small samples of fleece to be entered in a spin off.

I'm entering Rafael, Daisy Mae, and Twizzler's fleece in the National Suri Fleece Spin Off in August.  It requires two ounces of each of their fleece.  It had to be entered by June 6th so I rushed to get that in the mail.  The fleece is hand spun and then the yarn is "evaluated for its durability, versatility and overall desirability, and finally for handle and visual appeal."  Since the fleece is an important end product of raising alpacas a favorable score by the judge reflects on the quality and desirability of your animal's fleece for those seeking yarns or rovings from alpacas.  At the end of the show you receive your small hand spun hank of yarn, which is a great way to demonstrate how your alpaca's fleece will look as yarn.

I am also entering Rafael's whole fleece (seen above) and Daisy Mae's in the Fleece Show. In this class the whole fleece is evaluated and given points in the following categories:

Uniformity-micron, length, and color
Style - lock, structure and density
Luster
Absence of Guard Hair (large coarse hairs)
Absence of Impurities
Fleece Weight

Last year in the white older suri female class Twizzler received a 2nd place.  I was thrilled, since this was a national show and the white classes are the most common.  I'm very interested to see how Daisy Mae stacks up to the competition.  Once I get Rafael's and Daisy's fleeces skirted I have six other fleeces to do so that they can be taken to the fiber mill in the fall.  Speaking of, all the fleece dropped off last fall is now spun into yarns and roving and awaiting pick up at the mill.  Now I just need to find a day to go.

I've also been working on my flower beds and recently invested a couple of days edging and putting down another top coat of mulch.

The before east side bed.

The side bed after.

The front bed.

I'm quite fond of these Coral Bells I planted last year and the wonderful red begonia on my planter.

The vet was out twice last week.  All the alpacas got their vaccination and worm shots.  He evaluated Felicity, Twizzler and Birdie and declared the first two were pregnant.  After he felt Birdie's side he announced he was fairly confident she was also.  She is taller and longer so her pregnant belly isn't as obvious.  Aparently pregnancy testing is difficult to determine in alpacas.  Gees you would think there would be a simple inexpensive blood test like there is in the cattle industry.

Felicity sheepishly showing off her belly.

Daisy, wondering, "What about me?  I can show off too!"

The second trip the vet made was to inject a microchip in Daisy and to treat a fungus that Bo has been harboring.

Linus has a love/hate relationship with the chickens.  He wants to "play" with them.  They don't want to.  They run after him.  He runs away.  Sounds like a cat game to me.

Chicken encounters of the cat kind.

Linus supervising as only he knows how to.

Linus is my barn buddy.  He usually follows me out every morning to help feed.  He's often reluctant to leave the barn when I do.  He's a wanna be barn cat with an indoor cat sensibility. He doesn't appreciate high wind, wet grass, cold snow or loud neighbor kids.  :-)

Happy June!