Sweet Harmony Farm blog
This winter continues to be warm and weird. Most nights are still well below freezing but the days are still rather mild for New Hampshire. We’ve hardly received any snow. It’s the middle of February and we can see the grass and weeds. Of course everything is brown and rather dreary looking, rather than bright green and colorful. We’ve been joking that the winter of 2011 – 2012 has been one very long mud season.
The alpacas are loving this weather. Usually in the winter they prefer to be snuggled into the barn in the deep straw, behind the front wall of tarps. All that hanging out in the barn makes them cranky and usually I find fresh spit on someone’s neck in the morning. This winter most of the alpacas usually sleep outside, cushed under the stars, chewing their cud and looking very content. During the day, they romp our frozen yet muddy pastures, playing and wrestling with each other. Some days that wrestling quickly turns into an all out tussle match and Stella and I run outside to try to break it up. Stella runs out barking and usually it subsides before I make it out to the barn.
Needless to say, fresh spit abounds. :)
To keep myself occupied this winter, I’ve been playing with my bags and bags of alpaca fleeces. Opening each bag, I know immediately which one of my alpacas formerly wore the fleece inside. :) I smile, thinking of them running through the pasture or greeting me in the barn with alpaca sniffs and kisses. I can feel their spirit running through my body and into my heart and embracing my soul. I am so attached to each and every one of them. I could never sell any of them. It’s hard for me to even think of selling their fleece! As I work with their fleeces ~ sorting, skirting, washing, combing, spinning ~ I smile even more. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There is joy in working with an animal’s fiber that you’ve raised yourself.
This morning I headed down to the barn like I normally do. So strange, this winter. It’s been warm, many days into the high 40’s. Aside from the freak October snowstorm, we really haven’t gotten any snow. The ground is generally hard from being frozen overnight with not enough daylight to really thaw it out, unless we’d had some rain. But even so, not that much rain either. So weird, but since we’ve had several years of record-breaking snowfall filled winter, hey, I’m not complaining about this one. :)
When I wake up some of the alpacas are cushed in the paddock, still sleeping. It’s been so warm that we haven’t even had to tarp over the upper half of the barn. We did put the tarps on the gates, but unless it’s windy, most nights we haven’t even had to shut them. Those nights, the boys are all cushed together in the deep straw, staying close to each other for warmth. There’s no snow, so as the sun rises the boys stroll out to the pasture and nibble on the stubby grasses.
A few of the alpacas were cushed out in the paddock. We’d put down some old hay and straw near the entrance fence, and Julio and Bo were cushed there, chewing their cud. I said hello to Bo as I walked by him to check out Julio. His lump has not gotten any better since we started the antibiotics. In fact it’s been looking worse, like he ate a golf ball and is holding it along his lower jaw. He’s been eating, spitting, and acting like his spunky, normal self though! We suspect he may be purposely stuffing hay there, to get more sympathy from us, so we’ll give him more pellets as treats. Julio, my Drama Queen. He knows I’m a softie.
Lately, we’ve been finding small holes dug, in the pen, up against the tack room wall. Dan and I fill them back in with stonedust and I’ve even put large rocks over them. A few days later another hole will appear, next to the rock. Damn! Over the weekend we thought we’d be clever and put the hose down the hole and turned on the water. The water poured out from under the back of the barn, and nothing else. Yeah.
I turned on the lights to the barn and walked into the pen. Yeah, no new holes! I stepped on the straw, just to double check against the back wall. Out of the corner of my eye, from behind the straw bale, something small with a long tail darted by along the wall and instantly disappeared into the teeny space next to the rock.
Right on cue, I screeched, loudly. EEwwww, yuuuuuuuuck!!
And also right on cue, I heard the alpacas all run across the paddock in a group.
For some reason when I express the urge to screech, I also simultaneously seem to close my eyes and stamp my feet. When I re-opened my eyes and turned around, the boys had walked back and were all standing there in front of the pen, wide-eyed, staring at me. All except Coty, who apparently is no longer bothered by my outbursts. He was still cushed by the outside hay feeder chewing his cud, never missing a beat. I choked out an apology. ‘Sorry boys, but you know those things gross me out.’
Earth walked over and gave my nose a long sniff ~ alpaca kisses. Ahh, much better.
p.s. This happened a couple days ago and apparently I’ve jinxed myself. Today, it’s snowing! But ......... no new holes in the pen!
It’s New Year’s Eve!
Well 2011 isn’t ending so wonderfully. Julio’s jaw abscess has returned, thankfully not too badly, and this week I’ve had a sore throat/earache thing going on which is leaving me totally exhausted. Perhaps Julio and I are just having sympathy pangs for each other? Animals are so in tuned to their caretakers and alpacas are no exception.
On New Year’s Eve I am always excited to look forward to the new beginnings of a new year. I blogged about that last year.
So today I’m just reflecting about this past year. 2011 has been a wonderful year! My big goal was to teach myself to process fleece myself and yup, I succeeded. I learned how to sort the fleece [yes, yes, actually that was at the end of 2010], and how to wash it, flick it, comb it, card it, and my favorite ~ spin it! I can spin on both a spindle and a spinning wheel!
