Our herdsire Windrush Jennifer’s Zindel is very special to us.  He was the last cria delivered to our first alpaca Jenny, who sadly died of an illness a short while later.  We knew Jenny was very ill before Zin was delivered and were amazed by her strength and her determination to carry her ctia to term.  So Zin was already special to us when he was born, and as he grew we realized that he truly was a special alpaca as he went on to win blue ribbons and color championships at shows.

Zin apparently knew his future involved providing herdsire services as from about three weeks of age he started to pester the girls.  Of course the adult girls were not going to take any nonsense from a three week old cria an consequently Zin encountered a lot of spit from the girls, but it didn’t put him off and today he is gainfully employed as a breeding male at our farm.

Zin now has several cria on the ground, one of which is the cria from our dam TeQueely.  TeQueely and Zin’s cria is called Pride (not his full name but that’s what we call him).  Pride is definitely a leader, initiating cria games, chasing around the pasture and seeking the attention of the other crias.  Just like his sire he too started to pester the adult girls when he was just a few weeks old, and the spit he often receives from them does nothing to cool his ardor.  Pride it seems is determined to follow in his sire’s footsteps.

So on Friday we should not have been completely surprised by the sight we saw outside one of the breeding pens.   We had Treasure breeding Rosie, and as Treasure orgled and the breeding went on, one of our boarders, Zoie, wandered over to the breeding pen and cushed outside, indicating she is ready to be bred. 

The next thing we saw was little Pride headed in Zoie’s direction, instinct told him that there was an open girl in the pasture who was cushed and ready to be bred, and to little Pride there was no question that he was the man for the job.  Well I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of Pride’s efforts, here’s one of them.

Zoie did not seem at all bothered that her “date” was a little young, and Pride kept trying to do his best with Zoie until he eventually became tired and had to take a break.  

Young, handsome and in his mind ready to breed.  Pride is setting himself up for a career just like his sire’s! 

Rosemary

In an ideal world we would have a set of scales in the girls pasture so that we would not have to carry the crias at all and could just gently herd them onto the scales.  But for now the only place we can have our scales is in another barn and so we end up carrying the crias to the scales.

When a cria is born we weigh it daily until it reaches 25 lb.  A crias weight gain or loss can tell you a lot about the health of a cria, and can give you an early red flag that the cria might be experiencing a problem.  If the cria’s dam is a maiden the crias weight can also reflect how good of a milk producer the dam is.  For the first day or so we take the dams with the cria to the scales, which is less stressful on both the dam and the cria.  After that we weigh the crias while the dams are still eating their morning ration and are too distracted to notice where their crias are.

Once the crias weigh 25 lbs. we go to weighing them every other day, once they reach 30 lbs, we weigh them once a week.  Typically once the crias weigh 30 lbs.  their growth rate slows down a little.  By the time the crias weigh 35 lbs. are arms are getting tired and we then weigh the crias once a month.

With eight crias being born this year the task of weighing the crias has been quite a workout.  For the most part the crias are quite relaxed and still as we carry them to the scales, having got used to the process since the day they were born.  Once in a while we will get one who gets a little restless, especially if the other crias are busy playing as the cria being weighed wants to join in.

Now nearly all of our crias are over the 30 lb. mark and our daily workout is diminishing, which is a good thing.   It means our crias have all reached healthy weights and it means one less thing to do during morning chores!

Rosemary

Guess where I've been this weekend?

(Bruno, the North Ronaldsay ram).

. . . to marvel at some wonderful beasties . . .

(these two lovely ladies belong to Robin and Caroline Sandys-Clarke of Why not Alpacas)

. . .and the stuff that comes off their backs . . .

. . . yes, I was at WOOLFEST!

This year I am writing an article about Woolfest, and this gave me an opportunity to meet and chat with some really lovely people, and to hear about some inspirational businesses, projects, and initiatives. My piece will be about what makes this show so distinctive: its contemporaneity and energy coupled with a deeply held respect for regional identities and long-established craft and textile traditions. And all of this is thanks to the women of the Woolclip co-operative who organise the show.

Woolfest is wonderful! But I have to save its bigger picture and my thoughts for the magazine article. So heres some stuff about what I did and (gulp) bought this weekend.

Some of my work at the moment involves writing about a group of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century women whose attitudes to consumption are hesitant at best, and I think that their negative view of shopping (as something in which you are inevitably exchanging/ losing part of yourself) rather rubs off on me. As a consequence, I tend not to talk about my stash, or about buying yarn or fabric on this blog. And my not-buying-clothes-for-a-year project-thing has also made me regard stuff and its acquisition with a weird, nigh pompous embarrassment. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I discussed my stash-ambivalence with Felix, who among her many other talents, is a fount of tremendous Good Sense. In response to my problem with yarn as just another soul-sapping commodity, she spoke articulately about 1) how her stash represented a series of promises of time saved up, time that was going to be well spent in the future; 2) how her stash spoke to her of a whole world of creative possibility, enabling any project or experiment that might spring to her mind; and 3) how it was an incredibly positive thing to be spending one's money in support of yarn producers, spinners and dyers -- the artists and artisans one respects and admires. In the face of this wisdom, my concerns about commerce, stash guilt, and yarn p*rn all seemed rather foolish, frankly. Why should I be embarrassed about the stuff that I buy?

My experience as a Woolfest consumer was Immensely Satisfying. So I thought I'd show you the stuff that I bought, and why I bought it.

Evidently I am in my blue period, or summat, as I bought a lot of blue things.

1) Bowmont Braf 4 ply. A few skeins in a few different colours -- enough to make a fairisle-ish top. Bowmont Braf is a new Welsh cross-breed and the wool these sheep produce is completely amazing. It's a shame you can't really see how it feels -- otherwise the knitters among you would be making peculiar appreciative noises. It is incredibly soft and springy and, knitted up, has a very pleasing velvety, matt quality that is very distinctive. It feels like cashmere, frankly, but with much more loft and body -- it behaves like wool -- which of course it is. I saw and felt a sweater knitted in it at last years Woolfest and haven't stopped thinking about it since. I had to get some. It is spun and dyed in Wales too.

2. Linen embroidery thread from Mulberry Dyer. The dye is woad and on linen it is luminous and lovely. I can stitch with it and foolishly imagine I am back in the early eighteenth century.

