June PhatBox Contribution

This blog entry is a tribute and thank you to the purchasers of the Phat Fiber Sample Box each month. I thought it might be fun for you to see what goes into those tiny little samples that you receive from all of us Phatties.
I'll skip over feeding, vetting, shearing, and caring for our dear 4 leggeds and jump right to that big, clear, plastic bag of freshly shorn alpaca fleece.
That's white Pollux (Luxie) above. After washing his fleece, I dyed three batches in my crock pot. Our Phat theme this month is Oceanic so I thought blues for water, yellow for sun, white for foam, and brown for sand.
I didn't have to dye any brown and just used Polaris's ↓ golden brown fleece just like it is, well, I did wash it...

After all this is dry, it's off to the carder. This picture → shows you peeling the fiber off the carder. If you want more info about my carding go here. I made these batts in layers - example - white, brown, blue, white, or whatever my gutts said to add next. As I was carding, I tossed in some crystal, shiney angelina, and some dyed silk that's been laying around forever. You can be a little creative when carding but after a while, I think it's a little boring. I priced a motor to speed things up a little, but they are about $1,000.

I ended up making 5 batts and stripping each batt to 4 strips which I then drafted a little to make it spin more like roving. (Drafting-pulling the fibers out so they line up next to each other in a thinner little roving)

Then I wrapped each strip around my hand, tucked the end in, to form these little nests.

........and tied each nest with some handspun alpaca yarn. I created little cards on my computer with pictures of Lars and Luxie. They deserve the credit for producing such lovely fiber for me, right? And the buyers need to know what they are getting and who it is from.

The final step is going on line to purchase my postage and stuffing the nests into the bag. Oh, and tossing in a few lavendar sachets. Jessie, our PhatLady who does all the promoting, coorinating, and mailing, gets a bigger sample of what I send to say thanks.

JR in with the Big Boys

It's time that JR leave his mommy and go live with the boys. He's 8 months old and weighs 60 pounds now. He seems very healthy. I put him in with Tribute ↑ and Snickers →. Trib is a herd sire, but slight in frame and Snickers is just 3 days older than JR. They seem to be getting along fairly well. Last night Trib was chasing the little guy more than I like so Trib got separated for the night. When I went to the barn this a.m., JR was snuckled right up beside Snickers ☺ JR does spend quite a bit of his time looking for mom Sonata, but he's not pacing the fence or crying, and he seems to be eating well.

....and here's a picture of sweet Cassie protecting her duck.

Farm Improvements

Earlier in the week I blogged about adding some cement to the alpaca areas. This is the step that I had made for the girls. I've always wanted one here 'cause it's a little scarey for newborn crias. Can you see that I had the contractors put a rough finish on it? I'm hoping that walking in and out daily, will wear down the girls' toes somewhat so that I have less trimming to do.
And this shot below is where the boys hang out. Whenever we had rain, it would flood quite a bit. No more, I hope, 'cause they raised it about 3 inches.

And here we are inside with the girls. I made them a feed trough from gutter evetroughing. Kinda cool, isn't it? I did manage to have the drill slip and I have a very black spot on my thumb nail.

They were all hesitant about eating from it, but are doing fine now. Well, except Ariana, she doesn't seem to trust that it's ok. I may have to give her a separate over the rail pan if she doesn't catch on soon.

And below is my yesterday project. There has been a rather large area of grass between the girls' pasture, on the left, and the outdoor arena, on the right. I didn't like mowing it so fenced it in. There were gates that will open so that I can let the alpacas in through here to the outdoor arena for more pasture.

I built it with 6 old metal gates that have been around for a long time. I pounded in the T posts and wired the gates to them. Hope it holds. ☺ The really good thing is that the alpacas don't challenge fencing at all.

If it sounds like I'm bragging about my projects, well, I guess I am. I am really pleased that when I get an idea, I don't have to run out and find help. I'm slow and maybe a little dangerous with the power tools but I can get stuff done. About the power tools, I really am afraid of them. The louder the noise, the bigger the fear factor from me.

Busy Day on the Farm

I am going to receive a couple thousand dollars in June and really need to spend it. ☺Help the economy, you know ☺ I wanted either hard wood floors in the house or cement work in the barn. Guess you know what I decided on......

Yesterday about one, the cement guys showed up. We had to rip out the mats that were in the stalls. Remember that I used to board horses. The right amount of dirt was underneath so they didn't have to add or take away any.

This is the skid loader that they used to get the cement down the aisle to the spot. I also had them build a little ramp outside the girls' door which I had them really rough up. I'm thinking less toe nail clipping. They finished about 6 and all the 'pacas had to spend the night outside. Glad the weather has improved.

