Posted by roo on April 1st, 2008 — Posted in Julia, Katie
Ever since seeing Katie for the first time I’ve had a soft spot for her incredible mass of beige fiber and her liquid black eyes, and was looking forward to purchasing her next month.
Julia arrived on the scene back in December, when John and Letti brought her back with them from Ohio, along with the other alpacas that were going to spend the winter in warm South Carolina. I wanted to see our newly purchased Dee Dee as soon as possible, so the day after they arrived I eagerly drove to the farm to greet her. Katie was standing at the fence, a lovely white alpaca standing next to her, and I could not help but notice the newcomer. She looked just like Katie, only white. Same solid frame, same mass of fiber, same large black eyes. ‘Wow’, I said to John… ‘Who is THAT?’
To cut a long story short, we took a close look at our finances and planned to purchase Katie in May and Julia in October. But then something happened to totally turn our plans around. It turned out that Katie was bred to not just one, but three sires. She is a brokered animal, so none of us had been aware of this until her information packet arrived. Looking at the pictures of the three possible sires, my heart sank. Only one of them was in my opinion worthy, and he was the least likely she was pregnant to. That same day I was told that Julia would be returning home to Ohio in the spring.
With a very heavy heart I made the decision to cancel the Katie purchase and invest in Julia instead. She is the daughter of Accoyo Merlin and is carrying her first cria, sired by Dakini AOC, winner of the Canadian Futurity. It was the first tough business decision I have had to make. Every time I look at Katie in the pasture now, I have to turn my face away because I am so sorry I can not purchase her at this time.
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Posted by roo on February 1st, 2008 — Posted in Billie, Katie, Farm Entry, Demi
She’s just 3 months old, but she looks like a goliath when she stands next to the two crias that were born on John’s farm earlier this week. The first one to give birth was Joanie, who is Dominic’s mother, and who had just recently been sold to Windtalker Farm. John called me as she went into labour, and although it took me just 15 minutes to get there, the cria was already on the ground with a towel laid across her as Jesse and I arrived. Still, I got to see the birthing routine that John and Letti perform (temperature, enema, vitamin and colostrum boosts, placenta inspection, etc) so that come the time for the crias to be born on our farm I at least have somewhat of a clue as to what to do.
Jesse was great - instead of going for the baby alpaca right away he stuck to my side like glue as I snapped picture after picture, but when I was holding her so that John could give her an enema, the little hand came out and began caressing the soft wool that had barely had time to dry. He was delighted that the baby was so receptive, and took it as an ‘ok’ to really give her rubs and hugs. Joanie did not mind, she merely stood over her cria, humming softly, and nudging her from time to time to make sure everything was okay. I was actually able to reach up and touch her without the fear of being spat at (Joanie is queen spitter) while the birthing endorphins were still running freely in her blood.
Coco Chanel
owned by Ron & Dale Hampton of Windtalker Farm
Imagine my surprise when two days later John called again, this time it was Bonnie (his own). A boy, and his colour is simply stunning. It doesn’t come across in the photographs too well, but he is what we call in horse language ’strawberry roan’ - very pretty! Bonnie was not as forgiving when it came to strangers touching her baby, and Jesse had his feelings hurt when he approached the baby and was given a warning spit (just air). He did have the opportunity to sneak in a few pats on the baby’s neck when I took some close up photos and he stuck close to me, like he had with Joanie’s baby a few days earlier.
BVA’s Chico the Man
It’s a very exciting time at John’s farm! It was around now that Penelope was supposed to be delivering Demi, so Jason and I are not expecting any crias of our own right now. However, in May Dee Dee is due to deliver her cria from AGO Gustav to us, and we are awaiting that birth with great excitement.At the same time, Katie is due with her first cria… yes, remember the Katie that I dreamed about? We have an arrangement with her owner that we put our deposit down on her when Jason’s tax refund comes in… so I still get to have her! So come May, Moonwood Farm will have quite a few newcomers. Dee Dee’s cria and Katie and her cria.