3. Several skeins of wonderful Blue Faced Leicester DK from Artisan Threads. (My photo here does not do the range of subtle blues in this yarn any sort of justice). Jill and Penny are two talented textile artists based in Nairn, in the Scottish Highlands, who just launched their new company selling naturally dyed fleeces, yarn and thread. (Their website is not up yet, but should be very soon). Most of what they sell is locally sourced and produced, and they talk about the animals from which their yarn originated as articulately as they do about dyes and dying. Their knack with colour is really amazing and their yarns are all utterly beautiful -- subtle, and slightly semi-solid. At every stage, process is an important part of the end product -- and the end product is very good indeed. Perhaps the best compliment I can give this yarn is to say that the only place I've ever seen anything remotely like it is at Shilasdair. It is truly beautiful stuff and, if I was a spinner, I'd have been snapping up a fleece or two as well.

Top and bottom left are laceweight cashmere/silk and bluefaced leicester 'dazzle' sock yarn, both from the Natural Dye Studio. Their yarn is Very Nice. Top right is merino sock yarn from The Yarn Yard. Natalie is based just outside Edinburgh, and this is the first time I've met her or her yarns -- which are gorgeous. She runs a sock club which is unlike others I've come across as you can drop in and out as and when you like. Tempting. Bottom right is rather a poignant purchase -- this is Cheviot Aran dyed by Carolyn Rawlinson, who established Woolfest in 2005, and who recently sadly died. I actually bought two skeins of this same raspberry coloured yarn last year at the WoolClip's shop in Caldbeck and have been playing around swatching with it and thinking that two skeins just weren't enough to do justice to the yarn -- which clearly wants cables. I bought a few more skeins in exactly the same colourway yesterday with mixed feelings -- this was the last of her yarn. When I make something with this, it will have Carolyn Rawlinson's memory knitted all the way through it.

and finally . . .

. . .no, I did not buy myself a ram. In fact, I only purchased the last item -- a herdwick-themed gift for Mr B. The other three pics provide context for his Herdwick obsession. Item one is a noble animal I saw at Woolfest on Saturday; item 2 is himself cavorting in his Herdwick sweater, knitted by me from the wool from Pam Hall's Herdwicks, and item 3 is his proudly-owned Herdwick tie, bought last year at the Woolclip. He likes Herdwicks. So I bought him item 4 -- a rather nice china mug with the phiz of a herdwick upon it -- just one of many new products designed by the talented team behind Herdy, an interesting new initiative now lending these quintessentially lakeland animals a new identity and, through their range of lovely bespoke wool products, a vital new lease of life as well.

Other weekend highlights included these beautiful hand-carved sticks on show at the Ullswater Country Fair. . .

. . . and the lush variety of colours in the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick.

Did you know you can see the world's largest coloured pencil there? Well, you can . . .

Hot alpaca porn to follow...

1. wool in the woods cherub, 2. wind song multi, 3. duet swell, 4. socks that rock brown black, 5. posh yarn red, 6. colinette purple multi, 7. yarn anonymous, 8. colinette bulk purple, 9. mama llama yarn purple

I just received some new yarn that I bid in ebay, and also some 'new' ones from Ravelry's members.

They are all so yummy and the prices are quite good though. :)

I might give away some of them to my swap partners (I joined 4 swaps! Believe it?!)

It's fun to join those swaps, meeting more new knitters and friends.

I also tried to knit more rows for my daughter's cardigan.

I already did the upper part of the cardigan and started the lace section.

I love the color of this yarn, the orange and purple mix is quite special though! I hope it will look good on Erika.

Tomorrow will be my daughter, Erika's 1st birthday!
We already received one gift, HOWEVER, we already had that toy for ERika!

My husband will go to ToyRus and see if they can let us exchange another toy, or give us a credit note.

Today through Sunday I will be busy manning a booth at the Running Water Draw Cowboy Symposium that is being held at Ned Houck Park in Clovis.

This is the first year of the Cowboy Symposium and it sounds as if it will be a fun event with chuck wagon cook offs, trail rides, horseshoe pitching, a kid’s rodeo, cowboy poetry and concerts.  A cowboy church is also planned for Sunday morning.

The performers at the event are a mix of those from the local area (Allie Brooks, Sharon Dictson, Jimmie Joe Jester, Dr. Les Morrow and David Downey) and also those from further afield (Red Steagall, Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck and Sweethearts in Carhartts).

The days promise to be long ones, but it will be another opportunity to showcase our alpaca products in front of the public and hopefully will result in some product sales too.  I am thinking that the rugs, socks and gloves will be a hit among those attending but will take some yarn, scarves and other products too.  You never quite know at an event what items will be your best seller and I can guarantee if I decide to leave something behind that is the thing someone will ask me for!

I am sure The Running Water Draw Cowboy Symposium will bring back memories of a trip Ric and I took several years ago with my parents who were visiting from England at that time.  We went to the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium in Glencoe, New Mexico (close to Ruidoso, New Mexico) and had a lovely time learning more about the western and cowboy lifestyle.  A big thank you goes out to Annette Taylor, one of the organizers of the event who has been a delight to work with and whom I am sure has spent many hours making sure that the Running Water Draw Cowboy Symposium is a successful event.

The blog entries might be sparse during the next few days, depending on how I feel at the end of each day, but hopefully I will have enough energy to at least write a few words during the weekend.

Rosemary

Windrush Silken Serenity and what a pretty girl she is.

Serenity was born to our white girl Alpenglow’s Sandia Snow and is out of our dark brown herdsire Tobiano.  Snow has a small patch of fawn fiber on her left hind foot, her sire was dark fawn and her dam was light fawn with a lot of color in her lineage and so we hoped by breeding Snow to Tobiano we would get color and we did.  Serenity is the most beautiful rich chocolate brown (the picture here does not do her color justice and her ears have now straightened up having been a little squashed during birth).

Snow delivered Serenity at 3:30 pm on May 30^th.  Snow has always been a quiet alpaca and the only clue she gave me that she was close to giving birth was at lunchtime when I noticed her udder was filled with milk.  I check the udders of all of my late term pregnancy girls every morning and I knew that in the morning Snow’s udder had been quite small and that the change in it’s appearance was probably significant.

As I gave Dream her afternoon bottle I looked across the pasture and there in the shade of the elm tree was Snow quite obviously in labor.  I could see that she had a little more pushing to do before the cria’s head and feet emerged and so let Dream finish her bottle and then went in to get my cria kit, blanket and towels. 

