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.

Right on the heels of our busy show schedule we are anticipating a whole bunch of babies here on the farm. I guess our big summer vacation is off the books!

May 29th

Due on this busy day is Pacific Moon’s Brooklyn (below, right), her service sire, the beautiful Midnight Magic Houdini (below, left) is from Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm on San Juan Island. We are sure that by pairing these two ribbon winners together we will produce a winning cria. Brooklyn is a first time mother.

Our sweet Pacific Moon’s Minnie (below, right) is also due that same day with a cria from our very own NWA, Ltd Chaucer (below, left). We expect this combination to produce a very dense, blindingly white cria. Minnie and Chaucer both sheered more than any other animal last spring, an amazing feat considering neither one is by any measure the largest animal on the farm. Minnie is a first time mother


Wait there is more, May 29th is going to be a busy day. Our watchful Trina (below, right) is due also on the same day with a cria out of our boy Pacific Moon’s Phoebus (below, left). Phoebus is himself an Alpacapalooza ribbon winner and a real handsome boy with a gorgeous helmet head topknot. This will be Phoebus’ first cria and we look forward to seeing what he will do for us. Trina is the experienced mother of Tinkerbelle, and Carmen.


June 11th

Due on this day is Pacific Moon’s Manhattan (left). Mattie, as we call her, is also due with a cria from Krystal Acres’ Midnight Magic Houdini. We have confident hopes for a dense and crimpy cria. This is Manhattan’s first cria.

Pacific Moon's Tinkerbelle, (left) another first time mom, is due on June 11th with a cria from the handsome Krystal Acres Kryptonite’s Triton (see below, left). This should be a dynamite combination. We think that this cria will be a beautiful fawn color.

July 5th

We are expecting a Yankee Doodle baby for Crescent Moon’s Ember (left) with our very own Chaucer. This combination has worked for us in the past giving us our delightful Channel who will show this spring. We are crossing our fingers for another crimpy, conformationally balanced cria.



August 19th

Pacific Moon’s Minnie’s mother, NWA Ltd Mickey (below) is due with a cria from the dashing Krystal Acres Kryptonite’s Triton (way below, left). This will be a cria to watch. Mickey and Triton should combine to give us a super dense fawn cria with great conformation.

September 3rd

Our last cria of the year will be from our girl Wanda (below, right). Sensitive Wanda was also bred to Krystal Acres Kryptonite’s Triton (below, left). Their highly anticipated cria should be lean and leggy with a great head just like it’s parents.

Busy, busy, busy here on the farm. We are really looking forward to 2009. I will outline a few dates we are anticipating. On with the show this is it! Orcas Moon Alpacas will be attending 3 shows in the spring. You will be able to meet and greet Pacific Moon’s Valentino, Orcas Moon’s Channel, and our newest arrival Orcas Moon’s Autumn Diva.

A few notes on alpaca show terminology follow.

Halter

There are two types of shows, halter and fleece. A halter show judges the conformation and fleece of the individual animal. There are two comparative judging criteria options for the individual halter show. The judging options for comparative judging are 50/50 basis fleece and conformation -or- 60/40 basis fleece and conformation.

Fleece

Fleece show procedures are different. The AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association) Fleece Judging System is an absolute system judged anonymously. The shorn fleeces are judged by comparing them to an ideal fleece, which is expressed by a perfect score of 100 on the AOBA Suri or Huacaya Fleece scorecard. The scorecard is divided into sections, with each section describing a particular fleece characteristic and the maximum number of points allocated for the ideal of that characteristic. A fleece is evaluated for each characteristic and the maximum number of points assigned according to how close it comes to the ideal. The scores from all sections are added and the highest absolute score is the winner in the class.

Level

In addition to an alpaca show type, shows are assigned levels depending on how many animals or fleeces will be shown. The greater the number of animals the higher the shows level number.


Now with the terms out of the way here Orcas Moon’s spring show schedule to date. We will only be showing in the halter division.

o Alpacapalooza (Level 5) April 3-5 Puyallup, Washington

This was a great level five show last year, a little cold and rainy but we walked away with a ribbon.

o Northwest Alpaca Showcase (Level 4) April 25-26 Pasco, Washington

o Columbia Alpaca Breeders Association (Level 4) May 9-10 Portland, Oregon

We truly hope to see you at any and all of our shows. Stop by and say hello. Meet the animals and enjoy the lifestyle. If you feel like scooping a little poop, I’ll even let you do that too! ;-)