Farm Awards

When looking at alpacas, they always say there is no perfect alpaca, and I agree. Each has their strengths and in my head, I often give them each an award in my head as to what those strengths are. Here is my rundown:

Puella-finest fleece for an old girl, even at 12.
Andromeda--produces the most beautiful alpacas even though she looks on the rangy side herself
Dolores--most reliable breeder. Never missed a mating or a birth.
Mystique-finest fleece on the farm.
Evie-most beautiful white alpaca. Tied for best hand with Theresa.
Sugar N Spice-tallest alpaca, most personality.
Theresa--most beautiful fawn alpaca. Tied for best hand with Evie.
Ebony-potential contender for finest fleece, too young to tell.
Ivory-darkest alpaca and may beat out her mother for fineness.
Skye-best crimp and hand of males.
Thunder-most desirable color and softness.
Prince William--cutest by far and best crimp and fineness for males right now.
White Gold-most curious and nicest white male--(course his competition in only Husacar!)
HuasAcar-best Suri on the farm. Oops, he is the only Suri so does that count?

Settling in to winter

Our accomplishment this fall was to put on barn doors. We had improvised the past two years, but after last winter's heavy snows, we made it a priority to be able to close the animals in, mostly to keep the snow out. The trick was to design them so that they would slide out of the way to be able to get the tractor in to scoop poop.

I believe everyone is finally bred. We have some new combinations this year and as usual, that is half the fun. We have traded breedings with three different farms and used our own Don's Bellemont Skye out of the Last Don. It was great to get to know Lana and Dick Nickerson of Foss Mountain Farm. They have a beautiful setting up a steep hill in New Hampshire. They were delighted to host Thunder's Best for a few months as we were delighted to have their Orion here to breed to Sugar N Spice.

Thunder made the rounds to Mt. Brook Farm in exchange for a breeding to Guillermo, who placed second at North American in a white class. He has also entertained a lovely lady from Sea Hill Farm in exchange for a breeding to Captain Nemo, son of the famous PPeruvian Caligula G4572,for Puella. Puella is at a bargain price right now--take advantage of this breeding! I have my own non-alpaca reasons for appreciating this breeding. Captain Nemo was my uncle's nickname for my father--My father would be 104 this year. Hard to believe.

In all, Thunder should have four cria next year.

Since the Domingo/Mystique combo worked so well last time, we went for that one again.

And our beautiful Evander's Evie is bred to Coyo. What a combination that should be.

That wraps up the fall breeding schedule. The hay is in the barn and we have just had to start to feeding it out as the pastures have been open and thanks to plenty of rain, still with plenty of grass.