The boy's name Phoebus \

pho(e)-

bus\ is of Greek origin, and the meaning of Phoebus is "bright, radiant". The sun god Apollo was also known as Phoebus Apollo, referring to the fact that he brought light.


One of the lights of our farms life is our boy Phoebus- funny name handsome boy.



Here is our boy. Since we moved to Orcas and bought our animals Phoebus and Chaucer- from yesterday- have been together. (look I surprised you, and made a link) Phoebus is gooood looking. He however wouldn't probably be able to tell you that because he often can't see. He has a very stylish head of hair that is in constant need of a trim. He has a full on alpaca afro. The upside of this is he always has his head held high. He looks like quite the man about town.

Phoebus is one of my childs favorite alpacas on the farm. We also call him the ninja. Phoebus can kick in any direction without warning. He doesn't do it on purpose really he just gets startled and kicks out. Have I been on the receiving end of the Ninja? Oh yeah, does it hurt? Oh yeah it smarts quite a bit. My kids think it is a riot when I get a little smack in the leg, me, not so much.

The worst incident of the Ninja kicking was when it was time for yearly vaccinations. (I know get on with it-you can see where this is going) We contain the animals in a catch pen, in this case the three- 'big boys'. Whenever I get all three big boys in a pen I must move quickly. They get all excited and think someone is going to get a breeding- I can count on one hand the number of times this has been the case- breeding that is.

Onward. I was just about to give Chaucer a shot and he decided that he should give Phoebus a little sniff- Bam, I never saw it coming. No Phoebus didn't kick me - just made me vaccinate myself for the year- I am not going to need
my Clostridium Perfringens Types C and D- Tetanus Toxid for the next year!!!



Phoebus in the front with his afro and Chaucer looking ever so much the herdsire he is in the back right! See that handsome guy in distance on the left- you are going to love him!

Okay so I really do think of animals very much the same way I do people. I however usually like most animals better than most people- except cats- spooky. We finished up the three little boys yesterday and when I went to feed and water the big boys they all looked a little dejected. They really do often get the raw end of the deal.

In the summer they don't get to be up by the house and enjoy the visitors, most of whom came to see the babies. The most the big boys get from the visitor traffic is usually having me point and say- those down there, they are the big boys. Ohhh the 'big boys' visitors say like my big boys are going to jump the fence and run them down. They of course wouldn't dream of such a thing.

So after I finish the 'big "we always get muddy end of the stick" boys' I really will choose randomly. I am kinda random anyway. (Not a news flash for regular readers)

I'll get on with it now. Let's start at the top...of the pecking order that is.

Presenting the biggest of the big:

Yes, I am still going at it with the Christmas songs. It may/will become more difficult for you to read, and me to come up with as the month goes on. Sorry for us both.

Harken back to a couple of days ago and Brooklyn and her general lack of desire about nursing. Well, the mother of next 'little boy' is her sister. I could probably stop right here and let you fill in the blanks but I will go on only because I promised an animal a day.

Here is the disclaimer- pay attention- this is not my animal- he ajists here. Which means he lives here and I get to love him and his owner gets to visit and cart off his fleece. I soooo have the better end of the deal- except the poop thing.

It's Orcas Moon's Sargent Pepper...Or is it Pepper Pots?...or is it Reilly's Red Pepper? It's it's...

Don't be fooled and taken in by his sweet face and gentle demeanor. He is a devil at heart. No not really, he just takes after his mother a little that's all. (Doesn't the mother always get blamed?)


Look here he is innocently nursing away with his mother Mickey.
The Red Devil (fine, so it is not his real name- but let's call a spade a spade- and chicks love a bad boy with a tender heart) He is the king of pasture escape through the gate or under the gate it doesn't matter- this boy has talent.

Devy is, all kidding aside, nothing short of amazing. He is super sweet he just likes to stir the pot a little. Look at this picture,


This is the same day he was born! He is a full month younger than the other three in the picture. What a funny little boy. Bossy too.

R.D. was born while I was away at work on Shaw Island. I left farmer Jeff to watch Mickey, the mom. The first day I came home from work, Jeff told me, no worries, no baby yet. I watched them allllll day. See for yourself. This all sounds great doesn't it? Except that he was watching the breeding males- funny they didn't go into labor.

