Naked Alpacas! EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!

Shearing Days 2020

Well, what do you know? Shearers are considered essential workers in agriculture!  

And we are so glad!!  We got to shear perfectly on time, thanks to BioSecure Alpaca Shearing.  John's crew showed up on Thursday night and we dug in first thing Friday.  We finished 242 alpacas in 2 1/2 days with the help of lights in the barn and a hard-working skeleton crew.

Some of us wore masks and gloves, some of us didn't, and most of us are still working the fiber dust out of our sinuses.  In the midst of it all, somehow all the alpacas all got sheared.

In our process, we bring all the alpacas to the barn pens via a funnel system that Don sets up the day before with portable panels.  One by one the 24 pastures get herded to the barn pens where we halter them, and clean them up.  Here is a picture of Kindle looking beautiful, waiting her turn.

In the early morning dew, some of these fleeces look particularly lustrous when they get cleaned up.  By doing the work of getting rid of as much vegetable matter as possible in this phase, it simplifies the skirting process later, and paves the way for some shiny fleeces for show or processing. 

The shearing team is great about getting the alpacas to the mat. Most of them come in on a halter fairly easily, but when someone is "singing" on the next mat, the little ones wonder what on earth is about to befall them!  Here, Kyle just scooped up this cria and carried him to the mat.

Once the alpaca is in the hobbles and stretched out on the mat there is sometimes a moment or two to stand back and admire the current fleece for the last time on the alpaca.  You can see that this white alpaca (Bracito's Fromage) is holding onto a great deal of luster, even though his fleece is in "pasture condition".  It was a beautiful, heavy, shiny fleece once it was off. 

We have 2 mats running at the same time. There are 4 guys on the crew-- 2 do the main shearing, and 2 do the clean up and the extras, like shots.  Our alpacas get their annual Coven 8 immunization at shearing every year, and due to new discoveries about the importance of vitamin D, we also give a shot of Vitamin AD.  We spray inside their ears for ear ticks using Catron, treat them with a pour on fly repellent, and lice prevention before they go back out.  If their incisors or fighting teeth need trimming, this is the ideal moment to take care of that.  

We fix their name tags to be readable if the writing has rubbed off, and they get their toenails trimmed.  It's a real once-over.  It also gives us the opportunity to look at them critically for any little lesions or potential skin problems we can prevent.

 

We try to "noodle" as many fleeces as we possibly can during this process.  "Noodling" is a processionals of using a piece of paper or plastic that lays down next to the alpaca's blanket fleece just before it is shorn.  As the blanket fleece comes off, it goes onto the sheet of paper/plastic in the approximate order that it was on the body.  We then roll it up into a "noodle" and put it in the bag with the 2nds and 3rds.  When it's time to skirt the fleece, it's easy to unroll it and see where the edges of the blanket are so we can remove any coarser fiber and prepare it easily for show or processing.  The coarser fibers go into another category. Each category has its uses so that we get as much production possible out of every fleece.

WOW! Look at that luster!!

Here is Faline in the scale chute.  We also weigh everybody and record it as they come off the mat. That way the whole herd gets weighed once a year and recorded in the data base, Alpaca Ease.

By the looks of the wall, you can see that not everyone is pleased to be weighed...  I don't blame them!

After shearing each group, we herd them back to their pasture and bring in the next one.  On the way home, they gleefully run, buck, kick and pronk, so glad to be free of the pen, the fleece, and the whole process.  It's so much fun to see them so joyful!

Thanks for joining our shearing adventures!  Here is a picture I drew of us quarantining at home.  It actually doesn't look too different from every other day out here.

We hope to see you all soon!

Cindy

One overcast day in April...

 Do you find that as an alpaca lover, pretty soon everything you own either is made out of alpaca, or has a picture of an alpaca?   Not that that's a problem-- I enjoy it--almost as much as I enjoy my coffee with heavy cream.  (did I mention I've been on a KETO diet for a few weeks and actually lost some weight eating decadent things?)

The thing I like most about owning alpacas and living on the ranch is the ability to go outside and "commune" with them anytime I want.  They are really good listeners, and they are very observant.

Sometimes I have been down, and they just hang out with me.  No judgement, no helpful suggestions-- they just notice that you are sad and hang around you.

They are just a quick to recognize when  you are high energy or irritated or in a hurry, and they stay away.  Sometimes they even try to hide like Fromage did, pretending he was a stand of stinging nettle.  I sure wouldn't have chosen that patch of weeds to hide in-- in makes me itch just to look at him!

