Wow! It's less than a week until Christmas!  I feel bad that I've let so much time pass without updating my blog.  My sincere apologies to my followers and visitors alike.  Let's see, where do I start with my updates??? I'll begin with the easiest: my feathered friends.

The hens (or girls, as I call them) have not been producing quite as many eggs lately.  I know that 2 of them are molting, and possibly more.  That apparently takes up most of their energy.  Plus, we've had quite a bit of frost here already.  Such cold temperatures also effect affect their egg-laying.  I haven't had enough to sell, but I've had enough for our personal use.

Doc's first show - a 5th place

Amy takes a 4th place

Zamboni

We've added a few new alpacas to our 'barn family'.  Zamboni, Amy, and Ember are our new additions.  They have fit in very nicely with their new surroundings.  Zamboni, pictured below, is with the young boys, and Amy and Ember are bunking with the babies, who are not so small anymore!
We also brought Genny home.  She is in with Amy and Ember and babies, as well.  We are half owners of one other boy, All in Favor.  He was with us for a month but has gone back to New York to his other farm for the next 6 months or so.

John and I have been to 2 alpaca shows this fall: Royal Alpaca Challenge in Conyers, GA, and VAOBA Expo in Doswell, VA.  Favor took a first place and Reserve Champion in GA and a first placer at VAOBA.  Zamboni took 2nd place at RAC and a 3rd place at VAOBA.  Amy placed 4th at Vaoba.  Our two other ribbons at Vaoba were 5th for Doc and 6th for Banjo.



John and I were vendors at a Holiday Market in Wytheville a week ago.  Despite very cold, windy conditions that morning, we did quite well.  We sold lots of alpaca socks! The therapeutic socks and hiker socks were by far the biggest hits!  Here is a photo from that morning!

Okay, to finish off today's update, I'll tell you about some of my newest spinning projects.   I have 3 skeins that I'm particularly excited about:

300 yds of grey from Wyatt's fiber, 200 yds of Ginger's fiber, and the third skein is my funky yarn.  I took my wheel to the GA show because I knew that they would have a spinning circle there.  Moonwood Farm provided samples of fiber called "cloud".  It was a blend of several different fibers, actually: alpaca, wool, milk fiber, bamboo, and angelina.  She handed me a small chunk of fiber to start spinning.  I was definitely spinning outside my normal comfort zone! Not only was it a mix of different fibers, not even carded, but the colors were totally opposite of what I would have chosen for myself.  It all turned out great though!  I even bought some of it to add to the freebie fiber she gave me.  It went to a friend of mine for Christmas that absolutely loves anything and everything funky and wild! (see below for photos of aforementioned yarns)

Wyatt yarn

Ginger yarn

My first 'funky' yarn - won't be my last!

Well, it's getting late!  My barn is calling me to get my tail outside to scoop before it gets too dark!  Bye for now! I'll try to update things here more often now.  That will be high on my list of New Year Resolutions!!!  Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year too!

A Spunster at Work!

I have been very, very busy with my spinning over the last month.  I joined the Spunsters up in Blacksburg a couple of months ago, so my wheel and I head to Blacksburg most Thursdays for 2 hours of spinning.  Wednesday mornings are saved for spinning club in Pulaski.  My newest endeavor in the fiber realm is learning to dye fiber.  I'm having lots of fun!!

Other farm news:  More of the chickens are laying now.  They have graduated to hen status.  I'm not sure which ones are still pullets.  The most eggs I've had in a day is 9.  We had one that was so large that it wouldn't fit in the egg carton.  John had that one for breakfast one morning.  It was a triple yolk!!! See below for the photo we took of this treasure!

Our first triple yolk egg

My first handspun alpaca skein - a blend of fiber from Ginger and Solomon

The weather is cooling off a bit now.  We had temperatures in the 90's less than 2 weeks ago.  Last weekend, we got 5-6 inches of rain in just 2 days, thanks to Hurricane Irene!  Things are drying out now but fortunately the air temp is a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler.

