Don’t forget that this year we will be making sport weight yarn at of our baby alpaca fibers and hiking socks out of our adult quality fibers.

Today I took the older boys. For New Mexico they need to be TB and Brucellosis tested. This means that on Friday I need to take them back so that the TB area can be looked at. We’ve done this every year now, so I don’t expect any scares.

The first show is next month at the NM State Fairgrounds. We are very exited to show and hope for the best.  

This year the fiber co-op of Arizona (you must belong to the Alpaca Breeders of Arizona Association in order to belong to the fiber co-op) plans on having hiking socks and sport weight yarn made. The socks are really warm and soft on the feet. The yarn will be 7 oz and soft like you couldn’t believe as we only put in baby alpaca fiber.

Right now my days are filled with cleaning fiber. I look forward to finishing and getting back my end product.

If you would like more information on our fiber co-op please feel free to contact me.  

Tom has purchased a biodegradable spray (pesticide) and it works great. Spray the area and in seconds you can walk by without being swarmed. The bad thing is that it only works for about 20 minutes. It is supposed to be used with a spray system. Unfortunately that is costly and even though the spray itself is a bit expensive we do see it is working. Maybe next year we can spring for the system.

The flies have caused some issues. They love to hang around our alpacas’ eyes. This caused a few of them to have eye infections. Poor Alexis had her entire right side of her face swell up. After I washed it out with saline solution and applied terramycin the swelling immediately started to go down. Within hours her face improved tremendously. However the next day we found her other eye and face beginning to swell. We treated both eyes just to be sure and everything is now clear. Next was Molly. Her face never swelled, but her eye was tearing a lot. We did the same treatment and she is now fine. The last to get hit was Carina. Her eye was tearing with a yellowish discharge. We had to treat her two times a day for about 3-4 days. She is now fine as well.

I have decided to take on a new defense against the flies. I have started to feed the birds in the hopes that I will attract insectivores. To date I have a pair of barn swallows who have set up a nest in my back porch. Normally I would remove the nest, but this is just the type of bird I need. They don’t eat seed at all and are purely insectivores eating flies among other type of insects. I hope they columnize.

I want to be like Apollo shown in this picture. If it isn’t raining dampening my mood and energy it is so hot that all I want to do is lay around. Funny, but when it is winter time I only wish that I could have the heat of the summer. When it is summer I only wish I could have the coolness of winter. Oh well.

I posted this picture of Apollo for another reason too. Many new breeders will be scared silly when they go outside and see their alpaca laying on their side motionless in the sun. Even the most skittish alpaca will lay still allowing you to approach and even touch them. Not to worry they aren’t dying. They are only sunbathing.  Notice that their bellies are facing the sun. The only time I will worry is if their belly is facing another direction than the sun and that will be a sign that something is not right.

Want to know when an alpaca should not be bred? Just take a look at the attached picture. Kaitlyn is spitting off Electra. Electra who is just a little over 18 mths should basically be physically ready to breed. However, she is not mentally. The reason Kaitlyn is spitting her off is because Electra keeps trying to nurse off of her. Here is the funny thing. Electra isn’t even related to Kaitlyn. Electra will not even try to nurse off of her own mom, but continues to try on a daily basis to suckle Kaitlyn who has no interest in allowing Electra to nurse at all. Tom says it is easier to wean Dominique, Kaitlyn’s cria, than it is to wean Electra. Another sign that Electra isn’t ready to breed is that she is still pronking and hanging out.

Before breeding a female you want to make sure that she is both physically as well as mentally ready. We will wait until the fall to see how she matures. If we still don’t think she is ready we will try again in the winter. We are in no rush and would rather wait than have to raise her cria due to her immaturity.

We are now in full monsoon season. It has been raining daily and sometimes it is a pure downpour for about 30-45 minutes. Tom has been busy each weekend adding wooden decks to the stalls, so that the alpacas can stand outside under the shade roofing and not get their feet wet. So far three decks have been built with another three to go before finishing. The weanling boys love their deck. As soon as they were put into their paddock they ran onto the deck and started neck wrestling with each other. Before they would huddle inside the stall as the ground was wet and muddy. Now they are almost always outside hanging out on their 10 ft deck.

