WanderingFoxFarm

Even though it’s pouring with rain today. Up at 7, made some oatmeal(porridge) for the chickens filled a bucket with warm water for the Alpacas and headed up to the top barn.

Everyone was pleased to see me, lots of humming from the Alpacas. First let the chickens out and feed them. Then feed the top barn cat, off to get mobbed by the pacas. Sort their grain, hay and water. Mr Rob was cleaning up the paca poo.

Then walk down to the bottom barn and sort out the food and water for the other cat. Who would have thought such simple things could bring so much pleasure!

Time for breakfast.

We had an unscheduled trip to the vet last week. I’m not quite sure how he did it but Magic managed to lacerate his eye lid, overnight Thursday.  Luckily it was a clean cut and there was no damage to the eye or major blood vessels.

  

Miss Lynne was already on her way out as we made the discovery and so I’m pleased to say that Magic was a very co-operative boy for me, allowing me to capture, harness and load him into the trailer single handed. OK, it wasn’t entirely straight forward. He did hesitate when he saw the trailer and slipped his bridle. He quickly retreated to the unfenced pasture that is lush with winter rye grass. I can’t say I blame him.  On the second attempt he gave me a resigned look and a hum and then settled down for the ride to the animal hospital.

The vet took a quick look in the back of the trailer to decide the right action plan. It was clear that Magic was in need of a clean up and stitches. This would require a general anesthetic and could not be performed in situ.  Persuading poor Magic to get out of the trailer was no problem but asking him to go into the building, past the reception and into the clinical area was interesting. It took a few minutes but eventually took it in his stride. The dogs and cats didn’t know what to make of him.

We reversed the process a few hours later and he was very pleased to see his friends back on the farm. I just have to give him a short course of antibiotic shots and he will be as right as rain in no time. All in all, not as much trouble as Lacey’s emergency vet trip just about a year ago.

One of my wishes since moving down here, was to see a live armadillo  (saw plenty not looking so good at the side of the road) Then I was further aggravated by the fact that Mr Rob was reporting numerous sightings, but always when I was away. I was beginning to think that maybe he was telling stories, not too difficult to believe is it ?

But I was wrong, last week when we went up to carry out our late night check of the gang, Mr Rob was shouting for me to come over to the boys pasture. Sure enough there he was, and not a bit fazed by the giant spotlight Mr Rob was shining on him. Only had my phone so not the best picture ever, but I was happy camper. Thanks Mr Rob.

Very sad day last week — those darn wandering foxes helped themselves to 3 of our chickens. We were really sad about it, we are not yet hardened enough to take these things in our stride and especially as one of the ones gone was our favorite girl … Rocky

Plus two of our newer girls.

Those foxes are on borrowed time. We will need to get rid of them so for now our poor chickens are confined to the barn. We can’t risk let them free range until the foxes are gone.

 

 

This morning we went out to the mall for some bits and pieces and ended up coming back with a new TV. It’s a sixty inch LED smart tv. Makes a big difference, everything is so clear a bit like going to the movies in our own home.

This afternoon we decided to go for a walk out the back of our property, the alpacas wanted to see what we were up to.

 

The weather was glorious, the air was fresh but warm. The leaves looked great but are falling fast.

I was sat at my desk in the home office this morning and was surprised to see two young foxes wandering around. A quick shout to Mr Rob to go get the camera and we captured these shots. Then we scared them out of the garden and let the dogs out for a run around for a bit to make sure they did not come back.

As attractive as they were, the last thing we want is for them to become regular visitors. I am pretty sure that the Chickens and the Alpacas do not want them to be regular visitors either.

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.

Well there is not much to report …… and that’s a good thing. In the last couple of weeks I’ve over seeded the pastures with some annual rye-grass that has already started growing.  The Denver 9 have settled in very well. They seem happy with the routine and have gotten used to the chickens. I did have to move the chicken feeders further back in the coop as they were being raided by the pacas. All in all, we couldn’t have wished for a better start.

The big cat has decided that the big barn is going to be home and spends all day patrolling the back yard. Funny thing is that he/she likes to sleep outside at night and plonks down right in the middle of the driveway. We have to be careful to remember.

Down at the small barn “Knee High” enjoys the quiet life away from the other animals …. especially dogs.

I’m a little afraid for our other little barn cat though. I’ve not seen her about for over a week now. Fingers crossed that she’s found a safe place to be pampered.