July 24, 2009

Well hello again!

Before things get extremely busy with me I decided to get another blog entry made. It isn't August when we usually have the dog days of summer but it's close enough and hot enough... We have threatening skies at the moment and since I do believe in shutting down and unplugging my computer etc. I may possibly end this post abruptly!

Things are going well outside with the animals... The crias are growing like good crias should! It's so enjoyable watching them play. I can't think of anything I would rather do more. Little Mangini is full of oats already and Black Perl is practicing her spit response. She's getting pretty good with it too!

Quinn still longs for his dam when in the barn and Darius sort of reminds him who is the top banana in that paddock on a somewhat regular basis. Mark often comes to Quinn's rescue which is nice.

We had to move Duncan and Dougal in with The Sheriff and Archer. It was touch and go the first day. Things are not being helped along because we think Tabitha is once again open and the boys seem to agree. It's hard to tell for sure if the maidens took and if they didn't they are likely a contributing factor to the fighting. The boys seem to be getting along pretty well now although they do have their moments. I am thinking that's never going to change!

The other males are all in their own bachelor pads, side by side. A little hard to get in trouble with each other under those arrangements.

The baby ducks have lost one of their siblings... Not sure if I knew that the last time I posted. We are down to six. They are really growing quickly and helping keep the fly population in check. If they can't find an opening bigger than the 2" wide by 4" high opening in the fence they no longer can get through it. I have to think their mother is happy for this as they kept her going ALL day long. It's really amazing they can actually gain weight since they move almost constantly. My daughter found a home for them and I am hoping before they get much bigger we can wave good bye. That will leave us with three adult females and NO MALES! Which means no more baby ducks. I look forward to that only because Muscovy ducks are very prolific.

So, registration is opening for the VAOBA Alpaca Expo on August 1st. A couple of weeks later it will open for AlpacaFest West out in sunny California. It's going to be a very busy fall season for me traveling to CO in October for the Alpaca Fiber Symposium and California in November for the show.

And, as if on cue I hear thunder. Until the next time!

Alpaca Creep Feeders

My husband and I were just discussing our creep feeder that we set up for our crias. It is about 10' by 8' or so and just not cutting it for the five crias using it. When we first put it together three were considerable smaller than they are now at 7, 8 and 11 months and the other two had not been born. It actually looked big now that I think about it. Soon, Quinn, who is 7 months and 85+ pounds will be moving over to the boys side and that will obviously create more room. The thing is the 8 and 11 month old girls are going to fit in there for a long time to come. They are both on the petite side. I just cannot see making the door any smaller. I am now wondering if it will be something they will outgrow, as in "I'm not a baby anymore" type of growth.

There is an alpaca farm in Georgia that I know of that is actually able to put out tubs of alpaca feed - a continuous supply. I think I heard of an alpaca farm in Pennsylvania or Ohio that does the same. Part of me wants to try that in a big way but I just don't see my alpacas walking way from it until it is empty. Maybe someday I will try it with one of the smaller herds here. I don't want to be known as the Virginia alpaca farm that owns the two ton alpacas!

I was telling Chuck that the way I thought the creep feed would work is that I would put out a big dish of food and they'd go in, one or two at a time and have a bite or two and go back out to mom or to play. I was very insistent that we get the creep feed set up when one of the dams went to board at another farm and her cria was left behind to wean. At the time Princess Lea was 6 months old - she's the 8 month old I mentioned above. {Since then her dam has returned but the nursing connection was broken long enough that she is definitely weaned.} Anyway, I got it in my head that Lea needed a place to go away from the adults where she didn't have to fight for food since she didn't have her dam's help so hence the creep feed. It was never used as I expected to to be. The then three, would just go in and finish the food each time I put it out. Now they also go out and steal food from the adult females dishes when they are fed as well! Looking outside at them as I type I can see that Black Perl has joined them for some hay.

I guess we will extend the feeder space by another five feet and a couple more feeders or maybe a trough... They do seem to appreciate a place away from the adults from time to time. Especially on days like this where they don't really need the fans because it is cool (only 65!).

If I ever try the herd on feed available full time I will be sure to post the results...

Until the next time!

July 5, 2009

Surprised? Me too. It is raining today and the husband is home and doing chores. I don't usually have the luxury of computer time as close together as I have the past few days!

I answered an ad I saw on Alpaca Nation about improving my website rankings. That gained me some insight as to where my website stands and it is not looking to good. It could be worse of course. One of the reasons I started to blog was with the hopes to improve or maintain my rankings. I have a webmaster who designed my site and maintains it for me but she can only do so much. Someone has to feed her the words & pictures. As lacking as I have been with attention to the blog I have been with being creative with the written words for the site and with pictures even worse.

So, I started thinking, why isn't the blog gaining me more hits to my site? Well, I had the "aha!" moment when looking at a clients blog. That's what the labels are for! I feel pretty ignorant now (and I guess I must be pretty stupid for telling everyone!).

So, back to the search phrases that were used and where I didn't do well!
1. buy alpacas virginia 23rd spot on Google...
2. virginia alpaca farm 10th spot - got lucky I guess...
3. virginia alpaca farms 12th spot - the difference one letter makes!
4. alpaca farm virginia 12th spot
5. alpaca farms virginia 22nd spot...

Next thing I did was to look at my stats. That was eye opening too. I can see the searches that got people to my site and some of them are pretty off the wall. I had to look at some of them using the different search engines and it was kind of fun. I didn't mess up my stats by following them back to my site though.

Providing I use the labels (correctly) and get my updates made on the website I am hopeful that I will start seeing my rankings go up a bit.

Enough for this post!

