[Guest Post by Jeff]

When Jennifer asked me to write about a favorite Alpaca for the 25-days of Christmas series, Miss Trina was the easy choice. Why? She's the Queen Mum, of course!

Trina is the grand matron of the Brown Family; mother to Tinkerbell, Carmen and Brooklyn; grandmother to Rocky, Pipi, Muncho and Valentino. But she is more than that: she is also Leader of the Ladies, Queen of the Herd. As such, she is first to assist new mothers, greet their babies, arbitrate all disputes, and otherwise lead the everyday wanderings and activities of the group. What Trina says goes, and where she goes, the herd goes.

No matter when we look over the fields, Trina is looking back up at us; letting us know she has everything under control, is on the alert for predators, and is ready to lead the herd up for feeding time on the shortest of notice.

With her tan curly locks, ankle white 'socks', happy face and pleasant disposition, it is no wonder that she is our farm brochure cover girl.

To be honest and with affection, Trina also reminds me a bit of my mother-in-law Jutta: she is the glue of the family; she always has her fashionable brown travel suit at the ready; she is the Queen Mum; and we love her dearly. She is our Miss Trina!

June 21, 2009

• Fathers Day
• Sisters Birthday
• Longest Day of the Year
• First Day of Summer
• Luke's First Communion and....wait for it...

Thank goodness it was the longest day of the year. That is a lot to fit in!

Up we rose on a beautiful sunny day to get ready for Luke's first first holy communion at Saint Francis here on Orcas.
Oma and Opa were here for the big day and well it was also fathers day!!!
Can you say Barbecue?

Our regular priest was out of town so we had a guest priest- lame. But we had all of our special people around us and there was CAKE!

1. Jeff left at 12:00 to be ready to take pictures.
2. Jeff took all the car keys with him- leaving us at home with no transportation.
3. We tried to call the church at 12:15 when we realized that we weren't going to make it---no Jeff--no keys!
   
4. Sent children down the driveway to catch our friends who usually pass our home on the way to church to catch a ride.
5. Our friends pull in
6. Jeff pulls in too
7. Off we all go to church!

Home we come to a new little girly girl in the pasture- thank goodness first time mom Manhattan wasn't flustered by all of our running around she had other things on her mind- Baby Summer!!!!!

What a bright shining light of summer!!!!

I am working on my picture/problem. Farmer Jeff is home and he will snap a few. I am also going to go back into the older posts and set up a bunch of links for those of you just joining the party. It probably would be nice for the new folks to have alllll the background.

No I don't actually have a photo of the alpaca of the day. But I can spin a yarn about why I don't. I sound a little like a teenager who dented your car and will now try and tell you how it was not their fault.



I just didn't take a picture of him- I didn't think he was staying at our house for long.

Farmer Jeff has a great camera which I don't use-way too complicated to be fun and flexible, and my children left my-indestructible- kinda like one you would give a preschooler- camera with our friend on their last fishing trip. It will come back...they have promised.

I will now describe Chaska- aka-Cha Cha- aka Cha Cha Loco- aka Buckwheat.

Chaska came over with a friend- Cimarron who we owned half of. Long story short, Cimarron passed away and Cha Cha is here to stay (ackkk I am starting to rhyme).

Chaska is from our friends farm Krystal Acres. He is amazing in every way. His fleece is dense his demeanor is gentle and he likes to talk (I love an alpaca that can hold up his end of the conversation). Whenever I go down to feed, scoop or even just to garden near-by there is my buddy Cha Cha hummin' along.

He is out of an fantastic sire- Emerald Farms Rincon Cloud and is a handsome eyeful so I suppose he will make a great cria- we will see if all goes well he and our little Autumn Diva will hear the pitter-patter of little padded feet come summer. If not, I am sure that Chaska is more than willing to give it another go!

Don't lose patience, I am getting to the 15-tile-game title
Today was a HUGE Day for our brown guy. We moved him in with the "big boys".



We- when I say WE, I really mean ME- moved all of the 'pacs around today. Doing this reminds me of doing the 15 tile-game. There are certain animals that shouldn't share a fence line, (big boys and any girls) some that can (little boys and girls, donkey girls and anyone, little boys and anyone) knowing this it is tricky to move all the animals around to avoid who needs to be avoided.
There was a little rumbling at the beginning but I am holding out high high hopes that he fits in and finds his place. If it doesn't work we can do something else.

I got everyone moved and decided to try Chaska with the big boys. He seems happy.

I will get some pictures tomorrow or more likely Sunday. Farmer Jeff is coming home!!!

If I had known that I was going to be trying to come up with a carol for every animal I would never have started this! Work with me a little


Dashing through the fields.
In a two 'pac all out fight-
It's sometimes quite a fright.
It sometimes lasts all night- hey!

Jingle Val
Jingle Val
Jingle all the way!

He is short and brown but very proud we love him in every way---Hey!

Jingle Val
Jingle Val
Jingle all the way!

Show after show
He got the gate
in every single state--hey!

Jingle Val
Jingle Val
Jingle all the way

He is Carmen's boy
He brings us joy.
He's Kahana's favorite guy- hey!

Jingle Val
Jingle Val
Jingle all the way!

He's from good stock
and we got a shock
when he came our way!

Jingle Val
Jingle Val
Jingle all the way!

My children are now begging me to finish this post so I will stop singing this song.

Good luck with being able to sing it!

Here is the low down on Valentino- from the fleece prospective he is a ten. He will not be bred here on our farm. He is eat out of your hand sweet and the last of what we call the 'big boys'.



I promise that I will never do this again. I will not. Okay, that might be a lie.

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: