Author: Miss Lynne

This weekend was the Georgia Alpaca show. The plan was for me to go over there on the Saturday and then meet Rob at a friends house in Alpharetta as there was a 50th birthday celebration.

When I got to the show I went into the vendor room first and the results of the spin-off were in there. For those that do not know, this is a competition where you take 2 ounces of your Alpaca fiber and you are not supposed to card it or wash it, just take out most of the vegetable matter. The judge then spins it into fiber and  grades it across a range of characteristics. Well my boy won second place and more importantly I did not lose any points on my prep.

Off into the main arena to see George and Judy of Walnut Knoll Farm. They are great friends, good mentors, have really high quality Alpacas and on top of all that also roast and sell their own coffee beans. Here is a great picture of them off to get water for their herd.

They had a number of Alpacas to show and as Judy was getting ready to go into the ring, her girl cushed down without her realizing and Judy fell backwards over the top of her. Resulting in a badly sprained ankle.

This left them with a big challenge as they had Alpacas that needed to go into the ring at the same time. So George quickly trained me on what I needed to do in the ring and introduced me to KC my first boy that needed to be shown

KC was really well behaved — walked nicely and let me show his teeth and also behaved when the judge was checking his fiber. He came second but got really nice comments from the judge.

Dashed up to the party and got there late but at least in time for birthday cake. Sunday we were up early and drove back over to the show to see how Judy was. Still with a strapped ankle so after checking the times for the ring – I stepped in to look after WInston, it was his first time so I had a quick chat with him to tell him what I needed him to do.

Judy’s daughter was also helping out so here we are with the three amigos waiting to go into the ring.

As George and Dawn went into the ring, Judy realized that the girls classes were going quicker than expected so we then had to give Rob the training course and he went and got Ice Dancer from paddock and started getting ready to show.

Winston was getting bored and fractious by the time we went into the ring. He was ok doing his walk and the Judges checks. But when he was selected to go before the Judge again in 6th place, he forgot our chat and decided he had had enough and lay flat out on the floor – everyone burst out laughing even the Judge laughed and came up and thanked me.

We drove home lunchtime as we were expecting friends to visit – They came armed with cake and flowers, what a great combination. It was lovely to see them and the girls had fun in with the Alpacas.

It was all in all, despite all the running around and the drama, a perfect weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

I have been busy knitting and its been a lot of fun. I went to a class with Romi Hill at the Atlanta Knitting Guild and then adapted a free shawl pattern that is on Ravelry called the Holden Shawlette with the lovely beaded picot edging that I learnt at the class.

I have also finally knitted up the lovely hand dyed alpaca roving that was a gift from Sally Ball that I was able to spin into yarn, its super soft and I am sure it will be very warm.

Hmm what next, that’s the question

 

With the pending births of 4 new Cria next year, Mr Rob and I decided we needed to attend a seminar to get ourselves up to speed on any potential issues and how to resolve them.

There was a 2 day seminar in Richmond Virginia last weekend with the foremost expert in the US – Dr Norman Evans. So we signed up and then flew up to VA late on Friday night. We settled ourselves into a Hotel in Short Pump then drove out to the farm where the seminar was early on the Saturday morning. There were over 80 attendees, ranging from newbies like us to some very experienced farms.

The weather had dropped significantly and as the seminar was being held in a barn we froze most of the day. But the food was great ( and plenty as always) and more importantly Dr Norm was interesting and very informative. The first day focused on improving the quality of the fiber and the effects of food, environment and breeding on the future cria.

Saturday night we had dinner in a sport bar and learned some of the finer points of college football.

Sunday morning, thank goodness was a little warmer, and Dr Norm discussed the potential birthing issues and what we can do ourselves and when we should call a Vet. After lunch we joined a wet lab, not for the squeamish as it involved dead cria placed in mock ups of internal organs in Alpacas and you had to work out what the potential issue was and how you would address it. It was amazing how difficult it was to diagnose when all you had was touch and such a confined space.

We flew home Sunday night with a lot more knowledge and respect for our animals.

ooh one extra side note — there was a cute little cria in the barn with us – she was born a week earlier and her mom wanted nothing to do with her so she was being bottle fed every 2 hours. She seemed to be doing really well and was gaining weight.

On Saturday I drove over to SEFF in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon for a lace knitting class with Romi Hill. It was the techniques needed for her Ice Queen Cowl which is available from Ravelry as a free download.

It was an excellent class and she is a really lovely teacher, I learnt some basic things, provisional cast on as well as some interesting things around beaded lace and Russian join.

When I came home I decided to add a beaded picot edge to the Holden shawl I was finishing off. Sunday, I went over to Marietta and the spinning group and learnt some interesting techniques with drop spindle, Andean plying.

Then I rounded off the few days with a visit to the needle nerds at the McDonald on Chapel Hill Road. They were a real fun bunch and I look forward to spending time with them again. They are a mixed bunch of knitters, crocheters weavers and spinners. They also have a book group that I am looking forward to attending. So many inspiring things and not enough time to do them all.

We got notice that they were loaded onto the trailer at 5 pm on Sunday and due to get to us late Wednesday. So we spent quite a few nail biting hours waiting for them to arrive.

