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Updates

10/06/2007 9:44 AM

Hmmm, where to begin? So many things have happened over the last few months! I think I'll just do a stream-of-consciousness thing, rather than try to recall everything in a specific order. I'm sure I'll miss a lot, but I'll cover as much as I'm able.

Okay, last weekend was the Monterey Pronk - the annual alpaca show in Monterey, CA. Last year, I opted for the New Mexico State Fair alpaca show instead, but this year, I chose the Pronk. The biggest hurdle was that it fell on the same weekend as National Alpaca Farm Day. After much discussion, we finally decided that it would be better for Cathy to stay and run the ranch, while I focused on the show. In retrospect, it still seems the right decision for this year. Next year, who knows? I'd like to see Calpaca move the Pronk to a week earlier or later, so there's no conflict.

The show was a successful one for us. I only showed two of our young boys - Kid Rock of Twisted Lock (a juvenile), and Sir Lustermaster of Twisted Lock (yearling). Both won blue ribbons. I also transported and handled Inca Bronze, a juvenile from Sweetwater Alpacas. He also won a blue ribbon, and went on to win the Reserve Champion banner, as well! On the spur of the moment, I volunteered to handle a yearling for Kathleen at Friendly Farm Alpacas, and he also won a blue ribbon! So let's see...I went in the ring with 4 animals, and came out with 4 blue ribbons and a Reserve Champion...pretty cool! I transported Mystery (yearling female) for my friends at Alpaca Knolls, and she went on to win 3rd in a tough class, so they deserve our congratulations, as well. Mystery is agisted her at Twisted Lock, and will be bred to our National Champion, Tehuelche, after the AlpacaFest West. Also, I transported Sugar, Sugar, who took a blue ribbon for Michael of SoCal Suris. Lastly, Susan Rauch's little boy won a 2nd place out of 7 in the fleece show.

 I donated breedings to 2 of our herdsires, Breitling of A.L. Paca's and Silvestre el Boliviano, to the herdsire auction (for breedings), with proceeds going to a scholarship fund for veterinary students in the camelid program at UC Davis. I took Breitling, Silvestre, Tehuelche, and Stryder (my friend Anthony's herdsire, who happens to be for sale) for display at the show. Everyone loved our boys, and both Silvestre and Breitling brought in respectable bids in the auction.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cathy had entertained a few dozen visitors, which is pretty good considering we spent exactly zero time promoting National Alpaca Farm Day (since I was out of town). We're considering doing an open ranch day of our own, where we can spend some time promoting, and make it a real event.

The Year of the Girl™ continues! We've now had 8 girls in a row! Can you believe that...EIGHT!?! I'm on cloud eight, hoping for 9 to come along any minute. How strange that we went from a streak of 7 boys in a row last year, to 8 girls in a row this year. What's even better, is that we've had some truly spectacular girls, too. These last 2, especially. I can't wait to see how they do in the show ring.

Speaking of the show ring, we're headed there again. We'll be Platinum Sponsors of the AlpacaFest West Alpaca Show, November 10th and 11th in Industry Hill, CA. I'll be showing our 2 boys (Kid Rock and Lustermaster), as well as Pamela Anderson of Twisted Lock, and maybe a couple of others. I've donated breedings to Tehuelche and Silvestre to the herdsire auction, and we'll also be debuting our new embroidery business there.

That's right, we've entered the action-packed, adventurous, high-stakes world of monogrammed clothing! We purchased a professional embroidery machine, and are now offering shirts, hats, and more with ranch logos, business graphics, alpaca figures, etc. So if you need anything....

We shot a movie at our house! It's called "The Kiss", and is a horror movie featuring vampires descended from snakes (as opposed to the usual vampires descended from bats). It was quite fun, and a lot of work. I'll post more info as it gets closer to release (straight to video - never intended for the theater market). The best part: I have a part in the movie. I play a musician/former victim of the vampire/partygoer. I don't have any lines, but I understand I'm quite visible throughout the movie.

Our most recent alpaca birthing experience included a uterine prolapse. I'm happy to report that everything went well, and we expect the mom to be able to rebreed in a couple of weeks. The cria is fine, too, and in addition to being absolutely gorgeous, is full of piss 'n' vinegar, as they say. I've written an article about the experience, which will be published in the next Calpaca newsletter.

Breitling's first cria                  Tehuelche's first cria

Breitling and Tehuelche have each had their first crias, now. In fact, Tehuelche has now fathered 6, and Breitling has sired either 2 or 3 - I'm awaiting confirmation on the number. I understand Tehuelche's crias are "the best I've ever seen!", according to Sam Groome of Marathon Alpacas in Marathon, NY. Sam wants to buy 8 or 10 more breedings from Tehuelche, so that must mean something.

In honor of Halloween, and our vampire movie, I've decided to hold a Blood Draw Clinic here at the ranch. On October 21, our wonderful vet, Dr. Jana Smith, will be teaching us how to draw blood from our alpacas. We'll be using live alpacas, and we'll each get some hands-on time up-close-and-personal with a needle and syringe. Contact me for more info.

There's much more to write, but no more time in which to write it, so I'll sign off for now. Thanks for reading!

06/29/2007 11:37 AM

Well, as usual, it's been too long between updates. I really should be beaten severely...any volunteers? It just sounds like an excuse when I say I've been too busy to find the time, but so be it.

Since my last update, we've had three more female crias - that's an incredible 5 in a row! It's the Year of the Girl™, I tell you! Hot Fudge Sundae had a gorgeous white girl, followed a few days later by Prudence having a beautiful little fawn girl. Lastly, Vio-Lyn had a nice, large, white girl. That last one (tentatively named Marta's Mandolin) needed a little help. She was over 21 pounds, and Vio-Lyn was a first-time mom. The baby seemed to get stuck at the shoulders for a long time. I gently (but firmly) pulled the baby through. Mandolin didn't nurse for the first few days, and became a bit of a bottle baby. We gave her whole milk, goats milk, powdered milk replacer, yogurt... and I'm happy to say, everything worked! This girl would eat anything, and could drain a 9 ounce bottle in seconds. I milked the mom a few times a day to keep her from drying up. After a few days of this, and a little encouragement from me, the baby eventually found the milk bar, and has been happily nursing ever since. She's gained weight nicely, and continues to be one of our largest crias. She did, however, need a plasma transfusion, since she didn't nurse in time to absorb Mom's colostrum.

I went to the AOBA Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. I only took 2 of our animals: Tehuelche and Breitling. Since they had so much fleece on them, and the weather had already been pretty hot, I decided to show both of them in the shorn classes, which I reasoned would likely have less competition than the full-fleece classes. I could not have been more correct! Tehuelche was in a class of 2, and took 2nd place against a really nice-looking boy with a slightly stronger hip structure. Breitling was in a class by himself! And while I'd like to think that each of our herdsires is in a class by himself, that really shouldn't apply to the highest-level national show! At any rate, Breitling did take the first-place ribbon, so at least the judge didn't find any significant fault with him. It would've been nice to ribbon against some competition, though. I'm sure next year's show will have more participation in the shorn classes. I'll certainly take more of our animals next time.

