Never a dull moment

Here's a picture of what we've been up to... You'll recognize Trinity, but Cody (brown) was born a week ago yesterday and Alpine (White) was born last Friday. "The three musketeers" are fun to watch, and interestingly all three match their mother's color...

The sale of our house in Wyoming fell through and therefore the two alpacas we gave to the buyer's (Jack and Ko-chise) had to come home. Mike went up to Wyoming last week (via Salt Lake to visit his kids and new grandkids) cleaned up the house, picked up the two alpacas at the house and picked up Token and Fletcher, left there when we moved because she was too close to giving birth. So it was funny to read my last title (baby makes 26) cause suddenly now we have 30 alpacas, and 29 of them are here at the ranch... weird/exciting/scary... definitely interesting. Never a dull moment. SO.. anyone want to buy an alpaca?

Our Water problems have continued. Lately the house has been smelling of Sulfur again, not nearly as bad, but enough that we have been trying to figure out the problem at the well. Last week I had periods of no water at all, so when Mike got home from Wyoming he checked a little closer he found that the plumbing under the house had sprung about 8 leaks, most likely more than a month ago, and water had been filling the crawlspace as fast as it could flow for that whole time. We knew we were going to have to replace all the plumbing in the house, the sulfur had corroded the pipes so that they spring leaks when you touch them, we just hoped to hold out until the renovation of the house to do that work... Best laid plans! Oh well, Mike now has over half of the plumbing replaced, the half that was currently leaking and perhaps can hold out for a while. He thought the job might have been a LITTLE more fun had all his tools not been at Monica's house.

All this was going on while I was trying to make lunch for my Mother and some of her friends when they came to pick me up for this years Women of Faith conference in Denver. We spent the weekend there. If you have never been, it's just a great uplifting weekend. This is my second year. Mike stayed home (fixing plumbing and birthing alpacas) then I came home Sunday, he left to go up to my sister's (Monica's) house (finishing her basement). He'll be home Friday to help clean up before National Alpaca Ranch days that we are participating in this weekend. If you have nothing else to do, look up an alpaca ranch near you (http://www.nationalalpacafarmday.com/). Never a dull moment.

And baby makes 26

We had a new cria on Friday. A girl and solid black. She's tiny, but she is a beauty. This is her Mom's first baby and obviously she hadn't read the book because by noon it was definitely looking like there would be no baby that day. Mike had been down at the barn working until 2:30 or so. I was leaving for my monthly trip to Albuquerque at 4pm. I stopped by the barn to pick up something to take with me, and found a baby that was probably close to an hour old sitting up beside her mom (who looked very confused). She was ready to stand and definitely ready to nurse. Her name is Trinity.


Coincidentally, Kelsey (who checks the barncam every afternoon when she gets home from school) realized that she was on here way to look at the barncam at 3:30, but realizing I was probably already on the road to Albuquerque, she did not. Of course if she HAD, she might have seen the baby being born, or noticed it on the ground and would have collected the $100. She's bummed she blew it off.

Sophia and Athena (the two remaining alpacas in the birthing pen) are due to have their babies before the end of September. Guess they will make 27 & 28, unless of course we sell one by then! HA! By the way, our alpacanation site (the place most people buy alpacas) is live now as of a couple weeks ago, another major accomplishment for us. See it at http://alpacanation.com/farmsandbreeders/03_viewfarm.asp?name=16351.