By the time I came out Snow had made some progress and I could see a little dark nose emerging.  Snow delivered Serenity without any assistance and did not make a sound during delivery, not a hum, not a grunt, not a groan.  The delivery was one of the most serene I have every seen hence Serenity’s name. 

Initially after delivering Serenity, Snow was a little perplexed about what had just happened, she didn’t seem to put two and two together and realize that Serenity was her cria.  Serenity is Snow’s first cria and sometimes maiden alpacas take a little while to realize their new responsibility.  I brought Snow over to Serenity and encouraged her to sniff her top start the bonding process.  Once Snow had delivered the placenta I put the two in a catch pen for a few hours to allow them to bond.

Snow has proved to be an excellent dam who is attentive to her cria and who produces lots of milk.  Serenity is a little live wire, tearing up the pasture with the other crias and showing that lovely curiosity about her surroundings that crias have.

Serenity’s fleece is very interesting.  It has an incredibly silky feel to it, is very fine and very bright.  I can see some crimp forming close to the skin and I am curious as to how her fleece will develop as she grows up.  Tobiano has thrown cria before with silky style fleece and I suspect that is what we are seeing in Serenity.  Time will tell, but we feel Serenity has some very special qualities to her fleece and we are already excited at the prospect of being able to show her.

Rosemary

On another, and much more positive note, our baby has finally arrived! Edelweiss had a baby girl --Sweet Peruvian Kismet -- on Friday the 13th. For once it was a lucky day for me! She is gorgeous and so cute at the same time. I need to get pictures of her to Jen to put on the web site. And so little! She weighed 14.5 pounds when she was born, which is less than our Bichon weighs. Of course he is a pound or two overweight, but not that bad, based on what I've read. She is a very light fawn, and a little rascal. I will have a good time working with her, once her mom is over the initial nervousness of actually having a baby. The birth was quick, like I thought it would be, since she had been working on it for two weeks prior to it actually happening. One funny thing is that when Kismet's legs and head were sticking out, the legs bopped Edelweiss on the legs, and she kept looking around trying to figure out what was happening. It was almost like a dog chasing its tail! Kismet is running around the pasture now, and having a super time.

So good news supersedes the bad for today.

Hi, Anna-Liza here. Lyda's getting rid of stuff and I'm acquiring stuff--what a balanced pair we are, are we not? Yin and yang got nothin' on us. Oh, that picture up there? It's one I took on my way back home from Estes Park. Pretty nice, eh, Lyda? Might could even make up for the snow.

I find I'm still rather addled by the whole Wool Market experience (plus it's Father's Day, and I have a few other things to do than write. Especially considering I had such a grand holiday yesterday.)

So I'm afraid that photo I posted will have to tease you just a bit longer, but I'll give you Part One of the Estes Park Wool Market report, as told by Pollyanna of the Rockies.

Since I don't raise fiber animals, the animal part is of purely academic interest to me. I spend far less time in that part of the show than in the vendor's barn. However, there are a lot of breeders and fiber animal raisers in this area, so those parts are very busy indeed. Add to that the people who bring their kids to see the animals, and curious folk like me! I did overhear one woman say to her friend, "My husband just asked me to not bring home any livestock!"

There are rabbits,

llamas, alpacas,

sheep,

goats, and paco-vicuñas, which are so shy they used their hypnotic powers to defeat my flash. The fellow silhouetted on the left here had a sign on his pen saying he was for sale, for a mere $48,000.

I didn't spot any bison or yaks or water buffalo, but that's not to say they might not show up one day. Other attractions include the kids' tent (where kids can try weaving and spinning), and the wool fleece judging, which is way over my head just yet:

And of course, there are the people and the other scenery.

Note the matching Hawaiian shirts and black jeans ...

And of course, this ...

Oh, and we mustn't forget this:

Joanne and I drove way, way, way, out just to see this lady do this.

The hand painted fiber and yarn demonstration. It was worth it. There were even Alpacas in the field next door.

Lots of fiber-y goodness all around.

the fruits of her labor

studio entrance and the alpacas in the field

“Theresa” was supposed to be pregnant.  She bred and has been spitting off at any male alpaca that came near her.  She had an increased appetite and generally behaved like a pregnant female alpaca does, except that she went well past her due date with no sign of impending birth.   Theresa had carried a previous pregnancy over a year and so her being past her due date was not unusual to her.

When we sheared Theresa we became pretty certain that she was not pregnant.  Without her fleece she didn’t look at all pregnant, and so we made an appointment with the vet to see if we could confirm our suspicions.  Our vet first palpated Theresa’s abdomen and said he was pretty certain that she was not pregnant, but just to be on the safe side he decided to do a trans abdominal ultrasound (Theresa having been sheared helped with that process).  The ultrasound showed that Theresa was not pregnant.

We believe Theresa has got what is known as a Retained Corpus Luteum (Retained CL).  A previous blog post on March 15, 2007 discussed Retained CL’s.  A very basic explanation of a Retained CL is that the ovarian follicle has failed to regress and progesterone is being produced, making the female alpaca behave as if she is pregnant.

Having decided that Theresa did have a Retained CL we discussed with the vet our options for rectifying the situation.  He recommended treating her with Estrumate, which would hopefully help the CL to release, and so we brought Theresa home and started the Estrumate treatment.

(Note:  The use of Estrumate is something that needs to be done only in consultation with your veterinarian and for that reason I am not going to discuss the dosages we used in this post.  If you feel that you have an alpaca that has a Retained CL, do consult you veterinarian and get his or her guidance.  Estrumate is quite powerful and needs to be handled carefully and used with caution.)

Having started Theresa’s Estrumate treatment we were hoping to see a change in her behavior, and by day two we did, but not the change we had hoped to see.  For on the second day of her treatment Theresa stole another alpaca’s cria.

Ivanna had delivered her cria a few days before Theresa started treatment.  Ivanna’s cria is a lovely little fawn female cria and quite outgoing.  She wanders around the adult female alpacas clucking at them and nuzzling them and it appears that when she did that to Theresa that Theresa took it that this little fawn cria was hers.

