Shearing is done

Waiting and watching.....

With the crazy weather we've had this spring it seemed really okay to have a late shearing date set.  Then all the sudden it seemed like the weather was changing and we had all these full fleeced, miserably hot alpacas with a week of warmer weather and high humidity.  Then the week before shearing the weather changed again and we were watching the forecast every day hoping to not be rained out!  Saturday morning was cloudy and overcast threatening of rain, in the end we may have gotten a little misting, but nothing to stop our plans and then Sunday was warm and beautiful to finish things up. 

First passes with the shears to take off the blanket



Blanket shorn off, our blanket fleeces typically weigh 3-5 pounds of prime fleece

 

The hand off to roll over and shear the other side



This is one of our rather pregnant females.  She is taken down gently in the ropes onto soft foam mats.  With a pillow for her head, most alpacas handle this method of shearing rather stress free.

This is a good shot to see one half of the blanket shorn off, you get a good idea of how long of a staple length they grow in a year.

By shearing time our white alpacas just don't look so clean after a long winter.  It never ceases to amaze me how bright white they are underneath.  You can also see in the unshorn fleece side the "dirt line" showing the dirt you see on the outside from getting in mud and sand really doesn't penetrate their dense blankets very deep.

Outside of the hard work and sense of accomplishment at harvest time, I love shearing!  It is the best time to really get your hands all over the animals for a thorough check up, get a good toenail trim done and see what beautiful fleece they have all produced.  Not that we don't do some of this throughout the year, there is just a big difference in holding an alpaca still on your own to do these things as opposed to having them secured down in shearing ropes.

Every year we shear I am still amazed how different the alpacas look after they get all that fleece shorn off, they look so much like they've shrunk.  As we bring in groups of alpacas for their turn getting a hair cut, the others watch with great curiousity and maybe a little anticipation.  Then as each one goes back in with the group they are greated as a total stranger who has to be thoroughly checked out and I believe, even teased a bit.  It is always entertaining and fascinating watching the alpacas interact as anything new or unusual happens within their routine.

The alpacas are definitely happy to have those big alpaca coats off.  We are happy to have shearing done.  Next it is deciding what to do with all that fiber!
 

Moonshadow's Symphony displaying her new haircut.

Moonshadow's Special T getting her final touches on her new haircut.

Meet The Killdeer

We have had some resident Killdeer here at our ranch that every year we try to protect their nests from their own poor planning.  For anyone who doesn't know about Killdeer, they build their nests in the ground at risk from being trampled by animals and too easily accessible to predators.
 

Killdeer

Every morning when I left for work a Killdeer was carrying on as they do in front of my car so we knew there must be a nest nearby.  So last weekend we went looking for it around the driveway and found it in a very precarious spot in the gravel in the middle of the driveway.  Amazing I hadn't driven over it!
To protect their nests Killdeer will try to draw any prey away from the eggs by skuawking, carrying on, running away from the nest and acting like they are wounded.
 

Killdeer guarding nest

  

Killdeer broken wing routine

 Both parents work to take care of the nest and ward off any predators.   

Killdeer parents drawing attention away from the nest

We've tried many things over the years finding their nests in dangerous spots to try to help them survive.  When they build them in the paddocks with the alpacas we have put stakes around them so they are not accidently trampled.  With it in the middle of our driveway this year we have put a big rock by it so we don't accidently drive over it.  You can see in the pictures the Killdeer blend into the environment very well.  So do their eggs, especially when they are laying in gravel.
 

Killdeer on nest next to protective rock

 

Killdeer eggs blending very well in the gravel

 Four eggs is usually the max.  When we discovered the nest there was only one, making us feel pretty good we discovered it before it got crushed by a vehicle coming in or out.  Then we watched them accumulate 1 egg per day.  Now we wait for the hatchlings.  Stay tuned....

Killdeer wanting us to follow and stay away from those precious eggs!



