December 21, 2008: Veronica presented us with a Christmas gift of a fine little girl (LHAF Princess Jasmine) on the 18th. Jazz is black and very dark brown with very soft, dense, curley fleece. She was born during a warm spell and that has given her a head start against the colder weather yet to come this winter. Both mom and cria are doing fine. This is our last cria of the fall season, with our next cria not due until May of 2009...Merry Christmas everyone...

November 24, 2008: On the Green Planet Channel recently, Bill Nye, the host of the show "Stuff Happens", was reporting about how there are millions of cashmere goats in China, and they are turning their grazing land into desert. He said that the dust storms in Beijing were from the winds sweeping over the mountains that had been made bare by the goats.      He suggested an alternative.................ALPACAS!!

November 12, 2008: Earth Angel gave birth to a beautiful little girl (LHAF Angel's Grace) yesterday afternoon. She was tiny at only 11 lbs., 7 oz. She was full term, but just a small cria. Believe it or not, she was yet another dystocia birth. Only one leg and the head was out at first, so Greg suited up and went in and found the other leg and got it repositioned and the cria came sliding out to her abdomen and stopped again. After no further progress for about ten minutes, another exploratory trip was done and it was discovered she was twisted to the right and her rear legs were sideways. Again, the legs were repositioned and out she came. She has a little limp to her left hip, but it is getting better as time goes along. Probably a little strain during the repositioning of the rear end. She is almost exactly the same color as our male cria (Caesar) from the same sire. However, Caesar was out of a true black dam and Gracie is out of a solid white dam. Go figure! Here is a picture of Gracie with her mom shortly after birth...      Caesar is doing fine wearing his Dynasplint and normally he allows us to put it on him without too much trouble. However, if he decides he doesn't want it on, he is really a hand full trying to get it on him. This morning it took two of us just to get it on. We'll still have to readjust it later in the day, as he was getting more and more upset as we went along, so we just stopped where we were and will try again after he calms down...

October 28, 2008: We just received our Dynasplint to be used in straightening our maroon little boy's front legs. He has splayed legs as a result of a dystocia birth and we have decided that, since this is not a genetic defect, he is potentially valuable enough to spend the money, time, and effort to try to correct those splayed legs. Here is a photo of the splint on him on the first day of his therapy. He doesn't even seem to know the splint is on him once it is on, however, it took three of us to put the splint on him the first time. He's stronger than he looks, so hopefully he will learn that we are not trying to hurt him and the process of moving the splint from leg to leg will get easier to accomplish as time goes on...

October 27, 2008: Greg and Shelia just returned from a 2 day class on the sorting and grading of fleece in preparation for having that fleece sent to a mill for processing. By having the fleece pre-graded and sorted, the mill is using all the same grade fiber to produce the products for a particular run, and as a result, those products are much softer feeling. It also allows the correct grade of fleece to be used for the correct end products, thus producing a much more usable product for the customer. You really don't want to make socks from grade 1 alpaca fleece nor do you want to make baby blankets from grade 6 fleece. Also, by having all different grades of fleece mixed together in the same mill run, the end product produced will have a more "prickly" feel to them as well as promoting fiber migration (shedding). Using the same grade and fiber length to produce products from alpaca fiber, just makes sense. This class showed us just how little the average alpaca farmer actually knows about alpaca fleece and what should be done with it to produce textile products for the end user. If you are still simply sending your fleece to the processing mills and telling them to make whatever they think they should make from your fleece, you are missing out on a lot of income due to the fact that the mills will make whatever they are set up to make at the moment your fleece comes in, whether it is the most cost effective/productive product for you or not. We strongly suggest that all alpaca farmers consider having their fiber pre-graded and sending that graded fiber to a fiber coop that uses pre-grading for processing. By banding together into a coop, the fiber market is using a large base of individuals (owners) to help bring down processing costs and make much better end products, which will help our bottom line as the seller of those end products...

October 17, 2008: Greg and Shelia just returned from 4 days at the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo in Moultrie, Georgia. During the three days of the Expo, there were approximately 300,000 visitors and probably 1/3 of them made their way through the alpaca pavilion. We answered questions and provided information about alpacas and the alpaca business. There was lots of interest in the alpacas and evidently the general public is becoming more and more aware of alpacas as evidenced by the intelligent questions being asked. Some people still think an emu and an alpaca are the same thing, but overall most people at least knew what an alpaca was, even though they might have never actually seen one. We both had a great time and are already planning our trip for next year...

October 6, 2008: The following is a quote from an article in the Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2008, by JENNIFER LEVITZ, AP - The article was written about the recent downturn of the stock market and the alternatives people have turned to in an attempt to protect their investments.      "Peggy Parks, a 49-year-old auditor in Johnstown, Pa., turned to an unusual farm animal. "I've lost a fortune in stocks, and my 401(K) is falling through the floor. I feel comfortable in alpacas," she says. She invested $56,000 in a small herd that she believes has a better outlook than most mutual funds because of the animals' breeding potential.      The national Alpaca Registry, Inc., in Lincoln, Neb., says registrations are on pace to rise 7% this year and currently stand at 140,297. Ms. Parks says a female of "medium quality" can fetch $10,000 and that prices have been rising, supporting her hopes that she'll see a profit on her alpaca portfolio in five years." To watch the CBS Newscast featuring Paggy Parks, click here.