That evening when we went to do our pasture checks there was Theresa sitting quite contentedly with Ivanna’s cria by her side.  Theresa was humming to her, clucking at her and even stood up and pushed the cria under her to nurse.  We took Ivanna’s cria back to her, but during a later pasture check found Ivanna’s cria back with Theresa again.  As charming as that might seem it is not a good situation as Theresa does not have milk, and Ivanna was meanwhile wondering where her baby was.

So we have had to separate Theresa from Ivanna and her cria.  Fortunately we are weaning some of the young alpacas and so Theresa is now keeping the weanlings company while Ivanna has her cria back.  Theresa is not happy with the situation and has been looking for Ivanna’s cria, but we really do need to make sure that Ivanna’s cria stays with Ivanna.

We did test Theresa with a male alpaca yesterday and she still was unreceptive.  It may be that the Retained CL is a persistent Retained CL, but from Theresa’s behavior towards Ivanna’s cria I suspect she is going through some form of hormonal change and hopefully that is an indication that the Retained CL has gone, but I cannot say that for certain and so I will be talking to our vet later today to discuss Theresa’s situation.

Rosemary

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

Wow, I can't believe how fast the weeks are passing. So much for the days of blogging every day or two! Besides the usual busy-ness of this time of year in my own garden, I've been working every other day at a friend's nursery/garden center for the past month, installing and maintaining some huge new gardens, so I've been gloriously immersed in extended hours of hands-on gardening every single day.

In many ways, it brings back the days when I used to be a professional gardener. I enjoyed it then, but I remember it being pretty tough physically. Getting back into it 20 years later, I find it's actually easier now, maybe because I have a lot more experience, and a good selection of time-tested tools as well. Still, dealing with the intense heat we're experiencing now in PA is tough at any age, so I'm grateful to be indoors for today.

Between being so busy and dealing with an unusually cool May here, with frost as late as mid-May, getting my garden here at Hayefield planted was a challenge. I finally have pretty much everything in, except some of the summer veggies. Even though the planting ended up being several weeks later than in past years, this heat wave is bringing things on quickly, so I don't think I lost too much time.

With the high temperatures we're having, it seemed like a good idea to harvest the rest of the current batch of radishes before they bolted and got tough. Mom and I really enjoy the white-tipped red 'French Breakfast', but our new favorite is the pale yellow 'Zlata' from Territorial Seed. Admittedly, the color isn't as striking, but even at golf-ball size, it's still crisp and sweet, without a strong aftertaste.

One of my most exciting experiences of the past week was finally planting out my potato seedlings. I'd started the pelleted seed of these 'Catalina' potatoes back in February, and the seedlings looked great (shown here on May 22), but they haven't grown much in the past three weeks. I'd been reading some references that said seed-grown potatoes wouldn't make tubers the first year, so I wondered if it was worth bothering to plant them out. Well, I'm glad I did!

When I knocked the first seedling out of its pot, I was thrilled to see that small tubers (about the side of a bean seed) were already forming! Turns out that each seedling had at least one tuber, and many had two. So I have high hopes of getting some sort of harvest from them this year, if the potato beetles don't devour them. Here's a picture of the plants snug in their bed.

Along the straight side of the bed, I tucked in some asparagus peas. I didn't have tremendous success with them last year, but I decided to give them another try this year. On the other, curved side of the bed, I planted a new experiment: prickly caterpillar (Scorpiurus muricatus) from Seed Savers Exchange. This oddity isn't grown for eating, but for its fuzzy, curvy seedpods, which people apparently find amusing to pop into salads to freak out unsuspecting family members. I'm not sure why I find that so amusing, but when I read that description, I just had to try it. I'll definitely report back on this one later this summer.

In a nearby bed, I had missed a few parsnips when I harvested the patch back in March. In one of Piet Oudolf's books, he includes parsnip as an ornamental, so I decided to let them flower and see for myself. They're pretty much as I expected: about 5 feet tall, with sturdy stems, bright green leaves, and large clusters of yellow flowers, like a giant dill. They probably would look good in an ornamental border, so I think I'll try leaving a few from this year's patch and see if I can move them to a good flowering spot next spring.

Futher down in what I call The Orchard, the fruit crops are coming along in abundance. The grapes seem to have set some fruit, and the 'Surefire' cherry and Asian pears are loaded with developing fruits, and even the 'Methley' plum has set some fruit ( a surprise since its pollinizer died last year). It looks like I'm in for a good gooseberry crop, as well. Yay!

Of course, the stars of the early-June garden, fruit-wise, are the strawberries. I'd meant to replant my several-years-old patch of 'Tristar'; the plants fruited this year, but the berries are very small. I don't mind that, though, because I have loads of good-sized berries from the 'Sarian' plants. I grew these from seed last year, and they fruited some last fall, but this spring's crop has been even better.

I also have lots of 'Yellow Wonder' alpine strawberries coming along. I started these too last spring (you can read about that in this post over at Gardening Gone Wild, if you're interested), and they fruited very well both last year and this year. One packet of seed produced dozens of plants, so I can harvest my fill of the small fruits. It's a little tricky to find the creamy yellow fruits (certainly not as easy as it is with the red ones), but supposedly the birds don't bother these, because they don't recognize the pale fruits as being ripe.

Well, looks like my alpacas could use some special attention at the moment. First a fresh bucket of lemon-lime Gatorade (always a favorite), then time to put on the sprinkler. Ahhh.

Daniel tends to lose interest quickly, so he's happy to get back into the barn and eat in front of the fan.

And Duncan is happy to have the sprinkler all to himself and become one with the water.

Ten minutes later, he's ready to retreat to the shade of their new "paca palace." And I'm ready to retreat back into the house. Whew!

Recientemente estuve en Santiago de Chile, donde la lluvia alcanzó niveles insospechados y el frío temperaturas bajo 0 en las noches.

Pero esta noticia si es impactante, cinco mil alpacas murieron de frío en Arequipa.

Veamos la noticia tal como salió en Peru 21

AREQUIPA (Peru21.com/8 de Junio de 2008) Las bajas temperaturas que azotan el sur del país han causado la muerte de unas cinco mil alpacas en la región, informó Carlos Urquizo, jefe del área de crianzas de la Gerencia Regional de Agricultura.

Señaló que para evitar que aumente el número de animales muertos se adquirirán 300 toneladas de forraje, así como 500 frascos de reconstituyentes, que beneficiarán a unos 2,500 ejemplares.

