December 26, 2009: We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We all had a traditional southern Christmas lunch of turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, dumplings, green beans, yams (baked sweet taters for those of us in the South), and of course cornbread. When we finished stuffing ourselves, we went out to the alpaca pen and gave them their Christmas lunch of chopped carrots and alfalfa. They didn't realize it was Christmas, but they really enjoyed the meal in the middle of the day anyway. Some would gobble up the carrots and some wouldn't touch them, but nobody refused the alfalfa. We are truly blessed to have our families very close by and everybody is doing well. We wish everyone good tidings throughout the rest of the holiday season...

December 8, 2009: A few weeks ago we had a visit from some old friends from my childhood. Curt & Louetta Head were my second parents during my early childhood. They lived across the street from us and if I wasn't over at their house, their daughter Caroline was over at ours. Caroline and I were always together up until my family moved to a new house across town when Caroline and I sorta lost touch. Louetta recently had knee replacement surgery and was recovering at the rehab. center here in Ozark. Caroline was here helping take care of Curt when I had called to find out how Louetta was doing after her surgery, so I got to talk to her for the first time in a long while. Caroline and Curt decided to come by and visit our alpacas and, to our surprise, Caroline's younger sister (my other "little sister") Barbara Ann showed up also. So, we kinda had a little "family" reunion. Mother and I went to see Louetta the following day at the rehab. center. It was really a treat for me to see them all again. Today we received a Christmas card from the Head family and they enclosed one of the photos they took while they were here. Here is the photo of the ones that came by the farm. I think all the visitors had a good time meeting the alpacas and I really enjoyed their visit. I really don't get to visit with them enough anymore. I love you all, old friends. You are very special people to me...

November 29, 2009: I had seen the popular Television Show, Dirty Jobs staring Mike Rowe, on the Discovery Channel about shearing alpacas sometime last year, but didn't have a link to that episode until now. It is a pretty funny segment, so if you'd like to view it, just click here. Keep in mind, Mike is supposed to get spit on for comic effect. Even though shearing is fairly stressful to the alpacas, most of them won't spit at you. Some definitely will, but the majority won't. You'll notice that the owner was well out of the way of the spitting end of this alpaca, but Mike is placed directly in the best position to get spit on. Spit happens, but I have never been spit on at shearing time...

November 4, 2009: Another girl that we agist had a cria this morning. It is another little girl and yet another Atlas baby. That makes 4 girls out of 4 for the father and son duo of Atlas and Massimo. These guys are doing their stuff well. The little one is a light fawn girl just like her mom. She has a LOT of fleece and it is very curley. When we found her at about 6:30 AM she was already up walking around and the mom had already passed the placenta, so she was born very early in the morning, before daylight. The moon was very bright, so the mom might have just thought it was daytime, but the sun wasn't out. Anyway, both mom and cria are doing fine. Great job Amber and Atlas...

November 1, 2009: Shelia and I just returned from a "Veterinary Procedures You Can Do On The Farm" class taught by Dr. William (Skipper) Gholston, DVM, owner of Garland Alpaca Farm in Dahlonega, Georgia. Dr. Gholston's presentation was exceptional. He covered some fairly sophisticated procedures (for us non-Vets) but made them simple enough for all of us rookies to understand. His poor alpacas (and horses) put up with us sticking them with needles, poking tubes down their throats, and cutting their toenails into the quick, showing little outward emotion at all. I hate for things like that to happen, but I guess it's the only way for us to learn how to do those procedures properly. Hopefully, if one of our own alpacas is in stress, needing us to help them out, we will remember what we put the Gholston's alpacas through and be able to do what is required without too much messing around. I'd like to thank Peggy Gamblin, owner of Timberlake Farms Alpacas in Glencoe, Alabama and the Education Committee Chairman of the Southeastern Alpaca Association for arranging the seminar. A big thank you goes to the Gholstons for putting up with 20 of us students tromping around in the mud and messing up their barn and house, and in particular Dr. Gholston for agreeing the do the seminar in the first place. Oh, also thanks to the members of the University of Georgia Small Ruminent Club (third year Vet students) for volunteering to assist Dr. Gholston. I can just see one of us students having to try to assist him with all those complicated procedures. Thanks to all involved, Very nice...