The transporter driver called and gave an arrival time of about 8.30pm. Mr Rob drove up to the top of the driveway to guide him in. We were so happy to see them.

The girls were clearly well treated on the journey over as their first inclination was to get back on the trailer.

As usual, the way to their heart revolved around food and they quickly settled down.

They were really not sure what to make of the chickens and clearly they were nowhere near a flight path in Denver as they kept looking up when the planes flew over. My girls were really pleased to see them arrive and Kloud ( who is pregnant) kept leaning through to kiss the little ones on the head.

 

Even the boys were keen to see what was going on.

 

After much excitement and many texts and emails to let people they had arrived safe we left them to settle down for the night.   Of course there will be many more pictures to follow.

 

 

Alpacas are stoic animals and by the time they are exhibiting any symptoms they are usually very ill. So there are a number of things you can do to stay ahead of the game.

Make sure you know your animals so you can pick up on any subtle changes in behavior. FAMACHA test for eyes, this is when you look at the insides of their eyelids to check for anemia. And last but not least check their fecals for parasites, this has meant sending a sample to the vets up till know but with the impending increase in herd size, we decided to invest in a microscope.

And here it is Ta Da ….

Comes with its own camera and software so that we can do the initial analysis ourselves then share the results to get a second opinion with the Vet.

 

On Sunday I thought there was a chance I would be away all week, so feeling sorry for Mr Rob, I bought a large apple coffee cake bar. That way he would have a nice snack with his afternoon tea.

Well to cut a long story short, I ended up coming back early Tuesday morning but…….. where is the cake, surely no one could have eaten a whole cake in one day………. well no one but Mr Rob.

Note to self, either don’t buy large cake or try and build some sort of timed dispenser so he can only get one bit at a time.

So ……… Here we go…… 4 weeks ago I was offered a new job that I accepted, but the thing that caused panic was the imminent start date. Hence the lack of any regular blogging. But it certainly warranted a catch up. My sister arrived late on October 7th for a little mini break, boy we walked some miles and had a lot of laughter along the way.

On the Sunday we walked out the back of our property and down to the river, it is only about two and half miles in total but it was very warm and humid so we were “glowing” like crazy by the time we got back.

We also spotted a very interesting footprint – too large for dogs or fox, either a very large coyote or a mountain lion.

Monday we took the dogs to the Sweet Water Park for a very nice six and a half mile walk – it was nice and quiet there and the temperature was not too bad under the trees.

 

We were so tired after it all we decided to stay home and have some home made pizzas. Tuesday Miss Kat and I decided to give Mr Rob a break so we went shopping to the Dawsonville Outlet Mall. We managed to stay there most of the day and I will let you guess how many bags got loaded into the car by the time we were finished. Quick trip to Outback Steakhouse for dinner then home to relax.

Wednesday we decided to give the Silver Comet trail a go and Mr Rob drove us to Lithia Springs area to get on the trail. It is really good its a rail trail so flat and well cared for. It was surprising how many people we passed either cycling, running or walking especially as it was mid week. We also managed to see 2 snakes, a praying mantis and a lizard.

Mr Rob came to pick us up at Hiram not before Miss Kat managed to get herself into the police vehicle that patrols the trail.  The two policemen were very friendly and were happy to let her sit in the car. Miss Kat left that evening and we were sad to see her go.

On the Friday we left for Callaway Gardens as we were helping out at the Fiber Festival, we had to take both vehicles as I was starting work on the Sunday in New Orleans. The show went well although we could have done with a lot more foot traffic. It was also the first time I got to show off some of my bags and I was pleased how well they were received.

New Orleans was interesting as it was the new companies client conference, I flew from there to Kansas then home on the Friday. Last week was spent in Hartford which is where I am going to be spending a lot of time in the future, which is hilarious given my move south but at least I will get to see the autumn leaves in the north east.

About 3 weeks ago one of the chickens was broody so we decided to let her sit on some eggs, not really expecting anything to happen. Today I was up in the barn and i could hear the cheep cheep of a baby bird. Cant believe that we actually had one hatch. Ran back down to the house to tell Mr Rob and then quickly onto the internet to find out what we should do.

Best suggestion was to separate Mother, eggs and chick from the rest of the flock. We set up the dog crate ready for them, managed to move the eggs and the chick but it took mother a while to realize she needed to move, much to the consternation of the little chick who was leaping up and down calling to her mum. I now wonder how many more of the eggs are going to hatch. You can just see the little head sticking out from under the mum. Good girl little Ameraucana..

 

I have been trying to make the two newcomers as welcome as possible. They still need to be segregated from the rest of the herd until we are sure they are used to each other. Magic is clearly led by his stomach so as long as I have food in my hand he is happy.

At last the weather has warned back up a bit and there has been a break in the rain.so I went out to the barn to give the alpacas a spray down on their legs and bellies.  I am always pretty popular when I do that,  but I was pleased to see it was also the way to Kloud’s heart. She was blowing kisses onto my cheek all the time I was spraying her.

Finally finished spinning and plying the fiber from Sally, and here it is all washed and dried. I just need to decide what to knit with it know, I can’t wait.