I left for work the next day after moving the girls so that Jeff could see them from his desk. (duhhhh) confident that all would go well.

It DID!!!!

My farm man called me at work- which he never does- to tell me we had a new beautiful girl. Nope not a typo. I said girl. Long story short which I don't do often. Farmer Jeff was demoted to money making Jeff after labeling the manly man, Red Devil, a girl, which for a week we called Pepper Pots, from Iron Man- who is totally hot and is a red head like him.

Yearly we send in fleece from each animal for testing. The lab lets us know all of its characteristics from fineness and crimp to length etc. Well...the finest (softest) fleece on the farm award goes to

Move over Penny...it's



Here he is in a few photos teaching his pasture mates the fine art of dancing or is that martial arts?



I am throwing these just for fun. Notice the color of his mother Mickey's spot above her eye is the same color of her cria. Her last cria had the same thing except Minnie's spot is on her chin.

Actually what I am really saying is that after I tell you all about the 'little boys' I am going to start to draw randomly from a hat to decide which animal to showcase. I really don't have a favorite therefore I don't want to have to leave anyone until last. It will be random.

Okay that's it.

Oh my goodness it has come to this. I am using Christmas Carols.

The next three days I will be dedicating to what we here on the farm call 'the little boys'. This name was given when they were indeed little. These boys are from last year (2009) when we had three boys and a girl. I am puzzled as to where to begin. We always talk about them as a group but when you meet them individually they are obviously nothing alike- except anatomically well almost. Mysterious huh?

The game is afoot! (Too much Sherlock Holmes)

Here is the biggest of the 'little boys'...(drum roll)

Weighing in at 21 pounds at birth..fawn and cimpy I am pleased to present

Buddy is from the year of herbal names so his 'real' name is Orcas Moon's Sage Prince- why such a big name? he was huge, and has only gotten bigger. Buddy was born on the day that the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released. Let me clarify, he was born while we were in Friday Harbor watching the release of the Movie.

Don't you just hate it when you miss the cool stuff. The movie wasn't really great, loved the book- however, there isn't anything better than watching a smooth birth.

We came home and well there he was. He gets his giant stature from mostly his giant (not freakishly so) mother, Ember. Ember is a fantastic Mom. You don't want to get close to her cria- she is a little protective (understatement).

Shortly after farmer Jeff took this photo we all had to run- Ember was getting a little defensive.
Buddy is a gentle giant with beautiful, lustrous, apricot colored fleece. He went to four shows last year and our boy took home a pair of ribbons from the two biggest ones. I am taking him to show again this year which is a big decision. It is challenging in my trailer to load a yearling male with all of my babies from this year male and female.

I will try, no really I will, to get a couple of more current, photos of him to share. I so wish everyone could visit with Buddy- he leads well, and is sweet, sweet, sweet. (I do not say this about all of my animals, just wait till you read about some of our less angelic camilids)

I finished yesterdays blog by letting you know that Brooklyn and Pippi are never apart. It only seemed right to talk about Brooklyn, Pippi's mom next.

Brooklyn was one of the first alpacas I trained. Okay let's admit it, I was trained to train with my girlfriend Brooklyn and her equally good looking girl friend Manhattan. I spent a bitter cold March week with Janet Franklin (master of 'pac training) being taught how to teach Brooklyn and Manhattan to walk on a lead. This was done in preparation for my first show- Alpacapalooza! I will never attempt to train two alpacas in a week. Now I usually start in February and give it plenty of time.

Janet got me trained and I helped her to train the girls. Brooklyn, Manhattan and I left Janet on the farm and were lucky enough to hitch a ride with my not yet good friends Kris and Albert Olson from San Juan Island. Off we went to Puyallup, Washington (Do not attempt to say this word you WILL say it wrong. It is pronounced Pea-y'all-up).

I was only able to stay for the first two days of the show, and then had to get back to Chicago for work. I showed Manhattan and we got the gate (I have of course, a story about that). Before taking the girls back to the islands Albert did me the kind favor of showing Brooklyn. She took a fourth.

It was unreal to be called in the middle of Seatac airport by someone who you never knew was going to be such a great friend, and to be told that an animal, that up until two weeks ago you didn't know, and that wasn't able to walk on a lead, won a ribbon at a show with over 900 animals. I was actually smiling and jumping up and down (only a little jumping).



Tune in tomorrow!