....and across the road Matt was planting corn. Isn't it amazing! I think he's planting 24 rows at a time. Holy Sha mo lee!

Almost Nine Months

You know, I haven't mentioned lately how I've been doing..... For newcomers to my blog, my husband was diagnosed with colon/liver cancer last July and died in August. I'm 67 and live alone now, well, except for my dear 4 leggeds. Family and my incredibly awesome friends have helped so much to make this transistion to single woman easier.

My 2 dogs, 3 cats, 4 horses, and 16 alpacas are an excellent reason to get out of bed in the morning. I've never thought of being too depressed to get moving and frankly, before Smitty's death, there were a couple of mornings when it felt like too much effort and I had no good reason to face the world. I know that these animal friends are sending me good energy all the time - the cat and dogs in the house, - cats, horses, and alpacas in the barn.

Because of them I am quite physically active. Keeping the pooh picked up from these critters keeps me moving. Billie (my across the road neighbor) and I walk 2 miles every morning and ride our bikes a couple every evening - weather permitting.

Sometimes I do a reflection and think about what it was like a year ago when we didn't even know that Smitty was sick. Sometimes I get out his journals and take a look at what was "normal" for us.

Strangely enough, the only time now that I feel the overwhelming, oh, my gawd, he's gone feeling is when I'm alone in the car. Don't really know what that's about.....maybe it's a safe place to be sad.

This is Smitty with our first granddaughter and his Haflinger pony, Thor. He loved them both.

I regret that the kids and I never had a "so you're leaving" discussion with him.....

What has brought up these thoughts is that yesterday I spun for classes at a nearby elementary school and at lunch a woman said - Isn't it interesting that when a couple isn't close, the survivor does real well, but with really close couples, the survivor has a hard time because the two of them had become one. This really pissed me off at the time - and it still does. How absurd to make a comment like that...

Cold Michigan Mornings = Shivering Alpacas

We sheared last Thursday and then had a couple of below freezing nights and a few cold alpacas. I coated the ones who seemed the coldest. Above is Tribute (showing off behind him is little Snickers and on the other side of the fence is our other herd sire, Polaris). And on the right is JR who is still in with the girls. I know, I know, they probably would have been just fine, but it made me feel better that I could do something for them. I have to admit though, we had quite the battles getting the coats on and off.

For some reason I wanted to show you the pallets with what's left of my hay. I had 700 bales, stacked up above the windows, and this is it until Phil, my super hayman, cuts more. Fortunately, I'm not feeding much now because we have quite a bit of pasture. This picture was taken in my indoor riding arena which has now become alpaca pens and hay storage. My horse friends will recognize the dressage letters on the wall. I like to keep them up as a reminder of another era in my life.

......and this picture is for my son, Rob, who teaches at Scranton U in Pennsylvania. He asked me on the phone about JR because he couldn't tell from my blog pictures just how much he is growing. Here he's standing in front of Chinella who is a year and a half. Looks great, doesn't he? He runs and plays now and wants nothing to do with any supplement that I offer him. He does love his pellets though. I'm thinking that he should be weaned soon and go over and live with his buddy, Snickers.

Drum Carding My Alpaca

Yesterday I talked about washing this lovely fiber from Mira (white) and Lyra (dark fawn) and today I will show you how I prepare it for spinning.

This is my Strauch carder which I love. I've tried others but my alpaca fiber and I like this best (although I would dearly love to put a motor on it). On the left above I've fluffed up and spread out some of the fawn fiber. Turning the red handle will pull the fiber in to the picky/pokey licker-in while the big drum with the little curved wires rotates and straightens the fiber out. I planned this batt to be in layers.

After carding the first layer of fawn in, I add a layer of white as you can see in this looking down on the carder shot. Then I layered up another fawn and another white. As the wheel is turning, the brush on top lightly presses the fleece down, but after each layer, I use an old cheap bristle brush to further compact the batt.

There is a small strip with no wires on it so that you can slide a big knitting needle or special tool like the one above to loosen and pull the fiber up.

Then using your hands and slowly turning the drum, you pull the fiber off. This came off very smoothly, probably because the staple lengths are 5 to 6 inches long.

I like to run my fleece through just once to avoid any broken pieces (noils), but if I wanted to I could divide this up and run it through again for a more blended look. I want the white and fawn separated because I think it will spin up beautifully.

Roll those little beauties up and you have gorgeous batts ready to be spun. I have enough washed up to card some more for me to spin, so I think I'll put these in my Etsy shop when I get some time. One weighs 1.6 ounces and the other is 1.8 ounces for a total of 3.4 ounces