February is a great month to Love Alpacas!

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  It was fun here at the ranch.

Of course, we love alpacas every day.  💝  It seems like everyone who has an alpaca boarded here brought their alpacas special treats-- apples, carrots, celery, carrot tops.  Not all of them like every treat, but everybody likes one thing or another. 

A local news crew from Channel 34 came by to chat about the alpaca fiber industry.  They brought their cameras, asked lots of questions, and of course, took time to play with the alpacas.  Rufus loves having his pictures taken, and Penelope had to talk to everyone.

It seems that Covid has opened up a whole new avenue for owning alpacas.  Most of the people who have bought alpacas over the last several years have been folks approaching retirement looking for a new career after they retire from their professions.  In the last year, since Covid, we have met many people who are younger, maybe mid-career, who have discovered that since they can work from home, they can do that anywhere, and they want to get to their dream sooner than they had originally thought possible.

Olivia is an attorney who recently bought Nightengale.  The two of them really hit it off the first time she came to visit!  They go for walks and take selfies together while they wait for their cria next summer.

Mimi is really excited about getting started with her new venture. She has been a talent agent in Hollywood for a whole bunch of years, and has decided to let her "inner rancher" follow her dream.  

Neither of these ladies is giving up their day jobs-- they are boarding with us for now-- but you never know when the moment will arrive to spread their wings further!

Way to go, Ladies!

Speaking of Valentines....  Some of you have asked about Kallie's puppies and how they are doing.  I recently got pictures of 3 of the little darlings, so here they are.  The puppy families really have a knack for glamour shots!  Look at these beautiful babies!

Here's Odie 💗

And Thomas 💗

And Gracie 💗

I don't know how Kallie could ever have puppies this pretty again, but I imagine she will want to try it again in the next year.  

I'll keep you all posted.

Covid has had a way of bringing projects and talents to light that we didn't have time for before.  Not only are people making their alpaca dreams come true, but they are doing some remarkable things with 

alpaca fleece.  My friend Karen got some white suri fabric from me a couple of years ago when she was busy, cut the sewing project out, and put it in a drawer.  

Having extra time during Covid, she pulled it out of storage and proceeded to create this 

GORGEOUS JACKET!  Karen has always been a beautiful seamstress, but the suri has taken her skills to a whole new level!  Every seam is picture perfect.  I haven't seen it on her yet, but I imagine

 it will be stunning.  We love you, Karen!

The wind has not been our friend recently. I've heard that from so many friends.  Here at Windy Hill, we take wind to the extreme sometimes.  Not long ago it knocked the tops off of several sections of wooden shelters, as well as ripping 17 tarps!  Yikes!

Because of the shelters being down on a rainy day, I moved this group of pregnant mamas to Pasture 1 so they would have cover and dry hay.  They loved being in a new pasture-- so much to discover!  They really liked the view from the southwest side of the pasture.  They could look at the show boys, the big dogs, and everyone walking by was an opportunity to beg for treats.

Our Ventura County 4-H group has started again.  We have several young people who are interested in working with alpacas this year.  Now that 4-H has opened up to in-person meetings again, they came out to start learning about alpacas.  We are doing a combination online/in-person curriculum this year, and including all age groups.  We hope to be able to partner up with a couple of other 4-H alpaca projects in different parts of the state next fall to put on an Obstacle Course demonstration at the Gold Country Gathering in Grass Valley in October.  It's so much fun working with motivated young people!

It's time for show season again, and this spring we will actually have some shows we can go to.  The California show was not able to happen this spring, so we are going farther afield.  We'll start in March at the Alpaca Owners Association  National Show in Grand Island, Nebraska, then go the next week to Kansas City, Missouri to the MOPACA show.  I have never been to MOPACA, so this will be fun.

We have a gap of about 10 days, then the Alpaca Futurity Show is also in Kansas City.  3 or 4 of our show string will go to that very elite show-- that's VERY exciting!

