No bees yet

Our bees are not ready as we were promised. It will probably be at least a month unless we get them. We are sad, but we'll let you know when they come. Read our post at http://aardwolfbees.blogspot.com/ if you want more detail.

Busy Alpaca Month

May is always a busy time around the alpaca ranch! First weekend is always the Great Western Alpaca Show.. one of the biggest shows in the country and in Denver, so being local of course we would go. We should feel great about the results because we took six alpacas, and brought home 5 ribbons. In that big of show that is not a failure. But we had high hopes for two of the boys to do fabulously and they did not do as well as we would have liked.... Oh well, each judge has her preferences, next show will be a different judge, different day, different weather..... All those things effect your placing.

At the end of the month is the national convention, this year to be in Cleveland. I've been trying to talk Mike into going because it is an opportunity to meet and reacquaint ourselves with people that we have been networking with. But time and money are at a premium right now, so not sure if we will be doing that.

Between the two is shearing. We are doing our own shearing this year. With 90 alpacas to shear, this is going to be an adventure! We started last Friday. The people boarding with us are supposed to be here to help but had a family emergency, so Mike and I got started by ourselves. We were told the first few would take an hour each, and indeed, that is about what they are taking. We got through the first guy, Roadie, and although he looks pretty ragged, we got the fleece off!
We got half way through the second guy and the shears broke a gear. Poor Phoenix looked pretty funny! Oh the humility!

Phoenix before we goofed him up!

Last spring we sheared a couple babies that had been born over the summer, and before we could get the shears to work right, we had to replace some parts. When we ordered them, the girl through in a few "extra parts" she recommended having around. Well one of those parts was the broken gear, so Mike had us up and running again by the next morning.

Saturday we finished up Phoenix, things were working ok, sheared Ramon Jr. but the shears seemed to be not working very well and it was a struggle. Then a neighboring alpaca friend showed up to help for a couple hours. A third person really helps a lot. While Ron was there we sheared Escudero, and then stopped for lunch. Escudero was the toughest yet.. Hey isn't this supposed to be getting easier instead of harder? Mike is constantly having to adjust the shears to try to get them to cut well. When we stopped for lunch, he took the opportunity to sharpen a few blades.
Just as we were getting going after lunch a couple of other friends showed up who wanted to learn about alpaca shearing, so we started in on Scoundrel, but the cutters just would not cut. After an hour we were only about 1/2 done. Mike's frustration level was over the top. At this point the $1000+ we would have had to pay to hire a professional shearer is looking cheap! Oh well, we will get through, we will learn a lot!, and we will get better. In a couple years we will laugh at our naivity.

In the meantime we have decided to buy new shears, the ones we were using were ebay - used shears. Perhaps shears are one of those items you should not buy used! I'll follow up with the success story when we finish this chore. Only 84.5 alpacas left to go!

Other than alpacas, we have gotten fishing a couple times (it hasn't been real good yet this year), I traveled for work this week to Iowa, and tomorrow we get our bees. Watch the bee blog for news on that event.

Our Bee Adventures

Aardwolf is dabbling in beekeeping, we hope to have one to two colonies beginning next month. I've decided to set up a separate blog to just cover the bee topics, and I will not be sending out notices of new posts to that blog. But if you are interested you are welcome to come see what the buzz is all about anytime. You can find this at http://aardwolfbees.blogspot.com/.

Happy beekeeping!

And Nikita makes 106

Our herd has steadily grown in the 3.5 years since we bought our first alpaca, and truth be told our philosophy has been that the more alpacas we have, the more babies we will have, the more we will have to offer customers, the more revenue we will have, and the faster we will get return on our investment. So therefore we have grown faster than most alpaca ranches. Our two newest babies born this month make 41 in our herd, and a comfortable size to maintain. As such Aardwolf Alpacas has evolved into the next phase where we are focusing more on marketing, sales, and additional services.

March 2009 Aardwolf babies - Kilkerrin and Weston

Coincidentally we were contacted in January, by another ranch we have done business with, looking for a place to board their 45+ alpacas for a year or so until they can sell their house in Colorado Springs and buy another ranch that better suits their needs closer to town. They had been living on a ranch near Trinidad, 4 hours from the Springs, and the husband had been commuting weekly, leaving the wife home to take care of the alpacas, without a working well, and with two small children, one of whom needed an hour ride to the bus stop twice a day. Beautiful place, but too overwhelming.