Realmente vivimos en los tiempos finales, cuando el clima se volverá cada día más loco, y donde escucharemos y veremos cada día cosas más y más terribles.

¿Estás preparado para esté tiempo?

 Here is a picture from my back yard:

As I said in a previous post, we have a lot of damage in the yard from flooding . We have a brook that runs right behind the house, in fact our lower deck comes within about a foot of the brook. We have put a lot of work in and around the brook, with stone and plantings, and there is a large flat stone over the brook for a bridge. Rushing water is a powerful thing. It has moved large boulders, redirected the brook in some ways and eroded away soil. The bridge needs to be lifted and reset. And one corner of the deck has shifted off the support so that will need repair. I can do a lot of the work, but for this big stuff, we will need to have someone come in and do it.

There is a new baby at the farm:

She looks like she is smiling. That is her mom behind her.

I have been knitting on the  Laguna Blouse. I have about 1.5 inches left of the left side of the front. Then I do a 3-needle bind off for the shoulders. I guess after I do that I'll block it before picking up the neck edge. I never know what to do in this situation. It needs to be blocked but with the shoulder stitches on stitch-holders it is hard to do. It looks nice, I just hope it is not too big. If it is I'll follow Lucy Neatby's advise. She says to make a bigger seam and cut off the excess fabric! Scary as it sounds, it evidently works.

Even though I still have the Landscape Shawl and the Modern Log Cabin Blanket on the needles, I have been thinking about what I want to cast on next. I have some hand painted silk in a fingering weight and have been thinking about making a Shape It! Scarf from Sally Melville's Book 1 of the Knitting Experience series. I think it will look great and be an easy carry-around project.

I am still adding new product to my my website. Please visit. www.nightingalefibers.com

i Thank You God for most

this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits

of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and

for everything

which is natural which is infinite

which is yes

e.e. cummings

Go out and enjoy the day.

Peace

Cynthia

Windrush Ashling’s Dream who was born at 1:30 a.m. on May 17^th.   This little girl decided to present herself in an unusual birthing position resulting in us seeing just one leg and two ears when she first started to make her appearance. 

Dream’s dam Rosie is a maiden and had been giving us signs during the afternoon that she might be in labor, so we had decided to check her through the night just in case and we were glad we decided to do so.  Often late afternoon or evening births are dystocias and Rosie’s behavior had set off our alarm bells.

I managed to free Dream’s stuck leg, but could not get her head to move back into the birth canal so it could be repositioned.  Ric offered to have a try and he managed to get Dreams nose turned around so that she could be delivered.

It was a traumatic birth for poor Rosie and she was tired and sore afterwards.  Little Dream only weighed in at 13.5 lbs, but in view of the circumstances of her birth we were glad she wasn’t any bigger.

Rosie was too sore to allow Dream to nurse initially so we milked her out as best we could and fed the colostrum that we got from Rosie to Dream.  We also started Dream on a colostrum substitute for the next 24 hours, as we knew she would not be getting enough colostrum from Rosie.

Thankfully Dream has turned out to be an easy cria to bottle feed, she accepts the bottle readily, which is not always the case with alpaca crias.  We started her off with a bottle every couple of hours around the clock and gradually increased the hours between each feeding.  Now Dream nurses from her dam and gets 2 –3 bottles from us during the course of the day and thankfully the nighttime feeds have stopped.

Dream is a sweet cria, a little mischievous and definitely aware of the fact that we provide some of her daily milk.  When she sees us outside her little head shoots up, her ears stand erect and then she runs over to see if we have her beloved bottle of milk.

Over the last few tumultuous weeks it has been quite soothing to feed Dream her bottle.  I am so familiar with the details of her little face now, the crease of her nose, the two swirls of fiber on either side of that crease, her dense top knot that seems to get thicker each day.   I enjoy watching her as she focuses her eyes on the bottle and eagerly sucks on the bottle until it is drained dry.  As hard as it is to get up in the middle of the night after only a couple of hours sleep, when you walk out into the pasture and are rewarded by a fuzzy face anxiously awaiting your arrival, it makes you forget how tired you are.

Dream is a special cria in more ways than one, she is the great grand daughter of our first alpaca Jenny, and her dam Ashling was the first female cria to be born on our farm.  We sold Ashling but sadly she passed away after giving birth to Dreams dams Rosie.  Ashling’s owners at the time named Rosie (her real name is Rose Marie) after me and asked if we would raise her, as she had to be bottle fed.  So Rosie came to stay with us until she could be weaned from the bottle and returned to her owners.

In time Rosie’s owners decided to leave the alpaca business and Rosie is now ours.  So now little Dream has joined us too.  She is a pretty medium fawn color and the daughter of our herd sire Tobiano.  When we came to name Dream we wanted her name to be special. 

Following Ashling’s death I had made her owners a photo presentation of Ashling set to the music “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker.  The day after Dream was born I had to make a run to the grocery store to get milk and yogurt in preparation for feeding her.  As I drove home what should come on the radio but Joe Cocker’s song “You Are So Beautiful” and I knew at that moment what Dream’s name should be.

If you are unfamiliar with Joe Cocker’s song you can listen to it at http://www.last.fm/music/Joe+Cocker/_/You+Are+So+Beautiful

The song is a short one, only lasting a couple of minutes.  When you listen pay particular attention to the lyrics of the second verse and you will understand why Windrush Ashling’s Dream received her name.

Rosemary

In the early hours of Thursday morning Bjorn’s dear cria “Legs” passed away.  “Legs” was never intended to be the little guys’ permanent name, but the name kind of stuck due to the problem he had with lax tendons in his legs.

Initially we thought that the lax tendons were Legs only problem, now it seems that possibly there was more going on to challenge this sweet boy in his short life.

On our vets advice we had confined Legs and Bjorn after Legs was born, in an effort to restrict his movement and allow his tendons to contract back to normal.  For a while the restriction seemed to be working, but after several days both Legs and Bjorn were anxious to leave the stall and Legs appeared to be getting depressed.  We let them out for a couple of days but it turned out that Legs was fighting an infection and running a fever.

Again we consulted with our vet who advised that we treat Legs with antibiotics for his infection and for a couple of days he seemed to be doing well.  He was gaining weight, looking stronger and even attempting to play with the other crias.  His legs were getting straighter but still had a way to go.  Unfortunately the antibiotic we used is known to have a disruptive effect on the rumen and so we also gave Legs probiotics to try and keep his rumen functioning properly.  Then Legs stopped gaining weight and a thermometer reading showed he was again running a temperature.  Another consultation with the vet was made and Legs was back on antibiotics but this time he did not respond as well.   He seemed lethargic and generally not happy.