After the Futurity we'll bring everyone home for a breather, then off we go to Denver, Colorado to the Great Western Alpaca Show.  This year GWAS is hosting 2 shows concurrently, so we'll get more bang for our buck!  The Denver show is really fun-- it's one of the biggest shows in the country.  In between Kansas City and Denver we are shearing almost our whole herd here at home, and the ones who go to Denver will be sheared after the show by shearers who come to the site just for that purpose.

I love show season.  

We get to show off our alpacas and see how they stack up against all the other ones of that age, color and gender.  

We also get to connect with all the other alpaca breeders around the country and share stories, buy and sell alpacas, and have a good old time.  It's great.

Honestly, I don't know what's better-- Show Season or Baby Season.

We'll get home from the shows just in time for babies to start being born.  Another glorious aspect of raising alpacas!  Babies will start coming the end of May, and will probably go through 

part of September.

You never know what color or gender you will get!  It's like Christmas every time!  I hope you will call us and come see the babies 

when they start.

And if you have a desire to attend an alpaca show, give me a shout and I'll share all the exact dates and venues where you can find us.  We love having extra helpers. 😉

 Remember that Farmer Don has chickens of every shape and size in his barnyard. If you are looking for a hen or 2, he might have what you are looking for.  He has some colors I have never seen before!   

I think he is also going to have Labradoodle puppies again before long, so if you are interested in either, let me know and I'll put you in touch.

Have a lovely February. Stay warm, dry and healthy, 

wherever you find yourself. 

Cyber hugs to all!

Cindy

Cindy Harris  •  Alpacas at Windy Hill  •  www.alpacalink.com

7660 Bradley Rd. Somis, CA 93066 • 805-907-5162

Alpacas and Puppies and Wind, Oh My!

Alpacas and Puppies and Wind, Oh My!

Alpacas can be like twinkle lights.  They come in different colors, move around in the wind, and if they are suris, they glow in the daylight and the twilight!  I love watching Quantum move around the pasture.  He twinkles and glows as he moves.  His brilliant fleece sways as he walks, and I can even see him shining from 3 pastures away!

This is Nightngale and her little guy Night Hawk.  Nightngale is a nosy girl-- she likes to come right up close to your face and ask you what you had for lunch-- and did you bring her any?  She has just weaned her first cria.  She did a terrific job of raising him.  Nightngale is for sale and bred to our fabulous GLR Suton.  She would be a great way to get started in alpacas ownership.  Take a look at her webpage.  

Click here.

Night Hawk is also for sale.  He is sweet and handsome, and would make a lovely companion alpaca.  You can see him when you come visit us.  :-)

One of our boarders, Maria, owns Sally Go Round the Roses.  Sally grows her fleece quickly, so she needed her bangs cut.  Maria brought her friend Karen out to visit.  Because Karen is a hair stylist, we handed her some scissors and she did a beautiful bang style on Sally.  Sally behaved really well in the chute, and is thrilled to be able to see now!

Tracy and Farmer Don are still raising chicks.  They have some with the most beautiful colors-- it's almost enough to make me want chickens!  This little chick was one of the late ones to hatch and found herself alone for a few minutes in the incubator.  She was a little confused, but soon got to go into the nursery with all her buddies.  New life is so beautiful.

I think we can all agree that we are glad to move on from 2020.  What a year!  My daughter wanted one of Kallie's puppies this year.  Her golden doodle, Kodak, is 10 this year, so she thought it would be a good time to introduce a buddy for him.  We both laughed so hard when we found this meme.  I'm not sure Kodak is laughing so much.  He's not used to competition.

This is Gracie.  Amy got her instead of the youngster above.  Santa was so...gracious!

Henry got to his new home with Lori and snuggled right into his Christmas sweater.

Kallie really enjoyed having her puppies.  She was grateful to have someone to play with who understands how rat terriers play, and the puppies loved romping with Mama.