I also attended the auction at Nationals. I shouldn't have. Cathy and I had agreed that we weren't going to buy any more animals for awhile. We've just bought so darned many this year, I couldn't justify buying any more. Or so I thought. As it turned out, instead of the usual 70-ish animals in the auction, those in charge decided they could find buyers for over 90. In addition to having more animals than buyers, the large number caused the event to run unreasonably long, testing the stamina of even the most diehard alpaca lover. After watching animals sell for what I felt were very low prices, I called Cathy and discussed our options. In the end, we decided we could part with a little more money, if we found the right deal. I bought two females, a fawn girl named Amber Waves of Grain (Amber), who had 2 blue ribbons to her credit, and Pine Valley Son's Veronica (Veronica), who had a bunch of championships and numerous blue ribbons to her credit. I brought Amber home with me, and sent Veronica back with the seller for breeding to CV Peruvian Moses, who is a 5-time champion, and undefeated in the show ring. Moses has won once at Nationals, and twice at the Futurity.

By the way, if you've never been to AOBA Nationals, I definitely encourage you to go next year. It's an amazing conference/show/auction, at which I met loads of nice people, and learned lots. It is so much more comprehensive than most shows.

After leaving Louisville, I drove northeast about 350 miles to the AlpacaRosa, where I picked up the suri male and female I had bought in December, along with Belissima's female cria. As it happened, another California breeder had a young male who also needed to come home from AlpacaRosa, so I transported him, as well. The trip home was long, but uneventful, save for the purchase of a couple of trailer tires, and a night of alpaca shivering, due to transporting newly-shorn animals through the mountains of Colorado.

After arriving home, I started catching up on our overdue breedings, which I had delayed until after show season (mostly due to quarantine issues for our show string). Tehuelche, Breitling, and Silvestre all saw some significant action over the ensuing few weeks. We've got just about everyone bred now, including several breedings sold as a result of our two-page spreads in Alpacas and American Livestock magazines. We've got several confirmed pregnancies, and a bunch more that we should be able to confirm over the next few weeks.

I took a trip to central California, dropping off Shez Amazing for breeding to Don Diego de Peru (a Macgyver son), and Poppyseed to Midnight Express. A week later, I took a trip through Utah to drop off Spitfire for breeding to Sirius Black (another Macgyver son), and then went to Washington state to pick up three new pregnant females - two suris, Fancy Ribbons and Every Herd Sire's Desire, and one huacaya, Live Wire of Peru.

On the way home from Washington, I got the news that a director (whom we'd met through mutual friends at a barbecue in our home) wanted to use our house and property as the setting for a horror movie! They'd already picked out a location, but thought our place would be perfect, so switched the location right before the start of production. Not only that, but they decided to write a small part into the movie for me to make my acting debut! It's a small movie, which will go straight to DVD, but it sounded like loads of fun, so I said let's go for it.

Shooting started this Monday - 4 days ago - and it's been a madhouse. The fun has been nonstop, and the entire cast and crew have fallen in love with our alpacas. The movie is called "The Kiss", and is a love story, disguised as a vampire movie. I'm sure I'll make time later to tell you more details about the story line. For now, I'll just say that my role is "Elegant Gentleman number 1", and I don't get killed because I'm already dead. Newsflash: I've just been informed that my character has adopted my real-life habit of playing a guitar at the party. Apparently it has something to do with musicians getting all the chicks. A couple of days ago, I also played a bit part as a partygoer, but I don't think my face is seen in that role, since they were saving me for this latest scene.

Everyone involved has been extremely nice, and though there have been some adjustments made on our part (mostly parking and loss-of-privacy issues), the impact has been manageable, for the most part. Shooting has involved some late nights, though, and the crew was here Tues. evening until 5am Wed. Much of the movie is shot near our pool, and must be shot at night.

I almost forgot to mention shearing. We had Kim Rooney come in to do most of our shearing, and she did a wonderful job! Our animals look like they'd been to a beauty parlor. This girl really knows her stuff. The problem, however, is that she's incredibly busy. We ended up with 9 animals that she couldn't fit into her schedule. I thought about trying to find another shearer, but since learning to shear has always been a goal of mine, I decided to give it a go. I've watched and participated in several shearings, by several different shearers. In addition, I've bought several instructional DVDs on shearing. I already had the shears, but I don't have a table, or pro-tie, or the other rope harness/yoke arrangement. Since I really just needed to get the fiber off these guys, I chose to tie the head, and shear them standing up (by myself, no less!). I started on our pet-quality boys, so as not to stress anyone too badly. The first 2 I sheared came out absolutely beautiful, if I must say so myself. Seriously, they look just as good as the ones Kim did. The difference is, instead of 15 minutes, it took me an hour each. I've since shorn several more. They didn't come out as well, because my comb and cutter got dull. I've ordered more (as well as sharpening equipment), and I'll finish shearing everyone as soon as the new cutters arrive. I get a little faster with each animal I shear.

I'll probably shear my own herd next year, since this has gone so well. I'll probably buy a table (I hate kneeling on the floor for shearing), but will wait until close to shearing time next spring, so it's not taking up space and gathering dust in the meantime.

05/05/2007 09:42 AM

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! And in the traditional Mexican spirit of forgive and forget, I must now beg and plead with everyone to forgive me for "forgetting" to update my blog for such a long time. I could make the excuse that show season has kept me really, really busy (which it has), but in the end it would still be an excuse. So please...accept my apologies, before I'm forced to drop down on bended knee, and recruit my alpacas to help me hum the traditional Cinco de Mayo beg-for-forgiveness-for-neglecting-to-update-my-alpaca-blog theme song. Anyway, on with the updates! What's that? You DO forgive me? That's a relief, 'cause my alpacas just told me they can't remember the melody.

Wow, so much to tell! Where do I begin? Okay, to make a bunch of long, seemingly unrelated stories seem short, and seemingly related, I'll try to weave it all into a single stream-of-consciousness kind of thing.

Debutante did eventually have her baby. It was a beautiful little boy, whom we've chosen to name Kid Rock of Twisted Lock. He has perfect conformation, excellent bite, and twisted locks for days! I can't wait to take this little booger to shows. He'll be old enough in the fall. He's kind of a whitish/beige-ish/light fawn color, with a slightly darker light fawn on his head, and tons of luster. Though he nursed very well, his IgG was a little low, so we opted to do a plasma transfusion, and he's doing great. He and his dam are out right now for breeding. They should be home any day.

A few days later, our girl Bellisima, who's in Ohio at the moment, gave us our very first female cria (finally!). She, also, has great lock and luster, and is a very similar color, though she was born slightly larger than Kid Rock. We're thinking of naming her Pamela Anderson of Twisted Lock. I'll be picking her up in Ohio after the AOBA Nationals in late May.

Yet a few days after that, we had another little girl! Our very own Drama Queen gave us a little creamy colored girl, who has a medium fawn speck right between her shoulder blades, kind of at the base of her neck. Though very pretty, she doesn't have the lock structure or luster of the other two. She was born very small - 10.4 pounds - and we were concerned that she might not make it. She was feisty, though, and started gaining weight rapidly. She's now over 25 pounds, and full of spunk.