Legs stopped nursing from his dam and so we had to supplementary feed him.  He wasn’t too keen on that to begin with but then seemed to appreciate that at least he was getting food, but all the time he continued to get weaker.  Legs temperature was back to normal so we hoped we were making some progress in the right direction

Tuesday evening Legs almost seemed to fall asleep while I was feeding him.  I had a cria once before who would fall asleep toward the end of his feed, but Legs seemed almost unable to stay awake for long.

By Wednesday afternoon we knew we Legs was in trouble.  Unfortunately our vet was called out to several emergency calls that day and was unable to contact us until 7 pm that evening.  Our vet told us he suspected White Muscle Disease, something that is brought on by selenium or vitamin E deficiency.

We treated Legs with some Selenium and Vitamin E but it didn’t make a difference.  By the late evening the little guy had labored breathing and things were not looking good. 

We checked on Legs through the night.  His dam Bjorn stayed close by and was obviously concerned about her cria she knew something was wrong.   Legs died shortly after 2 a.m.

Our vet has performed a necropsy on Legs to see if he can help us understand what happened to this poor cria.  Initial findings are that there was a problem in his lungs that were filled with blood.  Lung swabs and muscle samples have been sent off for testing.  We hope that they will give us an answer but it is not unusual for test results to come back as inconclusive.

It is hard to watch a little cria lose his fight for life, even harder to watch is the grief of his dam.  We left Legs body with Bjorn after he died and we took her with us to the vets with Legs laid beside her.  We wanted her to have a chance to realize he had passed away and we also decided to run some blood work on her to see if there are any clues that will explain Legs illness.  Bjorn is the picture of health, but alpacas are very stoic creatures and just in case something is going on with Bjorn we felt it was best to test her.

I have given Bjorn some Rescue Remedy during the day.  It contains Star of Bethlehem Flower Essence, which is helpful for those who are grieving.  Bjorn has done a little better since we returned from the vets, but she still searches for her baby every now and then, sniffing the other crias in the pasture in the hope that they are her boy.

And in the same day that Legs was starting to lose his battle with life, Life also delivered us the happier side of the circle.  Ivanna delivered a beautiful light fawn female cria on Wednesday afternoon.  The cria is strikingly beautiful with thick eyelashes and deep brown soft eyes.  Of course Ivanna’s cria is not a replacement for dear Legs, but she is a reminder that life is indeed a circle and for the circle to be complete you have to accept the various stages.

Rosemary

I luckily have a very good carpenter/husband.  He is an architect but loves to design and make furniture for us and our kids out on their own.   He has made media centers, tables, standing bookshelves, picture frames, etc.  We are thinking of marketing the coops if all goes well.  they are not cheap, but they are very sturdy, easy to build, and nice looking and I think will be low maintenance and easy to keep clean.  I am using the deep litter method for the coop interior which will keep clean out to once or twice a year.  The coop is raised on concrete block so they have a cool space underneath to use for dusting and getting out of the Texas sun and weather.  I will be painting the exterior and shingling the roof as time permits.

I will post pics of the coops and (hopefully) happy chickens probably later in the week.  I absolutely love chickens and can't wait.

One of my "outside photography" interests is knitting. It's relaxing and you get to make stuff you can actually use. Plus, you get to play with fuzzy, fluffy yarn. And, what better way to indulge that yarn lust than to visit an alpaca farm?

I was lucky enough to tag along with my sister's knitting group to Kaw Valley Alpacas near Tonganoxie, Kansas recently. We met the alpacas and got to learn a little bit about the business of fiber. The alpacas had already been sheared, so we missed that, but it was fun to see them nonetheless. As tempting as it was, I didn't bring any of the babies home. They're quite pricey and my cats would never forgive me for allowing something cuddlier than them into our little family.

Any knitters/crocheters/yarn lovers, and photographers for that matter, who haven't yet visited an alpaca farm, get out there! Visit AlpacaNation.com to find a list of farms in your area.

Everyone has days when they get up and wonder how on earth they are going to make it through the hours ahead of them and all that needs to be done that day.

Yesterday was such a day for us, probably one of the very few days of my life when I really couldn’t figure out how we could possible get through all that needed to be done.  It wasn’t a case of things I would like to get done but things that had to be done.

The previous night was a hard one.  Bjorn’s cria was still battling an infection.  We have taken to calling Legs, a name which will not be a permanent one but that suits him right now with his gangly legs and loose tendons.    He has already been through one course of antibiotics, but was still not right, even more worrying was the fact that he was steadily losing weight.  Having spoken to our vet on Friday we decided to put Legs back on antibiotics and supplementary feed him every two hours.  It had only been a few days since we had stopped getting up to feed our other cria Dream during the night and yet here we were back to getting up every two hours.  But to give young Legs a fighting chance it was necessary.

As it turned out we were destined to be up all night anyway, during the course of the evening our dog Sandie, who has been battling cancer, took a turn for the worse.  We realized that we were probably sharing our final hours with her and through the night I sat with her, talked to her, stroked her and tried to make her as comfortable as possibly.  Sandie did not seem to be in any pain but she did seem to be scared of what was happening.  Her mind was very much alert as her body failed her and all we could do was reassure her with our presence.  In the early hours of Saturday morning Sandie passed away.

So our day was off to a tough start.  Legs still required feeding every two hours as well as having his temperature monitored and his medications.  Dream still needed her bottle a couple of times a day, our horse Sabre needed his wound to be tended.   The chores had to be done, the overdue females watched closely and a truckload of hay had to be unloaded.  All this when the temperature was forecast to reach into the 100’s and we were not at our best.

We don’t give in easily to life’s challenges and so we decided that Ric would start on unloading the hay while I started on working with the animals, all we could think to do was work steadily and methodically through the day and hope that we managed to get everything done. 

And then it happened; help arrived.  Bob Dart, who has helped us so much with shearing and the other load of hay, turned up with his children Nathan and Abby, bringing extra pallets to help us unload the hay with.  Bob could only stay an hour to help us, but we were so grateful for his help.   Then two other vehicles showed up, our neighbors Tracy and Carl from up the road and Joe a friend of Carl.  Tracy had driven past our property earlier in the morning and had seen Ric unloading the hay by himself, so she had gathered up Carl and Joe and the three of them had come to help.

