Happy New Year! Welcome to the ranch.

Well we went from no water to El Nino and you won't hear me complain.  Well, maybe just a little.  The soft muddy dirt means that the alpaca toenails are now pretty unruly and a mess to trim up. 

Lots of changes to our little homestead and alpaca ranch this last year.  We brought Greyson home.  He is our newest herdsire and I am hoping for some lovely grey.  He is a sweet gentleman who really loves his pellet treats. 








Next, over the summer we lost our sweet Reighnee.  This was not the first time she had gone downhill but we were able to get her back on her feet last time.  This time after Three weeks of hand feeding, trying to get her C1 going again, she gave up.  I miss her terribly and look for her even now when I go out.

We were expecting two cria this this year. The first was another sad day on the ranch.  The poor guy was badly deformed in the face with no eyes, nose or upper pallet.  He was the offspring of two I have bred many times before so we were really unprepared for such a travesty. 






The second was a perfect, textbook birth from an outside breeding with Embervanna.  He is a beautiful boy, almost a carbon copy of his dad, Keanu.  Watching his development carefully as we hope he will be a hirdsire potential in a few years.  Just love his coloring.  That undercoat will develop to a grey!  We dubbed him "Gambit".




In the homestead news my next big thing was bringing home Zoey.  Zoey is a Dexter and Jersey cross heifer and I am just tickled with her!  Never did I think I would be a cow person but I do love her.  She fits right in with us.  She will be bred with a low line Angus and we look forward to fresh milk in the spring of next year.  She is a small breed and it fits right well with keeping heritage breeds on our little farmstead.  She does have horns that I am learning to respect.  Fortunately she is young so they are not full length yet and so we are learning together. 

Last summer we had to shut down our fodder set up.  It was always in a temporary location and the invasion of varmints and ants had me at my wits end.  Couple that with higher temps causing the seeds to sour and we just shut down.  We have a container waiting to be the new fodder location.  Money and time were the challenges and having both at the same time doesn't happen very often.  So we have just worked at it a little at a time.  Cleaning it out was the first battle and then insulating it.  Following that was sealing it up.  For that we used a product called Metacrylic.  It takes many layers but when you are done painting it on you have a very water proof surface.  Then my husband worked in the plumbing and the lights.  This week we got things started again.  We still have work to do.  The heat that was sufficient for the smaller previous fodder space is not enough for the bigger container, the ceiling still needs more insulation and paneling.  Then the last part will be expanding so that there is enough feed for the animals we have added over time.  Everyone will benefit from this especially my pocketbook.

We had a small "oops!" in that Obadiah and Ellie got too close while she was in heat.  I thought the worst but was reassured by many breeders that a 1st gen inbreeding  line breeding would be just fine and possibly give very desirable traits.  Ellie has turned out to be a great first time mom.  All six pups are healthy and normal.  We have truly enjoyed our puppy time and even more pleased to say they all have good, working homes to go to. 




That puts this blog back up to date again. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being a speaker along with my dear friend on our local radio station, KFOK. We were asked to talk about homesteading here on the divide.  A broad subject.  The thing I wanted to share the most, that I want to encourage, is to remember that your homestead is unique to you.  Don't get caught up comparing or keeping up with what another homesteader is doing.  Some of us have been at this longer than others and no matter what our situations are very different.  Also that it's not all milk and honey.  Some days just SUCK!  We lose precious animals. We have feed go bad.  We have pipes break and no one to fix it but ourselves.  Don't give up.  The good times outweigh the bad and the milk and honey days are right around the corner.