September 20, 2008: I just got back today from picking up 10 new alpacas from our friend that is having to get out of the alpaca business due to a family illness(See September 7th posting). All the new animals are doing fine and are settling into their new surroundings well. We now have some excellent Jr. Herdsires to choose from as well as a couple of new pregnant ladies that will be looking for new homes. As a result of acquiring these new animals and having to post them on the web site, I am redesigning several sections of the site to make the listings easier to access and understand. So, stay tuned for the changes and our new arrivals...

September 7, 2008: If you have read my article on "Why Should You Consider Buying Alpacas During Depressed Economic Times", you know that I stated that I am in the process of converting more of my IRA funds into alpacas. Well, yesterday I finalized the details to purchase an additional 10 alpacas from a friend that is having to get out of the alpaca business due to a family illness in another State. She will be having to take extended trips to tend to this ill family member and I was lucky enough to be able to purchase her entire herd of 10 animals. I will be taking a trip to pick up part of the herd the week of Sept. 8th and probably go pick up the rest the week of Sept. 15. We are very pleased to be able to add these quality animals to our herd. There are several exceptional females as well as a few very nice herdsires and Jr. herdsires. So, if you have been looking around trying to locate some nice animals for sale at reasonable prices, keep checking back. I will post information about the new animals as soon as I have them physically at our location...

August 4, 2008: Greg just returned from a class on internal parasites and performing IgG testing presented by Dr. Steve Purdy, Director of the Camelid Studies Program at UMass. The class covered all the worms that alpacas get and how to detect them using the cenrtifuge and microscope. Greg took some poop from our animals and did the testing on that. Three tables of students used those poop samples to do their experiements and no worm eggs were discovered, so looks like our animals are worm free. That validates that our on-farm worming program is indeed working. We also learned how to do IgG testing on-farm. These tests give you the amount of immunity defense that a newborn cria has received from its mom via the colostrum taken within the first 24 hours of birth. Being able to do IgG tests on-farm is really a great help in determining if a cria has had the correct immunity transfer and will determine if a plasma transfusion for the cria is needed or not. This procedure can be a life-saver for a newborn cria since the results are available early enough to correct the situation if intervention is required. We also touched on alpaca reproduction and received lots of good information on breeding and behavior testing to determine if a dam is still pregnant or not. This class was overall a very informative class and we would recommend it to any alpaca farmer interested in becoming more involved in their alpaca's health requirements.

July 15, 2008: We just returned from a rather lengthy trip to pick up Nell and Maggie from another farm after having Nell bred again. Both are doing fine and getting re-acquainted with all their former pasture mates. Maggie has grown sooooo much since we last saw her. She now weighs almost 40 lbs. When we sent them off, Maggie only weighed about 20 lbs. so we hardly recognized her when we picked them up. Dr. Norm Evans examined Nell and gave her a clean bill of health and we are already looking forward to her next cria.      Caesar is still doing better and gaining weight all the time. He and Maggie are getting acquainted and beginning to play. I'm sure all the exercise of running and jumping around is going to be good for his leg joints and muscles. He still has a small amount of splay in his front legs, but he seems to be getting better as time goes along. All the other problems associated with his difficult birth have disappeared with treatment, so we are hoping his legs will follow suit...He is still being bottle fed every three hours, but he is beginning to nibble on grass and hay, so hopefully he will begin weaning himself before long. He is a month old now and appears to be about two weeks delayed in his development due to the nureological problems following birth. However, he is making steady progress and we just consider him a two week old rather than a four week old. Using that gauge, he appears to be quiet normal and developing normally...

June 30, 2008: Just an update on Caesar. We had a plasma transfusion done on June 24th and did a two day round of Thiamine shots. He is running around the paddock, aggrivating all the other alpacas, and appears to be good as new as far as the problems associated with his difficult birth are concerned. He still has a little bit of splayed front legs, but I have been told to hold off doing any corrective measures on them until he is about two months old. Possible they will correct themselves without any intervention on our part. Since both Synsation and Caesar were so exhausted after the birth, Caesar never nursed from mom, so I began milking her and mixing the mother's milk with colostrum substitute and feeding him from a bottle. I had hoped that when he recovered from the birthing problems, he would begin nursing on his own. However, I have placed Caesar under Synsation several times over the past couple of days and she immediately kushes. She apparently thinks I am going to milk her again and I believe she is tired of that scenario. So, looks like I have a bottle baby on my hands to feed every three hours for the long haul. I didn't need any sleep anyhow, so what the heck...

