2009 Alpaca Baby

We had our first alpaca baby of the year. Mimosa had a little dark silver gray girl. Labor went great and the baby was out in a matter of minutes. Both Mom and baby are doing great.









I apologize for not writing in soo long. I have found that in the later stages of my pregnancy my priorities are changing. I think this blog might take a back burner this year. I will try my best to update on the alpacas and what not when I get a chance. I think most of the activity will be over on my baby blog this year.

First Snow

We had our first snow of the season this past week. I love to watch it from the windows. Snow seems to make every thing look fresh and cleaner.


The part of snow I do not care for is when I go out to do my daily alpaca chores. It is so cold your face and your buns freeze even though you are bundled in many layers. The alpacas have all grown at least a couple inches of fleece and don’t seem to mind the cold. They just don’t like the wind. When it gets windy they run for the shelters. This time of year I am always grateful that we put in heated automatic wateriers for the alpacas. If they were not heated I would need to go out and break up the ice every hour.

Electricity

We have had electrical issues since we moved in a couple years ago. The main problem was that the original owners and builders of the house opted for the cheap route and drew the power to the house from the main road. Unfortunately this is a long distance and the wiring was not as good as it would be with a pole near the house. Anytime the heat or air would come on the lights would flicker. Or even if we turned on the vacuum you would notice the draw from the power. After many meetings and months with the electric company the day finally came when they put in the new power pole. It sits between the house and the barn, and we plan to have 2 meters one for the house and one for the barn. Here they are putting the main pole in.


They had to put another pole out near the road that they connected the city power to and this is what they would use to connect our pole to the main power line. Every time I would see the guy on top of the pole just hanging there with a strap, I got nervous. That is one job that would not be for me. Getting all the power switched over to the new pole and getting the new meters in will happen some time next year. Everything takes forever around here to get anything done. Small towns are on a different time schedule than the rest of the world.

Stocking

I have been working like crazy on this stocking. I am actually a little further than this photo. Last night I nearly finished the heel turn. I would really like to get this done by next week.

Decorating

I was able to get the tree up and put out the decorations. It all turned out pretty nice. I still have some last minute decorating I am working on. I am making holiday seat cushion covers for the dinning room table. Right now the covers are in a Hawaiian theme and they just don’t go with the whole Holiday stuff around it. I also plan to make an orange pomander for the season.

This Christmas my in-laws are coming to stay with us for the week. We will have an extra 4 people to celebrate the holidays with. We are planning to mostly bum around the house and relax. I am looking forward to spending time with them and catching up on everyone’s lives. So this week my list is long and I am hoping to add to the list a few homemade gifts. If I actually get everything done I would like, I will be applying for my Super Woman license. LOL

It's a Girl

The biggest news lately is I hit my 20 weeks pregnant and the halfway point. We had the gender ultrasound and the baby is a girl. I was so hoping for a girl, and am so happy that is what we are having.


I made a batch of brownies and topped them off with lovely pink frosting to celebrate our news.


I had mentioned before going through my old knits I had not finished, and finding some to work on. I pulled out this Reversible Cabled scarf. The pattern is from the book Cables untangled and I am using Classic Elite Waterlily yarn. I would like to wear this scarf this winter so I am working on it again here and there.


I also pulled out last years unfinished Scandinavian Christmas Stocking. This pattern is from Interweave press titled Christmas Stockings. I am using Classic Elite One Fifty yarn in colors Orchid, Chestnut, & Daisy. I love this knit, not sure why I never finished it.

Australia

I am totally excited about the upcoming movie Australia. It is directed by Baz Lurman and stars Nicole Kidman & Hugh Jackman. The plot summary from IMDB:

In northern Australia prior to World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

The movie opens Thanksgiving weekend. It has been described as an epic movie; you know the kind that they just don’t make any more. Not only am I excited about the storyline and the people that are in it but I am so looking forward to seeing Australian countryside. It is on my list of places I need to go to before I die.

Daylight Savings

We get an extra hour today due to daylight savings. I wish I was able to sleep that extra hour. We were both up at 5am. So I got up and plopped myself in front of the computer. I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.



Here is a photo of some of my Turkish Turbans from my crop this year. I just love the color variations and how they are kind of shaped like acorns. I think I will plan to plant more next year.



Being pregnant, a girl has her cravings and I was craving caramel apples. So I could not help but whip up a batch for Halloween. This is the first time I ever made these. Being my first time I learned a few things. I bought a bag of organic apples and a few of them had some spots that needed to be cut out. The caramel does not stick to the cut spots, so if you are making these for other people it might be best to hand pick the apples. Also even though I placed them on wax paper the caramel still stuck to it, so I recommend spraying the paper before placing the caramel apples on it. Overall they turned out wonderful and delicious, I recommend a tarter apple, they go well with the sweet caramel.



