The Ranch Is Hopping!
A lot sure has gone on this week! As you can see, One Enchanted Evening had her baby making Troy and Kim "GranPacas"! Congratulations, you guys! Their first baby is a GIRL by Max and they are euphoric. Such a great outcome! Her name is Amazing Grace.
We had 2 other crias this week as well. Qasani had her Jeremiah cria--and it was the first time in a long time I was immediately excited about a boy! He is a gorgeous champagne color with that glowing, deep luster we all hope for. He was on his feet in 12 minutes flat! His name is Quantum.
Lucy also had a lovely boy--he is medium brown. "Medium Brown" according to the AOA Color Chart. Really? How about something more poetic like....Chocolate Brown or Mahogany? Ah well...such are the rules. But we can make up for it with a nice name. Because he was born really early in the morning and needed warming up, I called him Sun Up. He's a real cutie.
Summertime at Windy Hill is birthing season. And since gestation is 345 days (almost a year!) that means that we breed in the summer also. In our climate that means that we have births when it's not so cold, we don't need to put coats on the babies most of the time, and the crias are well-grown before winter. Our summers are mild and the sea breezes make sure that we cool off considerably once the sun goes down.
We breed in the evening as soon as the temperature drops below 70ยบ F. Nobody seems to mind breeding, even after dark, and everyone gets to cool off as night falls. This group was falling all over Suton, he's such a handsome guy. A week later they all spit tested well, too.
I keep my breeding records on a clipboard in the barn. It's easy to carry out to the breeding pens. Once the records are on the chart I can enter then into AlpacaEase, my herd software. Someday I'll really get with the times and move AE over to my iPad so I can put records directly in the program. Maybe next week.
I have some wonderful friends who are terrific spinners, and they have been spinning some of my roving for me. Wow! Hand spun is really special yarn. It has such character compared to machine spun yarn. I'm loving it! I'm even considering selling some of it. Let me know if you are interested. Right now I have black and brown suri, and beige huacaya. It's delicious.
We have several friends who come to help us do things around the ranch. They are all special people, but Blue and Maui thought Linnea and Analina were particularly special last week. I would have to agree.
The cherry tomatoes are starting to produce and they are delicious, but I think maybe we have a new variety growing-- "berry" tomatoes! lol
And Farmer Don got a new toy-- an LED light bar on his Kubota. Molly and Zeke say "Hi" and "Good night", and "We can't wait for the lights to go out!"
Have a great week, Everyone!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of females and crias, we have pregnant females and females-about-to-get-pregnant FOR SALE this summer.
Not all of them are on the website yet, but I'll be happy to show them to you. I am offering a FREE 1-HOUR BUSINESS CONSULTATION
on how you can Start Your Own Ranch...
even if you don't have your own property yet.
Copy this into the email:
"I want a FREE 1-HOUR BUSINESS CONSULTATION on How to Start My Own Ranch."
We can consult in person at the ranch or on the phone,
whichever is better for you.
Let me hear from you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment