Cancer

Jen from Pennsylvania ordered this hat to be sent to a different address than her own. Come to find out it was to go to her sister-in-law's hospital room.
Her sister-in-law, Maria, is receiving chemo and will no doubt be losing her hair, and Jen wanted her to have something besides the tradition chemo scarf.
Jen says, "She's the best"

I hate cancer! It's a horrid, sneaky disease. Smitty was setting fence posts 2 months before he died.

I hope that you all will send good energy, or prayers, or whatever you believe in out to Maria and all the others who have had their world shaken by this horrible illness.

I Dyed Yesterday

Sharon gave me over a pound of adult, white, alpaca roving quite some time ago thinking that I might like to dye it up. Look at it! Isn't that yummy! As alpacas age their fiber tends to become less fine so when you see something listed as "adult" alpaca, keep that in mind so that you are not disappointed in the softness. I used my crock pot to dye 5 different dye lots.

I got one batch of two 2 ounce bumps listed in my Etsy store. See here

I say 2 ounces but I alway weigh at least 1/10th over, usually 2/10ths.

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And what's a post without a picture of an alpaca? This is Chinella ( 1 year, 4 months old) who is joint owned by Beth and me. Lucky for me, Beth doesn't spin so I can't wait till May to get my hands in this lovely black, black fiber.

Jr's New Duds

It was warm here yesterday and I wanted to wash Jr's (Libra's) coat, so after cutting part of the sleeves off an old turtle neck, I slipped it on him. I cut a couple slits for his back legs and gathered the extra up in a little pony tail and fastened it with a rubber band. He's styling, isn't he? It is supposed to be cold again tonight (about zero), so I slipped his regular coat over his T neck for the layered look. By the way, he is up to 28.3 pounds tonight. EEEHAW!
I guess that I'm going to have to put a halter on him soon if I continue weighing him weekly because he's getting pretty heavy for me to pick up. He's a good little boy though and doesn't squirm.
That mess on the back of his neck is hay. Because he's so small, the rest of the alpacas eat above him and lots falls down and sticks in his fiber. I'm definitely not saving that baby alpaca fiber at shear time.
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I dyed a little over a pound of alpaca today - 5 different dyelots to go in to my Etsy store.

New? Sweatshirt

For Christmas daughter Terre gave me a gift card to Macys. Knowing full well that I won't be going to the city for a long time, I found this hooded sweatshirt on line and ordered it. Can't have too many hooded sweatshirts for the barn, you know. I thought the kids would be proud of me because it's a Ralph Lauren and not another shirt from Tractor Supply. Polo is a big deal name brand, I think. I really love it!

This morning I pulled it on over my turtleneck to head out for chores. I liked that the cuffs were long and turned them up. Well, damn, the cuffs are all worn with holes. Thinking I could pull the mailing envelope out of the trash and send it back, I noticed that the holes are all in threes and evenly spaced around the cuff. Oh, my gosh, this must be the worn look...... Duh! Yep, I'm definitely an old timer .

Help Me with My Morning Chores

I thought it might be fun for you to help me with my morning chores. The first thing we do is throw my obnoxious horse, Ivan, a tiny bit of hay or he will continue banging on his stall door with his hoof.
Separate Sonata and Jr (above ▲) and give Jr his two tubes of gruel before it cools off. Toss a pad of hay into their feeder. Can you tell that it's still dark out? And look how he's growing. His coat is quite small for him.
Now go back to the horses and give each horse a drink because they will be shut out for the day and then give them a scoop of grain. Don't forget to slip some Bute (horsey aspirn) into Abbey and Kellys' pails. Water the alpacas while you have the hose out.

While the horses are munching, go back to the alpacas and fill the pans for the babies ► When you hang the feeders on the gate, call them, and they will come right over. The big girls can't get into this pen so the little ones can eat in peace. So now you can fill 5 more pans with alpaca pellets and feed the big girls.

Open their door and throw some hay out in the nice clean snow for them. Leave a little inside also.

Turn all four horses out with a couple pads of hay. Leave Cord's door open so that he can come inside if he likes.

Over to the 4 boys' pen and spread 5 pans of pellets on their gates. Leave a couple feet between each pan so they don't get to fighting and spitting at each other. When they spit, their bottom lip hangs open and they can't eat for a while. I read somewhere that the spit is quite acidic and that's why they do that. Don't know though. Open their door and put some hay outside for them. They didn't clean up all their hay from last night so don't give them as much.

I hope that you remembered to speak individually to each 4 legged and called them by name. I believe that like kids, they each need the special attention.

Now before you go in, think back, does each critter have food? water? are all the doors secure? This only took us an hour. If Josh weren't coming to clean, we would be out here for two more.

Walking in we pass by the horses who give us a look of thanks (or so I like to think).

My Path to Humility

The definition of humility is "the quality of being humble". I became humble this morning when my snow blower wouldn't start. I've been a little proud and feeling "just a little bit superior" that I can get my snow blower going and stuff plowed out before the neighbor guys get around. You know, that "I am Woman, hear me roar" stuff.
Well, she wouldn't start this morning and I asked Ben who was plowing my driveways with his truck if he would take a look at it. Well, duh, what I thought was a choke is actually some sort of prime thingy. Using the correct little choke lever, it took right off.
So above is my snow blower path to humility and the barn......

Another Vet Call

This is little Lyra with her mom Celeste right after she was born last spring. Today Vet Russ had to come out and redraw blood because Michigan State's lab totally messed up the samples that we sent in a month ago. We were testing progesterone levels in Celeste ↑ and Lady Belita to see if they could be pregnant. The lab also screwed up our blood samples from the babies that were sent for BVDV testing so we had to redraw from the babies. You can't even imagine how hard this is to take blood from their necks when it is covered with 4 inches of fiber. Cudos to you, Russ.

....and this is Celeste and Lyra now. Lyra has really beautiful dense, crimpy fiber that is a beautiful golden fawn color. I can't wait for the May shear to get my hands on this fleece.

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Have I mentioned the sub zero temperatures? ☺ I'm pretty sick of hauling and busting up frozen water pails. We are supposed to get a big snow tomorrow and then maybe a warm up to the 20s.