Yeah! The last cria of the year is here for us to enjoy! Drum roll please! Introducing Mickey's soft, oh so darn soft, baby girl! As is always the case here we are toying with different names, so jump on in and help us choose if you would. Remember the name must contain the name of an herb to be in keeping with our self imposed herb theme this year.
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Imagine my delight when he came riding up, yes, I did say riding, like on a horse, to my home to ask if he could pasture his cows on my lower field for a few days. It was almost like winning the lottery, okay a little lottery.

Well the babies are here, a couple less than we thought we were having, but everyone a joy. Brooklyn and her mom Trina decided even though they were pregnant in the Fall, confirmed by ultrasound, that they were not pregnant come spring. The doctor told us this is not uncommon especially after the unusually cold winter. “It isn’t uncommon. The pregnancy is just reabsorbed.” I am not sure what I think of this but…


Orcas Moon Summer Thyme

On Fathers Day, the first day of summer and, coincidentally our son Luke’s first communion came our first girl Orcas Moon’s Summer Thyme. Manhattan didn’t look like anything was happening when we all trundled off to church at 12:30. By the time we made it back less than two hours later here was our new cria, dried off, running in the sun with the herd. Manhattan is a fantastic mother. Being a maiden we were concerned but she knocked our socks off by knowing exactly what to do.



Orcas Moon’s Rocky Cilantro

Tinkerbelle our dreamer gave birth next to our bundle of joy, Orcas Moon’s Rocky Cilantro on June 30th. Tink was a champ during delivery but, Rocky’s temperature was low when we checked it. We decided he needed a warm up with the blow dryer and a couple heating pads. This worked and he was good to go. Once we took him away from Tinkerbelle to warm up she wasn’t so sure she wanted him back. It took a little convincing and a lot of holding her still for Rocky to nurse but they are now never apart.

Orcas Moon’s Sage Prince

My family has a tradition of going to the new Harry Potter movies always on the first release date. This was not going to change unless well, unless there was a baby coming. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince opened here on July 15th in Friday Harbor, just a short ferry ride away. We decided we would go to the 3:30 show. Ember showed no signs of labor all day and when we left to catch the ferry at 2:35 I thought no problem, no baby today. Alpaca usually have their babies in the morning or early afternoon at the latest unless there is a problem. Ember is a very expexperienced mom and has never had any difficulty with delivery.
Apparently Ember didn’t have any difficulty because when we came back around 7:00pm there was another perfect cria up and running around with her uber-protective mom Ember.


Now we are just waiting for one more, Mickey is due later this month and we have expectations for another beautiful cria. I’ll keep you posted.
Why don’t you come on out and see us.

The Colonel - RIP

The Colonel, our beloved or for some feared, Buff Orpington has passed on.
Henny Penny has also passed on. She was taken by an eagle the day before the second grade field trip. We were hard pressed to explain the feathers all over the yard.

On the brighter side of things in the poultry world.


Polly (aka Polly the pullet) is a pullet no more and what is even better is that she went broody and hatched us out two lovely chicks. They are currently nameless. I call them one and two. I will try to get a picture of them and you will understand their names better.

What is interesting about Polly and her broodiness is that she sat in her nest box day after day after day. Unfortunately, she was in every hens favorite nest box. All the other hens would get in and lay their eggs on top of Polly. One night I went in and removed 28 eggs from under her, leaving and even dozen for hatching. We are fairly sure that these chicks are not hers- they look very much like a perfect combination between the Colonel and Quetzel.

We couldn’t have a proper hen house without a rooster. We were on a rooster hunt. After living with our less than kind Colonel we wanted a friendly guy.

Meet Frank! We found him on Craig's List. He brought along his favorite hen who we have called Henrietta.