the REALLY dog days of summer

sometimes a photo just says it all....

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Four weeks to the day after we took Jack off medication he went back down. I put him back on penicillin immediately and his fever didn't get as high or last as long as it has in the past. This is so frustrating, as next month it will be a full year that we've battled this infection on and off. The plan now is to put him back on Draxxin and leave him on for as long as we can. Now we face a situation like we do with alpacas that have reoccurring valley fever: the medication will control the infection, but it can also cause damage to liver and kidneys. Hopefully we will finally win out over this infection and we can safely remove him from medication eventually. For now we keep on and keep hoping.

dog days of summer

Ah summer. So far w have survived a record 118 degree day, (I wasn't in AZ for the all time record of 122 degrees) one of the largest monsoon dust storm the state has ever seen and a rise in humidity that makes the swamp coolers no more effective than big fans. The critters are taking it all in stride. One or two are still out sun bathing every afternoon.

We went north for 4th of July at Charlie Clark's again this year. We had a great time, as always. Yarn was the big seller this year. Which is a good thing as I've been doing a lot of spinning lately and have a good supply.

We're still waiting for our socks back from the mill. We should start getting the yarn sometime next month. The socks will arrive after the yarn, if our last two orders are any indication. I have to admit, I'm getting a bit antsy to see what we get. It's kind of like Christmas. I have a rough idea of what each color will be, but you never really know for sure until all the fibers are blended.

The veggie garden is more or less dormant right now. Except for the Armenian cucumbers and watermelons. The cucumbers just keep on churning along and the watermelons are still growing on the vine. I'm going to start fixing some of the beds this weekend for the next crop. We should be able to get another batch of corn. We left the first crop too long, since we had never grown corn before and weren't sure what to look for, and the corn got tough. But this time we know what to expect and will pull it off sooner. I think I'll also plant some pole beans in amongst the corn and see what happens. Some companion planting advocates also say to plant squash in among the corn as well. The summer squash didn't do a lot and I continually had an issue with end rot. I started tossing the small, stunted fruit over the fence and Niska became a big fan. Now when he sees me at the garden, he comes running over, waiting for his treat.

Jack is off medication again. We ended up keeping him on the Draxxin for 11 weeks. He's been off for almost three weeks. I won't relax until he's been off three months! At this point, we know we can control his staph infection, if we can't knock it out completely. If it does come back, I'll have to find out what health issues we need to be concerned about if we keep Jack on meds for even more extended periods of time. As of last night he was feeling well, since he was having a grand time neck wrestling with Cartigan.

Flynn and Belle are registered now. I didn't realize until I got Belle's certificate that she and Jack are related. They both have Royal Fawn as their great grand sire. Both Flynn and Belle (and George)are growing well. I think we'll be bring the whole gang to the Southwest show in March.

So now it's back to cleaning up from the dust storm. yippee.

time to relax!

Things have been quite here. With shearing behind us, there isn't a whole lot that needs to be done right now. Which means it's PLAY TIME!

Linda, Laurel and Brandie came out and I spent an afternoon teaching them the basics of hand painting yarn. We made a huge mess and had a great time! I figure you're not really playing hard unless you make a mess, so mission accomplished.

Here are some of the fruits of their labor. Not too bad. I got a bunch of yarn dyed and didn't have to do any actual work. I think this worked out quite well.

Where has the time gone?

My how time flies! I've been a little lax about keeping up with the blog, sorry. The folks have come and gone for their winter visit. They stayed long enough to warm up before heading back east to the cold and wet. The Southwest Regional Alpaca Show is a memory. We didn't show any alpacas this year, but I worked harder than ever! Next time I'll know better and bring some animals with me so I can rest a little.

Brian finally got our vegetable garden in. It got off to a shaky start. I think I had a nitrogen deficiency in the soil. Everything started greening up nicely once I started adding some paca-poo tea to my watering regime. I made a map of what was planted where so I could keep it all straight as the garden grew. Should have worked. Didn't I show cantaloupe melons on my map, unfortunately the seeds are labeled honey dew, and quite frankly, now that we're seeing fruit, they sure as heck look like summer squash.

Fortunately we like all three of those, so whatever we actually get will be eaten.
The babies are growing well. Belle is turning out to be quite the character. She will follow me around the pen, telling me stories while I feed and pick up. She loves to have her back and neck scratched. You can almost hear her purring like a cat. I've never had an alpaca behave like this before.

Flynn is also quite friendly. He knows what the pellet bucket looks like and will come running if he thinks there is the slightest chance for treats.

Poor Jack had another bout of fever last month. We got him stated on penicillin, which acts fast and knocks the fever down within a day or two. We also got him back in Draxxin, which as a slower acting drug, but far less painful for him to get. We'll keep him on this for a minimum of ten weeks and see if that will finally get to the source of the infection.

We've been shearing in this area for the last couple of weeks. Just about everyone is done. Now we start over with skirting, tumbling and washing fleeces. I see lots of lovely yarns in our near future.

As for the fleece we sent off, I'm expecting yarn to start coming back pretty soon. I finally let my curiosity get the best of me and called yesterday for an eta. Bummer that the only person that knew the answer had already left for the day. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer.

That's it for now.

a busy new year

We've been busy around here. We finally got all the fleece boxed up and headed out to the mill for the next run of socks. I'm looking forward to getting everything back, as we are running really low on socks. Except large crew socks, we have plenty of those.

Kinesis had her cria this past weekend. She's a fawn little girl that we've named Alpacazona's Invincibelle Spirit. Belle's was a textbook delivery and we thought everything was fine, until Kinesis decided she wasn't going to continue nursing the cria. It may be that Kinesis has a touch of mastitis which makes nursing painful for her. Unfortunately, the only way to treat mastitis is to keep milking mom out until it becomes more comfortable for her. We're making progress, Kinesis will now stand and let the baby nurse, but we have to get her up and hold her head at first. Which means every two hours or so one of us is out in the field getting Kinesis and making sure Belle gets a snack. Hopefully Kinesis gets past this soon, I'm getting tired!

And to confuse the situation even more, Tyche has been trying to steal the cria. She even allowed the cria to nurse off of her on Monday. Neat trick that, since Tyche hasn't has a cria in over a year and has no milk. Others have told me it is possible for a female to start producing milk in certain cases. It would be pretty amazing if Tyche actually does start to make milk and becomes a surrogate for little Belle. These animals never cease to surprise me.

Jack is off medications at last and hasn't had a reoccurrence of his infection. (knock on wood!) Keep your fingers crossed that we've finally licked this thing. Poor guy is really tired of feeling like a pin cushion. I know he's had enough, when I went to trim his toe nails, he cushed and then just flopped over on his side as if to say "do what you will, I give up". It actually made doing his nail rather easy, though I don't know that I need yet another drama queen in the herd.

This weekend will be teeth trimming for everyone that needs it.

Things to do in Casa Grande

It has been a whirl wind of activity around here. I hardly know where the time has gone. We had a photographer call up and ask to come out and take some photos of the alpacas. I'll post some of his stuff a bit later. Also among our visitors in recent weeks as Lisa Earle, a young lady from Casa Grande. She works on a local blog about things to do and sites to see in the area. She came out to visit the critters and took a ton of photos herself.
If you're interested in the article (a very well written article, if I do say so myself), here's the link: http://casagranderox.com/


We're done with all our shows for the time being. The next event won't be until March with the Southwest Regional Alpaca Show. Maybe I'll actually get some rest between now and then.... na.