February 16, 2008

Valentine Baby


It’s a GIRL! Cookie Dough gave birth on Valentine’s Day. For me it was love at first sight.



Cookies is a first time Mom and is doing great. We new she would be a good Mom because all last year every time one of them had a baby she tried to claim it as hers. So finally now she has her own.



Cookie’s milk was not fully in the first day so I bottle fed the baby every 4 hours. The next day I felt like I had done a million squats and I could not sit down with out wincing from pain. If you want to work out your butt and thighs bottle feed a baby alpaca for a day. LOL



By Friday morning baby was milking regularly and all is well. Today it is snowing outside so I am keeping them in a makeshift pen we created in our well house. Baby will have to wait until the weather clears up before I let the two of them out to make acquaintances and to explore the pasture. I have my fingers crossed the other alpaca past due waits to have her baby until the weather clears.

Knitting

I completed my Scrunchable Scarf and made a hat using the same stitch pattern. I plan to line the hat with the fabric in the photo and possibly make a brim also. This set is very warm and perfect for a snow day like today. You can find the scarf pattern HERE.



I have been itching to use some of the yarns I bought in Portland last Thanksgiving and cast on for this Diagonal Scarf from the book Morehouse Farm Merino Knits by Margrit Lohrer.



I am using the trendsetter Tonalita yarn in color 2357 coffee Latte. I have never knit diagonally and it is turning out real cool.



Of course I can’t just be working on one knit I went ahead and cast on for this His/Hers Reversible cabled scarf. The pattern is in the book Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman.



I am using Classic Elite Waterlily yarn in color #1995 Azalea. The subtle tonal changes in the yarn really make the cables pop out. Cables are still my all time favorite thing to knit.



Here is Zissou & Klaus out in the snow trying to show the ladies they are tough and don’t need the shelter. Of course the ladies think they are idiots and are in the shelter cozy & warm.



Dust of Snow by Robert Frost
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Have a great weekend and I hope you and yours are cozy and warm.

February 07, 2008

She had One Good Day


I am sorry to tell you our little new born took a turn for the worse and did not make it. We named her Siena.



She had one good day. That day she laid in the sun, and frolicked with Bugsy. Felt the wind on her face, and nibbled on the ground.



We tried everything we could to help her fight off what ever she had. Her last few days she spent at the Vet’s office. We still do not know what she had only that it was some kind of virus. Her symptoms were close to Meningitis, which is the inflammation of the protective membranes covering the central nervous system. Chris and I decided to donate Siena to the Camelid Reproduction Center of the Western Slope. In the hopes that her death will help educate and help prevent the lose of baby alpacas.



This has got to be the hardest part of owning livestock. Unfortunately these things happen. Right now I am focusing on the Mom, Never Ending Love. We brought Love home last night she had been at the vet’s office in case the baby needed any milk. She was happy to be home and back in the herd. Unfortunately she keeps looking for her baby. This should go away in a few days as she settles back into her life.




I am on baby watch. Do you remember these two characters Cookie Dough and Finder’s Keeper’s, well they are both due to have their baby any day now. I think that 2 healthy babies are exactly what I need right now.

February 03, 2008

Doll & Love Arrive


Bugsy is a little over a month old and is doing great. Here he is with Mom taking a nap in the sun.


Here is Bugsy playing alpaca games with Magnolia. They are both having lots of fun chasing each other around.

Alpaca Arrival

Two of our girls finally made it home all the way from Washington State. This is Little Lightening Doll.



She has a lot of spunk I think that is where the Lightening comes into her name. It only took her a couple of days to get use to me. She is already making her way up the hierarchy of the herd refusing to be at the bottom of the pecking order. She is due this April with her first baby.



This is Never Ending Love. I put this red neck chain on her for a couple of days so I could tell them apart out in the field. It only took me a day they are both very different.



Love is a very sweet girl. She fit right in and seems to like her new routine here at our ranch. You would not believe what happened last Thursday. She had her baby. We were not expecting the baby for another 2 weeks. I was so busy that day completing tax filings for the dental office. I was heading out to run to the post Office to make sure to get the 31st postmark on my mailings. I happened to glance out the window and saw a group of alpacas huddled around something. I realized it was a baby.

I was stunned and had to figure out who gave birth. We actually have 3 alpacas due within the next few weeks. I quickly figured out it was Never Ending Love. She had a little brown GIRL. She is under weight and Love’s milk had not fully come in yet. So I am supplementing the baby with Cow’s milk and a little bit of plain yogurt every 4 hours. I will get some photos up as soon as I feel she is in the clear health wise.


I have so much to write about but am having trouble scraping a few minutes together to post about it. I am hoping to get all caught up this month on my taxes & alpaca babies. With two more babies due soon I have been paranoid they might have theirs early also. I am keeping my fingers crossed they both stay in their Mom’s belly till they are done. 8)