Pollux

Just had to share with you this picture that Beth took this spring at the Davisburg show. Too cute, aye?

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We are having a new roof put on the stable end of the barn this week. It has several leaks. But we are not touching the roof over the indoor arena because it's huge and would cost a fortune. Right now all of the roof is black shingles but we requested a dark gray metal on the end. Hope that it looks all right.

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We are looking for straw to use as a bedding for the sheep. We have never used straw before and it sounds really messy to me. There I go again fretting about a dirty barn. The alpacas live on rubber matting and have a small area to poop in to which I add a pelleted product designed for horse stalls that absorbs moisture and odor. We put wood shavings in the horses' stalls that comes from a local lumber yard. Every morning, everything gets picked up, inside and out, and goes into the manure spreader which is spread every couple days. With our good manure management, we have very few flies ----- OK, there I go again. Probably too much information.

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Thursday we're driving to Ohio to pick up four of the little darling sheep (hope that I am still saying this a year from now). We are getting 2 black yearling ewes, 1 black lamb ewe, and a black whether who will run with our soon to be coming white yearling ram. (Heh, heh, did I get that terminology right, Cary?) Daughter Terre will be coming out to check barn water and to let the dogs out because it looks like an all day trip. We are taking the pickup (it has a topper) and will put them in the back. Amy Bidlack told me that some people actually fly them in dog crates in airplanes.

I ♥ to get pictures of projects that my buyers have made. It's so fun to see what my yarn has become. This charming baby set is from Linda in Dayton, Ohio. She calls this shower gift, "Goldie" Linda made "Goldie" from yarn that I spun from the fleece of alpaca Beau. The darker trim is from Tobasco. Thanks so much, Linda, for sending this to us.
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OMG! Linda reminded me after I posted that she bought roving, not yarn. I checked the purchase date and that means that she created this lovely in less than two weeks - spun it & knitted it. WOW!

Husband has gone and done it. We are now not only alpaca shepherds, but also will be sheep shepherds. Yesterday we drove to Brooklyn, MI and put money down on a ewe (that's a girl) and a boy ( is that a buck? a ram? a gelding? - I have a whole new vocabulary to learn.) The little girl isn't weaned yet so we can't get her until the end of this month. He also called a farm in Ohio and spoke for 4 more there.
Credit for this charming picture goes to Amy Bidlack of Shepherd, MI. Amy is the lovely person who helped us get started in this new adventure. Visit her farm, The Bidlack Pasture


♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Breeding update
Hopefully the two girls here are bred. Ariana did another 20 minute breed with Alde this a.m. and Celeste did a little couple minutes with Pudge yesterday. We will spit test both of them in a couple of days. Spit test? We're not going to spit on them although my imagination is going wild creating a new pregnancy test. What we do is take the girl up to the stud and, supposedly, if she is, in fact, bred, she will run, or kick, or spit, or all of these to reject the male. I guess the old head ache plea won't work here.

Oh, my gosh, so much has happened since I last posted, I'm not sure where to begin. Will do this chronologically, I guess. Tuesday Mary and I drove to Hastings to pick up my roving. It's GORGEOUS! Thank you so much, Suzanne. I have been weighing and wrapping it to get ready to sell. Actually, I'm just loving getting my hands into it. Were eight bags, I think. These pictures are of my two favorites. The black is from Berringer and has blue silk in it. You can see by the skein above that I couldn't wait to spin up a couple ounces. It spins beautifully and almost wants to be lace weight. The lighter picture is white merino, gray alpaca, fawn alpaca, and hand dyed pink silk. It's yummy to handle and look at. Will see how it spins soon. I am listing batches in my Etsy store as I finish them.

Mary and I ran over to Nashville to have lunch with my bestest friend, Marianne. We visited her 3 dogs, 2 horses, 2 alpacas, 2 goats, and numerous chickens and ducks, and got a tour of her fabulous gardens. Marianne will be selling her awesome soap in our booth at Allegan's Michigan Fiber Fest.

Celeste


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Breeding update: Celeste stayed down for about 10 minutes for a breeding this a.m. My friend Phil of Applewood Alpaca Farm brought over a young stud of his. Beth and I had both noticed that Celeste doesn't seem to like white boys (does that make her a racist?) so thought we should try a different colored alpaca. Phil brought Pudge, his fawn colored boy, over and after about 15 minutes of being silly, she seemed to figure out what she was supposed to do. YEA! He will bring Pudge back in about three days to try again. If you want to see Pudge click on Phil's link above and look for Silver Creek's Minute Man.

About 9:30, Mary and I are leaving for Suzanne Pufpaff's mill to pick up my roving. I am so excited to see it that I was up at 4:30 this morning.

♥♥♥♥♥ 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.