As the summer days come to an end

Okay, so it's been a few weeks since my last post.  Seems like the more there is going on the less time there is to sit down and write about it.  Since the last update we have had 4 more cria, taken down 7 trees around the front of our house, trying not to bury ourselves in tree debris in the process and made some major effort on getting the new hen house ready for winter.  We were already seeing the summer days wrapping up and looking around at all that needed to be done in preparation for winter so we've definitely been on a major push.

The exciting events, of course are always the birth of a new addition to the herd.  These last 4 that were born are the final 4 of the 2011 crop.  The start of this final push was this little guy...


Tough beginning, but he's not phased at all!

 We've had around 90 cria born now and we had our first breech baby.  He was not only aimed with his rear headed out, but also had his legs positioned forward.  We have an amazing friend, Gina Martin of Mak-Ky Corral Alpacas, who prides herself in resolving challenging deliveries and was close by.  We knew we had a female in labor who wasn't progressing, but we couldn't tell exactly what the problem was.  We also had our friends J&J over who had never seen an alpaca delivery.  So with all this help, as well as Gina's son Kyler and his girlfriend, we managed to get the mom up over a bail of hay so Gina had the best angle and helping getting this cria out.  The biggest concern with a breech is getting that baby out quickly once the umbilical breaks so they don't suffocate.  I won't go into all the graphic details, but I know we were all feeling very sympathetic for the mom, Serenade, that the amount of stretching she was having to endure was beyond any expectation of motherhood!  Gina was definitely the hero of the day and we so appreciate everyone else that was there to help.  So after a majorly stressful start to life, the picture above is after almost 2 weeks.  He is doing great and getting stronger every day!

We've definitely had some of our firsts, and with all luck, our only experiences in some extreme birthing challenges this year.  So having those normal, no worries, typical alpaca births are always appreciated.  Monday we had a double header.  Deb hadn't gotten all the last due soons moved into the same field yet and got her work out with 2 moms, in 2 fields, go into labor back to back.  Fortunately, they timed it nicely so the first to hit the ground was thriving, sitting up and working at getting on her feet, while Deb ran to check on the mom in the next field.

This is Patience with her new girl.  She is just adorable and is certainly worth
the long wait it's been for her to finally arrive~

Beautiful medium rose grey, this guy is already quite macho!
Over 20 lbs @ birth and gaining over a lb a day~

Then to cap off the 2011 birthing season, the final cria was born Thursday.  No one was even home for this birth from one of our tried and true moms, Whitney.  She is the example of those proven moms who have their cria on their own and they are up and nursing before anyone knows they are here.  So far this last guy born is the only one with a name yet, for some reason Black Bart has been in my head if Whitney were to have a black boy....I know I should have been thinking girl names!  Though he is cute as a button and sweet as ever.



Moonshadow's Black Bart



We have the final 4 separated from the other cria just until they are ready to run and play with the big guys.  They are the friendliest little group we've had together, not minding saying hi and giving little cria kisses.  So this concludes the new additions and cria watch is officially over for 2011.  This year has definitely had some ups and downs, but we focus on those beautiful cria that we have with us and start looking ahead to next year's show season and the next crop of cria, while we watch these grow up and fill out with all that gorgeous baby alpaca fiber. 

Cria Shearing

Friday we got our first crop of cria sheared.  They ranged in age from just over 2 months old to just shy of 3 weeks old.  We like to do this around 3-4 weeks old, but then waiting for a group to all get done together some do get older then the ideal.  The purpose of shearing the cria is to get the tips of the fiber that have been touched by amniotic fluid off.  These tips tend to get a bit like split ends and will end up collecting bits of hay like Velcro.  If we wait until the following year for the first shearing to be done with the rest of the herd, it is not unusual for a not "tip sheared" alpaca to become rather hay encrusted.  This virtually ruins that first fleece from an alpaca, which is generally the softest and finest of their fleeces.

Cria are shorn using a table and are very gently restrained~

This is Monique, she may not be too sure about what is happening, but she
is safely secured to minimize any risk of getting hurt during her haircut~

Getting these tips shorn off will help their fleece remain relatively vegetation matter free as adults.  Most hay or leaves or grass will easily dust off the cut ends of alpaca fleece.  It also ensures a much nicer product when processing the shorn fleece from next year's shearing.  This first fleece is so fine and soft, it is the fineness that will be referred to as royal baby fine and is the most exquisite to wear next to your skin.

This is Klondike, he handled his haircut with ease~

For final touches and trimming up chest hairs, they need
to be up on all fours to make sure everything is even and
no wild hairs are left behind~

During cria shearing is also when we'll insert microchips for identification and take blood draws for DNA testing for registration into the Alpaca Registry, Inc.