We are blessed with lots of room, and with Mike contemplating looking for a part time job to supplement our income, this was just the ticket. We already board 1 other alpaca for someone who is trying to get back in the business. So we agreed, got the contracts together, and began to move animals. Since the first of their animals arrived February 1, they have had 3 new babies... more fun for us. The last of the alpacas arrived about 2 weeks ago. We are keeping them (at least for the time being) in our second barn, and have moved our boys from that barn to our big barn. This way there is no bio security issues. Part of our concern was being more tied down (I can convince a neighbor to watch 50 animals when I'm out of town, but how would they feel about twice as many), so as part of the negotiations we included that they will come take care of all the animals periodically to give us a break. A perfect solution to us.

They also breed guard dogs, and found homes for most of those, but really didn't want to give up their two best dogs, raised with alpacas, and didn't want to confine them to a yard in the city. So we agreed to take the two dogs as well, and keep them in with their alpacas. Our 4 dogs stay in with our alpacas. Our 6 (+-) barn cats do not go in the alpaca pens (by their own choice).


Two weeks ago a neighbor of ours bought a mini-horse as a companion for her riding horse that she had been boarding out for the winter. She had found this mini-horse after a previous deal fell through and for about 1/4 of the price of the first deal, and therefore jumped on it. BUT had to go pick it up before she had her fencing ready, or before she had hay, etc. So we are keeping the two horses here for a few weeks, until she can get that all going.


Then last week Mike's son, Dan, called to say his company had a new long term contract nearby our place, and when he was working in the area he'd like to spend weekends with us (yeah!). He has a dog, Nikita, that is by his side everywhere he goes. As such she is very well behaved. But the first week on the job he didn't feel comfortable taking the dog with him, until he got settled in a bit. SOOO, we volunteered to watch him this first week on the new contract.

Nikita

If you've been counting, including Mike and I, that makes 106 hearts beating on our ranch. I find that just a bit shocking! We have ordered bees that should come the beginning of May. there should be 60,000 of them, once the hive gets up to capacity. Do bees have hearts?

On the road...

Mike and his son Josh took a road trip to Ohio last week. They were going to deliver 7 alpacas at 4 various farms and pick up 6 others that needed to come home. Well, since we can never have a dull moment around our house, of course this story has an adventure!

They took Josh's truck (diesel) and our trailer. The first night out Mike called at 4am to tell me the truck and trailer (and 7 alpacas) were stolen. Josh had a feeling something bad was going to happen so he was hyper vigilant that night and heard the truck being stolen from their second floor room at the motel in Independence, MO (thus the significance of diesel). They grabbed their pants, shoes and the guns that they each travel with and ran out, Mike ran toward where the truck had been parked, Josh ran the other way and headed off the truck as it pulled out onto the street. The guy tried to run Josh down, so Josh shot out the tires.

The guy only drove about 2 miles before he ditched the truck due to lack of tires, and ran off through the snow. The police arrived with the swat team, helicopters, and everything. The police followed the tracks through the snow, but did not catch the guy. The good news is of course that they did get the truck and trailer damaged only by two tires needing replacing, a bullet hole in the side of the truck, broken door handle and ignition switch. 4 hours after the first call they have new tires and are back on the road again, heading for Ohio! Nothing stolen, all without injury, Alpacas just fine. So much to be grateful for!

The rest of their trip (the next 3000 miles or so, and another 4 days) was downright boring compared to the first day. But ya' know? They did not mind! The weather was very cold so they did not sleep in the truck as they has planned, and would have liked to see the mid-west in the springtime, but alas... not to be. This was Josh's first trip East ever, and Mike got to spend 5 uninterrupted days with Josh, something he hadn't done in years... so overall the trip was full of memories.

The first stop - LIBERTY ALPACAS

Inspecting Alpacas at the next stop - CROOKED CREEK ALPACAS

Connie & Willie of CROOKED CREEK ALPACAS

The fourth stop - THE CRIA BARN
(Oops didn't get pictures at THE ALPACAROSA - sorry Carolyn and Don)

Charlie and Theresa of THE CRIA BARN

Life in the country!

Well this story is getting older now, but it seems to be fairly well resolved. For awhile there it was changing too much to blog about. Sorry the result is such a LONG post.

Our well has a relief overflow, which when it overflows it runs out on the ground and makes mud in the Summer and ice in the Winter across a section of our drive. Last October Mike decided to bury a tank we had left from the previous owners so the water could run into there and dissipate slowly underground.

That's where it all started.. While burying the tank Mike bumped the tractor into a spigot directly above the well, which cracked a joint down low, and our water quit working. The well repair guy pulled the pump up and replaced the joint, which he said was corroded due to the wrong material anyway. Then he put the pump back down.

