Peru’s mountain people face fight for survival in a bitter winter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/03/peru-mountain-farmers-winter-cold
Chocolate Cream Pie
The weather is awful today with negative temperatures, snow and wind that will chill your spine. Being a bit of a gluten when left to my own accord trapped inside a house I can’t help but think of food and what I delicious delight I can mix up. Today’s diet buster: Ghiradelli Chocolate Cream Pie.
I followed this recipe with one major exception. I LOVE dark chocolate and chose to use Ghiradelli’s 100% cocoa bar. I must say I am a fan of the biting flavor of dark chocolate. I love it so much that I will even eat a square of the 100% cocoa. It only seemed fitting to use such wonderful chocolate in this Sunday pie treat.
I present to you my Sunday pie. Topped with Avon, NY’s own CoolWhip and Mini semi-sweet chips.
Preparing Shots for Alpacas
Today is the day of the month I feel like a junkie. Since I live in a region that has the meningeal worm my alpaca chores the first weekend of each month involves giving our alpacas a shot of Ivormec. My little cria Albina also got a booster of CD&T and some Vitamin A&D Paste today also.
I utilize my morning feeding routine to lock the alpacas in their run-ins. Surprisingly they know something is up even though it’s the same routine. Smart animals! While they are in munching away I head back inside to prepare all the syringes.
Ivormec is given at 1cc per 70lbs of body weight. It’s a good idea to know your alpaca’s weight so having a livestock scale is recommended. I don’t weigh and give shots on the same day. It seems to stress them out so usually I weigh them 1 or 2 weeks before hand to spread out the scary moments. I’ll often psych them out and sometimes lock them in just to give them treats and let them back out to keep them guessing but they always seem to know when I have other intentions.
I use a 20 gage, 3cc, 1 inch long needles for ivormec – I find the 22 gage is too small and it’s hard to draw.
NOTE: Mark the bottom of the plunger with the initials of the animal it’s going to
· First wipe the top of the bottle off with alcohol to sterilize it.
· Draw back on the plunger
· Uncap the needle
· Insert the needle into the bottle and Depress the plunger adding air to the bottle
o Adding air makes it easier to draw
· Tip the bottle upside down and slowly draw back on the plunger
o If you draw back too fast you’ll get a lot of bubbles
· When you have the desired amount remove the needle and recap it
Giving your alpaca shot via SQ (Subcutaneous):
· SQ means you will be injecting into the area between the skin and the muscle
· Use either a helper to hold your alpacas or confine a bunch of them in a small area so you can barely can move between them.
· When ready to give your shot check for air bubbles.
o Tip the syringe so the needle is pointing up and tap the side
o Uncap the needle
o Slowly depress the plunger until all air is out and you have a small bead of solution bead up or drip
· I find it easiest to lean over the top of my target alpaca with me standing on their left side and reaching over the top to their right
· Use your left hand to grab their chest fiber behind their right elbow making a tent in their skin
· With your right hand insert the needle into the tent of skin. Ideally you’ll want to draw back to see if you hit a vein but the chances are slim and their fiber makes it difficult to see.
· Depress the plunger
· Rub the area – if your hand is wet you probably injected their fiber and totally missed the alpaca all together. The thicker their fiber gets the harder it is to give them shots!
Disposing of your needles:
· Get a puncture proof can or jar. I like coffee cans myself
· Label the jar “Bio Hazard – SHARPS”
· Untwist the needs to remove them from the syringe and put them in your jar
· When your jar is full. Duct tape it up, make sure all labels are still visible and throw it away.