Here’s my new spinning wheel, an Ashford Country Spinner:
And here are the first 2 skeins I spun ~ the blue one is Border LeicesterX wool with a little alpaca, and the red one is Border LeicesterX wool with a little mohair:
I love, love, love, bulky, funky, art yarns and my heavy Turkish spindle and the Country Spinner are both perfect for this. These bulky yarns are perfect for weaving on my frame looms.
I hope you all had a wonderful 2011.
Here’s to 2012! May you have an even more wonderful year!
Thank you all for reading our little blog! It means a lot to us.
Bright Blessings to all of you!!
Mona
When Dan or I bring down a bale of hay on the 2-wheeler, we usually hardly make it into the paddock past the gate and this happens:
Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!
Gratitude is such an important word. In November here in the U.S., many people ponder what they’re grateful for ~ it’s Thanksgiving time after all. Dan and I like to remind ourselves daily of the things we’re grateful for. When you’re feeling down and out, one way to make you feel better is take a deep breath, and think of the happy and good things in your life.
We are fortunate enough to say we can care for our alpacas. I know not all people can, usually through circumstances beyond their control. The stories are many and they are all sad. These stories will continue, I’m afraid to say. Yes I realize it’s not limited to the alpaca world.
Every time I hear of another alpaca farm in need of assistance, my heart sinks for the animals. But my spirits are lifted when I remind myself of the kind souls out there who work so tirelessly to aid these animals, which in turn helps their human caretakers.
Let us not forget the people who do this necessary work ~ taking in these alpacas, assess them for medical issues, keeping them warm and fed, until they may possibly be re-homed. These people, made up of individual farms and large organizations, are truly angels on earth in my eyes.
One such individual is Linda Lachanski, home of Pic-A-Paca Dreams Farm and Alpaca911 rescue, located in upstate New York. She has started up and coordinates a coast to coast network of alpaca farms willing to help out. And how can you help? You can sign up in the database! List your name and location, and how you can help. Any type of help is appreciated. Perhaps you can offer to trailer alpacas a short distance, or provide gas money for those trailering, or donate a few bales of hay or a bag of pellets. Perhaps you can take in a few alpacas or know of someone who can, even if for only a short time. If you are listed on the database, Linda will know whom to contact for assistance. What is needed the most are foster homes and permanent homes. Monetary donations are always graciously accepted if one cannot donate time or already has a full barn. Our country is large, the need is great and continuous, and certainly just one person cannot do it all.
Linda needs your help everyone! Let’s pass along good karma! Please visit the Alpaca911 group:
Needless to say, last weekend we received well over a foot of snow and lost power for several days.............
Our shearer had come by early Saturday morning to help us trim the alpacas’ toenails. Dan held them and Jay trimmed. Thank goodness for Jay, because our little herd would not be so accommodating if it were only Dan and me. The dark and ominous clouds rolled in rather quickly. After Jay left, we scrambled to get things ready while it was still daylight ~ close up the big barn door on the awning, shut the windows, put up tarps over the gate, find the straw amongst the many bales of hay in the garage, spread straw out in the barn, overstuff the hay feeders with hay, fill up the water buckets, bring in wood and more wood for our woodstove, then off to find a gas station to fill up the gas cans for the generator. It wasn’t too long after the storm started that the power went out.
So now I need to update my last post by saying this storm was the most snow I’ve ever seen in October in my lifetime. And it’s the only time that Halloween Trick or Treating had to be postponed due to a snowstorm..... LOL.
The sun came out Sunday morning and we spent all day shoveling snow, plowing snow, and trying to find our woodpile buried under the snow covered tarps. Dan plowed a path for the alpacas in the pasture and they spent the afternoon running laps in the brisk air and sunshine. Silly alpacas. They’re so easy to please. :) As is Stella, who is just as happy to romp through the snow as she is to roll in the grass. :)
This week we’ve been blessed by sunshine and more sunshine and the snow is melting, melting, melting. It’s finally gone in the pasture and lo and behold, there’s green grass growing again. The boys can still graze and cush outside of the barn, so maybe the early snow is a good thing? NOT! There’s still quite a bit of snow around the house and yard as it’s rather shaded from all the trees, but at least the mud is drying up.
Late yesterday afternoon, I thought that Mother Nature was playing a trick on us. The cold rain that had been falling all day quickly turned to heavy, wet snowflakes. Our beautiful maple trees, leaves still ablaze with autumn reds and oranges, were quickly transformed to white. New England is certainly well-known for its unpredictable weather, but in my lifetime I don't think I've ever seen [this much] snow in October.
We really weren't expecting snow. We scrambled to close up the barn the best we could by shutting the big awning door and all the windows. Luckily, there was no wind and the temperature hovered just below 30 degrees. The alpacas stayed cushed inside overnight, and were out first thing in the morning, as soon as the sun started shining and had melted enough snow to show the green grass in the pasture.
Mother Nature, we're still enjoying the fall weather. It's just way too early for snow!