Lynette and Obie have become inseparable.  Obie likes to lie in the open doorway out the patio and contemplate the swimming pool.  What a cutie!

These litter mates all have similar styles of sleeping.  Here is Gracie when she finally got home.

Once spring comes around, the birds will all be looking for nesting materials.  I dyed some alpaca 3rd's in food coloring (non-toxic), and stuffed little bits of it in between the leaves of some pine cones I collected.  We hang them on the trees. They are decorative, and the birds come to steal the fiber to make their nests.  It's really fun to watch all the nesting that goes on around here with several species of birds, and find little bits of colored alpaca fiber tucked into the nests!

We still have some for sale if you are interested.  Ask us about our Bird Nest Hangers.

A more conventional use for alpaca fleece is yarn for knitting and crocheting.  We still have several beautiful natural and dyed colors for sale if you have a knitting project in mind.  Call me or email to make an appointment to come pick out your yarn.  805-907-5162, cindy@alpacalink.com

New Years Eve was a lot of fun!  We had prime rib with all the goodies and laughed the evening away.  Mary joined us and brought poppers that contained crowns for everybody, jokes and prizes.

All of us at Alpacas at Windy Hill wish you a VERY Happy New Year!

Winter in Ventura County, and particularly a La Niña weather pattern, means we have our usual Santa Ana winds and then some.  December 23 we had 60 mph winds racing across the ranch for almost 24 hours.  We got up Christmas Eve morning to discover that one of the older wooden shelters had blown over!  We all got out there and disassembled it and stacked it all away where the wind couldn't get to it.  What a way to start Christmas!

Thanks to Don, Lindsey, John, and Cody for helping to replace some of the tarps that also tore during the wind.  They usually last about 2 years, but some of them went early in the height of the storm.  Thankfully, with 4 people, the tarps go up pretty easily.  One of our goals this year is to put up some more permanent steel structures so we don't have so many tarps to replace.

One thing about having "summer" in winter is that we have some pretty amazing blue skies!  I recently got back from Oregon (delivering Amy's puppy) where it was cold, wet, gray, and sometimes snowy.  I returned to wind, but also these gorgeous skies.

So...from sunny southern California, we wish you 

Blue Skies and a Happy New Year!

Cindy Harris ~ Alpacas at Windy Hill ~ www.alpacalink.com

7660 Bradley Rd. Somis, CA 93066 ~ 805-907-5162

cindy@alpacalink.com

 

In Search of the Push-Me-Pull-You

It has been a stellar fall at Windy Hill!  Not much in the way of high winds (our name isn't just poetic, you know...)  And the days are shorter, so even on warm days it cools off quickly at night.  I have even had to wear a jacket twice!

Response has been terrific to our website re-design, thanks to the great team at Openherd.com!  Everyone seems to be searching for something-- a peaceful alternative to the city, a meaningful way to spend retirement, or a healthy way to raise a family.  I have spent many wonderful hours meeting new people, everybody with a dream, wanting to see if raising alpacas might fill that place in their hearts.

Our church came out for a Sunday afternoon gathering not long ago.  We sang songs and enjoyed being outside together.  Almond Joy loved entertaining the kids. They all got a chance to offer him a snack, and nobody go spit on!

The Beasley Family recently moved to Tehachapi from Florida, and bought a few acres  hoping to have a farm for their family.  They have been interested in alpacas for quite awhile, so they came out to see the girls I had for sale.  They ended up taking Storm Cloud, Peppermint Patty, and Ilsa and her cria home.  Jennifer said they would probably never go inside.  It wasn't long, though, before they had their first snow-- a real change for Floridians!  They alpacas did well, and they are off to a great start!

Jesse and his daughter came out to see if their idea would work with alpacas.  They have a dog training business ( see their phone number if you need help with that!). and have worked with Cesar Milan.  