Usually when I walk from my house to the barn, I see bright, happy faces waiting to greet me.  I'm sure it's because they think I have food, but it's nice to see them anyway.  In this picture Scottie and Caroline wanted to know why they are still having to walk around the tilled dirt.  Why hasn't the grass arrived??

The other day Tracy and I decided to shoot some fleece pictures of some of the huacaya yearling boys.  I'm really appreciating the "portrait" setting on my iPhone.  It let's me get really close and does a great job of recording details.  This is Cooper Ganache, a true rose gray.  He has every color under the sun in that fleece with enough brown to make it look rosy.

In keeping with the close-up theme that day I also couldn't resist a "portrait" of some icelandic poppies by my back door.  They are such papery-looking flowers with their brilliant colors and long stems.  They nod and sway in the breeze and catch the light so beautifully.  I would love to have fields of them, but I'm lucky if I can keep them going in a pot.

Coco the llama has gotten so big since she got here!  She was rescued as a youngster from a slaughter situation, and her owner Carla brought her here with her alpacas.  We love her. It gives us an opportunity to provide people with a real description of the question "What's the difference between a llama and an alpaca?"   We just lead them out to her pasture and ask them to tell us which one is the llama.  No answers necessary. 😁

As you can see, nothing much is different out here since the Coronavirus started.  Thankfully we are healthy and so are the alpacas.  We look forward to being able to re-open the ranch to our boarders.  Hopefully that won't be very long now.   Hopefully all of you are feeling fine and we'll all meet again soon.  Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

 I think we're getting pretty good at Social Distancing.  We've been practicing and practicing.  The problem is, we miss everybody!  So where one thing is a virtue, it causes distress on the other hand.

Someone sent me this parody on Sound of Music today.  I enjoy parodies in general, but this one really hit the spot, so I want to share it with you.  I laughed and laughed--one of those things that is SO good for the soul!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBh-eo3tvE

Here are some of the juveniles standing on the shore of Lake Windy Hill after the last rain--otherwise known as the giant puddle at the opening to OB.  They just looked so drenched I had to shoot the picture!

Tracy shared a letter with me that she got recently.  What a beautiful testament it is to how alpacas can minister peace and comfort to people.    Maria came to visit Windy Hill with her husband on Farm day, and came a few other times.  She had been around horses and other large animals in her life, and being around the alpacas was life-giving to her.  Tracy's giving heart and the ability to come see the alpacas brought some joy and comfort to Maria in the last 2 years of her life.  We love being able to provide this kind of care to those who need it.  We hope that through The Good Shepherd Alpaca Sanctuary we will be able to share our alpacas with many others in the future.  If you are inclined to pray, please pray that the County of Ventura would look kindly on what we long to do.

Don recently got a new BBQ.  It's a real Cadillac!  Propane with all the bells and whistles.  He's such good bargain hunter.  So when the restrictions are gone on Covid 19 we are planning a BBQ for all boarders and friends.  The Windy Hill Alpaca Owners Club wants to celebrate the recovery!

And for those of  you who didn't get to see the banner and ads we had made for the California Classic, here they are.  We hope to use them in the fall and the spring next season.

BANNER

ADS

Until next time!

Cindy, Don, Tracy

It's a Doggone Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Have you ever seen such a sky!  Real puffy clouds with no suspicious streaks running through them!  Hawks (and ravens and turkey vultures) soaring, all sorts of smaller birds chirping and trilling and warbling, tractors humming on the other side of the ranch, an occasional car making its way down Bradley Rd.  Yesterday we had quite a few people just  out for a drive in the country with their kids stopping along the road to watch the alpacas for a few minutes.  There's hardly any traffic on the road right now-- pretty peaceful.  The usual traffic is at 7 am and 5 pm--we are the "back way" to Santa Paula, Fillmore, and Moorpark.

The little dogs got to come out to the ranch today.  Kallie and Pixel romped from pasture to pasture asking the alpacas silly questions like, "Have you seen any squirrels today?"  Actually, that was Kallie.  Pix is just interested to see if a raven dropped an avocado somewhere.

 

The night before, Klick and Kallie expressed their undying love for alpaca blankets.  It usually doesn't slip that far off the back of the couch, so they took advantage of the moment.  It was kind of like one of those hidden picture puzzles... can you find the rat terriers on the couch?

The Anatolian is a noble beast.  Molly is a great representative.  I don't raise Anatolians, but I have always had them as LGD's (livestock guardian dogs for those of you not familiar with the lingo).  She is formidable by night (don't be a coyote!), but by day she takes a more passive approach to guarding.  Lately, she has been specializing in feeder boxes.

It's plain to see that she got an early start in this endeavor.  A girl has to sleep sometime!