About a month later we were out of water in the house. Mike could turn off the pump and turn it on again and it would pump water for a few minutes and stop. The well guy came out (two days later) and said good news is our pump is not dead, bad news is our well is dry. We would have to drill a new well (~$12,000) with no guarantee that they would hit water. We were devastated. 2008 wasn't good to us financially and the bill for a new well was not going to fit in the budget! The well guy put a pump minder on so that the pump would shut off if there was no water rather than burn out.

Mike happened to be out when the well guy was there (taking advantage of the distraught woman at home, who knows nothing about rural life, and wells and such.) Mike felt there was something not right about the well guy's advise, after all we had had no trouble at all with water supply since moving in, and he could get water for a few minutes every little while. Mike wanted a second opinion. That didn't help with the sleepless night and lack of water in the house until the next guy could get there.

The next guy confirmed that we had water. He thought the well was vapor locking, and found that if he set the pump minder to about a minute before it turns back on (allowing dissipation of the gasses) it would fill our 300 gallon tank in about an hour, which we use up in about 3 days. So if this works then while we sleep each night it should top off the tank and we should be good.

That sort of worked. For some unknown reason occasionally it did not turn back on, and a couple days later we were out of water again. We did figure out that we could turn it off and back on and it would proceed to fill and be ok for a couple of days.

We left for Albuquerque and Christmas with a full tank. We were convinced that without us home using water, the 300 gallon tank would be plenty of water for the animals for 9 days. But the next day the girl (Jody) taking care of the animals called to say the tank was empty. She cycled the pump and had water again but every other day or so the tank was empty. The freezing weather, and hoses, and a spigot that freezes, etc, didn't help matters and she was carrying water from one barn to the other daily, rising to the challenges our water problems were presenting.

We were baffled where 300 gallons could be going every other day. Upon returning home we realized that it was all draining into the overflow tank! Aargh! Mike has shut that off, and still there is something wrong with the pump that cycling seems to fix about once a week, but at least we haven't been without water since Christmas. He thinks when the pump was pulled up it was never put back down far enough into the well. We'll get the SECOND guy back out to look in the Spring.

This story is not even going into the frustrations Mike has had over the first well service and letters back and forth and better business bureau and other ugliness.

Coincidentally about 3 days in with no water we realized our septic tank was full it had overflowed and backed up. So for three or so weeks we either didn't have water, or we didn't have septic tank! Either way we were getting up at 3am to pee (because due to our new eating regime we are drinking about a gallon of water a day!) and have to put on shoes so our feet don't freeze in the snow on the way to pee! That is just not right!

When we called the Septic Tank service they told us they would charge $50/hour to dig up our front yard to find our septic tank. Mike thought he could do that with the tractor, and would call them back when he found it. Of course there was about 6 inches of snow from the day before that was not too helpful.

We did dig up half of the front yard and we did find the tank and the lid. Called the guy back and he couldn't come out for a few days.. After some frustrations with that, we called the only other guy in town who came right out and pumped us out.

Whew, we thought our problems were solved and I went off for a much needed shower before my girlfriend took me out for a Birthday Tea. But alas, the shower wasn't draining. Seems the full septic tank had clogged back up into the pipes. Mike had to snake it out, making a heck of a mess in the crawlspace with back flowing sewage! But then HE could have a much needed shower also.

A couple days later we were relaying this story to some friends who said the first time they pumped their septic tank they hadn't realized there were two lids and that you had to pump both compartments. Two lids?? So out came the tractor again. A bit more digging and Voila.. another lid! And upon opening.. yup, this side if full too. So the Septic service came back out to pump that side (shouldn't he have mentioned that when he was here the first time?). He did however mention that he thought our drain field had probably been compromised and that we would probably have to dig a new one. That will be another task for the spring! And perhaps Mike and his Tractor can do that without employing incompetent service people! In the meantime we are conserving on toilet flushing, sharing the flush when we can, but it sure beats walking in the snow to pee!

I am a knitter!

For many years ~ around 40 actually (giving myself six years to find out what knitting was.) I have told people I am not a knitter. For the past 15 or so I have told people I know how to knit, the basic stitches, but I still was not a knitter. But today I must tell you, I am a knitter. I owe my thanks to my friend Elaine Million who drug me to our knitting group (seemed like a good idea as I didn't know anyone in town. And after all I sell yarn, might as well network with knitters... unlike myself of course). In fact in this group I had a woman who knitted for me. I didn't do much knitting at all. But one day I saw a scarf that caught my eye, and as usual my response was "I could make that!" So I did.. made 3 of them. Still not terribly enamoured with knitting. Then, in an Alpaca Magazine I saw a sweater with a pattern that I liked... "I could make that". And so I did. Because there was some pattern to it, everyone thought I was being too ambitious, but hey, if you know a knit stitch and a purl stitch, you know what you need to know. And with Karen's help (The REAL foundation knitter in the group) I was able to read the pattern and finish the sweater.