Sabrina is doing great. She is real spunky and a fast runner.



She and Jasmine have become good friends. They are both very independent and are often off by them selves on their own adventures separate from the herd checking in with their moms on occasion for a milk break.



My favorite tree is turning colors. Most of the trees around here are evergreen, but we do see a touch of red and yellow here and there. We have started using the pellet stove in the morning due to temperatures around 30 degrees F. The cold weather has me itching to pick up my knitting again. I think I will look through my unfinished projects and see what is calling me to finish for the winter.

October Blur

Where is the time going? I have been so busy I feel like I am missing out on my favorite month. I am still here and still pregnant and we are all doing just fine. I just have a moment to drop you a line and let you know I plan to do a proper post as soon as I can. In the mean time I am revving up for Halloween and practicing my best Cackle as I stir my bubbling brew, unfortunately nonalcoholic brew. 8)

Summer Comes to an End

Bronte’s baby is doing great. We named her Sabrina. The weather has definitely turned towards autumn, with the night time temperatures getting as low as 40 degrees. I have been in the process of upgrading my computer. My original hard drive was about maxed out with hardly any space left. It was inevitable and I put it off as long as I could. During the upgrade I even changed to windows Vista. Let’s just say it is not my friend yet. So many of my everyday software does not even work and even my printer no longer works with the Vista. It has been a real pain in my BUTT! I am almost done with setting up the main things although I think it will take me a little while to get everything the way I like it.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away and come back to it later. So I went outside and did some exploring with my camera. Here is what I found.

Although summer is over yellow has sprouted up all over my property.


You can not help but be cheerful walking through these fields.


Also on my walk I spotted something in the distance that looked like wild strawberries. It took me a little maneuvering to get over to them, do to the weeds and what not in my way. Once I got to them I realized they were not strawberries. I think they are rosehips from some wild roses. Disappointing but still they are cool looking.


These morning-glories are growing up the fence of my garden. I believe they were planted by previous owners, or at least the seeds migrated here.


My Turkish turbans are looking great and will bring wonderful fall color once I harvest them and place them inside.


I went to the back of the property to check the creek bed. It had a little bit of water trickling through.


If there is water I usually check for tracks to see what kind of predators are on the property. Luckily I only spotted these raccoon tracks. They have five fingers so it looks kind of human like. The photo on top is mine and underneath is one off the internet.


Hope everyone is easing into Fall. I am looking forward to October; it is one of my favorite months of the year.

Twisted Saturday

These sketchers I have had forever or at least 9 years. Back in their day they were cute and even sparkly. I loved the fact that they had no laces and you just slip them on. They are the pair that I kept near the door and the ones I slipped on when having to go check on the alpacas, the mail, or even to see what the dogs are into outside.

Our Saturday started out normal Chris left with the trailer around 8 am heading to Lowes to get a pallet of the wood pellets we use for the stove. The temperature has started to drop and it is only a matter of time before we start running the pellet stove regularly. He got back after 9 with the goods. We keep the bags of pellets stacked on the back porch so we can get to them easily. I slipped on some jeans and my old sneaks (photo above) and headed out the back to help unload the bags and stack them. Chris was driving the jeep towing the trailer through the back yard to position the trailer as close to the back porch as possible so we would not have to travel too far with the bags.

He only made it about half way when his transmission died. It sounded terrible and we think it was stuck in neutral. Unfortunately we were not even close to the back porch with the trailer when the car died. At this point our stress level began to grow. Chris decided to go get the tractor to see if he could push the trailer from behind to get it closer to the porch. He was able to move it a little bit closer. He got off the tractor and tried his jeep again, yes it is confirmed the transmission is broken. Every moment that passes the stress lvl is increasing. The jeeps front end was close to the dog door at this point and of course Brandy chose this moment to come out of it. Since she is practically blind and deaf I ran over and stopped her half way out the door and pushed her back in the house afraid she might get hurt in the drama that was taking place outside. Once I got her in, I turned on the steps and my goal was to run and get through the back porch to close the dog door to prevent the mongrels from getting out. I am not sure how it happened but I missed the last step and landed on my ankle in a falling motion with a twist. When I hit the ground I immediately felt sharp pains and I grabbed my ankle. Of course with all that was going on in the dark abyss of Saturday morning I could not contain myself and started to cry uncontrollably while lying on the ground where I landed clutching my ankle. Chris of course witnesses my whole graceful maneuver and he was beyond his breaking point.

