Droopy lips

I went out to feed tonight and 2 of my girls were standing around with their mouths hanging open. They looked like they had eaten something bad or something that had numbed their lower lip. Scared the crap out of me. Last fall I threw out a bunch of clover seed...some alpacas can't eat clover because they are allergic. I am a nervous wreck all the time that they will eat something that they are not supposed to. So you can imagine my horror to walk into the pen and find this

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They look totally silly!

This is not one of my alpacas, it is a picture from Intrepid Alpacas.

After I closely inspected my girls I ran in he house and got online immediately...

and this is what I found!

The Sulk--When alpacas get upset they will "drop their lip". The bottom lip will become all droopy and fall away exposing the bottom teeth and gums. Some alpacas will take pieces of hay, grass or leaves into their mouths and just hold it there for extra effect. Saliva will sometimes drip from the bottom lip as well. If all this sounds rather pathetic, it is. They are sulking. Don't worry about it. They have probably just come off second best in a disagreement with another alpaca and they will get over it in a few minutes. (Often the sulking alpaca will have a few globs of green spit on their face as evidence of the disagreement!)

Thank goodness I found this explanation!

The silly girls were tiffen ;)

Full of eggs

Hi Guys, I know I have been mia for quite some time now and I'm sorry. I have been really busy having a mid life crisis ;)

I am going to turn my blog into an alpaca blog only. It will still be worth checking out when I do post, however posting will not be everyday, as I was TRYING to do before. I am trying to get this little alpaca business off of the ground. I have been taking classes, watching any videos I can get my hands on and driving the seasoned alpaca farmers insane! I have found some local farmers that are less than an hour from me, whew! I was worried I was going to have to move to Denver lol.

The alpaca farms on my side of the mountain a few and far between and they are struggling to start up a fiber processing mill and a network of local people to help this thing grow. Soooo I am doing my usual knee jerk reaction and jumping in head first! You would think I would get tired of all of the bumps on my head but this is something that is near and dear to my heart.

Alpacas Rock!

Here is what I have going so far: I am signing up for a class in August at some place beautiful in Idaho to become a certified sorter. A sorter can either go out with the shearer on shearing day or have it sent to them and sort out the #1, 2 and 3 parts of fiber. The #1 fiber is worth more money than the 3rds of any fiber.

I am teaching myself to spin the fiber into luscious yarn.

I am teaching myself to dye the yarn.

I am teaching myself to weave, I may give up the "teaching myself" and go find some help on this one!

I went to a neonatal class a few weeks ago. Very informative...and I'm terrified now! When an alpaca is birthing and by some sort of bad luck she has a distosia (sp?), you can lose your cria, I will just die if something happens to En Vogues cria :(

Speaking of En Vogues cria, I had to take little miss Rita in to have her teeth trimmed...that was a freaking rodeo. When you are holding an alpaca for someone....stay close to them...I mean like bear hug close! I thought she broke my collar bone when she decided to jump out of the chute. It doesn't hurt them she was just a little freaked out by the hour long ride in the horse trailer and weird people sticking weird things in her mouth.

I learned something right after I had her teeth trimmed that day and I trimmed her toenails on another day and had the traveling vet up to give them their vaccinations and to do fecals on another day. I FIGURED OUT THAT ON SHEARING DAY YOU DO ALL OF THAT.... WHILE YOU HAVE BIG STRONG GUYS HOLDING THEM DOWN!!!! Hahahahahha that was a good one. Ouch my head hurts.

But as you all know I wanted to go to school and learn something that I could do and love until the end of my time....well I have been to the school of hard knocks before and they were missing me so I decided to enroll yet again!

It's a good thing that all animals are pretty forgiving, especially when I'm in charge.

I have been playing around with and learning the different fibers out there in the world and I have decided that I want to raise angora rabbits.

Have you seen one of these?

Is this the cutest damn thing ever!?

Their fiber is like sticking your hand into a cloud. I'm sure all of you have had an angora sweater at some point in your life...right? I think I had a hand me down when I was 12 or something but I had forgotten how heavenly it was.

If I could mix angora and alpaca....mmmmm it would be yummy!

My niece just found out that she is preggers and I would love to make a baby blanket out of the alpaca/angora mix....well someone else will make it cuz I ain't learning how to knit. Too much on my plate right now.

...I went to San Diego for spring break and it was cold and windy the entire time I was there...pffft. The beach..any beach is still beautiful any time of year, but cold and windy just for me??? Why???

I took Buddha and he was not welcome anywhere. I thought Californians were the dog lover capital of the world.

OH Well.

Mother Nature is being testy today

Last night it snowed and snowed all night. We woke up to about 18 inches and the drifts in some places were over 2 feet! My sons truck is what you see over the edge of the wall...the bed is full of snow, more funny is my radio flyer wagon just barely peaking out right in front of the wall. I. Moved. Snow. All. Day. The pacas appreciate me for it :)