Roadtrips and alpaca porn
And so it came to be that on 20 February 2008, Billie finally had his first chance at breeding. For a first time breeding, he did really well, but John accidentally dislodged him while trying to pull Jazzabella’s tail out of the way, and neither of us had the feeling that he managed to successfully complete the breeding after that. However, time will tell and in a few weeks we’ll put them back in together and see what happens. If Jazzabella rejects him than chances are large she is pregnant and we can go ahead and do a pregtone on her. If she cushes, well then we’ll have to start again from square one.
It can be tricky with maidens, especially when the sire has no experience either. In May we will be breeding Katie to him, and if that proves unsuccessful too (Katie is picky - she rejected her first sire… something about him she didn’t like I guess, because she cushed immediately for her second one) then we will bring in Dee Dee as a last resort, who cushes on demand and will be easy for Billie to breed to.
We had to help Jazzabella cush because she didn’t know what to do
this picture was taken by Jesse with my camera while I was busy!
Alpaca porn… two in one paddock, two in another
Getting the tail out of the way and Billie slides off slideways
Back at it without assistance this time!
On the 22nd I loaded up the ladies and we headed to Florida for our camelidynamics clinic with Marty McGee Bennett. It was an ungodly hour when we arrived, somewhere around 2am, and even though Carolyn had booked the room weeks ago, they had the gall to tell us there were no non-smoking rooms left. There’s nothing like the smell of stale cigarette smoke penetrating your hair and clothes, especially when paying more than $100 a night at the Holiday Inn Express. But we were so tired none of us complained and we all promptly fell asleep. The clinic exceeded my wildest expectations! Camelidynamics is based on taking away an alpaca’s fear and in turn finding that it will co-operate fully with you once it no longer fears the situation. We were taught special ways of catching, haltering, leading, even being shown how to trim their feet and give medications (including injections) without restraining the animal. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was a fantastic experience to see that it is possible to treat your alpaca with kindness and respect instead of having to physically herd them into a corner and doing a superman dive, throwing your arms around their necks and wrestling them into submission. I bought some equipment to take back with me (including Marty’s book ‘The Camelid Companion’ which she signed for me).
I did have a small moment with Billie upon our return, who was wandering around his pasture with his halter still on (a big no-no, they are not like horses). Using the techniques I had been taught, I managed to get him into a herding pen with Dale’s help and I used a catchrope on him. ‘Bronco Bill’ was a name he was given for a reason… he can be rather wild and unruly when handling him. And yet he stood like a little lamb without restraint as I did TTOUCH on his neck and head. He would not let me touch his face, which was not surprising although it did make it difficult to take off his halter. In the end he flung it off himself as I undid the buckle, but at least it was off. And I was elated that the technique had worked so well!
Jesse and I are home for a few days. I’m trying to get work done on the house because by the end of this year we’d like to have it ready to be placed back on the market so that we can go looking for a farm.
Discovered a little fiber store just outside of Huntsville where I bought some carded fiber (sample bags of alpaca, yak and silk) and a drop spindle. With the help of a book that I borrowed from their library, I managed to spin some yarn, but geez… in some places it’s really thick and in others super thin like thread. It will take lots of practice to get it even, but I can already see why handspun yarn is so popular! It’s not rough like machine processed fiber. Using the drop spindle is interesting and fun, although I can’t wait to use a spinning wheel in two weeks when Carolyn and I attend that spinning class!