August already!!

We've had a busy summer! I can't believe that's it's almost over!

We now have confirmation of pregnancy on all four females currently at our farm.  Opal was away for her breeding and is now pregnant.  We will be bringing her home in 2 days.  Debbie at the other farm has reported that she is just as sweet and loving now as she was when she arrived there.  So often, the girls get very testy when pregnant.

The first yarn I spun on my Majacraft Susie spinning wheel

My third yarn

A day at the Draper Merc farmer's market

Our chicken coop is at full occupancy now.  I saw an ad on Craig's list for some chickens and it was such a good deal and good timing that I couldn't resist!  I added 2 barred rocks and 2 aracaunas to the mix.  Only one of the new girls are laying so far but they should all be laying within the next 2 weeks, I hope!  I have only named 1 of them so far.  The other 8 girls all have names: Rosie, Annie, Joanie, Lucy, Thora, Alice and Moe.  The one new one is Gracie.  I'm open to suggestions for names on the 2 barred rocks.

I have been to several farmer's markets to sell product and promote the farm.  My eggs always sell out quickly.  The rovings and yarn attract a lot of attention but I haven't sold much of it yet.  The felted soaps are totally gone now so I'm in the process of carding 2nds from this year's shearing so we can make more felted soaps for the fall and holiday season.  I have brought my spinning wheel to the market with me for demonstration purposes.  The spinning wheel draws most of the crowds.  I even had someone ask if she could take a photo of me!  Glamour magazine here I come!!  NOT! Oh, well ...

I have posted a few photos today: 2 of the yarn I have spun so far and one from the farmer's market.  The highlight of today's posting is a brief video of a day at a farmer's market.   I am spinning alpaca fiber in the video.  I'll post some photos of the soaps when we get another batch made.

We have 3 expectant moms onboard!

Our vet came out last week for a farm visit to do ultrasounds on our 3 bred females.  I'm proud to say that we have 2 ultrasound confirmations and a probable third.  We are waiting on the progesterone test results on the 3rd female.  2 of the girls were bred to herdsires that are from other farms.  The third, Bubbles, was rebred to Ace.  She's most likely pregnant and will have a full brother or sister for Doc Watson next May.

The little boys are growing up fast!  They are both well over 40 lbs now.  They are great buddies.  Each evening around 8 pm they can be seen pronking on the farm.  They have both learned the value of a good hosedown on a hot day!  It was in the high 80's today. I hosed all of the animals down to help keep them cool.  Doc and Fiddler were right in the middle of things, waiting for their turns!  They wasted no time running out to the pasture and rolling in the dirt afterward.

Our Anatolian, Tasha, proved herself very worthy this week.  She killed her first varmint!  Unfortunately it was a skunk!  She still smells!  I found the dead skunk in the pasture early this afternoon.  I wonder what varmint will be next?

The chickens are all doing great!  We're getting at least 4 eggs a day now, most days.  The pullets I bought in May are almost full grown!  I stopped moving them back and forth to the shed in their crate a few weeks ago.  They now live full time with the other hens.  They haven't joined the big girls on the roost at night though.  I guess that will happen soon enough.  I'll be glad when we have them laying eggs as well.  Right now, I usually can sell 2 dozen eggs on Saturday at a local farmer's market.  By fall, that will be up to 3 dozen!

Spring has sprung!

Wow! It's been forever since I last wrote.  Sorry about that!  It's now May 20. It's only 60 degrees here today.  We've had about 3 days of rain and cool temperatures but it is supposed to be in the 70's today and up in the 80's and sunny for the whole weekend.

The girls love to free-range!