She also seems to know the value of really good hay.  Besides, tarps are nice and warm on a cloudy day.  We are in the process of putting up a more substantial hay cover.  I'll post a picture when we get started with it.  Meanwhile Molly has it well in hand.

What parts of ranching are you curious about?  What would you like to see on this blog?  Leave you comments below.  We aim to please.  (be nice, now)

Hanging on a Saturday at Windy Hill

It's been a beautiful day.  A light breeze off the ocean with a strong salty scent.  Blue skies, puffy clouds, green (almost) everywhere.  Somis can look a little bit like Ireland in March with all the green. The blue sky belies the location, of course.  I was in Ireland in July one year for 3 weeks.  We had 2 1/2 days with some sunshine.  There's always a price to be paid for green.  We are just glad we have it for a few months in Southern California.

Usually we have boarders and friends visit on a Saturday, but yesterday we had to close the ranch because of quarantine restrictions surrounding the Corona virus.

WE MISS YOU ALL ALREADY!  

The good news is that no one we know has coronavirus.  That is so good.  God is so good.  The uncertain news is that we are less than 2 weeks from our shearing date and we still don't know if we will be able to have helpers or not.  It's one day at a time these days.

Here's a great factual article I read about Covid 19 today.  Thanks to Julie Power for the link!
https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894

Some of the girls have decided that walking on the rototilled ground isn't so bad, but they still prefer the flat, hard ground if they have a choice.  I suppose they will get over it when the grass starts.

If you have Facebook, take a look at a couple of Tracy's videos today.  They are really cute.  Coco the Llama can surprise you when she starts to move! https://www.facebook.com/tracy.pellegrino.9/videos/10213757261524705/
The big dogs decided to howl when the humming bird came to visit.  https://www.facebook.com/tracy.pellegrino.9/videos/10213759430338924/

One of my goals for today is to get some alpaca videos up on YouTube.  They don't like to upload to this blog very well.  Probably my internet speed--one of the prices we pay for living in Paradise.  LOL

We wish you all a beautiful sunset, a peaceful evening, a good night's sleep, clean hands, warm heart, and a bright Sunday morning tomorrow.  Our church is live-streaming--we'll see how that goes. 😁

Tractor Fun!

Our new tractor has arrived!  It's a Kubota and we love it . (can you see the silly grin on Don's face??)
We have transformed the ranch in new ways in just 3 days.

Project yourself on the tractor as Don rototills some of the pastures.  Feel the sun on your face, the smell of damp earth after the rain, the vibration--and thuds and lurches-- as you ride along with him. lol

Not all the alpacas were happy to see him, but nobody escaped when we let him through the gates.  The girls in N11 didn't quite know what to do with the disappearing hard-pan they were used to.    I bet they'll know what to do with the new grass that starts popping up, though.  😄

Enjoy the ride!

 Have a great day!  We'll be posting more fun soon!!

STOP GLOBAL WHINING

I pulled up behind the truck, finally close enough to really read the bumper sticker: “STOP GLOBAL WHINING”.  

        Humor is often based on a surprise—a word trick that suddenly spins the world sideways or upside down.  This surprise made me shriek with laughter.  I don’t really know why, but I giggled all the way home.  It’s a good thing I was alone. I might have scared somebody.

Aside from the obvious reason it amused me, I was delighted to have a humorous reference to a practice that otherwise falls on a scale in my mind somewhere between Mildly Annoying and Infuriating.  Circumstances, persons, and duration influence where it sits on that scale at any given time.  Whining does appear to be ‘global’….

Kittens, having lost their mittens

Growing up as a compliant child, I quickly learned not to whine.  Whining was met with frowns, scolding and even derision.  I was incredulous that other children, my younger brother included, continued to use it as a method of wearing down their parents.  I was shocked to learn that if one persisted, it even worked sometimes!  Still, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  It was just one of many things in childhood that fell into the “life isn’t fair” category.

When my children were small I used a variety of methods to discourage whining.  After all, there were four of them and one of me, so I tried my best to keep them off balance.  A terse, “Stop it!” with “The Look” could be useful for its surprise value.  “I can’t hear you when you use that tone of voice”, although untrue, was helpful on occasion.  It became my default response eventually, abbreviated to simply ignoring the whiner.  Another sibling usually had to whisper, “Shut up!  She can’t hear you if you whine, remember??” to make it actually sink in, but eventually all four of them got the message.  Complaining was ok sometimes, but not whining.

There are whiners in the classroom as well.  Can I get an “Amen!” from all the 1st Grade teachers out there?  And from the High School teachers?  In the 4th grade classroom I could usually extinguish it in the first couple of weeks by referring to whining as “3rd grade behavior” .  No 4th grader wants to go back to being a “little kid”.