We gave John what we thought was our last payment on Dom and Penelope last week. We even went ahead and got their registrations transferred into our names, then I realised with a start when I looked over the paperwork at home that we were a payment short! No biggie, that will be fixed up. But how nice it is to finally outright OWN them! I also completed Demi’s registration yesterday… she will be the first alpaca to bear our farm’s name. How exciting!
On New Year’s Day Jason told John that he wanted to buy Billie. It’s a long story, but Billie is out of an Ohio herdsire that we’ve admired for a long time, PHAR Online. John was shocked and totally taken by surprise - he had never considered selling Billie, because Billie had never been proven (created a cria). After some negotiating between the men, they arrived at a price. We will begin paying off Billie this month. And then we are done with buying alpacas. For now.
Penelope, Dee Dee, Demi, Katie… our females. And then Dominic and Billie, our males. Two crias due in May, Penelope due again in mid-October. Our herd is quickly expanding!
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Posted by roo on October 28th, 2007 — Posted in Katie, Dee Dee, Demi
‘Who is Harlow?’, I asked John in the deeply early hours of Friday morning. I had arrived at the farm exactly at midnight, right on time and without getting lost thanks to the GPS that kept in constant contact with me as I drove the six hour journey alone in the dark. After happy greetings, a glass of blackberry merlot, and excited chit-chat about the surprise arrival of Demi, Letti retired to bed and John and I were able to talk business without boring anyone, without me having my attention divided between the conversation and Jesse’s antics. In my hand was a small stack of registration papers, animals that were currently on John’s farm to be brokered. John told me that she makes fantastic babies, but she herself really is nothing to behold.
‘And who is Katie?’ I asked, peering at the hefty price next to her name and knowing full well that I would not be able to afford her at this point in time But I saw the note that she was pregnant. ‘Ah… now THAT is a different story’, began John and proceeded to tell me about her bloodline and history.
At about 3:45 that morning, I finally rolled into bed, only to lay awake with over-tiredness and excitement about seeing Demi when the sun came up, and the business prospects that lay ahead.
It seemed like mere minutes later that I opened my eyes and light was beginning to appear through the curtain. The sun was rising, and I felt nauseated from exhaustion, my heart beating irregularly and hard in my chest as it always does from lack of sleep. But of course my mind, rising rapidly out its slumber now that my eyes had spotted the rising sun, was again beginning to race. Trying to go back to sleep proved futile, so I got up, went to the window, and squinted out.
I could see the paddock fairly closely, the alpacas huddled near the barn waiting for their morning feeding, and I scanned the area for the little cria I had been dying to see.
And there she was. Even without my contact lenses in, I could easily make out Penelope’s long graceful form towards the back corner, a small brown form by her side. For a moment I sat, just observing, then decided I would get a much better view by taking the time to leave the window and put in my contact lenses. When I returned I saw her clearly and decided that she looked even more like a deer on the tall slender legs that moved her body around as though she was gliding - so graceful for being just 4 days old.
I scanned the herd for the new alpacas, and two caught my eye. A solid, hefty, brown female with dark chocolate points and an eel stripe down the centre of her back… yes, an eelstripe… I had never seen that before on an alpaca! How unusual, I thought, and made a point to take a closer look at her once I was out and about the herd later that morning. The other was a lovely light-beige female with an amazing fleece. She was very tall and solid, and I loved her colour.
Next door I heard Letti go into the kitchen to make coffee, and so did the alpacas, who all turned their attention to the house at once, and I was amazed at their ability to hear so well. Each clutching a cup of coffee, Letti and I stepped into the paddock just a few minutes later, my camera slung over my shoulder.
Letti had no trouble catching Demi. I could not help but notice the change in Penelope’s character. The flighty, full-of-attitude, and high strung alpaca was now softly humming (yes, they make a humming sound, unlike anything you have ever heard), and nuzzling at Demi as Letti held her, and at Letti’s face, almost as though she was being affectionate. And then I realised with a start that she WAS being affectionate! Penelope? I was just amazed to see her so warm and gentle, not at all concerned about humans handling her new cria. I wanted more than anything to hug her, but alpacas are not very accepting of this, so I merely stood there, trying to make a brief connection with Penelope mentally, to thank her for the cria and to communicate my appreciation of her.