July 3rd

Well, it's already July... This year is just whizzing on by! The next two or three months can whiz as fast as they want! I am ready for cool weather again. I know, you hear this every year...

Chuck has been off work the past couple of days and we have made some headway in the barn. The chute has been moved! It didn't seem like it was taking up so much room when we had six or seven alpacas on each side of the barn. Increased numbers made the real estate the chute sat on quite priceless! It is now very open and cooler! I had not thought about the chute blocking breezes but it sure was.

Most folks think of a chute that is long and narrow. Ours wasn't that way at all. The design pretty much came from out first vet with some tweaking by Chuck. (One thing he tweaked was the height... Big mistake. He was thinking that the alpacas are not as tall as her llamas... True, but I bet we humans are! I don't have to say "told you so" since he's the one who is reminded every time we use it when he hits his head! Anyway, this chute is wide enough for us both to get into with the alpaca. Some times that is great. It is not great when they want to kick. It is not great when the female would rather stand on her head to avoid a manicure... Oh, it is also not great when your 95 pound friend is trying to shear a two hundred pound male and he flings her around! Of course, that is another story best left to another day. She and I always manage to have these adventures that leave our other friends rolling on the floor laughing.

I spoke with "D" yesterday a couple of times. I kept getting these reports on her fiber finds in the house. Now you have to understand, unlike myself and others who are even worse than I am with processing fiber, she has always processed fiber. There isn't a craft she doesn't know how to do; there are very few she doesn't enjoy and there are none that she doesn't do well! But the thing is the lady spins, felts, crochets, knits - constantly! She markets through her website and at fairs, shows - you name it. So how did it happen that she "found" about 200 pounds of fiber left over from previous years - forgotten in a closet? She's giddy with excitement and plans for it. Of course, I know how it could happen - as breeders we get caught up in the breeding and our initial five alpacas have multiplied over the years and their friends have come and gone... the numbers are a lot different than in 2005...

Now in my case, I haven't been able to stuff it in a closet and forget about it. Currently we are sharing the house with the fiber... Good thing there are only two of us! The dogs are probably the only creatures who are happy it is summer since they can be outside more. When inside they have to be in their crates because of this year's crop of fiber. I am overwhelmed. I have fiber all over the living room. I have fiber stuffed in the shower of our 3/4 bathroom! I had to move out of my office for all of the fiber. It is absolutely out of control. This weekend is really going to be independence day around here. "D" is coming and is helping me sort all of the fiber and then taking it home with her to drop off at the mill!!!! I am so excited. It really got to the point of there being too much to ship - that would have doubled the processing fees. So, in the not too distant future I will have an assortment of felted sheets, rug yarn and roving. Once it it has been cleaned and processed somewhat I will be able to get to the fun part and get some products together. That I am looking forward to in a big way.

Next year I may well hook up with a coop and just have it taken care of on shearing day. Off the animal; skirted and sorted; off to the coop for processing. But then I won't have product specific to my farm like I do now... I kind of like seeing the fiber of my alpacas made up into items. I remember donating a poncho made from Jacob's fiber to a Silent Auction a few years ago. Or maybe it was a raffle - I can't remember. The following year at the show the lady who won it said "hi" and told me that her son had won it for her and he was so pleased. I remember thinking immediately of Jacob and not of my supply of dark fawn yarn. Kind of neat. But, this is business and decisions have to be made that aren't sentimental. This decision warrants a lot of thought.

I can across a product while reading the AN forum the other week. Truth be told, I already knew about the product but had previously learned about it back in 2005 or 2006. At that time we had a lot fewer alpacas on site AND they all had good manners - no one pooped or peed in the barn!!!! Then the product seemed extravagant. Well, many alpacas later and with the arrival of alpacas without manners {you owners know who they are! :-)}coming across the product again was a great thing. Would you like to know what the product is already? It is called Stall Skins. The best I can describe it is a cross between felt and pellon. It is black and about a quarter inch thick. The felted side is put down against the ground and the smooth, somewhat coated feeling side is walked upon. It doesn't sound like it would last does it? Well, it is an equine product and said to last about six years with horses. I figure it will take about $600 worth to do my barn floor. That will be in one piece and it will be fixed to the walls (baseboard)all around. The only bedding that will be required will be in the winter - we'd probably put down some straw for warmth. The trick to success will be to prepare the floor ahead of time. Now that they are relieving themselves in the barn no matter what has been done to discourage them, it is getting a bot smelly in there and certainly not helping with the fly situation. The floor/ground (it/s dirt/clay) needs to have a trench dug about 2' deep with rock put in and then the ground angled to drain into that. On top of the gravel we will need to put down some landscape cloth and then cover the whole floor with either gravel dust or coarse sand. We will level the floor and tamp that down really well. Then we will install the Stall Skin. From that point on we should only have to sweep up poop and the urine will have drained away. Supposedly it won't matter where they do their "duty" as it will all slope away into the leach pit. Oh yeah, once a month or so you spray it down (I am sure only where they go) with pine-sol or something and the odors stay away. We will also do the ground under at least one of our overhangs, probably both. My only concern is the fabric is black and one overhang does get sun almost all day. The other is shaded except in winter so it is a good candidate for being successful. I will keep you posted. This is a fall project - can't see us digging out there in 90 degree plus weather... Not these northerners!

Aside from the barn and fiber projects currently going on we have pictures on the schedule for all of the alpacas and once those are finished we will be able to update the website and sales list. Doing major organization in preparation of the fall show & symposium schedule so that when I come off that and go onto cria watch it will be smooth. Oh, and we started doing some landscaping directly around the house to try to improve our look... Curb appeal without the curb! And, the never ending work on the property out front. We will get that finished this summer. Some how, some way.

Have to run! Until the next time...