Is Spring finally here in the NW?

Just enough sunny days have been scattered here and there this month to believe it might be.  We have had 3 beautiful weekends of sunshine in a row!  For April in the NW this can be rare.  Then we'll have days of rain during the week to remind us where we are.  It's been great to be able to get outside and start to clean up on some of the Winter storm damage and get prepared for what warmer weather means for herd management. 

Herd management this past weekend meant weaning our last four cria who were born in the Fall.  Our minimum age for weaning is generally around 6 months, most of the time it seems to push closer to 8 and we watch for signs of the moms to start doing their own weaning.  Some cria handle this better then others.  Some moms let go easier then others.  This particular group of moms and cria are all pretty tight and none of them took to the separation very well.  As you have read in previous posts, this is never one of our favorite times.  We were hoping with a nice sunny day and new fields of grass for distraction things would go a little smoother.  Eh, this was a pipe dream, we had some unhappy cria who were looking for any way through or around the gates keeping them from their moms. 

Here's Tulio, Black Bart, Trinity and Duke waiting at a gate to follow their
moms and just ignoring the nice big field of pasture they could be in.

To upset routines even further, we had a couple more "due soons" to bring over to the barn.  We bring all our due soons to this area where we are close to supplies in the barn and can monitor from the house with our barn cams.  Alpacas are very herd oriented and really don't always take well to moves, even from one field to another.  We try to move them in pairs at a minimum, the bigger the group often the easier it is to move them.  When you are talking late term pregnant alpacas they are going to let you know they are not happy with any disruption in their routine.  Again, we relied on the distraction of a sunny day and new pasture.  This worked better with the adults then it did the cria!

All the 2011 cria and the first mom's due for 2012.  In front is
Moonshadow's Evening Staar letting her cria from last year, Klondike,
know she is not there for him don't get any funny ideas!

These girls didn't mind getting out on a new field for the day!

Well regardless of the weather, Spring is here and all that goes with it.  We are officially on cria watch with the first of 2012 due any time.  Shearing will be here before we know it and then we'll be full swing into transitioning to our new location in Bellingham.  Got to get in some fun while we can, next weekend we are off to the NW Alpaca Showcase to wrap up show season.  Could we be hopeful enough for a repeat of 'Palooza?

Alpacapalooza show weekend...

Moonshadow's Golden Mist ~ 1st Bred & Owned Yearling
1st & Reserve Color Champ Fawn Female Halter
1st, Best Brightness, Best Crimp Fleece

Deciding to participate in this show was really a last minute decision.  Every year this show sneaks up on us with last minute halter training and the nasty weather to contend with in getting everything ready.  This year we also know we are going to be calling in every favor with can think of with our friends to help us relocate to Bellingham.   Getting out to shows is an important part of promoting our breeding program and networking with other breeders.  So we decided to split up this year.  Deb loves to show, she says it is one of the paybacks for all her hard work year round.  I can live without the nervous tension and adrenalin rush of the show ring.  What I do love about the shows is the rush and excitement being surrounded by others who are as passionate about their alpacas as we are.  This will be the first show I've missed since 2004. 

Admittedly, I am not generally the hands on person around here.  I do work full time away from the ranch, which is generally sitting at a desk, sitting in meetings, sitting in my car, sitting at airports and in airplanes.  When I come home from work I get to sit at another desk and maintain our marketing, registrations, email or whatever other business stuff needs to be done.  Point is, some how I end up doing a lot of sitting, which has ultimately resulted in feeling very out of shape lately.  My level of hands on work outside gets even more limited during the winter, otherwise my work with the animals tends to be  occasional poop scooping, special projects, halter training, cria delivery (which mainly seems to only be the challenging ones these last few years) and whenever I hear a 2nd set of hands is required to get something done.  After a hectic week, wrapping up a hectic month of March I am thinking alpaca chores are rather therapeutic!  I generally consider myself a fair weathered outdoor chores kind of person, Friday the wind was howling like crazy, Saturday rain sprinkled and drizzled off and on, by Sunday there was an ominous bank of black clouds that did motivate me to get moving, but I managed to avoid the worst of this nasty weather.  Overall, it was great to be out in the fresh air.  I do love being around the alpacas, they are always relaxing to be around as they humm away, peacefully munching on hay.  This was a peaceful and relaxing weekend for me, most who know me outside of our alpaca world would probably think I was nuts to consider this enjoyable time off!  Hard to explain.

Moonshadow's Monique

I never made it to the show, but was quite content getting steady reports from Deb throughout the weekend.  We had only 1 alpaca show on Saturday, Moonshadow's Monique, who was awarded 2nd Place, a great placing to kick off the show!
Sunday morning started with Production classes, we had Moonshadow's Golden Mist entered in Bred and Owned Yearling Female.  Alpacapalooza is a highly competitive show with some of the top breeders in the country living in Washington and Oregon.  We have felt Golden Mist is one of the nicest alpacas we have produced, taking a ribbon with the breeders entered in this class would be great.  She ended up being awarded 1st Place, judge loving her overall conformation, brightness and staple.  Golden Mist was also entered in the Halter and Fleece show.  She took 1st and Reserve Color Champion in Halter, 1st Place in Fleece and then was awarded Best Brightness and Best Crimp from judge Kathy Klay.  Being thrilled with these results hardly describes it!

Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit &
Moonshadow's Golden Treasure

The rest of the show went fairly well.  With this level of competition we were happy to be in the ribbons.  We had 2 other Fleece entries showing in White, whites and fawns generally are the toughest competition.  Moonshadow's Victory's Falkor and Victory's Triumph each took 4th Place, one in juvenile, one in yearling classes.  With Fleece shows you get a scorecard for each fleece entered, getting this fleece assessment from a judge is always useful in evaluating breeding decisions.  Moonshadow's Golden Treasure took a 4th Place in Halter and Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit unfortunately took the gate in a class of 11 white juveniles.  Judge Wade Gease did comment as the rest of the class was leaving how tough it was to pick the top 6, he did come back to take another look at Spirit.  We still have confidence in Spirit's potential, when you see Crescent Moon Ranch standing in 6th Place you know it was a tough class!  Principe took a 5th Place in the adult fawn male class, which included multiple Champion TAG Peruvian Bellagio, who took 3rd in this class.  So it is what it is at any given show, on any given day, with any given judge, the highs and lows of showing.  We show to learn as well as compete.  This is how we continue to keep our breeding program moving forward and keep in step with the top breeders around.  It's all good, everyone had a great time!  Looking forward to our next show at the NW Alpaca Showcase in Pasco, WA.

Alpacapalooza 2012