This week we joined the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce. I am excited to be a member and look forward to joining one of their many committees. I love this community and feel I need to do more with it. One of the benefits of joining is that we can join in the Home and Expo Show held in September at the Buena High School. They advised that they have 4,000 people attending and that surely would help us in being noticed.

I am still working on my website facelift. It is amazing how many pages I now have in the site and it feels like it is taking forever to redo them. It gets boring at times, so I usually only change 2-3 per day. Anyway I am still plugging along with it.

I can’t remember if I advised that I am also taking a course on becoming a veterinary assistant. I am absolutely loving it. At this time I am halfway through the course. I think it would be ideal if I could find a PT job in a clinic when I am through, so that I don’t forget anything I have learned. Perhaps I will continue studying and get certified as a vet tech. Who knows….time will tell. After all I still have a full time job now along with the alpacas, dogs, cats, and fish that we have here.

That’s it for now. Stay dry!

It is hot here. High 90’s and low 100’s all this week. I go out at noon everyday and hose down the legs and bellies of all the alpacas. Funny how I seem to get kisses from the ones who never kiss me when I spray them down. I’m sure it feels real good to them. Especially to the dams carrying fetus’ in their bellies.

I took Emma and Carina to the vet last Wednesday and they are both confirmed pregnant. Lock & Load is the herdsire we used for Carina and Apollo is the herdsire we used for Emma. This is the second confirmed pregnancy for Lock & Load and the first for Apollo. It is exciting to see these young herdsires producing their first crias. Unfortunately we have such a long time to wait to see the results. Nonetheless they are pregnant, so that is one milestone down.

Two major changes seem to be occupying my time these days. I have enrolled in a veterinarian assist course. I am trying to learn more about animals and the illnesses (causes and cures) they contract. I definitely do not like feeling helpless when my alpacas, dogs, or cats are not feeling well and my vet is unavailable, so I decided to do something about it. I have already finished lesson 6 and am anxiously waiting for my new material to arrive, so I can dive in again.  

The second change is I am working on doing a website face lift. I am redoing the main website and because their are so many pages it is quite time consuming. However, I look forward to publishing the finished content. That won’t be for a little while yet.

Other than that things are quite calm around here. The alpacas and maremmas seem to be coping with the weather with the daily hosing down (not the dogs they don’t like to be sprayed) and staying in the shade with the fans and/or the two evaporative coolers we have on. 

This weekend we will be at the Bisbee Farmer’s Mkt again at Vista Park in Warren. We are there every other Saturday and bring our products from our DMAR Store.

AOBA National Show in SLC, UT: I just got back from the national show last night. I left last Wednesday for a fun time networking, learning, and observing alpacas. To my disappointment I didn’t do as well on my fleeces as I thought I would, however on the upside I did take a seminar on how to do fleeces and plan to put my newly found knowledge to work and redo my fleeces to see if I can improve the overall scores. I had a great time and look forward to the next show.  Of course that won’t be until the end of September in New Mexico.

DMAR Nikoli and DMAR Antonio: Both of these juveniles are now fully weaned and beginning their halter training. Both boys are for sale and I will have a link to their information within the month.

Bisbee Farmer’s Market: Tom and I will be back at the farmer’s mkt. this weekend. We hope to see you there.  

2008 AOBA Nationals in Salt Lake City, UT: I am so excited as this will be the first national show I will be attending. It runs from Wednesday, May 21st thru Sunday, May 25th. Thusday and Saturday are filled with seminars and show watching is left for Friday and Sunday. I will be entering six fleeces at the show. I have my fingers crossed.

Today we will spit check Emma who is bred to DMAR Apollo. Emma, a true black, is very fine, but lacks density. Apollo is a very dense medium brown male with wonderful crimp. Both maiden and herdsire have the typey head and nice fiber coverage. I believe this pair will create a wonderful cria.

All is well this week. This past Saturday we went to the Bisbee Farmer’s Market to find out that it had been moved to Elfrida. All was not lost as we were able to be vendors at the Fire Station Centennial Festival. Sales were good.