January, 2010

There’s nothing more depressing in mid-winter than a warm rain.  The 40+ degree weather and heavy rain yesterday took us down to bare ground in all our paths and drives, but the unplowed ground is still white. Temps are below freezing this morning, so our fields are all ice.  No snowshoeing with the dogs until we get a good snowfall.

Ron headed out to Barre to the Vermont Farm Show this morning.  He took a couple of male alpacas, including our white male color champion, Snowshoe Aristides.  They’ll be meeting and greeting people at the Vermont Llama & Alpaca Assoc display all day. Stop by and say hi if you’re in the area!

Join us at the Vermont Farm Show next Tues.  Ron will be there all day at the Vermont Llama & Alpaca Assoc display with a couple of our alpacas. The show is held at the Barre Auditorium. Jan 26-28.

Our Beginner Handspinning class started yesterday.  I, for one, had a great time!  All the participants are current or future alpaca owners, so we’ll spend a lot of time playing with and talking about alpaca fiber. Handspinning can be a little frustrating at first, but this group did amazingly well – even those who didn’t think they did.  We’ll contiue to meet on Sunday afternoons for the next couple months, weather permitting.

Wow – what a day!  Warm and sunny.  What’s not to like?  Well, the road that’s turning to mud, for one thing.  As much as we enjoy working outside on days like today, it is mid-January and it’s not supposed to be like this. Hopefully, we’ll enjoy a few warm days and the temps will drop a bit before any precip moves in.  Rain we don’t need!

Registration for the North American Alpaca Show opened this morning.  Spring is on the way! We’ll reserve our pens today for the two males we’ll be showing: our white multi-champion, Snowshoe Aristides, and our juvie male, Snowshoe Pharoah. We’ll also reserve space for a suri male, Christopher, owned by our friend Jane at Berry Hill Farm.

The spring shows will be Aristides’ last chance in the ring then he will retire to start his breeding career in May.  We already have dates lined up for him!

On Sunday we moved the chickens into their remodeled winter coop. These are some very happy hens.  They have lots more room to roam and (hopefully) are secure from predators.  The move came just in time to save us from having to dig through snow out to the summer coop at the back of the barn.

The hens started laying about a month ago and we’re getting 8-10 eggs a day. There’s nothing like having fresh eggs!  If you’re considering livestock, but aren’t sure about the work involved, get chickens.  They’re easy and very rewarding.

Check out this article about our friends and fellow alpaca breeders at Foggy Bottom Ranch in nearby Landaff, NH.

Kathy and Tracey have worked so hard to build a really beautiful farm!

Welcome 2010!  There’s a bit of light snow falling this morning, but the temps are mild – 20′s.  Our goal today is to finish the upgrade to the winter chicken coop. We want to move the hens before we have to shovel our way through a big storm to their current home in the summer coop.  All we have to do is close up a few holes in the corners to “critter-proof” the coop.  Weasels can get in through an amazingly small hole!

Our 15 hens are now laying and we’re getting at least 7-8 eggs each day.  Some are still small, but the Golden Comets (the hens that supposedly mature early) already have super jumbo eggs! I love gathering warm eggs from the coop!