Alpacas don’t like the wind

Posted on November 17, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

As I wrote the title of this blog, I couldn’t help but giggle. The list of things alpacas DON’T like is quite long: snow, rain, rodents, shots (well, no one likes getting shots), people, being looked at, tax assessors, noisy power tools, and so on. Well, you can add wind to that list.

The ranch sits, as you might guess from our name, on the edge of a rather steep precipice. It’s very out there and exposed to the weather. Lightning and wind are the two biggies. The house has about a dozen lightning rods on the roof, and we’ve taken direct hits to the well head.

The wind usually comes out of the south-east, across the plains, but when it comes from the north it is a cold, miserable experience for everyone. The ‘pacas tend to stand in their stalls humming in disapproval, and refuse to go out to turn out unless Mom takes alfalfa out there to eat.

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Post 101

Posted on November 16, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

This is our 101st post! Thanks everyone for your support of this blog and our family. We couldn’t do this without your encouragement. I truly enjoy writing these posts. It’s fun to share the chuckles we get out of raising these oddballs; hopefully we’ve brightened your day with their antics as much as they brighten ours.

I’d like to take this opportunity to solicit feedback. What else would you like to know about? What do you like to read about? Please, tell me in the comments.

Last time I asked, I got a response that resulted in our start to finish series, which goes through fiber processing one step at a time (I haven’t forgotten that series, I need some better pictures before I do the next post). Your feedback is invaluable.

And here's a picture of Tripoli, back when he was little and adorable, just because we can.

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Mom’s new barn cat

Posted on November 15, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Isn’t it precious?

Note: not the actual cat.

Mom looked up the driveway the other day to see an animal rolling around in the dust. It was clearly a cat, and just as clearly, not a house cat. Which left only one possibility: bobcat.

Also not the cat mom saw, she didn't get any pictures.

Mom began to walk towards it, as it lolled around on the ground being a large predatory cat. It stopped to watch her, with a very “Is she coming over here? Like, really?” expression. She got quite close to it before it stood up and trotted off.

My initial reaction was to worry about the babies, but at 1-2 feet tall, I doubt the bobcat is much of a threat to them anymore. In fact, it probably is being a good barn cat, eating mice, rabbits and pocket gophers. We should probably just go ahead and name it. I was thinking Spot, but besides being a little too obvious…it doesn’t have spotted markings. They are more streaky.

Any ideas?

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Random alpaca word of the day: “spit”

Posted on November 14, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Not long after we got the alpacas, Dad had a uniquely alpaca ranch experience. It was early morning and he was on his way to the office, where he had a class to teach. Like a good (somewhat naive) alpaca dad, he stopped by the barn to give the alpacas their crumbles before he left. As he was pouring the crumbles into the feeding trough (actually a rain gutter), he got caught in the crossfire between Brittany and Mikayla, and wound up with alpaca spit splattered across his forehead and in his hair. Eew.

Alpaca “spit” is not actually saliva. There is some of that involved, but mostly, it’s partially digested grass and stomach acid. It’s bright green and smells terrible.

Our ‘pacas have never actually spit at us on purpose. Usually, they are spitting at each other over food and we happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, poor Dad had to meet clients with stinky green spit in his hair because Mikayla is not a good sharer.

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Veterans Day, word of the day

Posted on November 11, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Happy Veterans Day, 11/11/11, and full moon! I’m going to be spinning grey yarn studded with silver beads this evening, in honor of the moon. And in honor of veterans, I think I’m going to have to give climbing guy, who served our country for two years, his hat. Seems downright ungrateful to do otherwise. Of course, I have to make an effort to charge any of my friends for anything. I wish I could just give it all away. But we do have to feed the ‘pacas.

Anyway, sliver is a word I ran across when I first started spinning, and it confused the heck out of me, so I thought I’d share it. It’s spelled the same way as the slivers rough cut wood can give you, but it’s pronounced “sly-ver”. Functionally, a sliver and roving are pretty darn close. Sliver tends to be thinner. In the picture below, the white (from Tuscany) is roving, and the blue is sliver.

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A business question for you all

Posted on November 10, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

So, Dad just created a Facebook page for Cliff House Alpacas. Thing is, I don’t think I have time to update content in both places. I could link the blog up to the Facebook page, so that all my posts here are also put up over there, but that just seems…redundant. Though, over there, it might be easier to share content with friends and friends of friends.

Do we have any opinions in the crowd? Where should I focus my energy?

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Snow babies

Posted on November 9, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

What do alpacas look like in the snow? They look pretty much the same as usual, adorable.

Marsy isn’t really a big fan of the snow.

I am so lusting after Tripoli’s fleece. I wants it, my precious.

