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

Halter training....

Seems we are always hitting the age our cria should start halter training in the middle of the Winter.  Who wants to walk around in the pelting rain with a bouncing alpaca on the end of a lead?  If we don't, we don't expect the cria are going to like it much better.  January hits and we start making plans for Spring shows and then we have deadlines to aim for.  Then of course the rain continues here in the NW and we all continue to not want to walk around in cold and wet weather.  I should have kept count of the dry weekend days we've had since registering for our first show, which all of the sudden ends up to be next weekend!

First thing we do is just put a halter on their heads to get used to it.
First thing they do is whatever they can to rub that thing off their heads!

It seems like it has rained almost this entire month.  Fortunately, there have been a few dry days here and there and we've tried to take advantage of every one in trying to prepare our young juvenile alpacas ready for their first show.  Once we think they are a little comfortable with that halter thing on their head, we attach a lead.  To some, you would think we've secured a large boat anchor to their head.  Others can do some amazing acrobatics once they are connected to that lead line. 

Here is Tulio demonstrating the cush, "you can't make me
move" position~

This is Black Bart demonstrating the 4 point stance and showing
how flexible his head and neck are without moving his feet~

This is Tulio, who looks like he might be standing there peacefully, but
really this is the frozen in place maneuver!

This weekend we have had 2 beautiful Spring days to work with those going to the show next weekend.  We've taken long walks around the yard, visited with alpacas in other paddocks and have found exploring may have some side benefits like fresh new grass!  We are taking a couple older alpacas, one from our show string last year who is a pro and will help keep the little ones calm.  Plus our new guy Snowmass Matrix Principe, who gets one show season with us before he settles into his role as our newest Herdsire.

Here is Principe doing a fairly good job of following Deb towards the girls,
hopefully he'll strut his stuff walking into the show ring for the judge!

Today is our last anticipated dry day before show check in on Friday.  The trailer is loaded, everyone is walking around as well as we can hope and we are ready to go.  Our first show of the season is hosted by the Alpaca Association of Western WA, Alpacapalooza.  This is a halter show and a fleece show.  The halter show judges 50% based on conformation, 50% on fiber quality.  The fleece show is a scorecard based judging on the shorn blanket fleece.  We are entering 3 fleeces and 5 alpacas in the halter show.  If you want to learn about alpacas and meet lots of people raising alpacas, shows are the best place to go.  If you can or are planning to be at Alpacapalooza next weekend at the Clark County Event Center stop by and say hi!

We want them to walk in the show ring showing off their gait and form, if they'll
stand like this for the judge to get a closer look at their conformation it would be nice!

Alpaca seasons....

Moonshadow's Monique

What do we do in the Pacific NW in the winter with alpacas?  It is February, it is still winter, somewhere in the beginning of raising alpacas I thought this would be down time without much alpaca business to do.  I'm not sure why I still think this?  If I went back and checked any web traffic stats I can validate this seems to be when alpaca folks really start getting into gear.  By now most of the spring shows have their registration open.   Final decisions must be made on who will be our 2012 show string?  For the juveniles (cria born last year), we always have that initial "wow" or "opinion" the day they are born if we are really pleased with the results.  Then there is cria tip shearing where we get another look at whether they are "show quality" or not.  Then there is weaning, which some definitely take better than others.  There is a period of time we call the "doldrums" where we look at the fleece and wonder what were we thinking when we looked at it last time?  Then there is last year's show string to reassess whether they should go back for their 2nd year and any older ones that might be worth taking back into the show ring.

2011 cria, to show or not~

Lots of things go into deciding whether to show an alpaca or not.  Obviously, are they conformationally correct and do they have consistent high quality fiber are the main ingredients.  Beyond that we also look for temperament, since shows can be extremely stressful on some alpacas more then others.  We look at what do we gain by showing that particular alpaca.  Is it for sale?  Will it promote the Herdsire it is out of?  Is it a great reflection of our breeding program?  Is it old enough and mature enough to handle the show?  When we look at the juveniles, we know we will not wean them, halter train them and whisk them off to a show within days or weeks of being weaned.  This is a lot to ask and is a good way to end up with an extremely stressed, sickly young alpaca.  The judge will not see the same animal you looked at on the ranch, since the health and mood of an alpaca will show in how their fleece looks and feels, plus how the alpaca carries itself into the show ring. 