I'm now VERY excited to start the next one ;-) I guess I am a knitter.

January Fun

Well it always seems I wait too long to blog and then I have too much to say so I'd better get this blog out now, before more stuff happens!

We had a busy month in January. After Mike and I spent Christmas week in Albuquerque visiting my girls, my parents, Mike's son and various friends (Oh yeah, Mike got a few chores done at my Mom's house too), we had two very nice trips in January. So much for staying home and enjoying the ranch!! But actually both trips were VERY fun and the bottom line is we were together!


First trip was to Las Vegas for 4 days for the Alpacas of America auction. AOA is the largest ranch in the country (1000+ alpacas), and they host an auction each year to sell 80 or so female alpacas. We went last year, and had so much fun that we decided before we got home that we would go again this year. It's a great cheap vacation since they pay for your rooms and much of your food, and we can fly Southwest. This year most of our buddies from Wyoming joined us there, so it was like old home week. So great to see our friends, Great to preview and discuss the animals, and great educational seminars as well. We also unexpectedly got quite an education on auctions when we figured out the floor guys signals to each other, and were surprised that lots of alpacas did not sell even if they made you think they did. Not suprising in this economy, suprising that they felt they needed to be dis-honest about it. The good news is that Alpacas of America were not going to sell too low, indicating their faith in the alpaca industry to sustain itself through the recession.

The Wydaho (Wyoming & Idaho) Gang - together again

4 Days in Vegas and LaNae is the only one of us who won cash-- 8 dollars off the rest of us in the pool we had going.

As a bonus some ex-Boise neighbors moved to Las Vegas last summer so we spent a day and an evening with them, just chatting and catching up, and they took us out to Hoover Dam to see the new highway bridge being built there, an engineering marvel to be sure.

This picture cracks me up... but because of the sun none (apparent here) none of the bridge photos turned out too good. See the official website (http://www.hooverdambypass.org/Construction_Activities.htm) for better photos and more information.

The other vacation we had this month was this past weekend when we joined my sister Monica and her husband David at their business partner's (Ginger's) condo in Winter Park. We got up there Friday evening just as the snow was beginning to seriously inpact the driving, and it snowed like crazy all night Friday and all day and night Saturday. Saturday we headed out for some shopping, but didn't venture far and ended up staying close to home and played some games, read, relaxed in our winter wonderland! There were supposed to be some festivities going on in town that day, but they were so disorganized that it was a bust! We did see a very short parade in the evening and had a good prime rib dinner though.. No complaints here.


We plannind to ski Sunday but only if the weather looked enjoyable. At $92/day we wanted to be comfortable... even if we did have a half price coupon. So when we got up Sunday it was sunny and nice and we headed for the slopes. The snow could not have been better!! We skied until about 1:30 when the storm had returned, and we decided we'd had enough and headed for home. For more detail on the trip you can see more photos and read Monica's blog at http://sunponyranch.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-mary-jane.html.


Also January in Colorado means the National Western Stock Show. This is the first year they have had an alpaca show associated to the stock show and the local organization (Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies - or ABR) was all buzzed up about that! ABR has had an educational booth for the past few years and since last year has had a product sales booth. We volunteered to man the booths one day, and when they were short of volunteers we ended up volunteering for two other days. So three days driving up to Denver and helping out for a few hours and a 3 hour drive back, about rounded out the month. While at the stock show we saw and got interested in Yaks, but that is a story for another day ;-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to everyone! I for one an very optimistic about the change of the year. 2008 was not one of our better years, personally, professionally, financially, for our family nor for our country. But I'm drawing a line in the sand and 2009 is going to be great! I've decided! Even if I cannot do anything about the economy, or direction our country is heading, I plan to manage the things I do control in a proactive manner to insure improvement of my little world in 2009.

With that in mind, lots of you have asked for more information on how our nutritional/health goals have been progressing and I think that is the perfect topic for this blog. Mike is a reformed man. When I last blogged about it he had just finished his detox and I was just starting mine. When we started on this path, the practitioner that has been guiding our process did extensive blood work on each of us. We both then did a 21 day detox, that included severely limited diet, and supplements to encourage the organs to release toxins, as well as supplements to address problems our blood work indicated.

