The Milk Thief...

Our first breech baby, this is Tulio, doing
very well at about 6 wks old here~

Most alpacas moms are excellent mothers and produce plenty of milk to sustain their cria.  Seems like there always has to be one in every crowd that needs to be different.  We have one mom whose milk is a little slow to come in and we have always supplemented her cria with a little bottle feeding for the first few weeks.  This year, that mom also happened to have our first breech delivery ever.  Her little guy started out additionally challenged from the start coming out backwards his rear legs were a little weak and he was a bit wobbly.  We were prepared to supplement feeding again, but he would have nothing to do with a bottle.  There is a point where forcing this can do more harm then good and he was getting some milk from mom so we decided to let nature take its course.  For the first week he gained about .2 lbs per day, typically we like to see a half to a full pound weight gain.  This little guy seemed to be a fighter from the moment he was born and when it came to getting enough nourishment he took matters into his own hands so to speak.

A fuzzy phone pic, but best proof of our
dual nursing dam~

Our next cria was born about a week later to a first time mom.  Sometimes new moms will do things other more experienced moms won't tolerate.  She was a great mom to her new cria from the start, let her nurse, had plenty of milk and was very nurturing.  Our little breech boy bonded with her new cria immediately.  He also learned if he could sidle up next to the new girl when she was nursing he could sneak in and get a little for himself!  It is extremely rare for an alpaca mom to let any other cria nurse.  Some don't even like other cria around when theirs is nursing.  So to watch our little milk thief get away with it was rather humorous, plus we were thrilled to see him getting a little extra to drink.  We didn't think this would last, but instead the new mom seemed to start accepting him and just let it continue.  Her cria didn't seem to be lacking, it didn't seem to be taking too much of a toll on her so it was truly all good. 

Well we all know good things don't always last.  After a couple weeks something clicked and she seemed to realize none of the other moms were sharing their milk with other cria.  We had been hoping we might have one of those gems who tolerate being surrogate moms, but no, she started to kick him off.  Knowing where the milk bar is isn't an easy habit to break.  He is constantly at the side of this mom's cria and she seems to help him sneak a drink whenever possible.  It still makes us smile when we see him get away with it, his sneakiness and persistence is a marvel. 

The dam is Patience, the black cria is her cria, Trinity.  Here is Trinity on
the lookout while her buddy Tulio sneaks a drink.

Trinity warning Tulio, drink fast she's catching on!

Busted!

Out of luck~

One more try~

Game over!

A Working Ranch...

 

These little faces are great motivation in keeping everything
on a working ranch moving forward!


I have really always liked the sound of being a "working ranch".  It never occurred to me when we started just what exactly that meant and that what it really meant to me would change over the years.  By next spring we will have owned alpacas for 10 years and there have certainly been a lot of changes that have influenced what that does mean to us.  What it really means is that YOU are working all the time!  Whether we see the signs in the weather and scenery telling us the seasons are changing, we always have our seasonal events to care for the alpacas and keep the ranch working.  Fall seems like the biggest scramble in preparation for winters, which seem to be more unpredictable in harshness and length every year.  So for the ranch to keep working through winter we need to bring in hay, for our herd we like to put 12 tons, which we need to creatively fit into our space only designed for 3!  This is also the final push to have all the shelters prepared, fields mowed and any other required pasture maintenance.  For the house, this is also the time we bring in firewood, our preferred heating method over the oil furnaces in our old house.  This is typically about 8 or more cords per year.  We have evolved our methods of dealing with this daunting task every year.  The cost of split wood has risen so drastically, we now have logs delivered.  Luckily we have good friends that like to come over and work with us, and a wonderful neighbor with a super duty splitter he lets us use!

Last year's log pile, this year's was just delivered yesterday.  Never thought
looking at a pile of logs in my driveway would make me so happy!

Then there are all those other ongoing projects that need to get done, though fortunately, they don't happen every year.  This year one of those has been to clear out some really over grown trees at the front of our house.  We assume these were all planted when the house was built, now going on 40 yrs ago.  We hadn't quite intended to do as much, but sometimes once you get started the project just seems to grow as you go.

View from the field.  The hen house is in progress, as well as the garden, you
can barely see much of the house from the field...until now~

Our growing mountain of debris, still more to add before the chipper comes, the
pile is growing to a daunting size! We'll use what we can for firewood and
 chip up the rest for ground cover.  It's great to be able to see out to the
fields from the front of the house!

We finally got our garden boxes planted this year with 3 years worth of alpaca poo compost.  It was a little experimental to see what responded best in such rich soil.  We learned radishes don't like a high nitrogen soil and they grew like crazy into trees on top and very little radish below, which were like tree bark.  It also seemed a little rich for the lettuce we planted, or we just need to learn to stagger planting so it's not ready to harvest all at once and then goes to seed before you can use it.  Sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes and strawberries grew like crazy.  So crazy we realized we really need to allow more room and be prepared for such a huge harvest!

Our garden boxes September 2011

Hunter, one of the barn cats, will be very happy when the
new hen house is completed.  He is really getting tired of the
hens invading his napping perch in the hay~

I could go on and on because the work truly does never end!  However, there is great return for the work that is done.  Our goal is to be a sustainable farm, where we can support our herd, ourselves and this lifestyle we love.  We are constantly trying to stretch our imagination in re purposing items and having multi-purposes for our fields, what we raise and how we can keep the cycle moving forward to sustain us, our herd and our ranch in the future.  Though it's not for the faint of heart, there are tough times and hard lessons to learn sometimes that happen regardless of preparation.  With all that we learn it just helps us for the next step forward.  I can't think of any better ways to be rewarded by the work and effort put out!