A couple of firsts, the new CCNF Chronicle’s 1st year, and our 200th post!

Though I knew in the back of my mind that it was coming up, it somehow slipped by me that yesterday marked one year since we started this blog. The drivel you are currently reading is also coincidentally the blog’s 200th post by the way. I know this because WordPress says it is so.

Admittedly, the material over the past 12 months has not always been terribly profound (thinking of cria photos and hamster eraser movies) but it does feel like it’s been a great conduit through which we’ve been able to keep the outside world informed about our alpacas, life here on the farm, and that of the family that runs it. Certainly on balance it’s been more fun to produce than the old newsletter which was supposed to be 2 to 3 pages on engaging (yeah, I know) material, though produced only every 3 months. When I messed up the newsletter — and oh were there ever some real doozys over the years — the darn thing still went out and was our primary lasting (whether memorable for the right reasons or not) impression for the following 12 weeks. Though it was a powerful marketing tool when done well, it was also inherently limiting and quite frankly not really very cost effective. By contrast, here on the blog there have been multiple occasions when I’ve rattled off material equivalent to a newsletter and a half in a single sitting, then followed it up with another the following day or two. My bottom line is that the freedom to fool around a bit more and experiment unconstrained by the printed page has been a really welcome change. When we started this whole thing last summer I honestly didn’t foresee myself putting something up an average of every couple of days though it quickly became clear that at least during the busier times of the year, the material to do that would really just present itself. Again, if folks have been looking for a deep and regular look into the existential questions of what it means to raise alpacas for a living they have, most often, felt let down. As often as not the blog has been more of a journal recounting everything from the dodging of the proverbial trees as they have come at us here on the farm to expounding on the dearly held belief that crappy fiction and lots of cold beer are good for the soul with a bit of everything else thrown in between. Regardless, the new medium in which CCNF Chronicles has existed for the past year does seem to have garnered it a small but faithful readership (2200 +/- unique visitors per month) and for that I thank you. It’s been a lot of fun so far!

Enough introspection though. Lost in the melee of my travels as a glorified delivery man and mobile breeding facilitator (sounds better than pimp) over the past several days was the news that we finally had our first Elite Legend cria (see photo at left). That the cria in question belonged to no other than our beloved Magdalena somehow just seemed that much more appropriate. With her previous daughters, Johanna and Lilah, named after our nieces it also seems especially fitting that the girls themselves are coming up for an extended visit here with us in a couple of weeks time. I now either have to get may act together and name the little girl myself or be prepared to take suggestions left and right. A nice dilemma to have for sure.

Elsewhere, there was news from The Big Guy at Hilltop that they just had their first ever cria sired by our co owned Herdsire, and Magdalena’s eldest son, Magnus. A dark colored, heavy boned female cria no less. Though we are obviously a “big” farm (evil and monolithic holding daily councils on how we can stick it to small breeders, ’cause you know THAT makes lots of business sense) in the eyes of many, the reality is that because Magnus already has two of our most potent lines running in his veins– he is Ring of Fire’s paternal brother as well as Archangel’s nephew — there just aren’t that many females here at CCNF that we can currently breed him to without the crosses getting a bit too genetically cozy. Granted if Mag’s kids start giving us heartburn in the show ring we may have to find some matches for him just the same but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now it’s just really great that another branch of that amazing line (and with all due respect to Magdalena, Legacy Gold and Royal Rose, I’m really talking Jesusa here) is off and running. I know generally speaking there can be too much of a good thing but probably not in that case.