July 30, 2008

Imagine that? Back again in the same month? I'm trying!

It's been a very full month. The third weekend of the month was spent in Nashville attending the Affiliate Congress meeting along with 30 some odd other presidents and representatives of AOBA affiliates around the country. The fellowship was wonderful and I really enjoyed seeing everyone.

I drove to Nashville with the PAOBA representative, Jillian. Very nice lady! On the colorful side in that she spent her working years in theater as a stage manager. Lots of stories! It definitely made the trip go faster. Last July when I went with Keli, our then president-elect, we traveled through the night leaving her house about midnight. Came home driving through the night as well - very difficult trip. This year we drove during the day and it was much easier. It's not fun getting old!

Anyway, the meeting went very well and we left there looking forward to the year ahead of us. Our affiliate board changed last weekend with me moving into Past President (or as I affectionately call it the 'has-been' club)and Keli moving into my old job.

The meeting went really well. A lot of nice things were said and even though I have a hard time with receiving compliments it was sort of nice hearing them. We had a great presentation on Youth in Alpacas by David Barboza the new AOBA President. That was followed by Ray Tubbs of the VAOBA affiliate talking about 4-H clubs in our state. We then had the election and business meeting. David spoke again on the benefits of being an AOBA member. Following the meeting the board took him out to dinner - Buffalo Wild Wings - how impressive and classy was that?!? LOL We did all have a great time. We aren't a stuffy group after all!

So this week I am trouble occupying myself! Sounds good anyway. My work load has drastically decreased but I do have the show coming up so I won't be too relaxed for too long. Unfortunately it is so blasted hot that it is hard to stay focused on computer work when I think of the alpacas out there wearing their fleece. Poor babies! Every couple of hours we are out there hosing them off. They do love the water and it does seem to help them.

This morning out dog Skeeter managed to catch and kill a black snake! I am not fond of snakes especially but don't mind it when I see black ones as I know they eat rodents. This one wasn't meant to make it though. It was only about a foot or eighteen inches long so must not have been too old. Skeeter didn't want to give it up. I hope that he wasn't planning on eating it! Ick.

I sent off materials answering a RFP for another show superintendent's job. I am waiting on hearing from CALPACA on their show. I really enjoy being a show super so I hope that I am able to continue supplementing the farm income with the work. I should be going back to SC next spring for the Palmetto Classic and will also be hoping for the TxOLAN show which is in Fort Worth.

Well, guess that's it for this time.

Catch you later!

Wildwood Custom Milling

Our friend Sue Hammer of Wildwood Alpacas came over today and started milling some trees we had cut down. We now have several red oak planks along with a bit of poplar. Our plans are to use the lumber for our next alpaca shed, a shed for the dogs (so we don't have to worry they can't get out of the weather if we aren't home) and maybe one for the ducks (we have 30 eggs so far...)

Here are some pictures taken today in our front yard of Sue at work milling!

It is a really neat piece of equipment designed (in my words) to let the machine do all the work. It does require the logs be rolled to the Wood Mizer but once on the "arms" it seemed like just about everything else was done just by moving levers. Sue walks with the saw and I guess guides it - maybe it is better said that she keeps it powered? I don't think she actually needed to "tell" it where to go.

A lot of us alpaca breeders supplement the farm income with activities related to alpacas. Sue is sort of doing that with her Custom Milling branch - our farms are always evolving and many barns and shelters are just waiting to be built!

Until the next time!

Triple H Days... Again!

Summer in Virginia... happens every year! :-) Hazy, Hot and Humid. Of late the weather does seem rather violent as well. This year we have had tornados rip through the area - nothing like the mass destruction seen in the "original" tornado states but enough that it gives us all cause to worry. We used to need to worry about hurricanes. I am wondering if we will be hit with those this year as well. I hope not. Winter blizzards seem to be bypassing us so maybe there is just a shift of weather patterns happening. Whatever is going on, I am looking forward to fall!

We have the lumber arriving tomorrow for our barn extension. Hopefully we haven't forgotten anything pricey - if not we have come in under budget and that is always helpful. I am hoping that we will be able to get working on it this weekend.

Also arriving tomorrow is our friend Sue Hammer from Wildwood Alpacas. They are located 4 or 5 miles from us. Sue purchased a portable Wood Miser Lumber Mill (probably not the correct name!) and has been cutting trees up and making planks at their place for a few months now. We lost a huge tree last March and recently cut down about three more that had died; Sue will be helping us out by turning them into boards to be used on our next shelter for the alpacas.

