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.
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
