I came home from town today and found that the chickens were all ‘cooped up’. Apparently we had a bald eagle sitting on the porch trying to ‘chase’ the chickens out from under the porch. Luke, my youngest had the good sense to coop them up.

Those crazy bald eagles! Wow, we aren’t on Sesame Street anymore! What a big, big, bird!

Each and every animal young or old, on the farm is a character. Our oldest and gutsiest girl is constantly getting herself into tight spots…literally.

Mickey

Mickey is a slender little thing with a long nose and a twinkle in her eye. She seems to have a habit of getting herself into trouble by just following her nose. My boys call her the queen. My mother calls her Susan after an ex-daughter-in-law. She is a thrill seeking laugh a minute.

In the past few months Mickey has, broken a gate and freed her friends into a fresh pasture by using her skinny yet strong neck, gotten herself stuck trying to slip through a gate into the feed area of the run-in and her latest and most amusing is what we are calling the grass is always greener maneuver.

A picture is worth a thousand words! Enjoy!

We love Mickey!!!

I have been holding out on you. We have another new baby here on the farm. Badger!

Badger is a Flemish Giant rabbit born Christmas day. He is steel grey and is weighing in now at about 8 pounds, up from 4 of when we got him three weeks ago. When the Badge is finished growing up he will top out at about 20 pounds. Lewis and Clark the pugs in our life better watch out. He is an outdoor bunny who comes in for play time with the family at least daily. Our favorite thing about him right now apart from the fantastic ears is that he is our only animal who comes when you call him.

By popular demand the comments section of Farmer-at-heart have been enabled. Comment away!

It has been a heartbreaking day on the farm.

After feeding our herd, I went as usual to close up the hen house for the night. I did the head count and one was missing. Martha was not in the hen house.

We all went to look for her. My son Kahana said it first... I did see a falcon... a really big falcon sitting on the porch. I thought it was kinda weird. Then Jeff chimed in with "yeah I saw the falcon, I flushed him out from under the porch."

That was all we needed to hear and we knew we had figured out where Martha had gone. She was killed by the falcon under the porch.

A very sad day, indeed.

It has been yet another busy week, don’t I start every entry like that? Well this week is no exception.

I went to pick-up my regular alpaca food at the hardware store and I was told that my regular brand Nutrina Naturewise llama/alpaca maintenance pellets have been changed. The formula is the same but now instead of pellets (think guinea pig food) they have been changed into ‘crumbles’ (think cat litter). Well Island Hardware and Supply being the only game in town I thought I better give it a try. Kevin the yard and feed guy was very apologetic about the lack of notice but said he didn’t get any either. Thanks Kevin!

The switch didn’t go well. At first the girls wouldn’t eat it, and then when they did some would choke. Eventually the food was gone. The problem for me was even though they would eventually eat it all I was not sure it was all of them or just the greedy ones coming back to finish. I have so many pregnant girls and one nursing that I really need them all to be eating. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one with this problem. It was time to get on the phone and internet.

After calling around and researching on the internet I spoke with my friends Kris and Albert Olsen of Krystal Acres. They were having similar problems with the Nutrina feed, choking and refusal. They too began to call around and found a brand called Nutri-Lux from Bio-Life. This is a proprietary feed only sold by a supplier in Oregon. The minimum order is a pallet or 40 fifty pound bags. Orcas Moon Alpacas could not go through 40 bags in a year. Lucky for me Kris and Albert, who have many more animals than me offered to have mine shipped up with theirs. Yeahhhhh!

This feed is slowly being introduced to the herd mixing it in with the old crumbles. I haven’t heard any complaints yet. Another great bonus of this feed is it contains a great mix of probiotics, prebiotics, biotin, enzymes, yeast, herbs, minerals, and amino acids that the old feed didn’t. It is a better feed. Oh and even more wonderful- it is cheaper!

Happy New Year! I realize that I have been on a hiatus... I didn’t think anyone was paying attention, and I'm happy to have been wrong. Thank you for all of your prompting!

There is no escaping it, show season is almost upon us and halter training must be done. I did take a half-hearted crack at it last fall, but I really wasn’t ready and neither were the animals. My inexperience made me think that the attention span of an alpaca should be at least as long as mine. This is not the case. You can not ‘cram’ halter training. I am taking a slower, more relaxed approach now, and I will share with you here how it is progressing.

Mother, Cria and a Handful of Grain

Last fall I tried to work with 'Channel', but was unsuccessful for many different reasons -- primarily because she wasn’t really ready to break with her mother, Ember. Ember was not interested in having Channel leave her side either! Mind you, Channel has been weaned for months, but the bond between mother and cria remains strong. Fortunately for me, her desire for grain is even stronger… usually!


I started the week feeding Channel in the catch pen with her sister 'Manhattan'. When the girls finished eating, I worked on having them get used to me handling their heads and ears in preparation for the actual halter (we’ll do teeth, tails and feet later). Manhattan is an old card at the halter, and it was actually great to have her near if for no other reason than to remind myself that I have done this before successfully.

Small Steps to Success

I rubbed Channel’s face and ears… gave her a little grain… rub, rub, rub… little bit of grain, etc..... I showed her the halter and let her sniff it. I also had it wrapped around my hand and let it jingle as she ate the grain from my hand. That is all we did the first day, once for the morning feeding and once for the evening feeding.

By the next morning Channel was eager to get into the catch pen not only her breakfast, but also for the extra yummies I was sure to provide! By the end of the second day, I was able to get the halter on and have her stand for me. We didn’t even try to walk.


On the third day we walked around the catch pen and left her sister out of the enclosure. It was just Channel and I; what a pair!

Well, by the end of the week we were out of the catch pen, using very little grain, and walking in what we call the 'runway' along the fence. Elated would be an understatement. We still have a LONG way to go, but we are now working together and not fighting each other on opposite ends of the lead.


What a terrific week! Stay tuned.