One of the things they do is introduce dogs who have had certain negative experiences to a wide variety of scents and animals to help them recover.  Here is a picture of Brickfielder being such a good boy, making friends with this dog.

Maria and I went to Bible Study several years ago. We follow each other on Facebook and keep up.  She has a hot air balloon business-- pretty cool, huh?  She and her family are thinking about expanding their balloon business by having some sort of event center/ bed & breakfast, and they fell in love with alpacas.  While they are deciding where to move, they are coming out to the ranch to learn how to take care of them.  Lots of our alpaca owners start out that way-- it's a great way to learn.  They bought Sally Go Round the Roses who is scheduled to have a baby next summer.  Once they move to their own ranch they plan to have several alpacas as part of their adventure.  I keep trying to talk her into bringing a balloon out some day soon.  Wouldn't that be fun?

Lois saw a commercial for ILoveAlpacas.com in 2002, and has been trying to talk her family into owning alpacas ever since.  Well, she finally succeeded!  Her growing family, home schooling and working from home during Covid, have decided to explore what it would be like to own alpacas and maybe start their own small sustainable farm.  They have all the skills they need to succeed, as well as a love of animals and kids who are eager to get their feet wet doing the work.  I see lots of volunteer hours in their future-- HURRAY!

(By the way--if you are interested in volunteering, we have lots to do!  40 crias to halter train, the show team to polish up their leading skills, and endless ranch tasks that need doing.  Give me a call or an email and let me know when you are available.)

I love this chill picture of Taj and her daughter our walking their boys.  They have some high pressure jobs and come out just to commune with their alpacas.  Alpacas are famous for lowering blood pressure, and nothing releases endorphins like a kiss from a soft, velvety muzzle.

Our Molly made a sudden departure two weeks ago.  She was a magnificent guardian and beautiful soul.  No coyote or anyone else ever thought about crossing her.  In fact, one time she got ahold of a coyote's tail through the chain link fence and, well, the coyote left without his tail-- she still had it the next morning!

Molly had congestive heart failure that came on suddenly and caused strokes that paralyzed her hindquarters.  She wasn't one to sit around, so it wasn't long before she made her journey over the Rainbow Bridge.  She was brave to the last.

Click on this picture of Molly to see a wonderful video of her running about a week before she died.

And raise a glass to her bold spirit and watchful eye if you think about it. 💖

As Molly was going down hill, we began looking for her replacement. Zeke is great, but he needs help on 25 acres.  We were fortunate enough to find Tucker!  Tucker found himself without a job when his family moved from 100 acres to 5.  They have plenty of Anatolians to take care of this smaller space, so they began looking for a home for Tucker.  He has been raised by his parents and grandparents, and his sweet human family, so he knows the drill with everybody.  He's perfect for us because we need a dog socialized to people.  Now he is on patrol every night with Zeke, and still has youthful energy for some petting and playing in the morning with the rest of us.

Here is Kallie with her very first 2 puppies!  My granddaughters were visiting a few weeks ago, and Kallie was sweet enough to have her puppies while they were here. It was so exciting for the girls!  Kallie has 6 puppies-- 2 girls and 4 boys.  They are 2 1/2 weeks old now and have grown so much I can hardly believe it!  Every day they change a little.  She eats 4 times a day to keep up with them!

The pups will be 8 weeks old on December 22-- just in time for the holidays if you are interested.  Rat Terriers are very sweet, loving dogs with a great ability to keep varmints out of your garden. They are fabulous companions, and these guys are being handled every day.  Let me know if you are interested in adding one of them to your family.

I have spent the summer and fall in search of the elusive Push Me Pull You.  I knew we had one on the ranch, but it didn't show up in plain sight until just the other day.  Notice the extreme symmetry, the matching color and height, the contented posture.  Ahhhhhhh.... my hunt is over-- success at last!

(And thank you to Zurich and Phoebe!)

Thank you for joining us on our Blog List.  

Please feel free to forward this blog to any of your friends who might enjoy it.