Alpacas and Taxes
Happy New Year! Ugh, along with the new year comes taxes. Before we started our alpaca farm, taxes were a breeze, just plop a few numbers into H&R Bock hit submit and voila my taxes were done. It’s not so easy any more. *sigh*
With farm business come receipts. Lots and lots of receipts. Receipts for the feed store, hay, equipment, mileage, chemicals, vet fees, marketing, livestock, professional development, travel, utilities, payroll, fertilizers, fuel, insurance and the list just keeps growing. Now with it being December 31st my mind should be thinking of champagne and celebrating but instead I’m dreading the lost weekends to mountains of bureaucratic paperwork. The good news is this is our second year of itemizing all of our deductions so we remembered to save all of our receipts. Yes it might be a PITA to go through them all but it’s $$$ in your pocket the first few years. That is until you sell a female alpaca and end up owing the IRS, LOL
Alpaca Tax Tips:
Thinking of starting an alpaca farm? Start finding old receipts NOW. When we bought our property 4 years ago it never occurred to us that we might end up having a production farm so we hardly saved any receipts. Big mistake. You can deduct farm related items several years prior to you actually becoming a farm. Examples: Your property, dwellings, trucks, tractors, equipment, fencing etc. All useless to you if you can’t find the $%*(@# receipt!
My advice. If you have even an inkling of wanting an alpaca farm even 3-5 years into the future start saving your receipts now. Especially those related to your research of alpacas. Did you pay for a seminar? Travel Expenses? Mileage?
Get into the habit now of thinking what actually would be considered a tax deduction. I find myself hording receipts, was that roll of paper towels for the house or the barn? Was the gallon of milk to feed a bottle baby? Another nice way to think when researching alpacas is the lovely “farm tax exempt” form. Now when I walk into places like Tractor Supply the prices on the shelf are the actual price because I don’t have to pay sales tax on an item I use for the farm. Not to mention also think along the lines of what tax bracket you’re in.. Are you 10%, 15%, 25% or more? Take that % into account as you will be deducting that on your taxes at the end of the year too.
Fuel Receipts: Gas purchased for vehicles (like tractors) that never leave the farm property are exempt from fuel taxes. Yeah about ½ of the cost of a gallon of gas is taxes. $$$ back in your pocket. Be sure to mark your receipt though, we right TRUCK or TRACTOR on ours so we know if we get to not only deduct the cost of the fuel on our taxes but if we also get the taxes we paid on the fuel back.
The best advice I can give is to get a really good accountant. Find one who knows agriculture and preferably alpacas. You will get back on your taxes many times over than what their fees are.
For your viewing pleasure here is a blank copy of the Excel file we give to our accountants. It is based on the Schedule F form and our accountants really appreciate it. The more work we are able/willing to do on our end to keep things organized keeps their processing time down and costs low.
Good luck on your alpaca adventures!
Disclaimer: I am not nor do I pretend to be an accountant. Please seek professional guidance elsewhere.
See Our Other Posts!
Starting an Alpaca Farm: New Buyers Guide
Agisting Vs Farm Ownership
Alpaca Care Costs
The Christmas Rug
For those of you who follow me on Twitter I’ve been talking about a Christmas gift I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Well with the holiday finally over I’m finally able to indulge all of you with what I’ve been working on; A Rag Rug.
Rag Rugs, also known as Tooth Brush Rugs, Knotted Rugs, or Cottage Rugs are a 100% recycled that anyone and I do mean anyone can make. If you are like me and have ADHD this project is just for you since you can see results from your labor very quickly. You can also choose to stop at most any time making something as small as a placemat or continue on for large area rugs.
You can use most any linen for these rugs. In the case of this Christmas rug I chose to use old flannel sheets. Since this was my first rug I did not document the process I used to make it. I do plan on documenting my next one. I’ll show you everything from how to make the strips, how to chain them together and the technique needed start and end your rug.
Until then, please enjoy some photos of the Christmas Rug. I hope my brother, his wife and most likely their puppy enjoy it thoroughly.
A good starting point for making these is at http://www.ragrugcafe.com/ but found many missing instructions. She does do a very nice job in her videos showing you the general technique. I’ll do my best to show you in several future posts how I went about making my rag rug.