Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This time of year always makes me happy and gets me out of that "winter funk"! The snow is melting and the temperature is in the 40's and 50's.... Yay! Spring is springing!

Now is also the time of year to make sure your alpacas are wormed if you gave it a rest during the coldest winter months. We've already started vaccinating with Dectomax over the weekend and have to finish up. We like to use Dectomax on our pregnant girls because there has been some thought over the years about the safety of using Ivermectin on pregnant females. I can tell you, however, that we have used Ivermectin on our pregnant females and thankfully never had problems. But when in doubt, use the Dectomax...it's more expensive though.

Safeguard is another wormer that will keep your alpacas (and llamas) safe from parasites. We used to buy the paste and squirt it in their mouths. It's thick so they try to spit it out and that gets very messy! We discovered over the winter the beauty of liquid Safeguard. They accept it much more easily so we know they are getting the proper dosage. I'll give you more info about that in an upcoming post...

I'm looking forward to corned beef and cabbage for dinner today --

Happy St. Patty's Day to all!

Hurry up spring!

On Sunday we had a snowstorm that brought us several inches of new snow. Today, it's rain and temperatures in the 30's.

This is that sloppy time of year that makes me want spring to get here even faster! I get a little peek at the ground below all that snow. The days seem to be longer with more sunshine. Even the alpacas, llamas and other animals at the farm are looking a happier at the signs of warmer days ahead.

My older brother raises Scottish Highland Cattle and a few yaks at our family farm where we raise our animals. Over the weekend, one of his cows who always has her calves in the middle of February, usually during blizzards, had a beautiful little black heifer. We did some shifting around in the barn and he made mom and new baby a stall to avoid Sunday's snowstorm.

When he brought the calf in the barn, you should have seen all the alpaca and llama ladies! They all gathered at the side of their pen and stared happily at the pretty little -- 60 pound -- calf. The majority of the alpaca and llama ladies are moms and no matter what kind of baby it is, they get the happiest looks on their faces when they see a baby! I wish I had brought the camera outside with me because it was priceless.

Of course all the ladies love to see the new baby, but they are glad that mama cow and calf stay on their own side of the barn. Plus it's just a temporary housing situation for the new mom. She'll be mingling again with the rest of the herd within a couple of weeks.

That's all for today. Hope you are warm and dry where you are!

Sylvia the comedian!

Sylvia is one of our llama girls. She is actually very beautiful, however due to the subject of today's post, I tried to use the goofiest picture of her that I could find.

I always tell people that alpacas and llamas usually don't spit at people. They will spit at each other during squabbles over food or hay. They may also spit if they don't want us to give them a shot. If you have a bezerk male llama (like we do) who doesn't like "change" or new faces, you will also see the spit fly. But for the most part, we don't get spit at very often by our animals.

Sylvia is the major exception on our farm. I'm not sure where she learned it, but she likes to play a trick on new visitors or us if we forget her little joke. She will come up to the side of the fence and reach her face over to look at you and when you lean in and look back at her pretty face -- SPLOOSH!!! She'll get you!

Today it's "warm" out - temps in the 20's. I decided that since the girls have been cooped up for a couple of days, I would let them out. First I let myself out the side door and closed it behind me so I could make a quick check of the fence...just in case snow or animals or something made a weak spot. Everything looked fine so I went back and opened the door - SPLOOSH!! That darn Sylvia was standing at the door when I opened it! I shut the door in her face and got my bearings, then opened the door again -- SPLOOSH!!

That little wench spit at me a second time! I held my hand up in front of her face as a shield and scolded her. I doubt that she cared at all. I'm sure she was laughing at me the whole time! I let the girls outside and checked out my hat. It wasn't in too bad of shape...just a few green chunks of hay. The smell was fierce but I was no worse for wear.

After morning chores were finished and I went inside to clean up, I noticed a few green splatters on my glasses. I haven't lost all my dignity - at least there were no witnesses, right? ... and Sylvia had her fun for the day!

Luxor's Lucas is officially registered!

Hooray! As of Thursday, February 26th, our little Lucas' registration was finally complete! And his sire and dam are exactly who I said they are! According to the Alpaca Registry, we should receive his certificate in the mail in the next week or so. Thank goodness!

If you happen to be attending the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival in Madison, WI, at the end of April, please stop by our stalls to say hello and see Luxor's Lucas, HPF Leroy, Nuno and Frances Bean. I'm excited to attend because we haven't been to a show in quite some time due to scheduling conflicts and bad timing. Those shows really fill up fast nowadays!

I had a pretty good following of readers on this blog and I'm sure I've lost many of them after the New Year with my irregular blogging schedule. I'm hoping to win some of you back though. I should be able to blog more regularly now because I'm one of the latest victims of corporate downsizing. The unstable economy has taken it's toll on the company I worked for so they were no longer able to keep me and many other employees. So while I'm searching for work, I'm able to spend more time with our alpacas. I might even be able to do a better job of marketing them now...who knows?