We're now on baby watch for Hot Fudge Sundae, who is due any day. Hot Fudge is a VERY solid girl, with a couple of blue ribbons - one in a halter class and one for fleece - so I expect she'll have a beautiful cria with incredible bone and great fleece.

We've done well in the shows, and I've been to quite a few this spring: Carolina Alpaca Celebration in NC, Southwest Regional in Arizona, International Odyssey in Laughlin, NV, Alpaca Western Extravaganza in Reno, California Classic in Pleasanton, and now I'm getting ready to go to the AOBA Nationals, which will be the last of the season. As the season has progressed, the shows have gotten tougher and tougher, as breeders begin to leave home the animals that don't do as well, bringing only their best to the final shows.

You may recall we went to the Alpacas of America auction in January with the intent to buy Silvestre, the true black suri herdsire. He had broken his leg, and was withdrawn from the auction. We bought 9 girls, instead. After the auction, we entered negotiations to purchase Silvestre anyway. I'm happy to report that we reached an agreement in March, and Silvestre finally reached his new home this week. He arrived here on Monday, and we put him right to work. He still wears a brace on his lower leg, which will need to remain in place for another few months, while his tendons tighten up, but that doesn't hamper his breeding.

We've begun running full page ads (2-page spreads, actually) in Alpacas Magazine and American Livestock, advertising our two black, Futurity Color Champion herdsires - Tehuelche and Silvestre.

Phase 1 of our home renovation is nearly complete! Our bathroom is finally finished, as is our kitchen with the exception of a few minor finish details. We've replaced the siding that had been removed for the construction, and are now finishing up the guest cottage, which is actually going to be the home for our new full time ranch hand, Ernesto.

Our ranch is going to be on the local Historic Homes Tour tomorrow, so we've been really busy preparing for that. We had a test run with the tour's Docents last week, and they were more interested in the alpacas than in the house! We had about 20 people down in the girls' pen, having a grand old time. I expect tomorrow will be nonstop ranch visitors.

We had a birthing clinic in March, hosted by myself and Sonia at Tanglewood Suri Alpacas, and featuring our wonderful vet, Dr. Jana Smith. The clinic was a huge success, due in no small part to the efforts of Cindy Harris and Linda Snook at Alpacas at Windy Hill, who went to great lengths to ensure we had a copy of their birthing video. The clinic was well-attended, and everyone had a great time and learned a bunch. Look for other clinics in our future.

I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake the other day. It was lying on the concrete near our "clean pens", where I'm temporarily keeping Tehuelche and Breitling. Luckily, I happened to look down at just the right time - I was about 2 feet away from him, and he wasn't making a sound. I grabbed a machete (doesn't everyone have one within arm's reach at all times?) and chopped his head off. Sounds pretty gruesome, huh? Ernesto disposed of the snake before I got to study it, but he did save the rattle for me.

When I go to shows, there's always a mad rush trying to get together all the equipment, sponsor booth, animals, feed, hay, water, tools, paperwork, and all the associated paraphernalia that goes into the travel and event. As a result, I'm usually fighting a deadline, and do a lot of driving in a short time. On the longer trips, it's frustrating to find hotels along the way, especially when all I really need is to be able to pull over a sleep for a few hours. Add to that the frustration of trying to find hotels that accept dogs (i.e. ShadowBuddy), and it wasn't long before I began researching other options. I explored the possibility of getting a new alpaca trailer with integrated living quarters, but that option seemed cumbersome and expensive, not to mention I preferred the flexibility of being able to leave the living quarters at home for shorter trips, and being able to use trailers of different sizes, depending on the need.

I stumbled across truck campers - those glorified "camper shells" that slide onto the bed of a pickup, and seem as though they'd be incredibly cramped. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that units were available with kitchenette, bathroom, and more. Eventually, I stumbled across a used one that fit my short bed truck. It has a queen size bed over the truck cab, and a full kitchenette with stove, oven, fridge...bathroom with shower, air conditioning, pretty much everything I need on the road. I would've never dreamed that much stuff could fit in the bed of a truck. I've used it several times now, and have been quite comfortable. It'll see a good workout on the trip to Kentucky next week. It's quite heavy, however, and I may need to add some springs to the truck to support the combined weight of the camper and trailer tongue. I'm happy to report that the truck pulls the additional load just fine, and the impact on mileage is less significant than I'd expected - about 1+ mpg. Gotta love that diesel!

02/07/2007 12:26 PM

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear alpacapimp, but still no ba-by!

Well, my birthday came, and the baby didn't. Debutante is still keeping this one under wraps. It's now day 351, and she acts like she could wait 11 1/2 more months! Okay, not really, she looks like she could burst at any moment, but she's acting remarkably spry and youthful for somebody who's been carrying a 17 pound little girl for the last year. Maybe tomorrow...

Yesterday we had the vet out to do our transport certificates for the upcoming Carolina Alpaca Celebration show. Everybody got Brucellosis and TB tests, and just for fun, we shot all 6 of our show girls full of West Nile vaccine. Remember what I said a few days ago about all those girls we got at the Alpacas of America Auction being so sweet and well-behaved? I'm not sure if I'm a liar or just ignorant, but we had some real spit-queens yesterday. A couple of them are up in the 180 pound range, too, so they were a challenge to handle. I'm sure they'll be better in the show ring ;). We got them all done, though. Now we just have to check the TB injection sites on Friday and they'll be ready for their moments in the spotlight.

02/05/2007 09:37AM

It's been too long between updates. I've GOT to do better!

All our new girls have settled in, made buddies, learned their way around the neighborhood. They all seem pretty happy and well-adjusted. I'm getting ready to wreak havoc upon their world by yanking 5 or 6 or them out for a cross country trip to Concord, NC for the Carolina Alpaca Celebration show. I've decided to show Guardian Angel, Peach Brandy, Poppyseed, Run for the Roses, and Shez Amazing. I'll probably take Tehuelche, too, just for fun.

I'd love to show Genuine Gold, too, but she's pregnant. Alas, she must skip this vacation. I'd love to show Spun Accoyo Sugar, but she's up in Washington for breeding. Since she hasn't yet been bred, I may yet decide to hold her out for our show string.

I have another announcement to make. We've struck a deal on a new suri herdsire! This true-black Bolivian brute is an All American Alpaca Futurity Color Champion, as well as a Reserve Champion at AOBA Nationals! He's gonna be an impressive addition to our stable of herdsires, and we are excited about offering his services on a national basis. Like our other true black Futurity Champion, Tehuelche,  Silvestre may be spending part of the year on the east coast, if we can convince him to take a break from his "duties" here at Twisted Lock. Though both herdsires are owned 100% by Twisted Lock, there's been enough demand on the east coast for their services that we'll make them available at Twisted Lock East (in Marion, NC) for at least part of the year.

We had a bunch of ranch visitors this weekend. Our alpacas would like to send a big hello to Brenda, Patti, Marta, Margarita, Carol, Hedy, Marci, Syb, Fran and Ray. We thank you for your visits, and hope you'll come see us again soon.

Debutante is holding out on us. We've been on baby watch for weeks. She's now at day 349, and looks like she's not even thinking about delivering our new little girl. I'm making the official prediction that she'll deliver a special birthday gift to me this Wednesday.