Our hens have been busy laying, giving us 2-4 eggs daily.  I bought 3 pullets a few weeks back that were about 7 wks old at the time.  They have almost doubled in size! Right now they live in a wire dog crate.  I move the crate out into the chicken yard each morning and move them back to the shed at night.  It's good for the hens to see them and get used to them.  I do keep the little ones in the shed on rainy days but keep the light on for them.  I should be able to integrate them with the big girls in another month.  They won't be laying til this fall though.  I've named all of the chickens.  The 2 Rhode Island Reds are Rosie and Joanie.  The Americaunas are Annie and Lucy.  I've been letting the big girls free range in our yard in the afternoons on pretty days.  Their favorite place seems to be under and around the bushes in the front yard, near the porch.  It's nice to know that they will come back to the chicken yard and coop at night for roosting. See below for photos of the hens and "younguns".

The crias are growing nicely.  Fiddler will be 2 months old on the 30th of May.  He is already eating hay and mooching grain out of his mama's feed dish.  His weight is up over 32 pounds now.  Doc Watson (Doc for short) is around 34 pounds now.  He just started eating grain this week.  He's not a chow hound yet though.  The two boys are so cute together.  They play alot!

We've been busy breeding our girls in the last couple of weeks.  Ginger (the medium fawn girl) went off farm for a few weeks to be bred.  She'll be coming back in the next week or so.  We bred Bubbles 2 weeks ago back to Ace.  Hopefully Ruby will be bred tomorrow for the first try.  Her service sire is coming up to Virginia to another farm for a few months.  The Va farm's owner is bring him over tomorrow to do the breeding.  Never a dull moment!

As you can see, John and I keep quite busy around here.  Last weekend we planted the fourth tree.  We now have a shade tree planted in each of the 4 pastures.  They're not terribly big right now but over the next few years they will branch out nicely.  We planted autumn purple ash trees.

Chillin in the pasture with Opal

I have a vegetable garden started also.  I have 4 blueberry bushes, some rhubarb, herbs and the basic veggies: zucchini, yellow squash, sugar snap peas, peppers, tomatoes and watermelon in the ground.  Yum!!

Baby watch is over, at last

Doc's first day in pasture

Doc Watson and Bubbles

Doc at 6 hrs old

Bubbles delivered her cria on Thursday, April 21.  He was born around 8 am and weighed in at 19.7 pounds, 4 pounds heavier than Fiddler weighed at birth.  He is a beautiful white boy, with a small fawn patch on his left leg, just above his knee.  The weather was so nice on Thursday that we gave the mamas and babies some pasture time.  Fiddler is thrilled to have a playmate and he wasted no time trying to play with him on his birth day. We welcome Doc Watson to the herd!

Shearing Day 2011

The girls after shearing

Banjo being prepared for shearing

Banjo after shearing - 2010

Hi all!

We sheared on Wednesday, April 20.  Bubbles hadn't delivered yet so she was shorn first, to minimize the stress level for her.  They all look so different now!  We have 10 nekked animals on the farm! lol  It's always interesting to see how they react to the experience.  Bubbles screamed the whole time.  Opal was spitting.  They sure feel better now to have all that fiber gone!  Now my work begins!  I get to sort through bags and bags of fiber.  I'll be cleaning "blankets" and deciding how to get it all processed.  (The blanket is the primary fiber that comes off the animal: to clean is basically to carefully shake out dirt and pieces of hay that is stuck to the fiber)  I was so busy helping with the  shearing activities that I didn't get any photos but I took some last year so I will post a couple of photos from 2010.  I'll also add some after photos from this year.

The Cria Watch continues....

Bubbles is so ready to have her cria but apparently he or she isn't fully cooked yet.  Her official due date was today.  All of the "kids" will be shorn next Wednesday.  I hope that she delivers before then!

It is 5 pm on Friday, April 15.  I'm writing this from the glider bench on our back porch.  Everyone is out in the pasture, except Tasha and Quigley.  Tasha is confined to the 'maternity ward' while all of the girls are out in pasture.  She's too big to be running with Fiddler.  Quigley is hiding out in one of the boy's pens.  The wind chimes are gently blowing.  There's  a nice breeze right now.  A storm is blowing in, though, so I'll be bringing everyone back in from the pasture shortly.

