Silly Barn Lyrics

      The other day I walked into the barn

 and what to my wondering eyes should appear

 but five gleefully free alpacas staring at me. 

 I don't know who was more surprised, them or me?

 Lesson learned, latch all gates securely!

I know nothing!

I'm dumbfounded!

 Life on the farm is never dull.

Who me?  No responsibility!

Are you talking about me?

Why yes, I agree, I am extremely handsome.  Yes me!

So remember, the path to the barn can lead to the unknown.

But sun on snow can make all aglow.

The End!

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!