Happy Mother's Day!

Due date schedule, maybe we should post it in the barn for the
mom's to see?

Happy Mother's Day to all our 2 legged and 4 legged friends!  We are on cria watch for our first new alpacas of the season to arrive.  It would be kind of special to have 1 or 2 born today.  We are having another gorgeous NW Spring weekend and could be perfect weather for a new little one to get their start on life.  From this list you can see we are already past our first due dates.  Wind Song was sold and now living at Snowmass Alpacas, we haven't heard whether she's had her cria yet or not.  Annie and Madonna are both looking VERY pregnant, but not so inclined to let go of that bun in the oven.  So it goes for cria watch, we base our due dates on an average of 340 days, but really there can be a 3 week swing before or after.  We have tried to track trends on individual alpaca gestation lengths, but in the end they come when they are ready.  For me, I am really just being selfish and like to be home for the births, which seems to happen less every year.  Deb is here for most of them, it is pretty rare anymore that we are both gone and come home to a newborn.  In our first couple years that was more of the norm and we look back now and realize how lucky we were that everything went so well.

Dreamboat Annie with her last cria on his first day~

Moonshadow's Dreamboat Annie is at 344 days today.  She has had 2 previous cria with an average of 345 days gestation.  Not a lot of data to determine any strong pattern, but we'll see.  Madonna la Boliviana is at 331 days today.  Her average is pretty close to Annie's, but this is her 8th cria and she has delivered her cria from 333 days to 370 gestation.  In her case, more data to just prove there is no predictable pattern.  Both these dams have been great moms, no birthing issues and know how to take car of their cria.  Sometimes I think they don't want us hanging around messing with their newborns and do all they can to wait and deliver when we are gone.   These dams also both had a year break in between cria so we've been waiting 2 years for them to give us another.  Annie comes from a very dominate white maternal line of alpacas, but we think she has some color potential from her Sire.  She is bred to our Herdsire, CCNF Andean Fury, who has done an amazing job of bringing out color from the lightest dams.  Fleece combination from these two parents has the potential to be phenomenal!

Madonna and her last Golden Victory cria,
Moonshadow's Golden Mist

Madonna la Boliviana is one of our first alpacas from the original 5 pregnant females we purchased when we started raising alpacas.  When choosing those first 5, I will admit she was not necessarily one of our first choices.  The things you learn and if only we knew then what we know now, we would have never hesitated and are so glad we did purchase her!  From her very first cria, Madonna has always produced something very special.  After 10 years with us, Madonna has really never failed to disappoint.  Her last cria was born in 2010 and if you are following our blog at all, would recognize the name Moonshadow's Golden Mist, our highly awarded show girl.  Golden Mist was one of the first cria from our Herdsire, Snowmass Golden Victory and we new she was a winner from the day she was born.  There was never any question that we would breed Madonna back to him.  Madonna is now getting up there in years and we are doing all we can to help her maintain, which included giving her a year off from pregnancy.    We are anxiously awaiting her latest Golden Victory cria and are certainly hoping for a repeat of the last one, whether it's a boy or a girl. 

Coming up quickly behind Annie and Madonna is Whisper.  Another mom that had a year break in between cria and bred to our rose grey Herdsire, Moonshadow's Gunslinger for the 3rd time around!  We've done several repeats, but this is the first 3x'r that we done.  This combination has produced such gorgeous fleece in a lavendar grey and a rich dark brown.  Whatever the color, the fleece quality, overall look and style of offspring and personality have been definite ranch favorites.  Oh, and worth mentioning, Gunslinger is one of Madonna's past show winning cria!

The combination of Gunslinger and Whisper has produced 2 show winners so far,
3rd time has to be a charmer also!

Well it doesn't appear any of our due soons are inclined to become new moms on Mother's Day this year.  As always, raising alpacas is a constant reminder in patience and recognizing not all things are in our control.  We are always excited when the new cria do arrive and we get to see the results of decisions and planning from months past.