Coori came home pregnant on Friday, along with her little boy (who remains nameless). We offer our thanks to the fine folks at Alpaca de la Pacifica for getting her knocked up. Coori's been bred to the same herdsire (Jonathon) who sired the late Sir Keymaster of Twisted Lock, so we're excited to see what the little girl is gonna look like.

I finally received our new ultrasound unit, the MobilSonic UltraVet. I've had a chance to try it out, and the verdict is in! The result of our tightly-controlled, fully scientific test is...wait for it...the unit doesn't work! More accurately, it worked briefly. By the time I got it next to an alpaca, however, it had ceased to properly function. By all appearances, the probe is not transmitting/receiving the sound waves, which means there's nothing to read on the display. I'll be contacting the distributor today. Let's hope I don't have to wait another 2 months for a replacement unit.

01/19/2007 11:13 PM

Well, it's been a busy week here at Twisted Lock. We've been trying to get all the new girls settled in, with mostly good results. We got everybody weighed, did some spit testing, and a couple of breedings this week. Also trimmed a few toenails and gave some shots.

After the auction, we sent 2 of our new girls - Spun Accoyo Sugar and Gingerbread Girl - back up to Washington for breeding. Of the other 7, only 1 is currently bred and pregnant - Genuine Gold. Another (Shez Amazing) may very well be too high strung for the show ring. By appearances, she's got the most vicious kick I've seen in an alpaca. Luckily for me, she has yet to land one. I'm evaluating the remaining 5 for potential showing, and will almost certainly show Poppyseed, Special Effects, Peach Brandy, Shez Amazing, and Run for the Roses.

 We also brought home a Suri herdsire last week. Sequoia is about 6 years old, and is here on consignment. He's priced at only $10,000, which is a steal for a male this nice. Breedings are also available, at $2500 each. Sequoia has extremely dense fiber and in his younger years, had very nice lock structure. His most noticeable trait, however, is his incredible presence. This guy struts around in a most impressive manner. He's got attitude!

It wasn't until after we brought Sequoia home that I realized - one of our agistees has a Sequoia cria right here at Twisted Lock. The cria hasn't yet been named, but he looks really nice. He's white, with very fine fleece and incredible conformation. I'm hoping to show him, once his owner picks a name and gets him registered.

I ordered a universal microchip reader yesterday, the Universal Bio-Thermo Pocket Reader EX. Since it's software driven, it's supposed to be able to read any chips currently in use, as well as being programmable to read any chips developed in the future. More importantly, it's designed to read the new LifeChip®, which in addition to providing an identification code, also relays your alpaca's body temperature to the chip reader. Not quite as much fun as sticking a thermometer up your oh-so-cooperative pregnant alpaca's butt, but certainly quicker, more convenient, and less likely to leave you with a smelly green face.

01/14/2007 11:24 PM

Wow, so many things have happened since my last update. Mostly good things, with one exception - Sir Keymaster of Twisted Lock, our white suri herdsire-in-training, died on the evening of December 23rd. We had built much of our initial marketing focus around his incredible conformation, density, fineness, presence, and personality. I had spent a great deal of time with Keymaster, at numerous shows and on the ranch, and we had a special bond. He will be missed.

Now, on to the good things! Where do I begin? I'll start with the latest happenings first. Cathy and I just arrived home from the Alpacas of America "America's Choice" Winter Production Auction in Las Vegas. We were fortunate enough to win the bidding for a total of 9 different female alpacas, including a full accoyo female, the highest-selling alpaca in the auction! The list of animals we won goes like this:

Lot 1: Spun Accoyo Sugar

Lot 4: Black Debut's Poppyseed

Lot 9: Gingerbread Girl

Lot 10: Peach Brandy

Lot 14: Genuine Gold

Lot 20: Special Effects

Lot 28: Run for the Roses

Lot 65: Guardian Angel

Lot 70: Shez Amazing

I'll post photos in a day or so.

Also, Twisted Lock Alpacas has arranged to open a ranch in Marion, North Carolina - Twisted Lock East! This ranch will be operated by Cathy's Dad, Al Lowery. Look for some of the east coast's finest suri alpacas to be available there! Twisted Lock East will also be the east coast home base for breedings to our true black, Futurity Champion Alpaca, Patagonia's Tehuelche.

It's tired, and I'm late, so I'll post more detailed info and updates on additional items tomorrow.

12/19/2006 09:13 AM

Our vet came out yesterday to xray Ritzy's foot, and to ultrasound several of our girls. We found that Arwin is not (or is no longer) pregnant, Memory is in the process of aborting or absorbing, and Hot Fudge Sundae's fetus is alive and kicking. The lost pregnancies are not a surprise, given all the stress these girls have been put through in early gestation. All four of the new girls were transported long distances from their respective homes (3 from New York and 1 from Alabama) to the auction in North Carolina, underwent the stress of all the handling and strange environment of the auction and show, then transported again all the way from North Carolina to their new home here in Southern California. It had to be a tough time for all of them. When we bought the animals, we knew there was a strong possibility of this happening, and if it did, we could then breed them to our new herdsire, Tehuelche. We'll be doing that over the course of this next week or two.

We don't yet have the results of Ritzy's xrays, though we should get those today. We will then decide upon a course of treatment for her, which will dictate our breeding strategy - send her back to Washington State, or retain that breeding for later, and breed her this time to our in-house "super-suri", Sir Keymaster of Twisted Lock.

Dr. Jana Smith (our vet) recommended a fecal on one of the new girls, since she was a little thin, in combination with the fact that she came from the east coast where worms are much more prevalent. She came back positive, and we'll begin treating her with high doses of Panacur. We drew blood on Duchess, so that Dr. Jana can check whether she's producing progesterone, after her breeding with Tehuelche last week.

I checked on the PalmScan ultrasound unit recommended by Dr. Steve Hull of Timberlake Farms Alpacas, and found that it will be out of stock until at least mid-January, and possibly until March, due to the entire production capacity being utilized to fulfill an order of 800 units by the Chinese government. I discussed possibly ordering a cheaper, self-contained, handheld unit by the same manufacturer, but didn't care for its lesser capabilities. We also discussed a more expensive, more capable unit, but I felt it didn't fit well from a design perspective with our anticipated usage. After some digging, I've discovered this unit, the Mobilsonic UltraVet, which seems to be what we're looking for, both ergonomically and functionally. I'll be in touch with these people over the next few days, with an eye towards purchase in the very near future.

Oh yeah, I also spent a few hours scooping poop and cleaning the various paddocks. Today I'll be picking up a batch of pellets and a load of orchard grass, since we're running low on both. Also, I'll be working with Sonia at Tanglewood Suri Alpacas to plan our upcoming Neonatal clinic. Stay tuned for more info on that.

12/17/2005 07:15 PM

I spent some time setting up new water lines to the shelter in the pregnant girls' pen today. We have about 180psi of water pressure here - enough to burst water hoses without fail. I installed a "Y", a pressure reducer (lowering the pressure to a more practical 50psi), and a couple of valves and hose bibs. Now we can use the reduced pressure for everyday stuff, and the full 180psi stream for cleaning the barn and stuff. The girls were all curious what I was up to, crowding around and sniffing me as if I might happen to have a treat hidden in my pockets. All the new girls - Arwin, Oreo, Memory and Hot Fudge Sundae - seem right at home with the rest of the herd.

