this and that

The cat trapping went well. We caught four males and two females and had a seventh give herself up. Apparently she decided that the easy life of the orphans (food and water 24/7, ac and a soft bed) was much better than the precarious life of a feral cat. Looks like I'll be bringing her in for spaying next month with the other three kittens.
The six that we caught have all gotten over their surgeries and are back to doing whatever it is feral cats do. Now I keep seeing the few that we didn't catch. They are mocking me, I'm sure of it.
We had to break the Paca-spa out earlier this week. Another breeder south of us called to say she had a girl down with a high fever. Heat stress is an ever present fear for those of us that have to endure months of extreme temperatures. Brian was a really good sport about dropping everything and hauling the tub to the other farm. It made for a late night for us, but our friends girl is doing well and we're hopeful for a full recovery.
I've been busy with my spinning wheel (of course!). The drive band on my electric wheel is made of some type of poly. For months I've been having trouble with keeping it together. The join is a weak spot and under the pressure and speed of the motor, it tends to snap and go flying across the room. You're supposed to be able to just melt it back together, but I've never had much luck with this and have it hold for very long. I finally just got annoyed and broke out some string that Brian had. I wove one end of the string into the other making a loop and now I use that. It's ugly, but functional and I'm pretty sure it's going to hold up to the abuse I give it.
The boys have finished trimming the front yard for me. I've got them busy with the back yard now.

Weeds, Cats and Seminars

Well the boys have been diligently mowing for me. Brian set up panels so they would stay in the front area where the weeds where the highest. This weekend we will be ready to move the panels to the back yard and get that cleaned up.
This time of year is when we start really watching the alpacas for heat stress. The next six weeks will be the toughest on them. Heat stress is cumulative, what the animals could tolerate earlier in the season may be too much for them later. I find now the alpacas are spending more time in the barns in front of the fans and cools. One thing we do to help them along through the summer is place additional water buckets in the barns themselves. (most of the water buckets are out in the fields) We place the buckets right in front of the swamp coolers where the cooled air will flow right over the top of them. Now the alpacas don't just have water, they have CHILLED water. Right now, between me and Dot, we're filling two five gallon buckets, one for the girls, one for the big boys, four times a day. The little boys have a water bucket in their barn year round, so they always have cool water. Luck of the draw there.
We're doing the "great cat trap" this week. I'll be picking up the traps Weds and setting them out Weds night. The poor feral cats should be good and hungry by then, as we were instructed to pick up all the feeding dishes as of this morning. Apparently well fed cats are not overly inclined to walk into a trap. Thursday I get to do all the running around, bring whatever cats we get up to the vet for their spay/neuter, bringing unused traps back to the depot, and then picking cats back up after surgery. We'll let the cats hang out in the relative coolness of the barn until they are ready to be released. I'm sure they will be thrilled about the whole thing. The feral cat colony needs to be reigned in before they eat us out of house and home. Besides, altered cats stick around longer so they don't have to keep replacing themselves. Kittens are cute, but thirteen this last spring got to be a bit much.
Finally, Brian and I went up to Gordon Teele Farm this past weekend. They were hosting a beginners alpaca seminar and asked if I would talk a little bit about fiber and what you can do with it. It was nice to be out of the heat for a little while, and they fed us very well!

So it turns out, when you have a blog, if you don't update it periodically, all your friends gang up on you. Maybe, sometimes, there just isn't a whole lot to say. Damit.
Anyway, a few of us got together last weekend and played around with some of our fiber. I made a couple of new nuno scarves. I wanted to get some practice as I will be teaching a class on the topic Aug 25th at In A Pear Tree in Casa Grande. This time I used some silk gauze. For the class we'll be using silk scarves.
We've had a bit of rain so far this monsoon. The grass was getting pretty tall and I'm not feeling inclined to drag to mower out, so I let the boys lose. All the boys, big and small. There were a few minor scuffles but for the most part everybody was more focused on eating than posturing. They managed to clean out the corn patch pretty quickly. I'll probably hae to let the out a few more time to see any improvement to the lawn.

Happy July! I think, after a flurry of activity this last month, things will quite down and we will be able to enjoy the dog days of summer. And Summer is well and truly upon us. The girls have abandoned the front field and spend most of the day in the breeze way sitting in front of fans and coolers. The boys have been in front of the coolers since we turned them on. Read that any way you want, I don't judge. It seems that the alpacas don't mind the heat so much (the girls were still out sunbathing even though it was 108 degrees or better) as the humidity. As monsoon approaches the humidity is slowly climbing.
We rescued some feral kittens a couple of weeks back.