Monique, Golden Treasure & Klondike all showing off their
new haircuts~

We sheared 5 cria and they all handled it wonderfully.  Our friends Gina Martin from Mak-Ky Corral Alpacas and Kelli Cronn from Four Seasons Farm Alpacas do a awesome job!  You wouldn't think these young cria would have that much fleece, but some are born with an amazing amount of fiber.  During this warm weather they have been pretty warm in their alpaca coats and I think very much appreciative of feeling the cool breeze once it was cut off.

Vacation in Paradise

As much as we love the alpacas, I have to say it is all too rare that we get an opportunity to "get away from it all".  It's been a bit long since I've posted because we've been in Northern Idaho paradise with no internet or cell coverage.  It might make me a bit antsy to be so disconnected, but getting over that initial "hmmm, how can I handle this?" it was absolutely glorious!

Our view from the motor home for a week~

Seems like most of the time we get away from the ranch it is somehow still alpaca related.  It was wonderful to get away and visit a good friend who lives on a 150+ acre ranch, surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery where ever you look.  Of course, we don't ever seem to get too far away from alpacas.  Our friend also has a herd of fiber boys that get to graze peacefully and roam as free as alpacas can get in the US on this open land.  There are also horses, llamas, sheep, goats, cows and a yak.  So in addition to our getaway vacation, we also brought a few boys to add to her fiber herd and deliver some females to another farm in Idaho to add to Eden Criations breeding program.

Alpacas coming across the field to say hi~

We had a great time and as vacations tend to go, the time flew by way too fast.  We have some great memories, thoroughly enjoyed our down time of walks in the woods, fishing in the lake and enjoying great company.

One of the llamas that was out for a walk on his own one afternoon~

Our dog, B.A. out to greet the horses, they weren't too interested in
the small visitor~

I don't know how anyone could ever tire of the peacefulness and
beauty of this landscape~

We saw lots of little fish along the shore and Deb got an opportunity to fish and catch several, we don't have any of those "you can't believe how big" fish stories to share.  Catch and release small mouth bass and let them grow bigger for next year.  Maybe then we'll get a big fish fry to cap off one of the best week's of the year!


 This may not be what everyone thinks of paradise, but we certainly do.  A week away from work, technology, chores and activities of running a ranch in this gorgeous setting will always be a paradise for us. 

To see more pictures check out the Northern Idaho set on Flickr.

This week's high...

Tuesday we had another new cria.  This was a rather exciting cria being 100% Moonshadow, from Moonshadow's Olivia and Moonshadow's Revolution's Patriot.  It is also the first cria born here for our good friends Janice and Jeremy.

Alpaca mom's are always so nurturing, nuzzling and encouraging their cria~

Not only are the moms always so loving and attentive with their cria, but it seems like the dads are just as interested.  We have noticed that if the Sire of a newborn is onsite, they seem to know the new addition is one of theirs.  Seems like the Herdsire of the newest born is always the one spending the most time trying to look across fence lines as if to check out what they've produced.

That dark guy behind the fence and tall grass is Patriot checking out
his newest offspring~

I have to say this new young cria is the spitting image of his dad, just in a luscious shade of brown instead of black.  He is strong, healthy and thriving from the moment he came out.  It is always great to have a proven mom deliver and take care of her cria with no worries or intervention from us.  Definitely a great way to pick up spirits from events of the previous week.  Looking ahead to each new cria is absolutely the high side of raising alpacas!



Those other days...

When we started the blog we had good intentions of posting once or twice a week.  Seems like we are insanely busy every day with stuff going on, but is it really all noteworthy?  Especially some of the routine and mundane.  Then there is the stuff that is just not so nice.  We wanted this to stay pretty upbeat and positive, but there are realities of raising any kind of animal that just aren't that way.  So this ended up to be one of those weeks.

After struggling and fighting to survive, we lost one of our June cria on Tuesday.  He made it to the 1 month mark, but he was never really out of the woods.  We did all the intervention we could do to keep his strength up and get some consistent weight gain building.  There were a couple bright and hopeful times we kept thinking we were almost there and then we would lose ground again.  Tuesday morning we found him very shakey as he was losing his fight to continue.

He always wanted to hang with the other cria~

He had some of the most amazing fleece we have seen on a newborn.
In the scheme of alpaca cria cuteness, he was off the charts!