I utilized most of the temporary panels I had been using as quarantine pen for the new girls to build another catch pen in the boys' paddock.

Tomorrow our vet is scheduled to ultrasound several of our girls, and to xray the growth on Ritzy's foot, so that we can decide on the most appropriate course of treatment.

12/16/2006 11:41 PM

Today we released Oreo, Arwin, Memory, and Hot Fudge Sundae from quarantine, and allowed them to join the rest of the herd. Introducing all 4 new girls as a group seemed to result in a more amicable meeting, as opposed to having each new animal individually overwhelmed by all the attention from the rest of the herd.

We did some behavior testing, and I started researching the potential purchase of our own ultrasound machine, for more accurate and timely pregnancy checks. We'll probably be ordering one this week.

Today we sold Arwin and Memory. Congratulations, Marta! We won't have a chance to miss them, however, since they'll be agisted here, along with Vio-Lynn, another of Marta's herd.

12/15/2006 01:01 PM

Cathy and I, along with our office manager Nancy, attended a taping of the Wheel of Fortune game show yesterday afternoon. Cathy won the package in the silent auction at AlpacaFest West. They tape three shows in a day, and air them at different dates throughout the year. I missed the date for the first show, but if you tune in on March 2nd or June 4th of '07, you might catch a fleeting glimpse of us. We're the geeky looking ones on the second row. I, being the geekiest of all, was wearing my blue/black, reversible alpaca vest. I'm not exactly a fan of the show, but it was fun, nonetheless.

I got the estimate for repairs on my Prius. Who knew a single piece of concrete could cause $5621 in damage? I must admit, our insurance company (Mercury Insurance) has been incredible so far. Even better than my experience a few months ago, when I was rear-ended in the same car, by yet another uninsured motorist. Here are a couple of pics of the damage. There used to be a lower front air dam and wheel well. Both were completely ripped from the car.

12/14/2006 09:10 AM

Yesterday we got an opportunity to play with our new herdsire a bit. Since Tehuelche, Arwin, Oreo, Memory, and Hot Fudge Sundae are all in quarantine, we were able to use Tehuelche to spit test the girls without fear of bio-contamination. Arwin was our first victim. She looked a little spooked, but cushed within a couple of minutes. I didn't allow them to breed, 'cause I feel she's not quite heavy enough. Memory was next. She ran from Tehuelche, and he didn't seem too interested in following. I interpret that as her being pregnant. Then came Oreo, who echoed Memory's behavior. Hot Fudge Sundae was next on the list, with similar results. She actually spit once, but mostly just ran.

Lastly, I brought in Duchess, a 5 year old who's never been pregnant, and was given to us as a charity case. Tehuelche immediately responded with "heightened interest", if you know what I mean. She cushed fairly quickly, and they proceeded with a successful breeding. I don't expect her to get pregnant, as we suspect immature ovaries, but breeding her will allow us to test her progesterone level next week, in an attempt to diagnose the cause of her lack of fertility. Duchess was last seen taking a nap, while Tehuelche did the victory dance all the way back to the boys' quarantine pen. I later heard him bragging to the other boys (though, like a true gentleman, he didn't mention any names).

12/13/2006 12:35 AM

Well, I arrived in North Carolina in good shape and on time. I got all checked in for the show, then rushed across Charlotte to pick up Cathy at the airport, before hurtling back toward Concord to finish tending to the animals. We got everybody all tucked in for the night, and found a hotel for ourselves and our two dogs, Cujo and ShadowBuddy. I had to be at the venue bright and early the next morning, where we made a few friends, spent some time cleaning up the alpacas, and met up with family members who graciously traveled several hours to see us.

The Belleauwood Auction was scheduled for the afternoon, and as a show exhibitor, I was required to be there. There wasn't a single suri alpaca offered in the auction, so bidding on and/or buying animals was out of the question. We didn't even look at any of the lots, as we were so certain we weren't buying anything. Somehow our plans changed. There didn't seem to be all that many attendees at the auction, which I attributed to this being a first-time event. As expected, the early lots garnered few bids, most selling at really low prices. We were amazed, however, that the tentative bidding and insanely low winning bids continued throughout most of the auction. The prices were so low, in fact, that we found ourselves bidding on fuzzy alpacas. We couldn't help it...they were just too cheap to pass up! We bought a grey huacaya female, then another, then bought a brown/white blue-ribbon winner, and made a post-auction deal for a light fawn girl.

Suddenly we realized we'd bought four new huacaya females (in addition to the two huacayas we already had) and had no huacaya herdsire! What to do, what to do? Well, I guess we'd better take a look at that true black 2005 Futurity Color Champion, Patagonia's Tehuelche! Even though we hadn't checked him out beforehand, we found ourselves bidding on him. The price went up and up, and as we approached the $100,000 range, I figured I should at least check him out for myself. We paused the bidding so that I could hop up on stage and get my hands on him. Man, he was a handful! Incredibly soft, dense fleece. Great conformation, and good size, yet relatively docile. I liked him; let the bidding continue! We ended up duking it out with one other couple, and eventually emerged victorious. Not bad for a couple of diehard suri breeders. We took care of all the paperwork, and started plotting our strategy for showing all the animals the next morning. Our show string had suddenly increased from 3 animals to 9, including one pretty girl I volunteered to handle for our new friends, Susan and Roger Littrell of Wild Angel Farms in South Carolina. The show was in a condensed format, with male classes in one ring, while female classes were held simultaneously in an adjacent ring. I drafted Cathy to show some of our herd, even though she'd never been in the show ring. I didn't get to watch her, but she took to it with the same confidence and winning attitude with which she attacks everything. We even drafted Cathy's dad, Al, to show a few of our animals, since there were times we had 2 females in one ring, and a male in the other. It was an exhausting, exhilarating day. I loved every minute of it. Oh yeah, we won a bunch of ribbons, too - a couple of firsts, a couple of seconds, a third and a fourth, if I remember correctly. And to top it all off, Al decided to buy two of our blue ribbon suri males: Copper Debut and Twister. Congratulations, Al! We spent the next few days visiting family and helping Al with Alpaca 101. He's a real animal lover, and a natural with the alpacas. Now we just have to find him some cute alpaca girlfriends for his new boys.

We decided to steal our black labrador retriever, Cede (pronounced like Sadie), back from Al. She's been living with him for the last year, since he had more land than we did at our old place. Now that we have 6 fenced acres, she'll have ample room to exercise. I had Cathy fly Cujo home with her, so that I could take Cede (Sadie, Sadie, sexy lady is her nickname) in the truck with ShadowBuddy and me. She was well-behaved all the way home, and seems to be loving it here. She even gets along with our two Great Pyrenees, Molly and Sally, though they acted all vicious and badass toward her until I made formal introductions. Now they're buddies.

I raced back across the country, covering 2400 miles in two and a half days. Believe it or not, I did stop to sleep (a little) and to give the alpacas a rest. I had to make it quick, since we had a meeting scheduled with several local alpaca ranches.

