Category: Alpaca

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Miracle Alpaca

Unexpected Loss

I have a love hate relationship with my barn cameras.  I love the fact I can watch the alpacas from my “day job” and see what they are up to.  I hate that I can see when they are in trouble and am helpless to do anything about it.

Tuesday I noticed my moose of an alpaca, Miracle, in trouble.  From the stop motion images I received from the cameras it looked to me like she was colicing.  She was up she was down she’d roll on her side, bob her head and generally look really uncomfortable.  I made a call into the vet and worked out an arrangement to pick up some banamine on my way home just before their office closed. 

After several agonizing hours watching her I finally got home with drugs in hand.  I opened up the barn door and was sickened by what I saw.  My girl Miracle was not colicing at all in fact it was much worse.  She refused to put weight on her right hind leg and held it tenderly in the air. She was obviously in pain and I gave her the banamine to help with that.  Examining the leg I noticed her knee was 3x the normal size and not even remotely resembling the shape of a knee should be.  My heart sank, I knew immediately what the outcome would be.  Because of the late hour all I could do was make her as comfortable as possible and keep her alpaca friends close to her for comfort and security until I could get the vet out in the morning.

Poor Miracle now runs and plays at the rainbow bridge among all the other great alpacas who have left this world.  She was a great girl and our happiest alpaca. The markings on her face always made it look like she was smiling and I’m sure she was.  She loved to play in the water buckets and bask in the sun.  She was perfectly comfortable with her human friends and wouldn’t bother getting up from a nap just because we wanted to mow the pastures.  Instead she’d watch us go by (within 6 inches sometimes) and then was smart enough to reposition herself onto the freshly mowed grass so we could continue mowing.  She was a sterile alpaca and instead all that energy went into her size. She weighed in well over 200lbs making her look more like a llama in size than an alpaca.  Unfortunately it was her over sized frame that the vet seems to think lead to the failure of her knee. 

Miracle, you will be missed. 

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The Dark Side of Fiber Arts

My fiber guest room

The bright side of fiber working is the thrill of creating a usable end product from the fuzzy creatures that happily munch on hay in my front yard.  The dark side unfortunately comes from storing, sorting, and keeping inventory of all that fiber!

I long for a fiber studio where I can have a wall full of bins to keep fiber, yarn, fittings and tools on one side and counter space, dye pots and room to twist rope on the other.  Instead my storage space is shared with the small 11×11 guest room we have.  With a bed, 2 dressers, and a night stand taking up most of the space I also manage to store all of my yarn, fiber and finished product inventory.  It is a controlled chaos until someone comes to visit and then all of that “stuff” has to find a new home so my guests are not sleeping in yarn and roving.  Though I would think it would make for a soft, warm and comfy bed. 

Sadly the fiber craziness isn’t confined to just one room.  That space is just for storage.  When it comes time to actually card, spin or make rope I then consume the rest of the house.  I’m so happy my husband seems to tolerate most of my work.  That is until I am spanning yarn 25’ across the living room and into the kitchen to make a new mecate.  As long as I don’t block the view of the TV causing his Mario character to die some horrible death in lava I can continue my work.  

Oh how I long for my own space.  As I dream of a new barn I think of ways of how I can incorporate a fiber studio into it.  I’m thinking, who needs a hay loft? That could be one great fiber studio!  Yeah now that would be ideal, storage for the shearing harvest and plenty of room for a place to work with fiber.

Check out what others are up to on Fiber Arts Friday with Wonder Why Gal

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Human vs. Alpaca Round 1


This past Sunday evening we decided to give the alpacas their monthly Ivermec shot and to trim toenails. Monthly shots are hardly exciting anymore and usually none of the alpacas put up much of a fight. Clipping toenails turned out to be a totally different story.

It turns out alpacas are fully aware of the 80/20 rule. 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your alpacas. I seriously think alpacas can count and do math. 1 out of 5 girls is 20% after all.

We saved the hard ones for last with the false hope that maybe they’ll watch the others and get the idea that no one was being killed. The others did such a good job and stood quietly as I picked up each foot and clipped the long nails off, I was really feeling hopeful. That was until we went to catch the last one.

Giving the shot wasn’t a problem at all and went smoothly. I slowly worked my hand down from the neck to her legs and the first explosion went off. Did you know that alpacas when standing on their hind legs are WAY taller than my 6’2” frame? Thankfully M was with me and the 2 of us got her under control, or so we thought. First it always starts with the spitting but in our case it was more like dodging grape shot. M had been keeping her occupied by feeding her hay stretcher and each time she spat the chunks of stretcher would fly out of her mouth like bird shot. Potentially hazardous, but thankfully no match for Carharts.

M finally got her in a good hold and I managed to clip the first foot and she then went into full wrestling mode with M. After a short tiff, the position I found both alpaca and husband was quite peculiar. M was straddling her, heck stuck out between his legs like a large knight mounted on a really small and fuzzy horse. M seemed as confused as the alpaca on how they ended up that way but she seemed to be comfortable and was still standing. So, I took quick advantage of the situation and managed to trim the other 3 legs.

Mission accomplished M dismounted his trusty steed. His mount seemed to have forgotten the whole event and immediately went back to sniffing out our hands and pockets for treats.
I’m not quite sure how to award this round so I’m going to consider it a tie.

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Dealing With Spring Thaw & Snow Melt

Ah yes its March.  What a beautiful time of year, days are getting warmer, birds are singing and the snow is melting into rivers and lakes flooding the interior of my barn.  *sigh*

We purchased a 30+ year old farm and barn which was made as quickly and as cheaply as possible.  In other words neither proper location nor foundation was ever considered when erecting the 35’x75’ barn.  Instead the barn sits at the bottom of the hill with no excavating or site prep.  With rain or snow melt the 5 acres of pasture uphill from the barn has its entire run off focused straight towards the barn.  I’ve done my best over the years to elevate the stall floors by 4-6 inches and dig trenches to divert water flow around the barn but it’s still a losing battle.

Instead, with snow pack higher than the floors of my barn the melt still flows right inside and through the barn.  I’ve become accustom to this barn flooding season and know where to store items to allow the water to run through the barn and out the back side. 

It is still disheartening when I just put down expensive fresh bedding in a stall just to check the barn camera’s 4 hours later to see a reflective lake shining back at me.  All I can do is hope that the snow melts fast and leaves little damage in its wake.

Moral of this story: When building a barn make sure it’s on high ground and has good drainage.  Also take into account snow pack being higher than the barn floor and have all run-in areas slope down and away from the barn.

Flooded Barn