A quick update on Fiddler:  His weight is up to 20 pounds now.  He's only wearing the cria coat at night when the temperature drops below 40 degrees.  He is loaded with energy.  It's fun to watch him run around in the pasture.  I can't wait til Bubbles gives him a playmate!

Check out the new photos of Fiddler!

A Beautiful Sunday afternoon!

Today has been gorgeous! It's 5 pm already and still 66 degrees outside! I have my jeans drying on a clothesline outside in the sun, the hens are busy in their chicken yard, and the "kids" were all out in the pasture earlier.  We even had mama and cria out in the pasture for an hour.  He's cushing in the sunshine right now.  We took his cria coat off for the afternoon.

We always find lots to keep us busy on the weekends!  We've hung fly strips in the barn, raked some alpaca poop over the garden bed, and tried to start my neighbor's cultivator so I could actually plant some herbs today, but it just wouldn't start! Bummer!

Check out the new photos!

A blessed arrival!

We have a cria!  Ruby delivered her first baby this morning around 6 am.  I'm guessing at the arrival time.  I woke up and looked out the window at the barn around 7:20 and saw a brown blob and with a closer look via binoculars I could tell that it was a cria.  I dressed very quickly and ran out to the barn and into the dry lot to bring the baby in to dry it.  In the cleanup process I was able to find out that it was a boy!  His birth weight is 15.6 lbs. I think we're going to name him Fiddler.  He appears to be a bay black right now.  His daddy is a silver grey.

He's doing great. He's already been nursing and Ruby is a great mom already!  Here are some photos.

Let's add chickens!

Hi all!

I've been busy getting the farm ready for the arrival of some chickens.  Why chickens, you ask? We have been buying fresh eggs from local farms periodically and love the idea of being able to get our own eggs.
Also,  chickens are very good at bug control.  They will be allowed to free range a good bit so hopefully they will spend alot of time hunting for bugs from the poop pile.
  I've been back and forth about how many to start with and for now, I've decided on 4 chickens.   I will probably get a few more in a month or so, ending with 8 hens. The first 4 are being delivered tomorrow.  We're getting 4 hens that have just started laying.  I've attached some photos for you of the chicken coop  and the chicken yard.  More photos will be added soon of the "girls".  We will have 2 Americaunas and 2 Rhode Island Reds.  The reds lay brown eggs.  The Americaunas lay green or blue eggs.  They are also known as the easter egg chickens.

I decided to go with adults so we could have eggs right away.  When you buy pullets from the farm store, there's a 4-5 month wait before the chickens actually start laying.  One neat thing I've learned about hens: when they are hatched, the number of eggs they will lay in their lifetime has already been predetermined.  The quantity varies, depending on the breed.  It is not necessary to have a rooster for them to lay.  Therefore, no rooster will live at New River Valley Alpacas.

A quick update on the alpacas:  no cria yet.  Ruby is due in the next week so, based on a 330 - 350 day gestation, we will most likely have a little one on the farm by April 15.  Bubbles is due around the 20th of April.  I don't think she'll go that long though.  She's very large already and quite uncomfortable.  I hope she delivers before the 20th because April 20 is shearing day for everyone. If she hasn't delivered by then, I'm sure she'll have the cria shortly after shearing.

Countdown to new babies!

Where has this month gone??  When I last wrote, we still had Ginger and Wyatt in quarantine.  Ginger has been with the other girls for about 3 weeks now and doing great.  She gets along well with everyone.  She's a real sweetheart.  I get kisses from her alot!  Ruby and Bubbles are just a few weeks away from their due dates.  Ruby's cria should be arriving in early April or after.  She's getting quite testy now!  Bubbles is due a couple of weeks after Ruby.  She's even testier! She's been thru this a few times already tho.  Three of the girls managed to get some burrs stuck in their fiber sometime on Saturday. It looked awful! I was concerned that Bubbles wouldn't let me get them off of her today, but once I got the halter on her, she was a real champ!  I think she was glad to have them off!