Speaking of which, there may be an end in sight on that! We have the fence and just need poles, weather we can burn in and a little more time to get things done and we will be able to create that pasture in front of the property. Once that happens we will be moving most of the male population to a new home. It was always the intention to have the males in front and females in back and we are looking forward to that finally happening this year.

Before I know it the show will be upon us again. Registration opens on August 1st - it is our first year with on-line registration and I am hoping it goes smoothly. The last thing anyonw wants is more confusion surrounding a show! I decided to enter some fleece in the spin-off and process the rest of it... I am quite anxious to get my hands on Duncan and Emma's prime. I might just get lost in it!

Until the next time!

Alpaca Social

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Happy Independance Day!

Almost... Summer certainly is here in full glory! The weather was really brutal towards the end of our Renaissance Season this year (June) but of late seems to be so very much better. I love the warm days and cool nights. Truth be told I could stand it if the daytime temps were about ten degrees cooler but what the heck.

My term as President of our affiliate is nearing its end. I am really tired and looking forward to an easier year coming up as Past President. I will move into that position at our annual meeting on July 26th.

I finally got my pictures to my webmaster and expect my website will be updated in the very near future. I was so late with that this year - shame on me. I really need to begin to pay more attention to business!

We have set the date and reserved our shearers for our 2009 shearing already! It will be on April 28th and we are having Fall Line Fiber and Shearing come to the house to shear. I would like to make a day of it and have an Open House as well. At least I have plenty of time to plan!

I decided against entering full fleeces into the VAOBA fleece show this year. I am going the Spin-off route instead. I actually can't wait to get my hands on Emma and Duncan's fleeces and don't want to wait until December to do so! This past week I have been up to my elbows daily in fleece getting it ready for processing. I think I will send some out to be made into batts and roving and keep some back to process on my own.

This is the year I will begin spinning. I have found replacement parts for my spinner and am making arrangements to take a spinning lesson to learn the proper terminology and parts of the spinner. I have the mechanics of how to do it down it is just learning about tension and twist and all that good stuff. I am also anxious to begin some locker hooking. That is a craft that began in the 1900's and my plan is to make hat's, purses and rugs. I am also thinking of something else but keeping that one secret!

Our next project is our hay barn. We are actually going to build a three sided shed off the back of our main barn having the open side of the new structure towards the barn wall. We have two doors out the back of the barn which would then go into the new shed. Having decided that winter births make the most sense for us we also think this arrangement will help keep the barn draft free in the winter. It should help in the summer too by blocking the afternoon sun. This project is only days from beginning and we have to complete it in time to pick up our second cut hay in August. I am really looking forward to getting the new hay. I feel so guilty feeding them what we now are that I have taken to top dressing their pellets with shredded alfalfa cubes! Even the males are getting treated.

We had a mystery here regarding Black Velvet recently. Velvet was sold in April and in June I noticed that she had bare spots on her back, above her tail. I could see the skin - it didn't appear rough or damaged but it appeared... It was a real mystery since it was in a very unlikely place for mites and those were something we hadn't had to deal with here. I pondered and watched, pondered and watched.

Round about the same time as this was going on I decided it was time to split up the female herd since I noticed the lactating dams were getting skinny. Miss Wise will soon be all set since Dougal is over six months now but Whitney still has a couple of months to go before I would be comfortable weaning Darius. Velvet, Emma and Tabitha could use a diet and I decided to pull them away from the others for the time being. They aren't really on a diet but they are not able to eat more than their own feed now that they are on their own. Emma was managing to get her sorry self into the creep feeder! Velvet had my head spinning bouncing from food dish to food dish. Feeding time was way too much confusion before the move; it has now settled down into a very calm event each day.

During the course of cleaning up one day we needed to access the back of the lot and opened the gate between the female herd. In spite of being in sight of each other they acted all happy and had a grand reunion. Chuck was doing the tractor thing and I was filling water buckets. When I made my way into the main female paddock I looked up at Darius and imagine my surprise when I saw tufts of black and brown fiber in his mouth! THAT'S WHERE BLACK VELVET'S FIBER WENT! The little bugger is just as oral as his dam only he uses his teeth! He doesn't get away with this type of thing with his dam and aunties so we are good to go with the current arrangement. I just can't imagine what he will be like once integrated with the males! Fun times ahead?

Better close now... Until the next time!