Tracy helped me with the animals, while the men got busy unloading the hay, and bit by bit, step by step, in sky rocketing temperatures we got it done.

We will be forever grateful to Bob, Nathan, Abby, Tracy, Carl and Joe, (and Bob’s wife Regina for holding the down the fort at their farm while Bob has been helping us)  they helped us get through a day that was not only physically tough but which was also an emotional one as we felt the loss of our faithful friend Sandie.  None of them had obligation to show up and take on hard physical labor in the heat, but they did and did so willingly.

At a time when we needed help, someone was watching over us and sent us the help we needed.  I like to think that someone was a golden dog who in her own way was sending us her message, saying Thank You for 13 years of life. 

Rosemary

Bjorn’s cria has been making steady improvement with the lax tendons in his legs and on Sunday evening we even let him out of his pen for a few minutes.   He seemed a little depressed and Bjorn was anxious to be out with the herd.  The cria did well and enjoyed his time and even tried to run and buck a little. 

By Monday morning though I could tell something was not right, the cria was lethargic and was not nursing as frequently as before.  We weighed him only to discover he had lost weight.  Something was definitely amiss and so we took his temperature to see if that would give us any clues.  The poor little cria’s temperature was 103.8, which is too high for a cria (normal temperature being 101.5 to 102.5).  We gave the cria some banamine to help reduce his fever and started him on some MSE drench.  We also started him on a course of Tucoprim, which is an antibiotic.  We kept a close eye on the little guy during the day and by early afternoon he seemed a little brighter but still not right.  We took his temperature again and this time it was 104.8, we were not progressing in the right direction with this cria.  So in addition to the Tucoprim we started him on some Naxcel.  Naxcel is a good antibiotic but you do have to be careful when using it in crias as it can destroy their intestinal flora.  In our case the MSE drench should provide good probiotics to help keep the crias intestinal flora healthy.

Monday evening brought us another problem to deal with when we went out to do evening chores and discovered our horse Sabre had a hole in his side.  The hole was about 8”long, 4” wide and was deep; fortunately while there was a lot of damage to the skin layers the abdominal cavity was still intact.  But of course Monday was a holiday and there wasn’t any veterinary service available.

In his younger days Sabre was very accident prone (perhaps his recent injury was him reliving his youth!) and I have had various experiences with various injuries on Sabre.  His wound was not bleeding and the blood that had flowed at the time of the injury had coagulated on the wound.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered that it is often better to leave something like that than to try and clean it as the blood has formed a barrier on the wound giving it some protection.  Sabre didn’t seem too bothered by his wound and so we penned him and his mother Savannah up for the night knowing that we would be off to the vets in the morning.  

Loading Sabre into the trailer the next morning was not an easy task.  He has never been fond of loading and unfortunately he loaded in the trailer, tried to turn round and get out again and banged his head on the trailer in the process.  It took forever to get him back in that trailer and we had to recruit help to make it happen, but eventually he was on his way to the vets.  Just to make things really fun, once he was at the vets Sabre refused to get out of the trailer!  He did come out eventually with some persuasion and received the veterinary care he needed.  Now we have the task of caring for his wound, but fortunately it is not too difficult and only needs to be done a couple of times a day.  It’s going to take several weeks for the wound to heal, but our vet assures us it will heal and Sabre will be fine.

Just to round things off on Tuesday afternoon we had a delivery of a semi truckload of wheat hay.  All was looking good until we realized that the hay was just a few inches too high to allow the semi truck to get through our entry way (our entry way is 13 feet high and usually is not a problem to a semi truck).  So instead of being able to park the truck close to the hay barn we had to park it out on the road, unload the hay onto a tractor and a forklift, drive each load to the hay barn and then restack the hay.  That took a while (several hours actually!) and we certainly got our exercise for the day.  If you have never had the opportunity to unload 530 bales of hay from a trailer and then restack them then you need to give it a try at least once in your lifetime.  I promise you once you have done so, the next time you see a semi load of hay going down the road you will have a much greater appreciation for how it all got stacked on the truck in the first place.

Once again Bob Dart from Llano Soleado Alpacas came to our aid, kindly loaning us his forklift and spending time helping unload the hay.  His daughter Abby also came to help in the evening and busily loaded up the loose hay from the truck into buckets for us so that it would not be wasted.  Thanks again Bob and Abby, we couldn’t have done it without you.  Thank you also goes to Alex Stewart who is helping us on the farm this summer.  It was Alex’s first day with us yesterday and boy did he learn the meaning of the word labor!  Still he helped out without complaint and has even told us he is ready to help us with the next load.  Yes, our hay fun is not over yet as semi load number two will be here Friday and we get to do the hay unloading all over again.   Ah, life on the farm – great isn’t it!

Rosemary

One day freshman year I was sitting around contemplating my summer. Sitting at home in Ohio working retail didn't seem to much fun, and I wasn't going to be able to return to the job I'd had the previous summer working at a children's theater downtown. I think I was watching (as sad as it seems) MTV's documentary special "Fat Camp" when I started thinking that working at a camp would be kind of fun. (It's a shameful source of inspiration, I know.) I'd never gotten to go to "Jew Camp" as a kid, which is slightly bizarre for a young Jewish kid. Going to camp in the Jewish community is a pretty accepted right of passage. It's so ubiquitous (yeah, I just pulled out some college level vocab) that during my sorority recruitment, the Jewish house on campus had a camp-themed night, assuming anyone serious about joining their sorority had that shared experience. I came close once, but a botched attempt at attending a YMCA camp in 5th grade put me off the idea for a while.