NW Alpaca Showcase 2012

NW Alpaca Showcase a few years ago...
These 2 were awarded 2nd in Produce of Dam of 13 entries
and then each followed with 1st Place in their Halter classes~

We always love going to the NW Alpaca Showcase in Pasco, WA at the TRAC center, which was this past weekend April 27-29.  It is always a warm, sunny weekend that is so refreshing after too much rain and general unpredictable weather in the NW.  It is a well organized show and we always have fun visiting with other breeders we don't get to see much outside of shows.  There is a great RV park we stay in that is right out the doors from the pavilion where our alpacas are.  What more could you want for a weekend of fun, sun and alpacas?

Okay so on with the results of the show...  It is amazing how competitive classes are now with so many high quality, refined breeders out here in the NW.  Our first class of the weekend was in the Production Class, Bred & Owned Yearling female.  If you have been following our posts, this entry was again Moonshadow's Golden Mist.  There were 9 entries in this class from some of the best breeders around here, and judged by both show judges, Wade Gease and Kathy Merkley.  Golden Mist took 2nd Place in this class behind a beautiful grey female who went on to take Color Champion in greys.  Golden Mist went on to take 1st Place again in her Halter class, followed in 2nd by her Golden Victory sister, Kahlia Dream, owned by our good friend Sherrie Soderquist of Alpacas at Dream Catcher's Farm.

Moonshadow's Golden Mist ~ now with 1 Reserve Color Championship,
4 Blue Ribbons, 3 Red Ribbons, Best Brightness, Best Crimp Fleece awards!

  

Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit ~
Older sister & brother pictured
above at past NW Showcase

Most of the classes were very large and highly competitive.  When you see breeders you are used to seeing at the top of the class taking the gate you really recognize how competitive the playing field has become.  Moonshadow's Monique took a 3rd in her class behind 2 Patagonia Lennox daughters.  Lennox offspring seemed to dominate the show in whatever class they were entered.  Matrix Principe took a 4th in his class of mature males, many of which were past Color Champions.  Regardless of placing these guys were all worthy Herdsires.  Moonshadow's Golden Treasure took 5th in her class, the judge loving her beautiful phenotype, density, staple and organization of her fleece.  My handsome young Victory's Spirit hung in his huge class of fine young white juvenile males to take a 6th Place.  Considering his walk at the last show, the level of fleece quality and breeders in this class, and the fact he had to lay under the drip line in the barn the entire week before the show and then rolling in everything he could...we were really happy to make it into the top 6!  He was beyond paddock ready, he looked a bit more like he was wearing the paddock and brought it with him!  It is always amazing how bad they can look on the outside and then you open up this blindingly bright white beautiful fleece.

A few good looking young weanlings that were too young to show this year ~
Maybe they'll make it next year?  They are sure lookin' good!

Only 2 shows this year with all we need to do with the big move, but we feel fortunate to have been able to do them and had a great time at both.  We entered our first alpaca show in 2004, nervous and looking back now, fairly clueless.  We had watched a couple shows before so we at least had a sense of how they ran.  I look back now and recognize how much the shows, venues, breeders and alpacas have really all progressed.  Our first show was Alpacapalooza, our first class we showed our beautiful rose grey Beliarosa, who took 1st Place and we were hooked.  It's been a bit of a roller coaster with shows over the years.  We have met so many great people.  I really loved this year feeling a renewed sense of excitement and energy, with a refined focus and determination from everyone we talked to.

Six entries, six ribbons, one in every color.  With the level of competition we are seeing now at the shows we'll take this and be proud!  I won't deny we love to take the Blue and even better, a purple or lavender, but there is always more to the show then just the color of the ribbon.  Standing in the top line up and looking at who you are keeping company with is a great reflection of how far we've come and validation of choices made.  And with that, we keep looking ahead excited for the new cria coming and looking at the great options we have for breeding the next batch.  April officially marked our 10 year anniversary of owning alpacas and we are more excited about the future then ever!