Mike had a lot of physical problems that caused noticeable side effects. These side effects were in fact the motivation for finding the chiropractor. His blood work showed some issues, but indicated no arthritis, which we had thought he was suffering from. He found immediate relief in his joint pains with the supplements and although the first week of detox made him feel sick (nauseous like he had the flu) after a week he was feeling great and by now he is feeling better than he has for years. My blood work showed quite a lot more problems than Mike had, but mine had no side effects and therefore I felt fine. Through the detox I continued to feel fine, and still feel fine! My follow up blood work showed dramatic improvements on all of my issues, my blood pressure is down, my iron is back in line, my thyroid is better, my adrenal glands are working better. So although I don't feel any better and it's harder to stay motivated, I know it is a good process we've gone through and we need to keep it up.

After the detox we added back one food a week until we were back to eating normally. Mike discovered allergies to Milk, Ice Cream, Nitrates (found in grocery store pork and other cured meats) and peanut butter. We are both trying to eat organically and avoiding processed foods as much as practical. I have given up all sodas and all artificial sweeteners, and both of us are way down on our refined sugars. Because of doing this Mike has found his headaches to be controllable. He has had a headache once a week or so for his entire life, and now only has them when he eats something on his allergy list.. talk about motivation to eat right. He feels like a new guy! I'm continuing to exercise daily and now that the holidays are over going to try to focus a more on getting off the last of the weight I want to loose.

Overall we are extremely pleased with our progress and we are hungrily researching to be healthier on our own. We are investigating red light therapy, tapping techniques (EFT), and trying our hand at muscle testing. It's all fascinating stuff and we feel that there is value in these holistic approaches that our society has lost in the name of modern medicine. We are reading labels and shopping in the natural grocers. Wow, bizarre!

So, our new year's resolutions?? Boy, so much has changed in 2008 for us. My resolution is to maintain this path and not backtrack on our progress to being the best people we can be! This path we are on is very exciting to both of us. Hope you have something in 2009 to add inspiration to your lives.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Thanksgiving 2008

Around Mid September, Mike's sister Debra started campaigning to get everyone to come out for Thanksgiving to Salt Lake. She didn't have to twist our arms very hard. Mike has missed living closer to his parents and needed a visit anyway. Mike's sister Nancy also came out from LA and her son, Wyatt, from the bay area. Mike hadn't seen her in years, and had barely met her husband. I had met her in California last year, but not with Mike... So that was great to all be together! Oh yeah, all Mike's kids made it except Dan (who was thrilled to stay home and do nothing for Thanksgiving since his job takes him on the road every week of the year!). And all Mike's sister, Vicky's, kids made it home and brought boyfriends. Debra's husband's daughter did not make it, as did my kids, but the crowd was merry!

We had 22 adults (and 4 grandkids) for dinner and made one long table to get us all in. Mike and I flew in Thanksgiving morning and were able to stay the weekend, coming home Monday. Besides Thanksgiving we mostly visited, although I did steal a moment to practice my motorcycle riding skills on Jed's motorcycle! And Sunday night I went out with Vicky's whole clan and Debra to the zoo, to see the light show they had going there. Man, we jumped from Thanksgiving to Christmas fast!!

This was the first year in many I did not spend it with my girls, but Kelsey's job (at the snack bar at the skating rink) does not allow anyone to take holiday weekends off. So she could not get away, and in fact will not be able to come up for Christmas either. But Kelsey and Sara got to have Thanksgiving with their Dad, which was also a rare treat for them, so I guess that works for me.

Once home I started working on my Christmas card (none too soon) and found the program "Smilebox". It's pretty fun, and using the free trial I created my Christmas card and the Thanksgiving "Photo Album" below. (Mike's sister, Nancy, did not allow any photos, so she is mysteriously missing, as is her husband Joe, but I think I got decent shots of everyone else there.)

You can click on any photo to enlarge and use the pause and arrows to move through at your own pace. Let me know what you think.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A Visit from the Girl Scouts

Last spring we met a girl Scout troop at a function we were at that wanted to get involved in Alpacas. They planned to go camping on our property and learn a bunch about alpacas. The weeks kept going by but finally we settled on Nov 2.. And they ended up coming up for the day (Camping.. Burrr!!). AND confusion resulted in only half of their troop of four couldn't make it.. So we had two girls and a leader for the afternoon. It was fun none the less and we taught them all they wanted to know about alpacas. We taught them to catch and halter, trim toenails, and had a small mock show that they participated in. Then we skirted, carded, and felted some soaps for a craft project, and to round it out we cooked foin dinners on our wood burning stove (deciding it was much more comfortable inside, rather than outside around a campfire. It was a fun day for all, and they will be back.

