♥♥♥♥♥ Eeeehaw! Ariana bred for 24 minutes (yep, that's right - exactly 24 minutes - we time them ☺) with the handsome stud Alderon who is here for a 'paca holiday. We are so hoping that Celeste will be willing tomorrow a.m. Although alpacas are induced ovulators the do have a cycle of about two weeks when follicles ripen and she will be usually be more ready to breed and conceive. We women living together, and horses, and dogs, and who knows what else, will have our periods together. So I'm thinking, why not alpacas. If Ariana was ready today, why not Celeste tomorrow?

This picture is of our sweet Ariana and her last cria, Orion (barn name - Slammer). She was bred to a black boy and produced brown Orion then, but Alde is white so I'm predicting a white cria next spring. Gestation is 11 months.

Back on Blossom Street

About a month ago I received an email from Anne, a Marketing Coordinator, who asked if I would like a copy of Debbie Macomber's new novel to review and use in any way to promote it. Of course, I said yes because I am a Macomber fan. In fact, I had just ordered a copy from Amazon. I received these two copies in the mail and cancelled my Amazon order. I read one and was delighted to meet old friends and be introduced to a few new ones. I knew that I was going to give these away and didn't want one to look read. Have you ever read a book by opening it just enough to peek inside? Husband thought it was pretty funny.

My give away plan is to use them as drawings on Saturday and Sunday at the FiberFestival in Allegan, MI. That would be August 18 and 19, 2007.

♥♥♥♥ Still no alpaca breedings here.

Getting ready for Michigan Fiber Festival

This is what I have been doing in my kitchen for the last few days. Definitely not cooking. I hate to cook! I'm going through bags and bags of roving deciding what I want to get ready for the Michigan Fiber Festival. I couldn't decide how I wanted to present the roving. Leaving it in the plastic bags and weighing up for people doesn't seem very professional so I came up with this process.

First I weigh out the roving into 1 or 2 ounce piles (I always add a little more), then wind it around pegs on my warping board. The pictures that you see happen to be the 1 ounce samples. Cary suggested that I do 1 ounce samples for folks to try. Sure appreciate her advice since I have only done a walk through at a fiberfest once in my life and don't really know what I'm getting ready for. Anyway...... then I am wrapping the sample with a label featuring a picture of the alpaca that I printed up on cardstock on my computer. I think I will price these small samples at $4 a ball? bump? wrap?, and offer a mix and match at 4 for $12.

So far I have wrapped 73 2 ounce samples and 32 1 ounce samples. Goes fast because I can do it on my bar dividing the living room and kitchen, allowing me to visit or watch television.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Anyone interested in the breeding that is supposed to be going on in the barn -Ariana almost cushed (cush, meaning kneeling on all 4s) this a.m. She was interested but wouldn't stay down. I'm trying to be patient.

'Paca Porno

I'm going to talk about alpaca breeding because I think the whole alpaca thing is so interesting. First of all, you must realize that alpacas are induced ovulators which means they won't ovulate until conditions are right. The conditions are, or so I understand, that the male must penetrate her and while he is doing that, he orgles. The orgle is a loud, gurgling sound that the guy makes the whole time he is with his woman. The mating itself may go on for half an hour or so and the whole time, he is doing his orgling thing. It may take a long time because he is a dribbler, not a spurter. :-)

The reason I'm mentioning this today is because we have been trying to get a breeding on Celeste and Ariana, so every morning this week one of them have gone over to visit Alde, our visiting stud. We aren't having much luck. If the female is ready, she will cush (like little Orion is doing in the picture above). If not ready or pregnant, she supposedly will spit at him, maybe kick, and run off. Neither of the girls are doing this, but they just won't go down for him.

We are definitely amateur breeders and are getting frustrated. I guess there is about a two week period when their receptivity raises and falls. I think we need to be patient for another week or so.

Update on the two girls who are off to be bred - haven't heard from Lady Belita in Jackson, but Sonata, at Belding, probably is bred and will be ultrasounded soon. We're hoping - that's with Tribute, the handsome gray guy with incredibly fine fiber.

The picture above is of Orion and mom, Ariana, just an hour after birth. Alpacas don't lick or clean their cria up like many animals but let them dry off naturally. This makes me think of another fun fact to know and shout. They normally have their cria in the morning or before 1 or 2. The theory on this is that in the mountains (Andes) of South America, it gets very cold at night and to survive the newborn needs that sun of daytime to dry off and warm up.

Later in the day. Hmmm, this probably WAS "too much information" . Sorry, I guess I just got carried away but, like I said, I find the whole process incredibly interesting and sometimes assume that the whole world wants to know what I know........and then the teaching genes just kick in.

Hoodie by Pam

Look at the hoodie that Pam made for me to give to the grandgirls for their American Girl dolls (actually there are two of them in different colors). Isn't it just way too cute?! I feel a little guilty because Pam has designed and knitted doll clothes for me before. When I give them to Meredith and Elizabeth I really don't mention who made them. Well, naturally the girls think their clever, wonderful grandma made them. Uhmmmm, is this lying by omission? I will fess up this time when I present them. Maybe.....

Take a look at Pam's Etsy shop to check out her own designs. Pamala's Pastime. I so admire that she can design and write a pattern. You can also visit her blog.

Passing On Addictions

I guess that my addictions and/or passions are both my love of animals and of fiber arts. My own three grown children are animal lovers, be it dogs, cats, birds, worms, wildlife, whatever, and this passion has filtered down to the two grandgirls. This is 5 year old Elizabeth resting on my good girl, Cassie, and 8 year old Meredith is holding up her first, just cut off the loom, weaving. She thinks her weaving wants to be a pillow. We used up a bunch of my not really nice alpaca handspun yarns for our first project.

I'm pretty optimistic that we may hook our little, always on the go, Elizabeth into our fiber fun. She spun a little yarn on my wheel for the first time yesterday. Before this she just wanted to pedal - FAST. She also wove a couple rows on Meredith's weaving.

I'm alternating spinning the yarn and knitting on my Faroese shawl pattern. I have made enough mistakes that I'm not entering it into the MIAF fiber arts contest this fall. I still am really enjoying the knitting on this so am already thinking ahead to what kind of yarn to spin for my next one. Maybe some of that alpaca/dyed silk that is being made into roving for me......

Love is in the Air

Yesterday I mentioned how little the alpacas look in the horse trailer. I took this picture this morning so that you could see. The 4 legged is Sonata, 2 legged is husband, who I call Smitty, but his name is really Howes.

Today Sonata made the journey to Belding, MI, to hopefully be courted by Tribute to Money. He is a handsome, gray stud who lives with Leslie and Bob Gosnell at Irish Valley Farm . You can see him if you take that link and click on alpacas. You can also see Sonata's mom, JLFA Sofie.

I whispered across the fence to Tribute's ear "Healthy, rose gray, girl" That would be the ultimate for us. Sonata probably won't be home for a few months and we will really miss her. She's our greeter for all our visitors because she gives kisses and likes to be scratched. Little Orion will have to assume this role 'till she gets home.

The two girls left here, Celeste and Ariana, look lonesome in their pen. They are going to meet up with a boy who is coming to visit next week. I can only hope for 4 babies next spring.