October 19, 2009: One of the pregnant girls that we agist gave birth to a 13 lb. 5 oz. little girl this morning. She was a maiden but had no problems at all. We noticed that she was acting a little funny and began watching her to see if she was actually in labor. She showed all the classic symptoms of impending birth - going to the poop pile, but expelling nothing; kushing and immediately getting back up; kushing with rear legs to the side but the front still sternal; humming lowly. From the time the nose first appeared, the cria was on the ground within 15 minutes. For a maiden, she had a very nice delivery. The new cria is a Ameripaca's Atlas baby and looks like she is going to be the same color as he is. She also has very curley fleece, but we can't tell too much about it until it completely dries off. Nice cria Josie and Atlas...

October 4, 2009: We presented our first Alpaca 101 seminar for individuals interested in becoming involved with alpacas on this past Saturday and I think it was a success. We only had five students, but that is probably my fault since I unknowingly scheduled the class on the same day as a annual city-wide festival here in Ozark. Also, there was another alpaca farm in the area that scheduled an Alpaca 101 class for the same day. However, with the group being small, it gave us plenty of time for discussions of individual topics of interest. Three of the students stayed for the free-for-all discussion after the formal class and one actually stayed and helped us feed, gaining some actual hands-on experience on what it's like to work with the alpacas. Since I made the scheduling snafu, we will schedule another Alpaca 101 class for later this fall, so maybe some of those that had a scheduling conflict with the Claybank Jamboree can make it to the class. I will do my best to avoid any scheduling conflicts for the next class. Thanks to all that attended the class...

September 27, 2009: We participated in the National Alpaca Farm Days (NAFD) this weekend and had a great turnout. We would like to thank all those that stopped by the farm to meet our animals. The alpacas were really friendly and let anybody that wanted to pet them do so. The little ones also pronked a little and showed off for several of the visitors. It turned out to be a really good weekend. We'll do it again next year. Remember, NAFD is a once a year, two day event where anybody that wants to stop by can do so without an appointment. However, we are also open to the public any day of the week, but we request you got in touch with us prior to your visit just to make sure we are going to be here. So, give us a call and come on by...

August 24, 2009: Shelia and I hosted a fish fry for the members of the "Wiregrass Alpaca Growers and Cookout Coalition" (WAGACC) on last Saturday evening. The cookout was attended by the owners of seven area Alpaca farms. We ate all the catfish and trimmings we could hold and discussed several subjects about Alpacas in general and compared notes on some of the problems we are all enountering due to the weak economy. Gatherings like this have proven to be a great source of information about our farming operations and we intend to continue the process at various times throughout the year. I think all those that attended felt that the information shared and the fellowship was very worthwhile, plus the eats were not too shabby either...

June 22, 2009: Shelia and I took Earth Angel and Gracie to visit the residents at the Baptist Village Retirement Center in Dothan, Alabama this afternoon. We had a couple dozen folks come to ask questions and touch the "funny looking animals". Everybody loved Gracie as it was the first time most of them had ever seen a live alpaca, much less a baby alpaca. Both Angel and Gracie did exceptionally well, allowing the strangers to walk right up and rub them without any undue stress or ever offering to be less than friendly in any way. Everybody that came out to see the alpacas seemed to really enjoy themselves and asked a ton of questions. I want to thank the management of Baptist Village for allowing us the opportunity to come for the visit and hope they will allow us to come back again in the future. We had a great time...

June 10, 2009: Since Nell's cria was the last of our spring crias (see May 31st post), we finished shearing the rest of our alpacas today. By waiting on Buried Treasure and Nell to have their crias, that put us way late into the hot weather completing the shearing. As a result, the ones that still had fleece were staying right in front of the fans 24/7. I know they were hot, but this was the quickest our shearers could arrange to come back to the farm to complete the shearing. It was funny that even our one girl that has been a spitter and kicker was more than happy to get sheared this year. She never offered to kick or spit a single time and seems to be much more cooperative with us working around her in the pen. Before we bought her, she was sold to another farm that mistreated her and almost starved her to death. The previous owner rescued her and sold her to us and we have been trying to earn her confidance ever since. Today is only the second time we have been able to get close enough to her to touch her. The other time was when she had her cria (see May 25th post). By our not hurting her when she had her cria or while she was tied down for the shearing, I think she has begun to accept the fact that we are not so bad after all. I stayed right with her and scratched her on the cheeks during the shearing and she was in a very easy spitting position had she decided to do so. She never once even offered and was actually very calm throughout the entire procedure. Overall, the entire shearing process went very well this year. We sheared 20 adults and 2 crias of ours and 5 adults of my sister's. Shearing is actually hard work and I'm glad it's over for another year. Here is a photo of me and my little buddy Caesar taking a break during shearing day. Even though I'm exhausted, I know all the alpacas are much cooler now. And, now we have a ton of fleece for Shelia to grade (see March 17th post)...