June 19, 2008: Synsation finally delivered a beautiful maroon colored boy today. She is a very small framed alpaca and the cria was pretty big at 17 lbs 15 oz at birth. As a result, Caesar (LHAF Caesar Magnumus) was a dystocia birth and took a very long time to be born and had to have help. Both mom and cria were exhausted by the time the vet was able to get Caesar unlocked from Synsation's pelvic bone and deliver him. He's got some minor problems as a result of the long delivery, but is being treated and should make a full recovery. Also, due to both of them being so exhausted, Caesar was unable to nurse from mom for a long time and we are sure he didn't get a satisfactory transfer of colostrum, so he is getting a plasma transfusion as soon as the plasma comes in. All things considered, he is in exceptional condition and already gaining weight. He's a SCA Peruvian Magnum baby and Magnum has passed his exceptional fleece through to Caesar. Caesar has extremely soft fleece for a dark colored alapca, any alpaca for that matter. What's even better is that he is maroon colored, not just dark brown, but maroon...Wow!!!

June 1, 2008: We are still waiting on Synsation to deliver her latest cria. She was due on the 29th of May but has so far not had the urge to deliver. We continue to watch for any signs of impending delivery as Synsation is a small framed alpaca and historically has large cria. During the last two deliveries she had to have help, so we are very watchful.      Nell and Maggie have been sent to another farm to have Nell re-bred. Even though Maggie was only a little more than two weeks old when she left with Nell, we really miss having her bouncing little body around. Everything seems so quiet without her here. Not that she made any noise, but she was always up to some sort of mischief. Hopefully the six weeks that they will be gone will pass quickly and we'll once again have them back so we can enjoy Maggie while she is still small and full of energy for playing...

May 9, 2008: Nell delivered a beautiful light fawn girl yesterday. She weighed 15 lbs. 12 oz. at birth and appears very healthy. I caught Nell just as Magnolia's (Maggie's) nose appeared so I got to witness the entire birthing sequence. It was all over in about 20 minutes and Maggie was up and nursing in about 30 more minutes. They are both doing fine...

May 2, 2008: Shearing Day is finally upon us. We sheared our girls yesterday and had a wonderful time. The girls were not exceptionally pleased with being sheared, but they sure were pleased when all that fleece got off them. We'll finish up with the boys tomorrow. A couple of the girls were not too ready to get up and go back to the pasture once we were done with the shearing, so they got a "little help from their friends".

April 16, 2008: Our new alpaca trailer has finally arrived. The guy that delivered it drove 20 hours to get it here on time. Thanks Mark for that monumental effort. The trailer is a Hawk Alpaca Special, built by Hawk Trailers, LLC in Manawa, Wisconsin. It is similar to a horse trailer but has several features designed especially for alpacas. The most notable feature being that it is only 5'8" tall, thus reducing wind drag, making it more economical to pull. It has an all steel frame, aluminum skins and fiberglass top. All the walls are fully insulated and it has six large sliding windows. It has double rear doors and one interior double door divider, with an escape door in front. We are very pleased to have the new trailer and wish to thank the nice folks up at Sunset Ranch Supply, LLC in Wausau, Wisconsin for being so helpful in arranging everything to get this purchase accomplished without a single hitch. A special thanks goes to Deb for all her help getting everything arranged while they were getting ready for a very large horse show the week of April 14-18. If you need a trailer, please get in touch with Sunset. They'll treat you right.

February 12, 2008: You know, there's a lot to be said for living outside the city limits. Since we are inside the city limits of Ozark, I have been jumping through hoops for almost 6 weeks trying to get the building permit for the construction of my barn, and I had someone helping me at City Hall. I have finally got that permit in-hand, but now I am dealing with the county health department trying to get the permit for installation of my septic system. I really don't know where some of these rules and regulations came from, but I'm convinced that whoever thought them up was not in complete control of their faculties. I guess, somebody put them forth over the years until now there are so many conflicting rules that it is almost completely impossible to conform to them all. If the powers-that-be want to give you a hard time about something, they have enough red tape to tie you up for as long as they want. That's so sad, since this process could be so straightforward and simple. It's little wonder that Ozark is the ONLY city in the entire Wiregrass Area (southeast Alabama) to have a negative population growth over the past 10 years...

January 14, 2008: Happy New Year everyone. Double Trouble is now a month old and is beginning to look like an alpaca instead of a sheep. His fleece is uncurling and starting to look like a typical Huacaya. He is so full of mischief he is worrying all the other alpacas to death. He bounces around while they are trying to eat and disturbs everything. He puts his head down low and takes off running like a rocket and does laps around the pen as fast as he can run. The others try to ignore his antics, but he is so persistant in his playing, most of the others eventually play with him a little. Who knew a full grown alpaca could jump higher than my head and run like a deer. It's a good thing that alpacas don't try to jump over a fence because they could clear my 5' high fences with little effort. These wonderful little animals never cease to amaze me...