After that we had our last baby for the year, Branson, a dark brown boy. Almost matches Juno. That makes 5 and 5 for the year, no complaints with that. And for once all the animals are healthy (for the most part.
Because all the babies were born, and everyone was healthy, we were able to go out to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, but I'll blog about that after I get my photos in order ;-).

Motorcycle Safety

I always hate to write these blogs that I have no photos for! But oh well. I wanted to mention the Motorcycle Safety Class Kelsey, Sara, and I took a couple of weeks ago. This all started when last year Kelsey was considering a motorcycle as transportation at college. Being easier to park and cheaper to drive (not to mention fun) she was thinking this was a good option. When I discussed this with Mike he recommended the Motorcycle Safety Class in New Mexico. So she was still undecided, in the meantime discussion continued. Mike's boys ALL now have motorcycles, and Mike is jealous. So I started thinking he ought to get another motorcycle (not high on the priority list but sometime). Then I thought if he got a motorcycle, I ought to learn to drive it! Then Sara got the bug. She's just driving age now, but LOVES those toys with motors (snowmobiles, 4-wheelers). So we decided to all take the class together.

In September and October when I was in Albuquerque, Mike's son, Josh, took us out for a lesson. Once in the parking lot at the mall and a couple times where they like to dirt bike. Aside from the fact these bikes (the dirt bikes) were uncomfortably tall for me and made me nervous, it was wonderful to give us just a bit of experience and prepare us for the class.

The class is designed for those who have never been on a motorcycle before, so it was VERY basic. Which was excellent. Anyhow, in the end all three of us passed and now are licensed to ride a motorcycle! The class unfortunately did nothing but bury that bug in our brains... Now we NEED motorcycles!!

Last weekend Mike and I went to Ft. Collins for the Fall Colorado Alpaca Show. The show turned out not to be our best one (maybe even was our worst one). But of course made the best of our networking opportunities. It was good to be there.

Anyhow, waited long enough to write that I do have a picture, Bonita's baby, born today (girl). Healthy and strong, just in time for the cold weather here in CO.

Camping and Alpacas

Well, I was trying to decide if the new me was going to write blogs or not, but so many people tell me they enjoy it, and I love letting others know what we're doing I guess I'll keep it up.

We had a great month and it seems life is looking up again. I got home from the month of being gone just after Mike finished his detox. It was AMAZING and has made a big difference in his health and therefore his attitude. His elbows which have hurt for 5 years solid no longer hurt and he thinks he may be allergic to milk, which in itself is not good, but may cure his migraines, which is fabulous! I'm starting the detox next week, and am excited and nervous all at once. Mike was so faithful to the letter of what he was told to do, that it's going to be a tough example to follow!

Just after I got home we had planned a backpacking trip, but Mike still has a lot of dietary restrictions so this became a camping trip. We spent the first night up near Leadville and fished the Arkansas and it tributaries at its source. I am dedicated to becoming a competent fly fisherman and we had a lot of fun. I also knitted a lot which was fun too. The last morning Mike was so psyched to get going that when I pulled back the tent flap he already had his waders on and was stringing his rod. I sent him on his way and held back for a cup of coffee (and slimfast) before I started and thus we ended up fishing separately for the morning. The significance of that is that I caught 4 fish when he was nowhere in sight... That to me is significant! I caught a couple more, one 16 incher or so, after we got back together. So the trip was a success and it was great to spend a little time together without having to rush to take care of an animal ;-) We need to do that more often. Mike also has a buddy nearby that he has been fishing with a few times so getting out more often, a couple times a week, is really helping his peace of mind. I think last week he caught a 24 incher.. amazing!

Up North on the Arkansas

Our Campsite the first night

Campsite the second night.. Not nearly as picturesque and the highway was too close, but the fishing made up for it!

Mike fishing on the Arkansas

There is also a lot of gold mining in the area and we met a guy who had a claim on the river right where we were fishing, so we learned a lot about Gold. He says he makes about $1000 an hour during his two week window when the conditions are great. We met another panner the next day who confirmed the story. Apparently it pays well. Now Mike is hot on my honing my gold panning skills instead of my fishing skills. He's going to buy me a pan so when we go (I mean he goes) fishing, I can be panning and pay for the trip!

My sister Monica came down the next weekend for a visit and to be a spectator at the Society for Creative Anachronisms event being held that weekend in Canon City. She brought a friend with her for the night. I went down to watch a bit also. The costumes were fun. These photos were taken at the wine tasting event... the best part of the day. Monica learned to sew and bought a sewing machine in order to make this dress!!



