Spinning wheel styles

Posted on April 5, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

It’s been a while since I’ve written a love-letter post about my spinning wheel (probably because it’s buried somewhere in the junk…er…craft room).  But maybe a short post about the various styles that wheels can take will inspire me to dig it out. Continue reading →

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Alpaca bio: Trip the hummer

Posted on April 4, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Little Tripoli was the first cria (alpaca baby) born on our ranch. His momma is our sweet Tulip, a medium fawn (light brown), and Tuscany is his half-brother. As a young ‘un, Tripoli’s personality is still developing, but one thing is clear: he’s one loud little alpaca.

"MMMMmmmmmMMMMM!!"

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48 hours

Posted on April 3, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Marcello looks at across his domain through long, dark eyelashes that are crusted with ice. The wind has blown all day and night, and the snow that started sometime after midnight is plastered to his right side. Glancing down at himself, he wonders if some crazy shearer has gotten to him, doing only one side.

I'm not sure what happened, but I'm pretty sure it's your fault.

As grey dawn breaks over the ranch, he forces his stiff legs to move, and stumbles into the barn. Tucking himself into as small a space as possible, he tries to remember if he was ever warm, ever happy.

48 hours earlier…

So warm. So happy. Oh dirt, I love you. Oh sun, caress my body. Glorious day, I shall never forget your sweet embrace.

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Winter lessons for summertime fence building

Posted on April 2, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

We tried oh-so-hard to build perfect paddocks for the ‘pacas. But the thing is, you build fences under the blistering summer sun. The earth is like pre-fired clay under the auger, and it’s hard to even imagine the crisped-grass landscape with three feet of snow over it.

"It's wet and icky out here," says Bravado. Tuscany: "It's mussing my hair." Mo: "We demand that you fix this situation, immediately!"

For better or for worse, the seasons change, and before you know it, you have these guys giving you dirty looks because their paddock is full of snow. Like we have any control over it! Quit judging me Morocco!

Well, I guess Dad didn’t get enough fence building last year, or else he figured (maybe even correctly) that we do have some control over where we put our fences to make snow removal easier. Oh, and the wind actually moved the temporary green paddock fencing we put up to separate the girls and the boys. So it’s time to start planning our next round of post hole digging.

See how the boys have so much less room than the girls? And you can only get a tractor into the girls' paddock?

The goal is the expand the boys’ paddock and shrink the girls’, so they both have the same amount of room. . To do this, we have to move the gate at the end farther to the left, and install a second to allow access to the boys’ paddock. Then, we’ll add a diagonal fence to divide the large ‘paca area into two distinct paddocks. The girl’s will be larger at the top, next to the barn, tapering to the gate at the end. The boys’ will be larger at the bottom, tapering to their stall door. Hopefully, this will make it possible for Dad to get the tractor into each for snow blowing. The snow that slides of the roof, in particular, builds up to levels that are painful to move by hand

The take away message: Never, ever, ever, build a paddock you can’t get your tractor into. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we use the tractor for EVERYTHING around the barn. I borrowed Dad’s drill and was afraid he’d need it, but my Brother said, “Eh, don’t worry about it. He’s got the tractor.”

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And we have another hand spinner!

Posted on March 30, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Aunt Geri’s first yarn arrived in the mail this week! It is b-e-a-u-tiful. She’s named it “Desert Rain”, which is a lovely name for the soft blue and pastels (as someone who thinks about yarn names quite a bit, I know…).

It’s a blend of 54% hand-dyed merino, 46% suri alpaca. I love how well she nailed the twist while plying! And I’m a little of jealous of the fluffiness. That’s partly the merino’s character; it tends to cling together nicely and is light and fluffy.

Aunt Geri spins for at least an hour a day, on a wheel she picked up last time she was down in town (since, erm, I still have her wheel). We’ll be sending her some of our newly processed alpaca roving in black, white and grey.

Wow. Two handspinners! Well, maybe more like one and a half (me being the half). My plying calluses are peeling off my fingers from disuse. Anyway, now we’ll have spinning solidarity at our artist shows.