Pound puppies from Lady and the Tramp

There is one place I have not been successful stopping whining, though, and that is on the ranch.  Alpacas just don’t respond to my usual methods.  We have had some World Class Whiners out here at Windy Hill.

Quicksilver came to us from Maryland. She had had one female cria, a very lustrous girl named Resi.  Quicksilver was not much to look at herself, but she produced very pretty babies for several years.  The other thing that she produced was copious amounts of whining.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver did the usual humming to her crias and quibbling at the feeder, but when she was put in a small pen for any reason, she would whine.  She whined about being out of the pasture, about being haltered, walked, sheared, and examined.  She whined frantically if her cria would get too far away, and when weaning day arrived, Quicksilver would settle in for a Marathon of whining.  Fortunately, Quicksilver’s crias did not grow up to be whiners.  Not until Naiisha.

Naiisha is Quicksilver’s daughter by Apache, and she a lovely girl. She now belongs to Julie and Jamey, and is a model alpaca.  When she is open she is quite affectionate, and can change overnight into a witchy pregnant female.  But pregnant or not, if you put Naiisha in a pen, she whines.

Showing Naiisha was always a musical affair.  She would start whining as soon as I led her to the trailer, and continue until I took off her halter in the quarantine pasture when we arrived home.  She wasn’t frantic. She didn’t pace.  She just whined, non-stop.  Have you ever heard an alpaca whine while chewing their hay?  It’s a little muffled, but clearly recognizable as whining.

Now Naiisha has a daughter named Dakota.  I don’t remember Dakota whining as a cria, so it may be that weaning was the catalyst in her case, but for a solid week she and her mama paced on opposite sides of the fence, whining a duet.  They would sing to each most of the day, and at night they would sit side by side at the fence.  In the morning the pacing and singing would begin all over again.  Fortunately it only  lasted a week.  Dakota is a big girl now, but still whines if she is penned up.  I guess it just runs in Quicksilver’s family.

Naiisha at weaning time

Another vocally-expressive girl is Spring Reign.  Spring Reign is a large girl loves treats, and is sweet and easy to handle, which is always good with a really big girl.  However, when she was due to deliver her first cria, we discovered that Spring Reign was more than a bit of a prima donna. 

I watch the “OB” pasture closely for the last month of our girls’ pregnancies.  You never know when one of them may deliver early, need help, or pop a cria out while you’re at lunch.  One morning on my first visit to OB, I heard a loud noise before I even rounded the corner from the office.  It sounded like…well…a MOOSE!  As I reached the gate I saw Spring Reign lying flat out on her side.  When she saw me, she got clumsily to her feet and walked toward me. When she was sure she had my attention, she carefully lowered her huge belly back to the ground, flopped on her side, and began again to bellow.  Needless to say, I was alarmed. I saw that her due date wasn’t for three more weeks.  “I hope she’s not in labor!”, I thought.   Just then, she let out another thunderous groan, rolled up into a cush, then flopped over on her other side and repeated the whole cycle.

I called the vet.  Dr. Jana checked her thoroughly and assured me that she was not in labor, was not presenting a uterine torsion, and did not appear to be in any kind of pain.  She just wanted to bellow.  She was huge and miserable and it was warm outside.

I think that was the first time I really equated an alpaca pregnancy with a human pregnancy.  I thought back to the last month of any of my pregnancies.  How did I feel?  Like groaning, of course. I called it the Beached Whale Phase of pregnancy:  I couldn’t get up,  I couldn’t get down, there was no good way to sit or stand or lie down, it was too hot, I only wanted ice cubes to eat, and if you were not interested in rubbing my swollen feet, you better not touch me.

Spring Reign continued her daily bellowing.  I called the vet twice more before she convinced me that there was nothing wrong.  When she finally did go into labor, Reigny delivered her baby with grace and ease, and the bellowing stopped.  Until the next year.  

I've rolled over and I can't get up!

I guess the truth is that we all whine now and then.  I’ve learned that people are much more tolerant of it if I announce ahead of time that I’m going to whine.    If you expect whining, it’s a little easier to take.  “Oh, there she goes.  She is whining again.”  We can all acknowledge it, then go on.  It certainly seems to be a global problem.  

The bumper sticker begs the question: CAN we stop global whining?  Do we NEED to stop global whining?  It’s one thing for a bumper sticker to demand it, and quite another to really expect to conquer something so ubiquitous.

I think I’ll wait until I see peace in the Middle East, good manners on the freeway, and Naiisha standing patiently in a pen.  Perhaps then there will be some chance of ending Global Whining.