I had planned to send Ritzy away to Alpacas of America in Washington for breeding, but when getting her health certificate, we found a growth on her foot. It doesn't look too serious, but we need to x-ray and/or biopsy, then treat the problem. I'm not comfortable with sending her to another farm until she's healed, so we decided to hold her open at least until my friend John Malkus of West Coast Alpaca Transport makes his next monthly trip up the west coast.

All the new girls are in quarantine for the moment. We'll begin spit-testing them tomorrow, since two of them were recently bred (not yet confirmed) and one is about 5 months along. We reasoned that if any of them didn't take from their previous breedings, we would have an excuse to try out our new herdsire, Tehuelche. Oh, by the way, I bought another girl on my trip home. I located a girl at a farm in Ohio, and she's due in March. She comes in a package with an unrelated junior herdsire, and I decided they would be worth taking a chance on. I'll probably pick them up in a few weeks. Anybody need transport to or from the Ohio area?

I did have a bit of bad luck today. Driving my Prius home from our office in Pasadena, a truck in front of me dropped a large chunk of concrete. There was no time to stop, and I couldn't swerve, due to a car on my left and a telephone pole on my right, so I hit it dead-on. It ripped out my front air dam, smashed the bumper, dented the left quarter-panel, and ripped open the transmission oil cooler. I was momentarily airborne from the impact. Whee! Look ma, I'm flyin'! Luckily, my flight training kicked in, and I landed her safely on the centerline and taxied off the runway.

The truck had stopped, but when they saw me hit the chunk of concrete, they jumped back in and drove away...up a dead-end street. I flagged down a policeman who went and retrieved them, but he basically told me I was out of luck. Since there was no vehicle-to-vehicle contact and no malicious intent, it was strictly a civil matter, and he could do nothing, even though the driver was unlicensed and uninsured. Wow. It gets deeper, but that's for another time and place. Anyway, I called AAA and had the car towed. Looks like I'll be driving my truck around town for awhile. Cujo and ShadowBuddy, my ever-present copilots, were a little shaken, but none of us was hurt. ShadowBuddy is sleeping at my feet, and Cujo has climbed on top of some alpaca blankets and sweaters we had stacked in my office. CUJO!!!

I'll be planning my spring show schedule soon, so if anyone would like show transport of handling, please let me know. Also, if there are specific shows you'd like to be a part of, that could factor into my planning, so let me know that, as well.

11/30/2006 06:16 AM

Sorry no updates for so long. I've been on the road for the last few days. After getting a late start and getting stuck in rush hour traffic on Monday afternoon, I've been trying to make up for lost time by driving a few extra hours a day. I'm pretty much back on schedule now, and am now in Jackson, Mississippi. Today I'll drop off an alpaca in Ozark, Alabama, then head back north. I should arrive in Concord, NC by Friday early afternoon.

As some of you may know, I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to find some Air-Lite bedding for the alpacas. Basically, it's shredded cardboard, which works really well to keep the alpacas clean in the trailer and in show stalls. As it turns out, the nearest manufacturer/distributor (in the Phoenix, AZ area) has shut down temporarily while he moves his operation to a new location. He'd stocked enough to last through the move, but someone came and bought up his entire inventory.

I happened upon a feed store in Texas that had some in stock, so I bought all I could fit in my truck and trailer. The alpacas are dry, clean, and happy once again!

11/25/2006 05:10 PM

I finally installed the second fence panel in the rear of the alpaca trailer. Loading and unloading is much easier now, with no fear the alpacas will exit the trailer en masse, the minute I open the rear door. I got to try it out, too, since I delivered Coori and her male cria to Alpaca de la Pacifica for breeding to Jonathon. Coori and Jonathon are the same pairing which produced Keymaster, our multiple blue ribbon winning herdsire. We're hoping for a repeat performance. I took Keymaster along for the ride (in his own pen, segregated by my new fence panel partitions), so that John and Tina Malkus could get a look at him. Keymaster always seems to enjoy riding in the trailer. He associates the trailer with attending a show, where he gets to meet hordes of cute girlie alpacas.

11/24/2006 09:34 AM

Apropos of nothing, I stumbled across this video - a spoof of what would happen if Microsoft were to redesign the packaging for Apple's Ipod. Good for a chuckle.

11/23/2006 11:05 PM

Cujo's case of whiplash was much better today. He's almost back to normal, and by tomorrow I expect he'll be 100%. Cathy's still having some problems with her shoulder, but it's better than it has been. She actually went without her sling today.

I finished installing my fence panel in the alpaca trailer. It turned out better than I expected. I think I'll add one more at the rear of the trailer. As it is now, the trailer has one full-width door, and when I swing it open, all the alpacas want to jump out at once. If I add a fence panel at the rear, it will allow me to have the metal swinging door open, yet load or unload only one alpaca at a time through the smaller gate in the panel.

I'm almost ready for my trip to North Carolina. I'll be finalizing all the details this weekend, and plan to leave Sunday afternoon or early Monday.

11/22/2006 09:21 PM

Today I spent a little extra time with the girls. I segregated Ritzy, Drama Queen, and Lady Eowyn into a separate pen, so that we can cut back a bit on their feed. We don't want anyone to have trouble birthing or milking, so we need to slim them down some. I also put Wild Thing with them, even though she's only slightly plump. I had to separate her from her mom, Spitfire, since at almost 17 months she's still sneaking an occasional drink from her little brother's milk bar.

Spitfire, Debutante, Duchess, Coori, and Prudence could use a little more weight, so we'll feed them some extra pellets and alfalfa for awhile. Vio-Lynne is just about right, but since she's still the new kid in town - and not really an aggressive eater - I'll leave her with the slim girls and monitor her body condition. We can separate the girls into as many as 4 groups, should dietary needs warrant that.

I assembled our new 6' hay feeder today for the boy's paddock. I also picked up a fence panel to use as a wall in our alpaca trailer, so that we can segregate it into as many as 3 compartments. I'll install it this weekend. I also picked up some hay feeder bags and additional water buckets for the trailer.

On a slightly less happy note, our Pomeranian, Cujo, got his head stuck in a gate today. Though I rescued him within about 5 seconds, in trying to get loose he writhed and wriggled so violently that he seems to have hurt his neck. It doesn't appear serious - just really sore - so I'll watch him over the holiday and take him to the vet on Friday, if he's not better by then.

Cathy also managed to hurt herself a couple of days ago. She tripped on our stone stairs, and landed on her shoulder, spraining it. The doctor put her in a sling. She's in some pain, but should be fine in a few days. If she's not better by Friday, should I take her to the vet, too? Luckily for her, we're not cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We have no kitchen, since our remodel is still underway. I can't believe we've been without a kitchen this long. I always get to cook Thanksgiving dinner, using my Mom's incredibly wonderful recipes, and really enjoy the whole event. I'll really miss that this year. I have lots to be thankful for, however - we're happy, healthy (well, mostly), and are surrounded by wonderful family and friends. I'll get to see my parents next week, while I'm at the Carolina Classic Alpaca Show. Not to mention, we've got all these great alpacas to spend time with. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

11/20/2006 08:55 PM

Yesterday we had a bunch of ranch visitors, and the alpacas got lots of extra treats as a result. Ritzy, in particular, seems to be everyone's favorite, since she will come up and politely stand next to you and allow you to pet her for as long as you want. She also loves to give out kisses. I've arranged for her to go back to Washington in December for her re-breeding, since she absorbed her last pregnancy. I'll really hate to see her go - she's just so darned sweet!