After I released all my tension in a river of tears and Chris had moments of beastly rage where he released his tension by making animal like noises to the gods of despair. I realized that I had to pull myself together because that is my roll I push on and get things done even when it feels impossible. Chris was overwhelmed with the situation and I knew we would not get passed this point with out me moving forward. He was worried about me being pregnant and maybe needing to go to the hospital to have my ankle checked. So I got up and although I had pain in my ankle I could tell it was not broken. I also knew I had a little bit of time before it got worse so I would go on the adrenalin and the shock of the accident.

After getting up Chris noticed the shoes I was wearing and told me to immediately throw those pieces of trash away. He was right, I knew it was time to let them go. Of course I took some photos of them before tossing them in the trash. It felt weird.

So I went inside put on some lace up boots and went back outside and I steered the jeep while Chris pushed the back end of the trailer with the tractor. We got it into position and I stayed on the trailer handing him the bags one by one all 50 of them. I just tried to stay in one spot and just pivoted around trying to keep most of my weight on my good foot.


We went inside Chris called the repair place and eventually they came and towed his jeep away to be looked at on Monday and we have no idea when we will see it again. Here is Chris watching his car being set by the tow truck. I think we both felt a loss, him and his car and me and my old shoes.

With all the chores done I propped my foot up and iced my ankle. It did not look bad but it hurt. That evening it hurt so badly I ended up giving in and took one Tylenol. I really miss Ibuprofen, but I am not aloud to have it while pregnant. Chris wrapped my ankle and that seemed to help. I kept ice on it all evening trying to num it. All weekend I have been keeping off it and trying to keep it elevated. I think in a few more days it will be as good as new. I will keep my fingers crossed the jeep will have as good a turn out.


I am an optimist at heart, even when life comes at you hard. I think that if you learn from your experiences and you always get back up after a fall and brush your self off. You are going to be ok, and be more prepared the next time life knocks you down.

Long Weekend in Florida

I went to Florida for the holiday weekend for my Dad’s retirement party. I stayed with my sister and her lovely family. This is a photo of their two dogs. The one on the Left is Charlie, and she is a miniature schnauzer. The one on the right is Samantha and she is a snoodle. I love these dogs. They were so well behaved compared to my mongrels at home.


The first day my sister and my nephews and I went to Mt. Dora and I found Knit & Needle Nook. It was a great little yarn shop. I ended up buying a couple of knit baby pattern books. I did not get any yarn, I feel like I have enough yarn at home to last me a few years.


This is a fountain we found as we ducked under shelter from the rain while walking along the street filled shops of Mt. Dora. I think that is a clematis vine growing along the trellis in the background. We did get a couple of days of rain while I was there, mostly from the hurricanes around us.


Here is my Dad and to the left his wife, he was leading a bunch of people in a chicken Congo line through his property. By the look of him it appears he is having the time of his life. I definitely long for the day Chris and I both can retire. His party was a huge success. There were probably over 200 people there. He had one of those blow up jump inside thingies for the kids. He also had a dunk tank, which was very comical. There was plenty of good food and even a DJ with a dance area. The party was a huge success and was a great asset to set my Dad off into his retirement.


Here is me and my nephews at the party. I had not seen them in a couple of years so I was shocked at how much they had grown.


One of the days my sister, brother, his girlfriend & my nephews went to the Disney market place. Along the water there was a flock of ducks resting on the grass. It was real cool to see them up close since we do not see any ducks in New Mexico.


Here are my nephews in one of the shops.


Here is my sister on the left my brother in the middle and me on the right in front of a large Lego Lockness Monster. This day was very hot and humid we all felt like we were melting while outside.


Here is my bro with his girlfriend.


One of the nights my brother had us all over for a night of Italian & some Wii games. He made this awesome tiramisu. I was impressed I have never attempted to make one. This one turned out great. Another night his girlfriend made an orange chocolate chip bundt cake. She is going to send me the recipe, and I can’t wait to make it. It was delicious.


The last night the whole family went out for Mexican. Here is a photo of my Dad, his wife & me at the restaurant. My sister and her husband were celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. It was a great night.

Overall I had a wonderful time and am so glad I got the chance to see my family and spend some time with all of them. I was lucky enough to get in and out of Florida in between the hurricanes. The weather there this time of year really blows. I am really spoiled in New Mexico with over 300 days of sunshine and blue skies.

Bronte's Baby Girl

Bronte had her baby this week. She had a beautiful little black girl.


She is a smart one. She was up and trying to walk about 10 minutes after being born, and soon after that she was looking to milk.


Her fiber when the light hits it just right looks like velvet. She is real sweet and Bronte is a great mommy.



Florida for the Weekend

webshots photo

I am heading to Florida this holiday weekend for my Dad’s retirement party. It should be lots of fun. Chris is on baby watch and will be staying home. We have one alpaca past due and another one due this weekend. I hope they both wait till I get home before they have them. I always hate to miss the new babies being born.

Have a great weekend!