Spring Fling Alpaca Style

Here in the NW it's been hard to tell it's actually spring much of the time.  When the sun comes out it has been glorious and the grass and plants and weeds grow like crazy with no lack of water.  Looking at the calendar is our real reminder that it is truly spring.  Cria watch is in full attention mode for every little twitch our due soons make.  Planning for this year's breeding line up goes hand in hand with the cria watch.  So not wanting to get such a late start for new cria next year and having a weekend of dry weather predicted, we did our final review of our pairings.  For those that don't know, it's not really about likability towards each other for the alpacas, we go through a rather rigorous selection process to put together the best combination of qualities to produce our desired goal of significant improvement in the next generation.

With our decisions made we head out to round up the boys, somehow they know the words "want a date?" and stand perfectly still for us to put a halter on them and walk them over to meet the girls.  Ideally, we have a separate area for them to have a little privacy away from the big group when they breeding, but it is spring in the NW and pasture conditions are far from ideal from the endless amount of rain it seems we have had for months!  So the advantage of breeding in the pasture with all the girls around is to see who else is receptive, get some spit checks done to verify those we expected to be pregnant in the fall held over winter and help the young first timers get an idea of what is supposed to be happening.  The down side to this is it can be incredibly chaotic!  Especially if you are the one supposed to be helping, but would rather take pictures of all the theatrics and acrobatics.  :-)
 

A good alpaca Herdsire, not distracted from his mission assuring the other girls they'll get their turn!

 This would have been far more entertaining for the reader if we had been able to video all the antics going on, but in the end we got 3 breedings accomplished out of the 9 open females we have waiting.  


The girls weren't all ready for Fury to go back to his paddock yet or were helping to escort him out?

 And so it begins for 2011 in our cycle of pregnancies and deliveries.  We are always excited about impending cria, since it is close to a year we are waiting on results of decisions we made in pairing them.  Then we are looking ahead to what the next crop holds.  It is constant learning, anticipation, reviewing and moving forward.  Never a dull day living with alpacas!

Who'll Go First...

As cria watch continues, we are seeing signs of impending moms and thinking they are getting close.  However, over the years we have learned alpaca moms can be very sneaky and seem to prefer having their cria when you aren't looking.  Then there is the gestation period, we estimate due dates at 340 days, but have had a range from around 310 days to 370!  We have even tried to look for trends in individual moms we've had for a long time, but even if we think we see one, she'll prove us wrong with the next birth.  We have gone to the barn to check on a due soon mom, seen no suspecting signs and then turn around a half hour later and there she is with her new cria.  So we watch and we wait and we continue to anticipate and speculate.....who'll go first this year?

We have 6 that are due within days and weeks of each other.  Here are a couple others that could be due any day or any week now:



SHRA Zephyr

 This is Zephyr, we purchased her from a ranch in Ohio in 2009, she arrived here in October of that year so we chose not to breed her that late in the year and waited till the following spring.  So we have been waiting a long time to get this cria from Zephyr and can't wait to see what she produces.  She is bred to Snowmass Golden Victory and we have no doubt this cria will be heavily covered in beautiful fleece.  Zephyr has an amazing track record of gorgeous offspring to include a pretty amazing high end Herdsire, CAR Supernova's Quattro.  At this point, I have my money on Zephyr having the first cria of the year.....we'll see.

Moonshadow's Obsession (MO)

Our MO, what a character and a fiber machine!  MO has always been one of our favorites since she was born here.  This will be her 3rd cria and her first 2 were definitely as cute and full of personality as their mom.  We call this our MO line, so far we have had MOJO and MOJITA.  We are counting on the next one being Monique, named contributed by my son and we sure hope it is a girl!  MO is bred to APEX a magnificent Andrajo son owned by our good friend Kelli Cronn of Four Seasons Farm.  MO is one of the last due with this first group of due soons, but she sure is acting like she wants to be done with it.  These few days of warm spring weather she has not appreciated, but who would at 10 months pregnant with a huge, heavy, dark alpaca coat on?

Our due soonests....