After that we swung into full gear to get ready for the show in Albuquerque last weekend, and ranch days coming up next weekend. We needed to get marketing paperwork done for the animals, health certificates, fiber products to sell finished, ads in the paper... etc. It is a full time job for the two of us! But it was really nice to focus hard on the animals again, as we had pretty much put them on the back burner during the summer. On the way to the show I dropped off 5 fiber boys that we sold! Yeah, 5 less mouths to feed and they should be great animals for the ranch that bought them to start their fiber herd.

Now we have new babies due again, as fall kicks in. If anyone is looking for a trip to Colorado come to our ranch days this weekend. We are having an animal kinesiologist (muscle testing) coming to do demonstrations and test our herd. Should be fascinating! Read more about her on our webpage (www.aardwolfalpacas.com).

Summer has come and gone...

Summer has come and gone and I haven't blogged yet again. Sara started school (high school) last week and Kelsey anxiously awaits her first college class next week! Obviously they are both back in Albuquerque after another summer up here. They spent a week at Monicas helping take care of the ranch (while they went to Europe) and got in a concert or two, and we did go to a Society for Creative Anachronisms event at Monicas house, and a day at the water park... That pretty much sums up the summer.

I've been trying to raise the bar and live up to a higher potential, and that is more what the summer has been about. Pretty exciting to me really, but nothing much to Blog about, especially since it is going to be a long process, as changing your life always is. But as of today I'm down 25 pounds and no loss of motivation, we've turned off the TV, and have vowed to try to spend more of the next year together.. preferably at home. I think the kids are satisfied with the summer although my inspiration has been uncomfortable for them as well.

Mike has caught a bit of the fever and addressing some health issues he has had for many years. He has started in a program with a local Chiropractor/Acupuncturist/Kinesiologist and is currently most of the way through a 21 day detox where you take lots of supplements to help purge your organs of toxins and eat like a bird. It's been tough, and most days fairly uncomfortable, but I think he's on the other side of the hill and starting to feel better than he has in a long long time. We are both very encouraged. Can't wait to start it myself ;-)

All four of Mike's boys are going to be visiting this weekend (starting tomorrow) and going fishing. His daughter, Sara, was nearly able to come as well, but at the last minute had somethings to attend to and could not come. You can imagine Mike is flying high right now. It's been a rare occasion that they have all been together (if ever since I've known him). I'm missing out as I'm in Las Vegas for two weeks of training, but I suppose the Moser boys deserve the time alone anyway... They will have more fun with no spouses or kids to be thinking of. I'm very excited for them.

Mike and I, to address our goals of spending more time together, are going backpacking the week I get home. I'm honing my fishing skills and we are planning to slow down our fall. That's about all I have to report right now... no photos to add either. Hope summer was great at your house.

A new month - Lots of life changes!!

Well, once again a couple months have passed and lots of change has accompanied!

First I wanted to mention the death of Mike's Aunt June. She died while I was out in Illinois where I last blogged. Mike's Mother had 7 sisters (and a brother that passed away about 12 years ago) an d they are very close, in fact the ones still living in Ogden have had lunch every Friday for years. June died of pancreatic cancer and so had been very sick for about six months. She will be missed. Mike drove out to Ogden, leaving the day I came home from our long trip east. He was glad to be with his mother at this difficult time, and had the chance to spend an evening with his kids too.

Mike's Mom is back row Right (in Black). Aunt June is middle back.
Sharon in the center front died 6 years ago, Jeanette (front left) died about a year ago.

When he returned he went straight to Monica's house and is back there this week, hoping to finish that job up very soon. You can see the latest photos and progress on that on Monica's Blog (http://sunponyranch.blogspot.com/).

While he was at Monica's, Mike and I took a day and finally got to take advantage of an offer one of the Doctors at CSU's vet hospital gave us and we spent a day there learning to use our microscope. Now we can do our own fecal exams and avoid some of the dependency we have on the lab.

Next we went to the alpaca show in Denver, our local organization's show and our last one to show animals this spring. I was ribbons chairman, and Mike ended up volunteering twice for ring steward, and once for score keeper, so we were both very busy the whole show.

Kelsey flew in to help out Saturday and Sunday and then she and I drove back for my monthly week in Albuquerque. That week ended with Dad's Birthday, Mother's Day, and Kelsey's graduation from High School. Yep, she's now all grown up! She is planning to stay at her Dad's for another year and go to UNM, before heading out to California for school.