Earlier in February we weaned our first group of cria from June's Six Pack, we have 4 of this 6 still with us.  Three of these will go to the shows with us.  The fall cria we had haven't been weaned yet, we are choosing to not show any of these this spring because they would fall into that group of being weaned, halter trained and whisked off in a trailer in way too short of a period of time.

Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit

Moonshadow's Golden Treasure

We are keeping our show string small this spring.  These 3 juveniles, 1 yearling from last year's show string and our newest Herdsire since he is still somewhat young at 2 1/2 years old and hasn't started breeding yet.  Some people with a very mellow male might continue showing once they've started breeding, but we never have.  Surrounding a male with open females everywhere just seems a little unfair and asking a lot if we want him to behave like a gentleman.  For those we don't take to the halter show and they have beautiful fleece, we will do fleece shows and enter their shorn blanket fleece.

Also this month, we did a Valentine's day meet and greet Herdsire review at the Enumclaw Expo Center.  This was a really fun day getting to see other breeders we sometimes only see at shows.  There are some really nice Herdsires in our area so it was nice to have them all in one place and have the time set aside to talk to owners about them and their progeny.  We already have 8 breedings lined up for our new guy this summer as a result.  Pictures and stats can never replace actually getting your hands on an alpaca and seeing it in person.
 

Snowmass Golden Victory and Snowmass Matrix Principe
our featured Herdsires~

February was here and gone in a blur.  Lots of plans and commitments so now we need to get into action to make it all happen.  With the crazy weather we've had this year, we haven't begun to halter train.  Our first show will be Alpacapalooza on March 30th-April 1st.  We better get moving, winter is almost over, there is tons more to do in the spring!

Where a decade can take you....

Moonshadow Alpaca Ranch from our first 5 in 2002 to
a herd of 45 in 2012~

In February 2002 we were on vacation in the San Juan Islands and talking about our future, where we were going, what did we want to do, what would we change in what we were doing then?  As we were touring the island we saw these beautiful green rolling pastures, with white split rail fences and the coolest looking animals I had ever seen!  This was my first look at an alpaca or having even heard the word alpaca.  Deb, being much better read then I, said "I think those are alpacas".  The timing of cruising past this beautiful ranch, and having the conversation we were having at the time, set a ball in motion that I could have never imagined that day. 



Part of our herd of breeding females in 2012



It did not take us long to make the leap into raising alpacas.  It was really an exciting time in those first few years.  So many new people getting into the business, sale prices and auctions were breaking records, shows were growing in size and competition.  In the meantime, Moonshadow Alpaca Ranch was growing, showing, selling and evolving.  It truly has been a whirlwind now looking back at how much time has passed and all we've done.   At a largest our herd grew to 50+ alpacas, we generally maintain our numbers in the low 40's just due to space limitations.

Snowmass Matrix Principe

It seems now is the time to be looking forward to the next 10 years and refine our business plans and goals for the future.  It was very exciting to start off the new year with our newest Herdsire, Snowmass Matrix Principe.  Principe adds a whole new level in elite fiber quality to make significant improvement on the great quality fleeces we are already producing.  So our breeding program is on track, we are just limited in room to do all we want to do where we are currently located.  I always love how things can unfold when you really identify what you want to do and keep your mind open for those opportunities to make it happen.  Timing is everything sometimes and now we have the chance to move our operation to the Hahnel family farm in Bellingham, WA.  The foothills of Mt. Baker along the Canadian border, gorgeous country and scenery surrounding 49 acres to work with!  It really is like a dream coming true for Deb who has always wanted to get back to the family farm she grew up visiting.

The thought of rebuilding the ranch always scared me in the past.  Especially when it seemed like the projects building it never ended!  Now, we look ahead with great excitement at all the possibilities this move opens up in creating the fully sustainable ranch we have been working towards.  We will be working over the next 6 months to set up the new farm for alpacas and prepare for the move.  Will keep our progress posted here on the blog.



Hahnel family farm, established 1932



I have to say I am more excited now looking ahead to the next 10 years then I was 10 years ago when we bought our first 5 pregnant females.  That initial wonder and excitement of stepping into the alpaca world has developed into a sustainable plan based on the evolution of the industry and all those wonderful lessons learned...the good, the bad and the ugly!  The best part always in being part of the alpaca industry is the wonderful people you meet, network with, get to work with, support and learn from each other.  It is truly a community that spreads beyond local geographic boundaries!

