Category Archives: Animals

Shearing Day

May 10, 2013Animalsalpacas, shearingdani

We sheared on Tuesday so now we have a bunch if naked alpacas in the yard…Its so easy to forget how tiny they are without their fluff!!!

Its so interesting to see the different reactions of the different animals…some are calm and like whatever…some scream and some spit. For the ones that spit (like Athena below) we put a sock over their mouths otherwise they get green slimy stuff everywhere!

Sammy and Tioga came for a visit. Last time they were here they were little!

That’s all that’s exciting at the moment. Hopefully we have some babies soon!

I wish spring would come…

April 22, 2013Animals, Eventsdani

Winter here is lasting forever! There is still snow on the ground…My brother’s confirmation on Thursday was postponed due to the storm being so bad! And more snow in the forecast for tonight…I am sooo ready for spring and so are the alpacas

We got new animals in the other week! Disa (the one with a jacket), Pumpkin (the cria), Sparkle (the big brown one), Peggy Sue (the light fawn one) and Gypsy (the white)

Then we had the Midwest Alpaca Expo in Owatonna last weekend. We brought 5 animals (Langley, Achilles, Jubilee, Rogue and Cassie) Langley placed 1st, Rogue 2nd, Achilles 3rd and Jubilee 4th. Cassie ended up not being shown because her class was at the same time as Jubilee’s.

Cassie was probably best not going anyway…when we unloaded the animals on Friday Cassie was the worst one walking in and as soon as we got in the building she laid down. Abbie (who was helping out) and myself took the rest of the animals over to the pen while my mom and one of the FFA helpers tried to deal with Cassie. They could not get her to move so by the time I got back from the pen there was a gentleman who had been watching this saga and brought over a cart and said lets try this…we loaded Cassie up on a cart and pushed her the whole way!!!

Until next time,

Dani

Bailey

April 1, 2013Animalsdani

Bailey is getting big. Almost a year and she has long fiber especially around her eyes now! It looks like she is always squinting and an upturn to her mouth that makes her appear to always smile!

And she has her Velcro cria fleece still and it attracts absolutely everything!!! She had sooo much hay stuck to her back the other alpacas were snacking off of her!

I think it is incredibly amusing!

That’s all for now

Dani

Life as usual

February 1, 2013Animalsdani

Its cold outside and the animals are all cooped up in the barn. I went out to give Izzy a bottle and thought I should take some pictures…The problem with taking pictures is that when the alpacas have hay all you get is this…

The back of the head!

Izzy did let me get a good picture of her with milk all over her face!

Remember those yarns I said I would take pictures of…well here they are

Izzy

December 28, 2012Animalsdani

Busy Izzy is getting big!!! You remember her right? Our bottle feed baby. Well, she still is growing…my mom thought we should try to decrease bottles because she is at the age where the moms typically start to wean the crias naturally and she lost weight so she is still getting plenty of bottles. My mom has figured out how to get the bottle to stick between the gate and the fence and Izzy can drink there without someone having to hold the bottle!

And look how cute Sierra and her cria are

They match!!! Lol!

Sierra’s Cria

October 19, 2012Animalsdani

Sierra had her cria the other day. A pretty little girl the same color as her mama. She is our second Prodigal Son baby. Echo was our first! This new baby was 20 lbs when she was born!

And here are some pictures from her first day out in the field with the whole herd…

She stuck close to her mom!

On another note Nancy came today to move her females to another farm that she found to board at that is much closer to her home. We will miss her and her animals but are glad she found someplace that she will be able to she her animals more frequently. She took her 6 females and 3 crias…the barn feels empty now!!!

Well, that’s all for now!

Laters, Dani

Tick Birds

September 27, 2012Animalsdani

So you know how there are tick birds that hang out on the backs of rhinos? The rhino allows the tick bird to ride on his back in exchange for the birds to eat bugs.

This is what I think of when I see this picture

Remember the baby chick that I had a picture of just a few weeks ago??? Well now he is an adolescent chicken and has made friends with King and they hang out…

So funny right?!

Well that;s all for now, Dani

Oh, PS how great does my grandma look in her red alpaca cape

Izzy

July 26, 2012Animalsdani

So Izzy our sweet bottle fed baby is getting fat. Just a few weeks ago it was a struggle to get her to eat at times and we had to feed her with a syringe to get her to eat. But not now…she takes the bottle now and she eats a lot! All the time! She is super funny. If my mom or I go out to the barn, Izzy runs up to the gate. You can see the look on her face, it is like she is saying ‘here I am, don’t forget me!’

And know we have to supplement the new baby (the little boy in my last post) because he is not getting enough milk from his mother. He is not taking to the bottle so it is more of a struggle to feed him. If we go to feed him first though Izzy gets super upset. It is kinda entertaining, its like watching little kids.

Did I ever mention how we got the name Izzy? My niece, Karley, was visiting when Izzy was born (my niece was 3, just turned 4) and her favorite TV show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Izzy is a character on the show. My sister (Karley’s mom) said we could name animals after all the characters in the show!) And Izzy was the name of the heifer that she showed back in the spring.