Our new girl Vio-Lynne is fitting in well with the rest of the herd. Her new owner came out Saturday and spent the night with us. She enjoyed hanging out with her alpaca, and will be visiting again soon. We spent some time going over her business plan, making revisions along the way, and spent some time on basic alpaca husbandry. Next time she gets to scoop poop - WooHoo!

Today I took four boys to see our vet in Thousand Oaks. We had to get health certificates for the upcoming Carolina Classic show. We drew blood for Brucellosis tests, injected Tuberculin under their armpits for TB tests, took their temps, checked for lice and ear ticks, and confirmed that we had negative BVD results for all of them. Everybody looked great, so after we check the Tuberculin injection sites for irritation in 3 days, and once we get the results of their Brucellosis tests, it'll be off to the show.

11/18/2006 09:26 PM

I helped my friend Sonia move some of her alpacas to her new ranch today. On the way home I stopped to buy a dozen bales of orchard grass hay and an extra rope lead, since my Great Pyrenees pups chewed up one of our old leads.

After that, we took our pomeranian Cujo and our border collie ShadowBuddy to the groomer, and then went to a wedding.

Tomorrow we'll relocate 3 of our boys to the lower boys' paddock. Tomorrow night I'll pick up another boy in preparation for next week's trip to the Carolina Classic show.

11/17/2006 09:46 PM

I picked up our new girl Vio-Lynne today. Despite minimal halter training, she performed admirably on the lead, only balking when it came time to load her into the trailer. Once home, she acted as though she'd been here all her life.

On the trip back to the ranch, I received a call from someone needing to rent some alpacas for a television shoot. I don't yet know what TV show it is, but they need about a dozen alpacas to appear walking past a window. We discussed what they'd need, and I should find out next week if they want to move forward with the project. That could make for an interesting day!

Tomorrow I'll be assisting another ranch with relocating their animals as well as evaluating some additional alpacas for the same client who purchased Vio-Lynne.

11/17/2006 12:10 PM

Yesterday I evaluated some alpacas offered for sale by another local ranch for one of our clients. We picked one that met her requirements, and today she'll be coming home to agist here at Twisted Lock. Her name is Vio-Lynne, and she's a 2 year old white suri. Pics will be posted later.

The weaning continues for the little nameless brown huacaya boy. We're just separating him from his mom for a few hours a day, for now. His mom is a South American import - an older girl - and boy is she protective. She's the only one of our herd who has ever really spit at me with anything other than green-flavored air. This girl lets fly with the pea soup! She got me pretty good today. I'm sure she meant it with the utmost affection. Luckily, I was already wearing green...

11/16/2006 09:52 AM

We finally began putting up our additional fencing in the boys' paddock. I hope to have that finished within a few days, so that we can start building the boys' barn. Woohoo! Big fun.

I'm just about ready to register Spitfire's latest cria, so that we can show him in the spring. He's a real cutie, just like his mom. Now I just have to settle on a name. Any suggestions? Email me.

It's time to begin weaning Prudence's latest cria, who is also still nameless. I can't take credit - this one belongs to a friend, so it's up to her to come up with a name for that one. He looks pretty good, too - if you like those fuzzy alpacas ;)  Sorry, I don't have a recent picture of him. In this one, he's just a couple of hours old.

11/15/2006 11:23 AM

Well, it's official - today I registered for the Carolina Classic Alpaca Show in Concord, NC, December 1-3. It's a long trip, but I'll get to see my family while I'm there, so it'll be worth all the effort. Of course, the ribbons will be nice to add to our collection, too! My border collie, ShadowBuddy, is all giddy at the thought of going for a ride. "Burgers, chicken, subs, fast food of any kind...mmmm", he's thinking.

I'll be taking a couple of alpacas to the show from a neighboring ranch, but have room for a few more. The cost will be about $600 each, including transportation both ways and show handling/grooming/etc., but you'd be responsible for your own show and stall fees. I'm also open to transporting alpacas part or all of the way across country, in case anyone needs breeding or sales transportation. Email me for pricing and availability. I can travel either the I-40 or I-20 corridor, and make reasonable side trips, as necessary. The plan is to leave November 26th or 27th, and return December 7th or 8th.

11/14/2006 01:37 PM

I registered today for the America's Choice Auction which is a big happening in Vegas on January 12-14. If you can make it, I highly recommend you do so. Even if you don't plan to buy any alpacas at the auction, AOA really are excellent hosts, and you'll have a great time. You can register on their website. I'm off to buy more fencing today, while I continue to plan my trip to the Carolina Classic show. My border collie ShadowBuddy will be riding along to keep me company. Cathy gets to fly out and meet me there. Hardly seems fair!

11/12/2006 09:14 PM

Wow! So many things happening! We just got in from AlpacaFest West...unloaded the truck and put the show boys in quarantine, to make sure no one contracted BVD or any other nasty communicable illnesses. We had a great time at the show. Both our boys won ribbons - Copper Debut took 2nd in the Suri medium brown juvenile male class, and Sir Keymaster took 1st place in the Suri light yearling male class. We made some great contacts, and got loads of compliments on our animals and our booth/display.

Our friends Anthony and Linda Williams of Flying Alpaca Ranch in Agua Dulce bought themselves a beautiful huacaya herdsire while at the show. Anthony relished the opportunity to take the new guy into the ring, and won a blue ribbon - the first of many, I'm sure. Congratulations, Anthony and Linda!

I'm trying to decide whether to travel to North Carolina for the Carolina Classic Alpaca Show on December 3rd. It'd be a long trip, but a fun one. If any of you breeders would like me to transport and show your animals at the Carolina Classic, please email or call me at 626-376-7515. We only have about a week to decide, so please let me know ASAP so we can coordinate. Transport/show handling runs $50 per day for the duration of the trip, expected to last 12 days, for a total of $600 plus show registration and stall fees. I may take a couple of days extra to spend with my parents while I'm out that way, and of course there would be no charge for those days.

Last week, we finished (for now) subdividing the girls' paddock, and are ready to start additional fencing in the boys' paddock.

11/02/2006 05:03 PM

It's been a bit of a tough day around here. We finally concluded that one of our beloved dogs, a lab mix named Serendipity Sage Bandurraga-Downs (Sage, for short), needed to be put down. The poor guy had severe arthritis, and a terrible skin condition, as well. He couldn't walk more than a few feet, due to his swollen joints. After much soul-searching, we finally decided to end his pain.

We thoroughly enjoyed Sage over the years. He was a good watchdog, and a loving companion. We used to call him Speedbump, due to his penchant for lying down at our feet and refusing to move, constantly forcing us to step over him. He loved nothing more than our companionship. May he rest in peace.