That same weekend Mike was home shearing at two out of four ranches that we had collaborated with for 2008 shearing. He was at one ranch Saturday and sheared 42 (or so) animals, another ranch the next day with 50 or so, then I got back for Monday at a third ranch where we sheared 55 animals, and finally our house was on Tuesday with 33 animals. Each house was responsible for coffee, snacks and lunch and then we all helped out at each ranch where we each had a job. Along with the shearer and his helper (from new Zealand), we hired a Certified Fiber Sorter, who sorted the fleece as it came off the animal, so that you get an evaluation with feedback on your fleece before the end of the day, and your fleece is graded so it is ready to send to the mill and assure the best quality products. This was a very successful way to do shearing for the year and we will probably do it again.


And FINALLY : I also started full time employment with a company called CFI (Computerized Facilities Integration). They are headquartered in Southfield MI, but I will be supporting the west coast office, in Los Angeles. It is a relatively small company (than I have been used to lately) but they have more Tririga contracts than any other partner, and I am excited that I will be doing the same work, but will be able to support ALL aspects of integration of the product. They will also support me to get certified in Tririga, something that would have been useful while trying to get contract work. I am a bit nervous about working 40 hours a week on a regular basis and keeping up with the ranch, but Mike is going to be supporting the ranch end of our partnership and I'll be focusing on making a living. My contract work had been dwindling and made this step necessary to keep up with our debts. Last week (after Shearing) I went out to Los Angeles for three days to meet the rest of the team and "be oriented". It was a great trip and I am pleased that it seems a good fit. I will be able to work remotely from home and set my own hours, and have very limited travel, so from that perspective it will feel just like consulting, except I get medical benefits ;-).

While in Los Angeles Jackie Zev came downtown and joined me for dinner one evening.. So that was a good opportunity as well. Unfortunately, her Dad has been in the hospital for the past month and a half and is not doing well. I hope this job will allow me to get to California more often and visit friends a bit more.

Oh no, one more finally! This weekend I am going to Salt Lake City for the Alpaca National Convention. I'll be staying with Mike's sister and not attending any seminars, but going for a quick trip to network and see those people form the rest of the country that we don't see often. (And go to the new IKEA). I had hoped Mike and I could both go, but it turns out we have three babies due in the later half of May. So only one of us could go, and I got the short straw. Both of us are pretty tired of being away from home. Perhaps that will all slow down again after the Salt Lake trip. (HA!)

The Stanleys

Another ranch (Fiber of Life) and Aardwolf Alpacas got together this spring so that we could hit more alpaca shows and get more exposure. Last month Fiber of Life (FOL) took out animals to Phoenix to the show. Two weeks ago I went to Missouri (FOL animals did not go, but that is another story), and last week Tracy (of FOL) and I took off across country for two shows in the mid-west, leaving our menfolk home to tend to the ranch.

The first show was in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On our way to Indiana we had the opportunity to stop at a popular fiber mill in Kansas for a tour and to drop some fleece off. Tracy and I recognize our limitations on driving too far in one day and so that first night we stayed in Omaha, NE and got to visit Dave Parker.. an Air Force friend from Tucson and Germany days, and his wife. This week we had the opportunity to visit the Stanleys, my Dad's side of the family.

The original plan was to stay with my Aunt Winnie (my Dad's sister) in West Lafayette, IN, on our way to Fort Wayne and our way from Fort Wayne. But on Thursday when we got there I was surprised to be met by my cousin, Beth. It seems Winnie had fallen on Tuesday and broken her Femur. She was in the hospital. Beth's son, Dale, lives with Winnie, and Beth had come in from VA to take care of things. Friday morning we went by the hospital to visit Winnie before we headed on to the show, and she headed into surgery.



Because of the troubles, my cousin, Ken (with his wife and daughter) drove down from Ohio to visit for the weekend. They happened to go right through Fort Wayne, in fact just past our motel, just as we got done setting up for the show and were ready for dinner. So we ran out for a quick bite and visit with them. Another bonus.


At the show we met and saw lots of people we know from this side of the country, good, but the animals didn't do anything worth reporting, not so good. Sunday after the show we headed back to West Lafayette, arriving in time for a card game and bed and visiting Winnie again in the morning at the hospital. She was getting released into a rehab center that afternoon, and once rehabilitated is going to move directly into her new retirement apartment in the same community. This community is on Purdue campus and associated with the university, and thus has LOTS of amenities to offer. (At least on the brochure everyone looks very happy). Looks like a great place.

This week we are staying in Peoria, IL, and this weekend attending a show here in Peoria. Since I worked a few times in Peoria while with Washington Group, I know a few people here too, which is fun. Sunday/Monday after the show we will embark on our last 1600 miles heading for home.