We are anxiously anticipating our first cria of the year.  As we prepare here on the ranch, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our impending new moms to be:


Evander's Knock Out

Admittedly not one of my best alpaca photos, but Knock Out has always been a little camera shy.  Knock Out is bred to our premier Herd Sire, Snowmass Golden Victory.  Knock Out has produced some of our most beautiful alpacas to include one of our main marketing faces, Knock Out's Sugar N Spice, a beautiful multiple blue ribbon winning girl.  We held Knock Out open after her fall 2009 cria to get her on a more favorable breeding cycle, so we've been waiting a long time for this baby!  Serious cria watch begins for her on May 26th.  Things we love about Knock Out is her sweet disposition, the insane amount of fine fleece she has always produced and the adorable phenotype she consistently throws.  Expect this cria to be an adorable fiber blind fleece machine!

Next and right behind Knock Out is Moonshadow's October Sky.  They were both bred to Snowmass Golden Victory a day apart.  This will be Sky's first cria and 2nd maternal generation from our top original foundation dams, Madonna la Boliviana.

Moonshadow's October Sky

Sky has a blue ribbon winning, gorgeous fleece.  Her dam, Madonna, has consistently passed on a very soft handling fleece.  Madonna still at 11 years old produces a fleece when spun into yarn will be the first to sell out of our store.  All of her offspring have produced a high quality fleece that makes into our fastest selling yarns.  Sky's Sire is CCNF Andean Fury, he is still a major fleece producer after several years of breeding and passing on his outstanding qualities.  So waiting on Sky's cria is quite exciting too.  Not only are we excited to cross the Fury and Golden Victory lines, this should be an extraodinarily fleeced cria and will be the first offspring born at Moonshadow out of a Madonna daughter!  This may not sound like that big of a deal, but considering we purchased Madonna in 2002, this has been a long time coming!  Beyond all this, last year Madonna produced an offspring from Golden Victory we think is one of the best we've produced here.  How can you not get excited wondering what a step up from that will be like!

More introductions to come in our blog and updates on when the cria hit the ground.  It's hard not to be repetitive, but we are excited for different reasons for every cria due.  We carefully select each breeding pair and then wait so long to find out the results.  Oh the anticipation, stay tuned!

Lawn Mowing Moonshadow Style

Here in the great wet state of Washington mowing the lawn in the spring can be quite a challenge!  Our lawn loves all the rain, unfortunately too much of a good thing means the riding mower is going to sink like a rock.  Our girls stepped up to the challenge and took care of the knee high grass in just a few days. We're hoping that since we can now find the raised garden beds that planting some vegetables might be an option in the near future.  Please sun come out and play!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all who are to 2 leggers or 4 leggers!  My son is currently serving in the Army in Iraq and I miss him.  My mom has been gone for several years and I miss her.  I love them both and have them with me always. To fill any nurturing void without them here, we have over 40 alpacas, 3 cats, 2 dogs and some hens, it is never a dull moment!  I love having all the animals and am always amazed at how they interact with each other and us 2 leggers who care for them.

One of my favorite things about raising alpacas is the new cria born every year.  We have had over 80 born here on our ranch now and it never gets old.  We can wait up to 12 months or more for a cria to be born, there is always so much anticipation waiting to find out whether it's a boy or a girl, what color, what's the fiber like.  Like all babies, it is a miracle of life to see one born, stand up for the first time and take steps to find it's mom and food source.  For anyone who has never seen an alpaca mom with their cria it is amazing.  Alpaca moms are very attentive, nurturing and protective of their cria.  There are just some great moments watching them together that I never get tired of seeing.  Here are a few of my favorite alpaca moms and cria photos.

For 2011 cria watch officially begins in a couple of weeks.  Yesterday we moved 6 of our due soonests to the barn area where we can keep the best watch on them and be close to supplies when the cria arrives.  We base our projected due dates on an average of 340 days gestation, but really start watching when they are getting close to the 11 month mark.  We have had cria born from around 310 days to 370!  Good times, stay tuned for impending cria announcements!