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Windy, windy, windy…and fire

Posted on March 29, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

The Ranch is roofed in heavy cement tiles, so when Mom called to have some replaced because they had blown off, she wasn’t really a surprise to hear that only winds above 90 mph can make them budge. The tile guy wanted to know when our last hurricane had hit! We recently had another big “wind event”, just on Monday, that rearranged semi-permanent objects.

It blew the horse trailer out of position, leaving a deep gouge in the concrete pad. It also moved the fence that separates the girls and the boys. It was only a temporary fence, but it was heavy and sturdy.

But far worse than any of that, it fanned the flames of wildfire burning in the nearby foothills. The ranch is not in any danger at all, but having lived through many a terrible fire season, including one year where both our home and our cabin were close enough to the flames to see them glow, our hearts go out the folks who’ve lost or been forced out of their homes. Here in Colorado, we are privileged to live without fear of earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami. Just about the only natural disasters on our radar are wildfire and the occasional tornado. Given the drought conditions we are experiencing now, and how early in the spring this fire started…well, I’m afraid things may get worse before they get better.

I haven’t asked, but I bet Mom has a disaster plan. She’s usually prepared for just about everything. If you haven’t thought about what you would do in case of a natural disaster, where your animals would go, how they would get there and what you’d need to take with you, maybe now would be a good time. I’m not trying to be a Debbie downer (apologies to all the Debbies out there), but there’s no harm in having a plan you never have to execute.

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From start to finish: Part 5 – Carding

Posted on March 28, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Carding is the process of organizing the fibers so that they are all pointing one direction. It’s essentially a really complicated way to brush hair that is no longer attached to an animal. There are three ways to do it: using hand carders (cheap and difficult), using a drum carder (expensive, slightly easier), and by taking your fiber to the mill (very expensive, very easy). We’ve done all three, but today I’ll focus on the hand and drum carders; the mill just uses a really large, mechanical drum carder.

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Kill it, Whisper

Posted on March 27, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Mr. Personality, aka Whisper, has developed a few games to play in and around the barn. Ambush is particularly fun for our little hunter. He likes to hide in the horses’ feed troughs and wait for Zip or Squeaky to walk by.

One tiny step closer, and I'll have her.

When either gets close enough he springs out, landing on top of them, and hilarity ensues. Whisper particularly likes to get Zip this way, maybe because she is closer to his size.

Zip: "I am only aware of your existence so that I can ignore you."

Obviously, his other favorite game is “Kill it, Whisper.” This is actually Mom’s game, I suppose. Whenever she sees him playing with a mouse or vole, she yells, “KILL IT WHISPER!” and then goes about her business. At some point, she’ll go to the grain room (cat house), maybe to fill up a water bowl, and in the sink she will find a dead rodent. Practically gift wrapped. Then Whisper gets a treat.

To be fair, Mom taught the mini-poodle to play the same game with Dad’s pajamas. She “kills them” for him before he puts them on.

House full of fluffy little murderers, that’s what we’ve got!

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In case you needed proof Tuscany is a ninny

Posted on March 26, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Dad managed to catch Tuscany in the act of playing with the gutter end cap, with a new twist…

Tuscany: "Water! End cap!" Mo: "I'm examining this situation carefully, and there is nothing logical or even fun about it."

…because the only thing more fun than a gutter end cap is a bucket of water and a gutter end cap.

Bravado: "You are encouraging this misbehavior with your attention." Mo: "I still do not understand." Tuscany; "Herpa derp derp."

The first time I ever caught Tuscany playing in his DRINKING water was shearing day last year. It is basically the only day all year that the alpacas can’t be wet. It’s kind of like trying to mow your lawn after it rains.

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Alpaca bio: Marcello

Posted on March 23, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Marcello is another one of our alpacas that I just don’t “get” (Morocco is the other). No matter how much I interact with the herd, I still can’t pick up on his personality. I’m not entirely convinced he has one.

"Hur durr durr durr."

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