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To block or not to block, that is the question

Posted on November 8, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Poor Hamlet, always getting his soliloquy wantonly garbled by bloggers. Mmmmm, wontons. Anyway, this weekend I spun 50 more yards of my deep roots yarn and finished the hat for my climbing friend. And it looks nothing like a dead animal, I might add.

It might be just a touch too big. I measured climbing guy’s head, and was surprised to find that it’s exactly the same size as mine. I had guessed his head would be unusually large, but it turns out that’s mostly attitude 😛

I was already having a bad face day, now I'm having a bad hair day too. The things I do for this blog, I swear.

So I think I’m going to block it. Honestly, I seldom go through the trouble of blocking my knitting, but it’ll help. Blocking is basically just washing, with a little bit of agitation that evens out the stitches, and then drying on a form that is roughly the same size and shape as a head. I think a balloon will approximate his head quite nicely. Snicker.

I did something a bit different so the hat will fit nicely under climbing guy’s helmet. Normally, loom-knit hats are just tubes with one end cinched shut. The number of stitches is the same from the bottom to the top. I was afraid that the gathered material at the top would be uncomfortable under a helmet, so I actually decreased my stitches as I finished up the hat.

Wouldn’t want climbing guy’s surprisingly average sized noggin to get bonked by a rock because his helmet wasn’t fitting right, now would we? I doubt it would even knock any sense into him.

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Bravado goes on walkabout

Posted on November 7, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Bravado had a bit of an adventure last week while Mom was cleaning. She had just taken a manure bucket full of snow out of the boys’ paddock, and dumped it in the manure wagon. She decided the wagon was pretty full, so she hopped on the tractor and took it up to the manure pile. On her way back down the driveway, she couldn’t help but appreciate the view.

As Mom admired the idealic winter calm of the ranch, she had a “one of these things doesn’t belong moment”, and did a double take. Standing in front of the barn, looking around with a “where to next?” expression, was Bravado. He was still contemplating the wide open freedom of the driveway when Heidi, who was turned out in the arena, came over to the fence curiously.

Bravado wandered over to chat with Heidi, and Mom kicked the tractor into high gear and began roaring down the driveway. Kubota-san, our tractor, has these adorable little pictures instead of numbers to represent the throttle speed, and Mom slammed the lever from turtle to rabbit.

She bore down on him like some sort of vengeful angel riding a screaming orange tractor, and as soon as Bravado turned to look at her, he knew he was in for it. Without hesitation, he turned and ran back into the barn. Mom jumped off the tractor right on his heels, and then held her breath as he ran down the breezeway. The far door was wide open to let the sun in, and Bravado could have run straight through the barn and kept going.

The door to the boys’ stall was also wide open, Mom thought she had locked them out in turnout. All three of the other boys were standing in a line inside the stall, looking out into the breezeway, weighing the fun of exploring against the obvious fact that it was against the rules. Bravado skidded around the corner and ran straight into his stall, and Mom slammed the door behind him.

Mom had to laugh as she told me this story. Back when we boarded the horses, whenever one got loose, everyone would yell “Loose horse! Loose horse!” One loose horse tends to lead to more loose horses, as herding instincts take over, and it’s good to have that heads up. Throughout Bravado’s little adventure, what was running through Mom’s head was “Loose ‘paca! Loose ‘paca!” as if he could trample someone or something.

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On low impact stock

Posted on November 4, 2011 by cliffhousealpacas

Seven years ago, long before the alpaca ranch was even a twinkle in Dad’s eyes, I went to Ecuador. It was part of a travel class. We studied some aspect of Ecuadorian ecology for a quarter, and then spent about a month with our professor travelling there.

It was an amazing trip, although the environmental degradation and widespread poverty wore on us. Stock animals that aren’t native to the area have been introduced, no doubt with the best of intentions, but they contribute to the ongoing loss of biodiversity.

This herd of llamas will provide wool, protection and even meat for their owners, and have been a part of the ecosystem for much longer than cattle or pigs. Feral pigs damage trees and crops, eat bird eggs, and can be dangerous to humans. Cattle require large ranges of open space, and are often the cause of deforestation.

Llamas and alpacas graze on a variety of different species of grasses and forbs (flowering plants that aren’t woody and aren’t grasses – like daisies). They clip plants instead of yanking them up by the roots, and eat 5-10% of the forage required by horses. All these traits make them excellent stock, especially in fragile ecosystems. As the impact of non-native stock begins to extend beyond the environment and into the daily lives of people across the world, in the form of food shortages and poor water quality among other problems, we may find ourselves switching back to the animals that evolved in the places we live.

Our ranch, which is located in a semi-arid area, benefits from their low impact life style as much as the ancient Incans did. Though alpacas certainly aren’t native to the Great Plains of the United States, their efficiency, a product of the extreme environments of the Andes, makes them spectacularly low impact stock.

And can anyone guess what I got my degrees in? It wasn’t spinning…

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