May 31, 2009: Nell delivered a nice little male cria this morning right after daylight. He is our last cria of the spring birthing season and weighed 16 lbs, 9 oz. at birth. He is going to be a medium or light brown when he finally dries off completely. The little female born last Monday (see May 25th post) is already trying to get the newborn to play with her, but his spindley little legs just won't do what he want them to yet. He's up walking around just fine and he takes a few spurts of running, but actually playing with another cria is just not within his ability yet. I'm sure they will be having a big time playing by this afternoon. Congratulations to Nell and MFI Peruvian Earthshaker for producing such a nice cria...

May 25, 2009: This morning Buried Treasure delivered a beautiful little female cria. She weighed 19 lbs, 7 oz. at birth and was up and walking after only 15-20 minutes and running after 45 minutes, so she is very strong for a newborn. She is bay black and dark brown; almost the exact color of her half-sister, Jasmine. Her sire Atlas' Massimo, is two for two for producing girls, so he has earned himself some additional breedings as a result. He is also passing his great, full coverage fleece and curly face through to his crias, so he is developing into a great herdsire for us. Nice job Massimo...

May 10, 2009: Today's posting has absolutely nothing to do with alpacas, but is something dear to my heart that I want to share with you. My Father is a 85 year old WW-II vet and he was lucky enough to be able to participate in one of the Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. to see the WW-II Memorial this past weekend. For those of you that don't know, Honor Flight provides the trip for veterans of WW-II absolutely free of charge. They provide everything the veteran might need during the trip. The veterans are assigned a guardian and there are doctors and nurses to assist them should there be any medical problems. For those that need them, wheel chairs are also provided. My Dad was not too sure about taking such a long trip on his own, but once he got back, he was really glad he went. Here he is at the Alabama portion of the memorial. One of my cousins, Dad's nephew, went along as his guardian and took good care of him on the trip. Here is a photo of Dad and Bob at the memorial. Thanks for being such a great guardian, Bob. Upon returning to the airport, there were several hundred well-wishers there to welcome them home. The reception was a very moving experience to see the faces light up on all those men and women that had given so much to ensure our freedom. We cannot thank them enough! If you have a loved one that is a WW-II vet and an Honor Flight is being arranged nearby, please encourage your veteran to go. They will thoroughly enjoy the trip and have lots of memories to relate once they return. I have not seen Dad so wound up and talkative in a long time as he was after the trip. Poor Mom got very little sleep the night they returned due to Dad having to tell her all about the trip and explain every little detail about the memorial. Even if you don't have a vet to send on the trip, please support the Honor Flights by either going on a trip as a guardian or by donating to help pay for the cost of a veteran's ticket. It's a very worthwhile cause indeed! My only regret - I didn't get to go along to be Dad's guardian...

March 30, 2009: During the very strong thunderstorms that rumbled through the southeastern States over the past couple of days, Butterscotch evidently became so scared of the booming thunder that she aborted her pregnancy. She waited until the rain had stopped, but I'm sure the abortive process began during the worst parts of the thunderstorms. The cria was about 6 weeks early but was viable enough to survive the birth. However, his little lungs were not developed enough for him to breath without gasping for every breath. He never gained the strength to stand to nurse and would not take more than about 3 ml. of supplement every time I tried to feed him. He died during the night on the 29th and we buried him the following morning. This is our first live-birth cria to die and is certainly a sad time for all of us. We will be able to obtain a re-breeding under the live-birth survival clause in the breeding contract, but it is a bad thing to wait almost until the cria is due and then have something like a strong thunderstorm cause an aborted pregnancy. Mother Nature has a strange way about her sometimes...

March 17, 2009: Shelia just returned after completing a North American Alpaca Fiber Producers Coop (NAAFP) Grading Certification Class in New Hampshire and is now an Apprentice Sorter/Grader, certified to use the NAAFP Certified Sorted™ System. For more information about fleece grading and the NAAFP, click here. Give Shelia a call at (256) 683-2079 to discuss having her grade your alpaca fleece to maximize your fleece harvest profit.

January 21, 2009: Well not too much going on lately except that it is cold down here. It's not supposed to be 20 degrees with a wind chill of 13 way down here in south Alabama. We have been busting ice out of the water buckets each morning for the past week or so and it's about time it warmed up a little. The alpacas are loving it, but I'm not. I really feel for those of you that live in "cold country" and have to put up with snow and ice for weeks on end. Everybody stay warm and safe out there. By the way - Happy New Year to all. Hope the new year brings better economic times than we had last year...