2011 cria #1: a first look

Well after all this bluster about big rain storms all we’ve seen so far are lots of overcast skies and roughly 70 degree weather today (cue monsoon/hail storm). Jen went shopping earlier at one of the big-lot stores for our upcoming shearing days, equipping the break room at the Arena with more cookies, brownies, chips, rolls, cold cuts, etc… for the end of the week than we would normally buy over the course of six months. I swear the price of corn went up as direct result of her shopping run. Mmmm: empty calories and trans fat.

For my part I took the opportunity today to deliver a couple of fiber boys we sold recently. That is at least two more that we won’t have to shear this year. Seeing as how their owners — who are already quite experienced with alpacas — are buying them for their fleece I guess it made most sense for them to go there unshorn anyway!

I also popped into the Arena as I was stealing the farm truck to attempt a photo of the new little girl we had born here over the weekend. As mentioned before, the little nipper is our first cria here sired by TKO’s King of the Ladies, whom we co own with our friends at Hilltop Alpacas. What I failed to point out earlier is that she is also the great granddaughter of the first female alpaca we ever purchased in 1997! She is in fact quite the amalgam of many of the genetics that have graced our breeding program over the past 14 years: Snowmass Incaaccoyo Star (maternal great grandsire), Snowmass Royal Rose (maternal great grandsire), CCNF Archangel (paternal grandsire), Snowmass Legacy Gold (paternal great grandsire), SuperNova (paternal great grandsire), 4P Orinoco, 4P Legacy, Royal Peruvian Apollo, CAR Sunbeam Alpine, PPP Mr. President, PPP Augusto, PPP Royal Fawn, Peruvian Hemingway, Peruvian Snowmaster, and last but certainly not least, the legendary PPP Pachelbel. Whether it’s the fact that she’s getting amazing fuel from mom (she put on more than a pound over the past 24 hours) or that the sum total of those many genetic parts is a hyperactive little girl, she pretty much refused to stand still for me and/or insisted on hiding on her mother’s far side. She may only weigh 18 pounds but she is nobody’s chump! Combine that with my rather deft touch with the Iphone camera and we’re not exactly in contention for any photography awards on this one. Though impossible to tell from the picture, she is indeed a light creamy beige over the whole of her body. At least for now. We will of course be posting some shameless and gratuitous shots of her running on green grass once the paddocks at the Arena open up for grazing after this weekend.