It's always hard to lose any.  It is even sadder to see an alpaca mom display the distress for her lost cria.  Anyone raising alpacas that has been through this knows what I'm talking about, they are amazing animals and some of the best moms nature has created.  We will miss him too~

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London

The Name Game...

We've had close to 90 cria born now since we started raising alpacas.  We are always getting questions about how we come up with names for them all.  Heck, this is a question I'm often asking or wondering of other alpaca breeders too!  Some have definitely been more challenging then others.  We have a few themes we like to use.  Sometimes a name just pops in your head when you see that cria and it sticks.  Sometimes one will go quite awhile with no official name and lots of little nicknames get attached, some that stick and are always used regardless of what that long official, sometimes stuffy name might be.  And of course, they are all little punkin's! 

One angle is to incorporate the Herd Sires name into the cria's name, especially when it's a superstar stud and you want to highlight that.  With Snowmass Golden Victory we wanted to connect him to all his cria and have used Golden in the girls names and Victory in the boys name.  Here's a few of the 2011 GV crop so far this year... 


Moonshadow's Golden Treasure, purchasing her mom
set us on a very calculated path to result in this girl, plus
her aloofness suits this name~

 

Moonshadow's Victory's Klondike, this guy is built
like a brick and dense as can be, plus has some hidden
gold color in that fleece~

 

Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit, first off he is full of
spirit, not to mention he definitely shows off what we
hoped to see in Golden Victory offspring~

We actually have a running list of potential names.  Sometimes it is useful and we find something we like that seems to suit the personality of the new cria.  Just as often, it seems like the list grows longer then any of them get used.  Then when it comes to boys we try to factor in something that could be "studly" with some fun marketing potential.  Or do we just have a fun name that suits the personality of a boy who will be a wonderful fiber producer. 

Moonshadow's Crockett, quite the character and adventurer, always seems
 to be in the midst of everything and loves to be in front of the camera~

Sometimes we have that special female, like Moonshadow's Obsession aka MO, who we want to recognize in the naming of her cria.  Our "MO line" that I've mentioned in past blogs.  MO's cria are some of those very few that might actually have a name picked out before they are born.  This could be tricky sometimes not knowing whether you are having a boy or a girl, so far we've lucked out and had a gender appropriate name picked out.  I will admit when the power of positive thinking fails us, we do have a back up plan.


Moonshadow's Monique, my son threw this name out in
March for MO's cria, we were certainly counting on a girl,
luckily that worked out!  Even though the name came before
the girl it seems to suit her quite well~

For those who always wonder how do we keep track of them all, we keep lists of course!  All of our cria are registered, so we do have the ARI database record.  We also use a herd management database to manage our herd.  To keep things simple, we have recorded birth dates and names of every cria born at Moonshadow on the nursery barn wall.  Always impressive when the vet or company asks about a specific DOB and we can quickly come up with it.  ;-)  For us, it's just a nice visual on how far we've come since we started in 2002.

Destination Moonshadow

Active Moms & Tots from Kent

We have had such a variety of ranch visits lately it has kept us too busy to write a new post, so here I'll have to cover the past week's schedule. 

It started last week with the sweetest couple, Gloria and Richard, who came in their RV on a road trip from CA.  We are a host destination for Harvest Hosts and have met some wonderful people.  Richard is a retired finish carpenter and insisted on helping us turn our re-purposed building into a hen house. 

What great timing for us to have a visit from someone with Richard's
skill and experience.  He installed a window in our future hen house, more
on the story of our re-purposed building conversion later~

As Gloria and Richard were leaving we had another van load of senior citizens showing up for a ranch tour from another local assisted living center.  We love seeing these folks staying active and getting out and about.  There is nothing like a bunch of cute cria running around to put a smile on anyone's face!

Monday we had a group from Active Moms and Tots of Kent.  This was a pretty large group all at once, but the kids were so well behaved, the alpacas were all willing to be quite social.
 

Nothing like a little willow leaves to entice the alpacas to come over
and say hi to the kids.

One of the moms, Kristen Jordan, took some wonderful photos of their visit with the kids interacting with the alpacas.  To see them all click on her name to link to her photo album on SmugBug.  This was one of my favorties.  Thought it was so cute how this little guy appeared to know exactly how he should be looking at this little cria's fleece.

Future alpaca breeder in training~

Today we had a visitor from Maine whose son was so excited about alpacas visiting a ranch was something he wanted to do while in Auburn, WA.  We learned they discovered where we were by coming up as one of the top things to do while visiting Auburn....got to love Google!  For us, we are thrilled with the range of people that are interested in visiting and learning about alpacas and are happy to have the opportunity to share what we are doing at Moonshadow.