~

ALPACA HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE

on Don & Tracy's patio (7660 Bradley Rd. Somis)

Saturday, November 28 ~ 10 am to 3 pm

Bring your friends and shop for Alpaca Holiday Gifts.

Ventura County Guidelines for mask and social distancing apply.

~

Remember-- I offer a free 1-hour Consultation for those of you who are interested in owning alpacas.  Give me a call-- we'll talk all about alpacas!

Take care.

Cindy

Cindy Harris ~ Alpacas at Windy Hill ~ Somis, CA ~ www.alpacalink.com ~ 805-907-5162

 

A Second Round of Green Beans...and a few more crias

These bush beans that I grew this year are amazing!  6 little plants gave me 4 meals of green beans on the first round, then they completely reset and are producing like crazy again!  What a year for gardening-- with alpaca poop, of course.  😊

My hat is off to friend and colleague, Penny Wynn!  This beautiful little black suri girl was born early  at Penny's place 4 days ago.  When she went out to do one last check on the yard at 7 pm, there was this 12 lb baby with a subnormal temperature and no strength at all.  Penny gave her a bottle and kept her warm through the night (ssssshhhhhh...don't tell anyone she took her in the bedroom with her!), and continued working with her for the last 4 days.  We came up with a plan for feeding and treatments, which she followed as well as coming up with ideas of her own that worked very well.

This morning I got an excited text from Penny:  

"Her weight is 13 lbs!"

And that was even after spending the night outside with her mom and nothing but nursing!

Congratulations on a great success, Penny!!  

Thank you for all you have done!

When the corn is as high as the Sequoia tree in the hen yard....

August has been a busy month here at Windy Hill.  Zurich says she is just watching the show.  LOL!

These lucky girls, Polly and Mary, got to take 3 of their favorite boyfriends and hop a plane to Maui this month.  Polly is particularly interested in learning the Hula and some Hawaiian songs.  She is such a well-rehearsed singer.  Ever since she was a cria she has sung to me every time I put a halter on her.  I understand she is loving Maui. 

The Travel Brochure is what convinced them to go.  This is the view from their accomodations on the slopes of Haleakala.  Trade winds and an ocean view made it particularly appealing to them, as well as the endless supply of green grass.

The boys were very excited about having their own little house in the middle of the pasture.  Mo is dying to learn to surf, but he has had to do some breedings before he can go.  Work before fun.  😎

Just as Dr. Jana was retiring and moving to New Mexico, Dr. Katie Nenneker arrived on the scene!  We are so thrilled to have her available to treat our alpacas.  I've already learned some new tricks from her.  What a sweetie. And she tells me that in the next month or so, they will have a small animal  mobile vet in their practice as well.  That is music to my ears with LGD's and other pets here at the ranch.

Dr. Nenn's truck was designed by her firefighter husband.  It has all the bells and whistles, like it's own generator and water supply, so she can even go to remote locations with no services available.  It's pretty cool.

This last week we needed to x-ray an alpaca's jaw.  It was very exciting to watch as Dr. Nenn and her assistant Kim did an x-ray in the chute, and then seconds later, we were able to see it appear on the screen in clear detail.  What an amazing picture! You can see sinuses and tooth sockets and all kinds of stuff!

Because the picture was so clear, we were able to determine that the tooth root abscess had not cleared up completely and needs an additional round of antibiotics.  I'm still amazed-- it was so simple!

This week I want to highlight Scarlett-- the oldest alpaca on the ranch.  Scarlett is officially 24 years old!  She wins all the awards for Oldest Alpaca at Windy Hill.  She has her own pasture--not because she needs it, but because she wanted it.  I put her in with her usual buddies and she crawled through the fence to have her very own space.  She gets baths and extra feed in the morning, because as she says, she deserves it.  Good Girl, Scarlett!

Here are some red, white and blue flowers for the Labor Day Holiday.  💗