Holding pattern

Random bits while waiting for the 2013 cria dam to truly break:

1. La Vie en Rose and Capella, who were both due in May have now had their crias (1 female, 1 male for whatever it’s worth) but that leaves 60+ more females that are due between now and December, the vast majority over the next 12 weeks or so. Bracing for action.

2. With the departure the other day of 4 pet quality boys to their new homes, our official herd size (that is the animals we own vs. those that are actually in residence here on the farm) has temporarily dropped below the symbolic 200 head mark. I am enjoying the novelty of that fact with the full knowledge that it’s not going to last long.

3. Word from our partners at A Paca Fun Farm in Maryland is that young Elixir is slowly but surely learning the trade of becoming a working Herdsire. Sounds as though he may have still had some of the adhesion on his you-know-what, which some 2 year olds retain, that can keep them from fully extending. In which case, practice is the best thing for him! We’ve seen this before: his grandsire (Archangel) had trouble impregnating larger females (longer bodies equal longer vaginas, it’s nothing mysterious) until his adhesion had fully broken down a few months into his first breeding season.  We’re obviously excited at the prospect of getting Elixir back home in a few weeks time to see what sort of trouble he can get into here throughout the rest of the summer!

4. After spending a lovely afternoon and evening last Saturday with Don and Dee Sherman of Arrow Acres Farm, we loaded CCNF Smoke Ring into the Sherman’s van the following morning and sent him off to his new home in New Jersey! Early reports were that after having a slight Ferdinand moment his first time in with the ladies, the proverbial switch got flipped, and he has now bred his first female. Hopefully he continues to combine the sweet personality of his dam, Marian, with the libido of his sire, Ring of Fire. That would be ideal! Regardless, we are thrilled that Smoker has gone to a breeding program where the available grey females are not just his mother and sister and we definitely look forward to seeing what he can do for the Sherman family in the years ahead!

5. While we have already been doing a bit of breeding here with some outside females, the breeding season for our own herd will not begin in earnest until around July 1st. It’s not a coincidence that Elixir, Kahuna, Archangel, Sub-Zero, and Precocious are all scheduled to converge back here in VT right around that time. For several weeks, until they catch up, the alpaca boys will head up hill to the Arena on a daily basis in veritable waves of hormonally powered enthusiasm. Think Redcoats at the Battle of Bunker Hill: don’t orgle until you the whites of their eyes? Don’t cush until you hear the timbre of their orgle? It’s a stretch, I know…

6. Though we didn’t attend any more shows in person in April or May after the Futurity, Jen was a fleece skirting fool and between the recycled 2012 fleeces making their final competitive appearances, and the new 2013 fleeces that went out to AOBA in Denver, she prepared 50+ fleeces for show this spring. We made FedEx very happy. Though we have the fleeces back now along with many ribbons and banners, having not been at the venues themselves, we are waiting to see official results before we crow openly and in detail. The one thing we do know definitively, is that CCNF won the Heirloom Cup at nationals as the top overall point getter in the AOBA National Fleece Show. We were pretty stoked! Our kids, of course, just think it will make a nice candy bowl.

7. After the craziness of the upcoming lacrosse tournament weekend, we will have only five more days of school next week for both of our boys. Though Max has a couple of years left in the warm and protective bubble of the Upper Valley Waldorf School, Sammy is graduating (the school is K-8) and moving on to public high school next year. Whoa, how time flies. I still remember them both nuzzling and falling asleep on my chest as infants. Now our older guy has his learner’s permit, is also working towards his private pilot license, and who knows what else beyond that? Though I’m too big to fall asleep on his chest, you know the tide has turned a bit when our first-born can now pick me up. For all the driving and the hectic schedule that comes with two school age kids, we treasure every moment we get to be together here living this life that we all share. I’d like to think at least, that we never take it for granted – even during its more challenging moments. Having said that, with the end of school and spring sports, we’re all going to have a minimum of 2 to 3 hours free each day that had previously just been spent in the car. I feel an exhalation coming on!

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