You may scoff at this, but several hours later when I was among the herd taking photographs for John’s website, I noticed Demi on her own, cushed in the grass while she was dozing in the little bit of sunlight that decided to break through the rainclouds. I approached her, crawling on all fours through the grass so that she would not be intimidated by my size. I was about two meters away from her and she quietly stayed where she was, observing me with a curious look, not once searching for her mother. I, on the other hand, glanced over towards the barn several times, expecting Penelope to come cantering out to see what exactly I was doing so close to her baby. But instead, I saw her head appear over the low wall a few times, her jaws busily chewing hay, her eyes fixed on us… but each time she returned to her hay instead of coming to investigate. She trusted me. She had obviously been aware of me thanking her that morning, because Letti, who was watching from the kitchen window, was enormously surprised. She had stated earlier that as soon as anyone approached the cria, Penelope would come running immediately. It felt nice, Penelope’s trust in me. She was showing me an entirely different side of her, the REAL Penelope, and as her owner, I was thrilled with this.
‘So does anyone catch your attention?’ John asked me. I pointed out the two females that I had seen from my window that morning and he laughed. ‘It is very interesting,’ he chuckled, ‘that you should pick those two.’
The brown one was Harlow. The beige one was Katie. The two alpacas that we had been discussing earlier that morning. Harlow, upon closer inspection, was indeed nothing to behold, although with her low price she would be a good buy because of her ability to produce good looking offspring. Katie, however, I was amazed by. Harlow’s daughter, incredible! That’s her in the picture above. Soft fleece, pretty colour, and very, very friendly. ‘John,’ I said, ‘I cannot afford her. I cannot even afford to put down a deposit right now,’ I told him, which spurred a long conversation which I will not bore you with, but resulted in a possible plan to purchase her using a method that would be affordable. I took pictures of her and decided to present her to Jason as our next purchase and see what his thoughts are on it.
We weighed Demi - she had only put on half the weight that she’s supposed to, which puzzled John. He said that the scales had been playing up a lot lately, that Demi looked good and had lots of energy. Perhaps the scales had been wrong when he weighed her after birth. I suggested he weigh her again in a few days to compare it to her current weight. Penelope is still operating on just one milk gland. Not a huge worry - Demi can always be fed supplemental milk from a bottle if need be. But she’s healthy, we gave her her first vaccination after weighing her, and turned her back into the paddock to be with Penelope.
Dominic looked great! He greeted me by nuzzling me through the fence, and John admitted that he never should have sold Dominic. I laughed at this. ‘Oh please,’ I exclaimed, ‘you’re just saying that because he’s on the verge of being bred for the first time!’ Yes indeed, I have secured a female for him. A small, black female that resides on Rachel’s farm in Ohio. She’s pregnant right now to the same sire (AGO Gustav) that produced a nothing short of incredible female cria with her earlier this year. The full sibling is due in June next year. Rachel has offered her to me for a very attractive price. I can put a deposit on her now, paying the rest in installments by 15 May and claim ownership of the cria when it is born… or I can buy her without the cria for a mere $5,000 once she has delivered. Right now I am seeing if I can afford to buy her with the cria she is carrying. Even if she produces a male, the male has a very high potential to become a herd sire due to his bloodlines. But either way, we will purchase this small female for the sole purpose of breeding to Dominic to see of Dominic has the potential to become a herd sire. Why is this particular female so cheap? Because once we buy her we will never be able to resell her. She suffered a jaw injury at some point and her jaw is therefore sharply out of alignment. But she’s an excellent mother and I would rather use a less expensive female to breed Dom to for the first time. So broken-jawed little Dee-Dee is going to be our farm’s ‘broodmare’, our guinea pig so to speak, once she delivers the baby she is currently carrying.
Now I just have to device a plan to secure Katie, who I very much want to add to our herd. *sigh
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