Banjo was down in Concord a week ago for the Carolina Alpaca Celebration.  He got a 5th place ribbon.  Since Wyatt would have been without a roomie for the weekend, I moved Bubbles over with him for 2 nights. She was fine with that and he seemed happier to have company.

I attended a camelid neonatal seminar at Virginia Tech on Saturday.  It was very interesting!  We learned about possible birth defects, proper nutrition for gestational camelids, alpacas especially.  In the afternoon we had hands on training in a lab, practicing for distocia deliveries on our mamas.  We learned to identify forelegs and rear legs in utero, as well as tails vs ears. It was really weird at first, and kind of gross! We were working with dead fetuses that had been frozen and then thawed out for the training.  I do feel much more prepared in the event that I might need to assist either Ruby or Bubbles.

Oh, I forgot to mention something.  We got our yarn back from the fiber mill.  I've been busy this last week, designing and printing labels for all of the yarn.  There is still some more to come, but for now we have 6+ skeins for the following animals: Ace, Solomon, Bubbles and Ruby.   It's wonderful! I can't wait to start a project with some of it!  For any of you that are interested in buying yarn, please email me at nrvalpacas@gmail.com.  I'll be happy to give you more specifics.  Genny's yarn should be coming any day now.   It will be 2 months before we get Opal's back. It went to a different mill.  I'll be taking photos of the yarn and the rovings as well and posting it here on the blog.  In the meantime, here are some photos of daily work, and some play, on the farm.

Kisses from Ginger.  I think Bubbles and Ruby want some too!

Poop scooping - someone has to do it!

Snack time!

John with his (our) girls

Hi all,

I can't believe it will be February 1 tomorrow!  By the end of this week, we'll be into our 5th month as an active alpaca farm.  It's been challenging, but also fun.  I've loved seeing the different personalities develop among our 'kids'.   The two preggies hadn't finished their food this morning so I decided to give it to them tonight while the dogs ate.  Most of the girls and Banjo were hovering in the barn hoping for a snack.  Opal, Kisses, and Banjo were very surprised when they found themselves closed in the barn, especially when they saw that they were missing out on chow!  Bubbles and Ruby appreciated not having to share their food though!

We've added two more kids to the family.  We brought Ginger and Wyatt home a week ago.  They are  in quarantine for now.  Our young llama, Patches, is now bunking with the big boys (he's almost their size already!) and they're getting along great.   Banjo is in with the girls for just 2 weeks. That has worked out fine.   We will be moving Ginger in with the girls and Banjo will join Wyatt next door.

Ginger (Ginger Snap) is a medium fawn, about 3 years old, a  real sweetheart. One of the  photos below is of Ginger with Kayley (our neighbor's granddaughter).  The other is of Wyatt (Wyatt Earp) and Ginger.  Wyatt is an 18 month silver grey boy.   He's a little shy right now but he's warming up to us.

Ginger giving kisses to Kayley

Our two 'probies'

More snow!

Good morning, all!

We had more snow last night.  It only amounted to about 1 inch but it sure was pretty while it was coming down.  The kids love the snow! They were all cushing out in the dry lots when I went out to tuck them in for the night.  Our brown girls were so pretty with their snow blankets!

I'm headed back out to the barn shortly to do the cleanup for the day.   We have a small boom box out there so I usually turn it on to country music while I work.  The kids seem to enjoy the music also.

Happy New Year!

Wow! I can't believe it's already 2011!  I hope that everyone is having a good one so far!  I have no complaints here.

John and I celebrated the new year by opening a bottle of bubbly of course.  We called out a hearty greeting to our neighbors from our front door and then went out to the barn to see all the kids and wish them a happy new year too!  They were somewhat oblivious to it all.  I think we woke them up! LOL

We had our first snow of the new year this morning, with more expected by Monday.  We really just had a dusting at our farm. I took advantage of the cold and cleaned after them before it thaws and gets squishy!

I don't have any new photos at present but will try to dig some up in the next few days.