But I digress, after running the idea by my mom, I started to apply to JCC (that's Jewish Community Center for you gentiles out there) run camps within driving distance of my house. I had a few interviews, but finally landed on the JCC in Cleveland's camp as my first choice. Not only was it the closest camp to me, but they way the directors described it during my interview gave me chills. When I asked what made each camp special during my interviews, most directors explained about their killer facilities or their complex activities system, but what Meredith and Jodi (my soon to be bosses) described was the energy their camp had. They explained that when all the kids stood up cheering at lunch or sang together in their sprit circle (which sounds waaay more corny that is it, because what it is is just awesome) there was this intense, contagious spirit that everyone possessed, that made even the most difficult of kids want to stand up and cheer, that made you forget about how you looked or the fact that it was raining and made you just want to have the best time possible. They could not have been more right:

(An attempt to show spirit circle in all its glory)

So I excitedly accepted a position as a general counselor for the summer of '06. When I got to camp for the first time, my excitement deflated a bit. Basically everyone who worked there had been attending slash working at camp for most of their lives. People who were new like me were generally foreign staff. I got asked about 10 times a day "So, why are you here?" It was weird and awkward and a bit like moving. I felt very out of place and grew worried that I had made a terrible decision. How could I fit into a group that had been forming without me for most of my life?

Then the campers arrived and slowly, everything changed. Things became much more about the kids than about the counselors. I suddenly had things to discuss with everyone I couldn't make conversation with before through the shared experience of shaping these kids' summer. I was placed in a cabin with two other staff members and 12 13-year-old girls. I could not have asked for a better cabin for my first session. The girls LIVED for camp, and quickly taught me everything I needed to know to get by. They taught me village cheers, they prepared me for Macabia (our 28 hour color war, aka the biggest day of camp), and helped me get through my first spirit circle. As things fell into place with the kids, everyone with the staff got easier. I made friends with the staff in my village and soon, I felt like I'd been there forever, standing on my chair at lunch singing about prunes (loonnnggg weird explanation for that one) and toasted cheese. It slowly became the perfect job. I got to play all day, getting free tennis and rock climbing lessons in the process. I got to spend my Saturdays tanning by the pool with my best friend Sharon, and I got paid to do it! I got paid to act like a kid, while having actual responsibility. I had to take a kid to the hospital and break up fights. That doesn't sound like fun, but I felt useful and important and helpful. Kids never look more grateful than when you kill a spider for them or give them a snack. By the end of the summer, I knew I had to come back.

I applied to be the drama instructor for the summer of '07, just to change it up and get a new experience. I was a little nervous about the new job and the fact that some of my best friends weren't returning to camp, but Sharon would be there, so I figured I'd get by. (Sharon is a bit of a social butterfly, and by a bit, I mean she is literally friends with everyone at camp despite that fact that she started when I did...) I got to camp for staff week and immediately bonded with the lovely Sarah Mac. (who I inspired to blog. Score!) Instantly I knew the summer would not only be as great as the last summer, it may just cross over into legen- wait for it-dary territory.

I could not have been more right. Sarah, Sharon and I formed another instant bond with Lillian, a staffer from England, and I became great friends with Lindsey, a camp lifer who took off summer '06, so who was new to me:

(Sharon attempting to stuff fries up my nose on a night out. Clearly, we have a bond.)

(Things turn ugly)

(But I clearly gain the upper hand.)

(Lillian, Sarah, Sharon, and I saying our favorite phrase: Hazzah!)

(Lindsey and I in NYC after camp)

Basically, camp was the same (aka fabulously fun), but I had even better friends, taking everything to a whole other level. Plus, I loved my new job. I got to direct two productions (High School Musical first session - you know you are jealous that my extensive knowledge of the HSM dance moves actually helped my job - and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown second), and I recently found out that my drama cabin activities were voted one of the top 10 cabin activities in camp. Everyone loves some improv games.

It is so hard to explain what makes camp so special. Yes, I loved my job teaching drama, but that was only one aspect of what made my summer special. I'll try to explain with some specific stories:

1) One night after stopping by the pool for a staff swimming event, Sarah, Lillian, and I walked out onto the large rec field in the middle of camp, and after doing some cartwheels and impromptu dancing, we all laid down with our heads together and just stared up at the ridiculously clear sky and talked about how cool it was that three girls from three different countries could be sitting in the middle of nowhere Ohio together forming this amazing friendship. Where else does this happen? I'll probably remember that forever.

2) First session, I was chosen to be a captain of one of the five Macabia teams. This is a HUGE honor. Really. It shows that the directors of camp and the judges of that particular Macabia (other staff members chosen by the directors) think you can take on the task of being responsible for a fifth of the camp for a day, inspiring them to have tons spirit, to give this day all they have, and to make it the best day of camp for them. After being violently awoken by Sarah in the middle of the night and made to walk to the center of camp blindfolded, I was so excited to learn I had been picked. The next 28 hours were some of the most tiring of my life. I screamed. I ran miles around camp. I jumped and yelled and waved our Shrek flag high (yeah, we were the Green Shrek team of the animated movie themed Macabia). I wasn't so focused on winning as I was on making sure my kids had a great time. My co-captain was pretty focused on winning. (He had one of the best win records in camp, apparently). Well, the afternoon of Macabia is capped off by a giant relay race called The Great Race. The race ends with the captains building a fire to burn through a rope, and when the rope burns, the entire team runs to the flagpole and freaks out. Well, my co-captain and I completely owned at fire building and built basically the fastest fire in the history of camp.

(Suck it rope. You're going down.)

When our fire burned through the rope, I took off as fast as I could toward the flag pole where my entire team screamed and cheered for a good 20 minutes. I didn't think the day could get much better until I stood in front of the stage in front of the entire camp, holding my co-captain's hand, thinking we couldn't win since we had won the Great Race - it's a camp myth you can't win the Great Race AND win all of Macabia - when the judges turned their pitchers upside down and poured water all over me. (See, the judges each stand behind each pair of captains with two pitchers. One pitcher contains something different then the others, and that is the one of the winning team. In our case, all the pitchers were empty except for the ones above us, which, as I said before, had water in them) At first I thought I was being hit with water from the team beside me, but then it hit me as my entire team flipped the hell out. I then took off running again toward the pool, completely high on excitement. As per camp tradition, the judges and captains always run into the pool fully clothed at the end of Macabia. I broke my not-water-proof watch in the process of pool jumping, but was totally worth it. It was one of the best moments of my summer.

3) Second session, my fellow cabin staffers and I wanted to do something special for our girls, so we bought each of them a charm to make into a special cabin bracelet. The thing was, they each had to give their charm to someone else who had inspired or influenced them in the cabin. We figured the girls would do well with the activity, but even I was surprised by some of the things they said about each other. When a camper who I had in my cabin both sessions got to give away her charm, she gave it to me, saying I had helped her have one of the best summers of her life. How can you not have a good night after that? I still have that charm on a necklace I wear all the time.