Their mom went missing when they were about four weeks old. It took a bit of doing, but we did finally manage to track the litter down four days after the last sighting of their mother. We've found homes for two of the kittens and are still looking for homes for the remaining three. We'll be working on getting them fixed shortly and then we'll post them on a local adaption sight. Everybody think happy, new homes for kittens thoughts.

We also assisted Arizona Llama rescue with find a home for some suri alpacas that had to be surrendered by their owner. The suris; Tommy, Dawn and Lola, are awaiting the trip to their new home on northern AZ as soon as everybody can get their schedules worked out.

I guess the big thing for us, was a trip to Branson for a family reunion with my folks and siblings and their families. It was a long drive but well worth the trip. My parents planned the outing in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary. It's been twelve years since all of us where together in the same spot. Like all good families, we just took up right where we left off. There was much laughing and catching up. I don't think I've eaten that well in a long time! My niece Meghan tried her hand at spinning,

and it turns out she's a natural, it must be in the genes! though she wasn't too thrilled with me snapping a photo of her working. Sadly, Brian and I couldn't figure out a way to become professional vacationers, so Monday morning we went trudging back to work.

On the drive back we stopped at a rest area in Texas and I just had to snap this photo. Comforting to know that if you can out run the tornado, they've built a bunker for you to hide in. Don't forget to wash your hands on the way out.



On a happy note, however, while we were gone, Dot managed to get all of our fleeces washed. Now we just have to send them up to Linda for picking!

Whooooooh! Shearing is done for another year. We've been at it all month. But I believe all the farms in the area are now full of naked alpacas. Belle was our last one. I ended up giving myself a break and brought her over to a friend's place where they had a professional come in to shear. I was more than happy to hand her off and write a check. I did about half of the alpacas on my own. My first day I did three and a half. It turns out Heilo isn't keen on the chute and after I got his blanket off, I decided it was too dangerous to keep going. So he ended up with a poodle cut for about a week until Pat and George came out and helped us finish him. I'm pooped!

In between shearing, we managed to get all the vegetable beds ready and planted . The Corn, beans and Armenian cucumbers are doing really well. Everything else went in late and is just coming up now. Sadly, I forgot to label the beds and now I've forgotten what went where. I love a mystery.

I've also been passing out broccoli seeds to all my friends. Turns out one flower makes a mess of seeds, and I let quite a bit of the plant bolt. Live and learn, now I know I don't have to leave so many blooms behind. Just means we get to eat more of it. Also on the agenda for April was getting everything prepared for the coming heat. The barn coolers got the once over, parts replaced got mended and the fans got oiled. Screens went up on the house this past weekend. I think I mat plant a couple more strategically place trees this year to help provide shade down the road. And though it all, Daisy still found time for a nap.

We hosted a fiber fun day at the farm last Sunday.

We focused on painted dying techniques this time around. About a dozen people were on hand getting dirty in a very colorful way.

Brandi jumped in and helps me run the class and kept mixing dyes for the others. Without her help I never would have been able to keep up! Here's a huge THANK YOU shout out to her. The day started out with beautiful weather, but the winds picked up in the afternoon and we had to retreat into the shop as a dust storm came in from the south. The wind died down pretty quick, but I think we were all ready to leave the dyes behind by then.



The only one not exhausted at the end of the day was Daisy, who found herself a nice little nest for napping

Peaceful times at the Tucson Wool Festival

Last Saturday was the last Tucson Wool Festival, as Kathy is moving to Maryland at the end of the month. She didn't advertise very heavily (short timer syndrome I think) and I thought the crowd was way down. I know sales where. And I couldn't have cared less or had a better time. It turned out to be such a relaxing day. I got to visit with friends, work on projects and have time to eat a decent lunch (thanks for the mac and cheese Kathleen!) In fact, after Kathy shut down for the day, we all just hung out for a while. Eventually we all packed up and headed for home. It was nice to arrive at the house after a show not completely exhausted.
Of course, I still need the busier shows to keep the alpacas in hay, so I'd best not get use to it.

I've been spinning yarn like a mad woman so I have enough for everyone to play with next Sunday. I'm hosting a fiber play day. We'll be playing around with hand painted dying. I have no idea how many people plan on being there, but weather it's one or one hundred, I want to make sure everybody gets to try at least a little bit of dying.
Now I just have to clean out that end of the shop, so I can set up tables...

I've been playing around with the web site and have finally figured out how to do a little tweaking. For the life of me I can't figure out why computer programmers aren't all insane. It took me two hours to change one price. But I did change it, and that called for a small celebration. I rewarded myself with a nice chilled glass of wine. If I figure out how to change a photo, I'm gonna give myself the whole bottle!