10/30/2006 08:57 PM

Sorry it's been so long since the last update - it's been so busy here, what with the construction and everything. We had our vet, Dr. Jana Smith, out for a herd health day on Saturday. We confirmed via rectal ultrasound what we'd already suspected - Ritzy has slipped her pregnancy, but had a retained corpus luteum, so she thought she was still pregnant (even though her uterus was definitely empty). I gave her a round of estrumate, and she's already acting 'friskier'. It looks like we'll need to ship her back up to Washington for a rebreeding. I don't mind so much, except she's one of my favorites, and I'll really miss her. She's probably our friendliest girl. We'll be sending our little Wild Thing off for breeding soon, as well.

We did the health certifications on our boys for the Alpacafest West show in Industry Hills (November 11-12). That went off without a hitch. Also, we extracted a tooth from one of our agisted girls, as it was growing at an odd angle, and wasn't rooted very well.

We completed our first fencing project, putting up two pens in the girls' pasture. We had so much fun digging through the rock and hard clay that we've decided to start another project - further subdividing the girls' pasture, and creating additional catch pens. This will give us lots more flexibility in moving and segregating the animals. Next we'll add another layer of fencing in the boys pastures, and after that we'll begin building a small barn/shelter for the boys.

We received the final version of our new logo (at the top of the page), so we can start having our signs made for the show booth and our trailer. We should receive our new letterhead artwork soon, too. Feel free to voice your opinion on the logo.

10/22/2006 10:35 PM

I began digging the fence post holes for the new girls pen today. Solid rock down there - where's my dynamite?!? Seriously, even with the gas powered auger and a pick ax, it took hours. I just can't help thinking how grateful those girls are gonna be, and how they've promised to give me only girls for the next year!

Today was the deadline to create and submit our new full page ad for the show program as platinum sponsors of the Alpacafest West show in Industry Hills on November 11 and 12. Here's a sneak peek. Feel free to critique my work...

10/18/2006 05:26 PM

At no small cost, we managed to get our water main repaired yesterday. Now we have to leave a gaping trench in our driveway for the next week or so, while all the saturated dirt (otherwise known as mud) completely dries. The upside is we should save enough in 2 months on our water bill to pay off the plumber's repair bill.

We began re-fencing part of the girls paddock today, so that we can more easily separate the thinner girls from the not-so-thin. All of our girls are looking pretty 'healthy', but we have a couple who are real pellet-hogs who end up being overfed, just so we can ensure the thinner girls get enough.

I got to watch an extended pronk session yesterday morning, but was too busy crawling around in mud with our plumbers to be able to videotape the dance. Wild Thing, Ritzy, Coori's cria, Spitfire's cria, and Prudence's cria were feelin' their oats in a big way - running and bouncing all around the pasture in single file. Next time, I promise I'll grab the video camera.

10/17/2006 12:45 AM

Well, it's official - we're going to be platinum sponsors at Alpacafest West. Come join us on November 11th and 12th at the Industry Hills Expo Center. Admission is free!

10/16/2006 03:35 PM

We'd thought our water bill was a little high, since moving onto our new ranch, but figured it was due in large part to extensive watering of all the grass, plants and trees (not to mention running the sprinklers every hour for all the alpacas throughout the summer). Well, a couple of days ago we found the real reason - a broken water main spanning the length of the six acres. We've had to dig up much of the driveway to uncover the copper main line, while moving a number of adjacent pvc lines. We hope to have it repaired sometime today.

10/12/2006 10:03 AM

We did well at the show, scoring a first place win for Copper Debut, in Suri Male Brown Juvenile class, a first for Twister in the Suri Male Light Yearling class, and a second place ribbon for Keymaster in the Suri Male White Yearling class. Once again, the judge commented on the incredible fineness and luster possessed by all three boys. This trip was relatively uneventful, compared to that New Mexico trip with all its near-misses and cracked windshields.

10/07/2006 08:15 PM

I got a late start leaving for my trip to the ABR Fall Festival, and had to drive 24 hours essentially straight through to arrive by their 5:30 deadline on Friday. I made better-than-anticipated time, and ended up arriving around 4pm - just in time to...  wait in line for almost 3 hours for the vet check. What fun - especially after all that driving and no sleep. I made the best of it, however, and made friends with the other ranchers. In particular, Mike Rodman of Alpacas of Vista Hermosa in Parker, CO is a true gentleman. I've made lots of new friends here. Alpaca people are the greatest!

10/02/2006 01:10 PM

I spent all day yesterday scrubbing our alpaca trailer in preparation for the trip to Colorado. Nothing beats scrubbing dried alpaca beans out of the openings in our mesh stall covering and rubber mats. Lucky for us, we've got extremely high water pressure (about 180psi, or triple the normal pressure!), which makes hosing dried beans much easier! I'll be leaving Wednesday, taking the same 3 boys we took to the New Mexico show. Here's hoping for more ribbons!

09/25/2006 01:05 PM

We got in late last night after our long drive home from Albuquerque. We took 3 animals to the show with us - Keymaster and Copper Debut from our herd, and Twister (from a neighboring ranch) - and came home with 3 blue ribbons! Methinks congratulations are in order. I'm looking forward to our next show - in Colorado - where there should be a little more competition.

There was some excitement on the way to the show. Just a few hours after we left home, a rock hit and cracked the windshield on my brand new truck. The cracks have spread almost halfway across already. Just as we were entering Albuquerque, the car in front of us lost its left front wheel (at about 60mph), causing the corner of car to crash to the ground in a shower of sparks. The lady driver was unhurt, but the wheel rolled across to the right in front of her, where it was promptly run over by approximately 9 wheels of an 18-wheeler. It survived the ordeal, and came out rolling - at a high rate of speed - directly at our alpaca trailer. With a little creative swerving/braking action, I managed to avoid the rubber missile by a foot or two. I could hear the alpacas cursing my driving all the way from the back of the trailer (or was that my wife, from just a few feet away)?

The show was great fun, though uneventful, until we started loading up to leave. As soon as we loaded Keymaster into the trailer, a truck pulling an enormous cattle trailer (both the trailer and the cattle were enormous - come to think of it, the truck pulling them was rather large, too) tried to navigate the alleyway in which we were parked - through an opening approximately 8 feet too narrow, and caught the corner of our trailer, thereby giving Keymaster a minor earthquake experience (how's THAT for a run-on sentence!?). While the driver slightly damaged his (borrowed) truck, and not-so-slightly damaged the building on the other side of the alleyway, he really only scraped a tiny bit of paint off the iron frame of our trailer. We chose to not make an issue of it. The ride home was without incident, unless you count my ever-growing windshield crack.

10/06/2007 11:14 AM

I made the drive to Thousand Oaks late last night to pick up the vet certificates, as well as BVD, TB, and Brucellosis certs. Once home, I installed a trailer cam in the alpaca trailer, which I can view and hear on the Navigation system of the truck. Cool! This morning, I'll load up all the show supplies, throw in the animals, and then it's off to Albuquerque!

09/19/2006 02:55 AM

Finally received Copper Debut's ARI certificate. Now all I have to do is get the veterinary and transport certificates from Dr. Jana, and it's off to the New Mexico State Fair Alpaca Show on Thursday! This will be our first time showing our animals, so wish us well! We're planning to show Sir Keymaster of Twisted Lock, and Copper Debut of Twisted Lock.

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