Winter's Wasteland

This past week we have basically been snowed/iced in.  A major snow storm blew down to the Pacific NW from AK, then temps dropped and everything froze.  Since yesterday we've had an ice crust layer over about 6-8" of snow and everything else is encased in ice.  Beautiful to see in most cases, but cause of major damage to much of what it touched also.  We will have piles of limbs, branches and debris to clean up once this all clears, not to mention days of frozen poop that will melt into soup from the rain forecasted next, before we can get it all cleaned up.  On the upside, everyone is doing good, no harm to alpacas, chickens, cats, dogs or us 2 leggers and no major property damage.  We know we have some fences down, but at this point it is still frozen out and we cannot asses how bad sections of fence are under the fallen trees.

Our upper fenceline under all those sagging frozen limbs~

The alpacas are feeling as cooped up as we are.  Not much to do, but hang out in the sheds and eat hay, which usually doesn't seem to bother most of them.   After days and days even the happiest hay eaters want to get out and stretch their legs.

The alpacas don't generally get cold in this weather, but there isn't much
to do and they don't ever seem inclined to build a snowman!

We are now into our 3rd day of running on a generator.  The thought of going to a hotel or to stay at a friends is so appealing, but the alpacas have no choice.  They have no choice and we can't take 'em with ya.  It is times like this really tests your stamina and commitment.  Loving the alpacas and having a twisted sense of adventure, ya just got to roll with it.  We still all have roofs over our head, fresh water and food and each other of course!

Looking for spring around the corner~

The snow and ice accumulation was something I have never seen here, it wreaked havoc all over the ranch, but also created some beautiful photo opportunities.  If you would like to see more shots of Moonshadow encased in ice check out the Flickr set Snow & Ice Storm January 2012.

Saying Goodbye to 2011

Every year when we get to this last day of the year I feel a sense of relief and triumph.  Some years more then others, but getting to this day always gives me a feeling of success.  No matter what was thrown at us we kept going and worked together to find solutions and strength.  We learn over and over again to never give up hope and good things do keep happening.  This isn't intended to be too emotional, but 2011 did hit us with some unexpected events that we certainly would have been extremely satisfied to have not experienced.  However, sometimes these things show you the strength of your character, your relationships and determination.  Caring for each other, our alpacas, dogs, cats and chickens always pushes us to look ahead, there is no quitting or giving up.

We certainly had some highs.....

Our class of 2011 Moonshadow cria~

We had some lows with the loss of 2 of our most anxiously awaited cria from 2 of our Blue ribbon females bred to Snowmass Golden Victory.  Losing cria is a sad reality of raising livestock, some are just seriously more disappointing then others in the time lost and expected herd evolution.  Sometimes these are just hard lessons, you take your lumps, make notes to prevent ever happening again and move forward.  Sometimes there is just those random acts of nature and you have to accept what happens and look ahead.  Realities, lessons, whatever you call it, it never feels so good when it happens. 

A sad loss~

We said good bye to our sweet Abby.  It is so hard to prepare for how deeply a dog can touch your heart.  She was a great dog and we will always miss her.

Losing Abby, left us with 1 dog, B.A., and 1 cat, Oscar, in the house.  Our house was much too quiet with only   2 animals, we've always had 3 to 4 and that doesn't count when the barn cats used to like to spend their winter days in the house.  So for Christmas Eve we found a new little kitten we thought would keep the others company.  B.A. had such a good time with a visiting kitten, Raku Parker we thought he'd like a new friend to play with. 

Turns out Oscar is the one who got a nap buddy~

We also had room to rescue one of the many many dogs and puppies out there needing a good forever home.  Maybe taking on a puppy and a kitten at the same time was a little ambitious, but the house is full of playful life.  Now is the time of year we can dedicate more time to house pets before spring rolls around with alpaca shows, new cria, shearing and ranch projects.

This is Max, our adopted pup ~

Max wants to make friends with everyone~

So we say good bye to 2011 and are grateful to all the good things, friends and family we have in our lives.  We optimistically enter 2012 looking ahead for good things for all!  Happy New Year everyone, wishing you the best in 2012!

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice;
it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
- Winston Churchill