Life as a blur

Some time over the past couple of weeks we officially passed the halfway mark of our 2013 birthing season. That is to say that there are now more crias on the ground romping around the pastures than there are due females in our maternity pens. I can’t honestly tell you when it was, or the name of the female that marked the event. The past month has frankly felt a little manic. July and August around here can be like that though, it’s not unexpected. In fact, as we aim to condense our birthing season more and more with each passing year, the late summer months are apt to get more crazy, not less so. We all make choices and those choices all have consequences…mostly good. Now if we could just petition for the 25 hour day, we’d be all set!

In contrast to last year when the crias being born at this time were predominantly colored — not coincidentally almost all having been sired by Matrix Majesty, who was then still in Idaho throughout the 2012 breeding season — right now we are seeing the fruit of Snowmass Elite Legend’s final breeding season here at CCNF. Though the cria pens at the Arena with the late May/early June kids were still a mix of the color spectrum, the more recent maternity pens have taken on a decidedly white bias as one might expect when over 90% of the remaining due females were bred last year to the 3 time Futurity Herdsire of the Year. While EL seemed to have had a penchant for siring mostly males for us in the past, the last few days have shown that he does have the potential to throw that XX chromosome on occasion, as several members of the older guard have birthed out beautiful little white females. Not least among these was Ms. Cadenza, who after giving us two wonderful sons since joining our herd some 5 years ago, finally had a little peanut of a girl: CCNF Defiance’s full sibling. I’ll admit that with Big D getting ready to start working soon (Defiance will be 2 in January), we truly didn’t care about the gender of this latest Cadenza baby, the fact that it was a female just seems like a bonus!

On Thursday yours truly will head down to Double “O” Good Alpacas for the annual Breeders Edge auction which will be held there this coming weekend! I’m really looking forward to it and we are proud to be consigning our 2 beautiful females, CCNF Ladyhawke and CCNF Andean Majesty, to the sale this year! Aside from the obvious, it’ll also be a great opportunity to catch up with other fellow east coast alpaca breeders. Especially given that our spring schedule has kept us from attending the MAPACA Jubilee (Harrisburg, PA where that show is held is just a couple of hours north of Gainesville) the past several years, I’m really looking forward to seeing some folks we don’t otherwise cross paths with on a regular basis.

While I’m down at the Breeders Edge, Jen will hold the fort here at the farm, juggling the demands of the due mamas at the Arena along with pre-season soccer practices and driver’s ed classes for our newly minted high school freshman (there’s a reason this is being composed on my laptop while parked on Main St. in Norwich, VT), as well as tending to that other late August tradition that we all seem to loathe equally: back-to-school shopping. Ever met a deadline you didn’t want to try and stare down? Me neither. In any case, I think that there is a very good chance that I am getting the better end of this entire deal, even if it does involve Ian donning a costume ;-). I hope to see many of you this weekend in Virginia, be well!