So we've been doing the Alpaca thing for about 6 years or so now, right?  Well, unfortunately we've not had the experience that we had hoped for and have decided to move on.  We still have family with Alpaca's though, so we'll still be able to offer nice fibers & rovings; That's the good news!  

Right now, we're just taking a break to figure out where we want to go next in our endeavors.  We've looked at Icelandic sheep and that may happen at some point. They're good for wool, meat and milk and we're really trying to live more and more self-sufficiently as we go on until at some point we can be mostly off the grid, so to speak.  Goats are a consideration as well for the same reasons. Mike has even looked into pigs and chickens but I'm not as enthusiastic about those.  ;)  I'm not a big fan of birds so I think chickens might be just too gross for me, and the pigs, well I'm afraid I would fall in love with the babies and have a hard time when it was time to slaughter. I just don't know if my heart could take it even if my head knew it was not a bad thing.

I still plan to keep the store open.  Over the years, I've totally fallen in love with the fiber community, and all aspects of the textile arts.  What I'm hoping for now is that I'll have the chance to really expand that avenue for myself and for the store without feeling as restricted as I had before, with our Alpaca focus.  It's one door closing, but a new and exciting door opening and I'm really looking forward to what it will bring! 

Yesterday we found this little dumpling in the pasture with her mommy!:

Thus far Mommy & Cria both appear to be well. Pasturemate PJ was acting as guard whenever we try to approach… maybe remembering that when us humans came into the pasture with her baby, it disappeared? Hmm. I don't know. Alissa and PuddleJumper both are being very aggressive. Alissa was grazing for the sole purpose of having something in her mouth to threaten to spit at us with!

In honor of that behavior, we have decided to name this little girl…….. HEATHER!! (As in "Heather Has Two Mommies") TeeHee… I'm just delighted that everyone is healthy and that IT'S A GIRL!!!

… more pictures later when we're able to get up a little closer to check everyone over.

Last Sunday we lost a baby. Oh no, not OUR baby. An alpaca baby. Puddle Jumper gave birth and before the day was over, that baby was gone. This was the first baby born on our property to our herd.

About 10 AM I went outside for a moment. As I set on the steps and looked out onto the pasture, I saw Puddle Jumper sitting down out there and there was something shiny beside her but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I kept looking and looking and couldn’t figure it out, so finally I went out to take a look.

What I found was a tiny little baby alpaca lying beside Puddle Jumper shivering and still partially wrapped in the caul. Thankfully, it was not over the baby’s head, but only wrapped around the middle and partially on its legs.

Puddle Jumper was a nervous mommy and didn’t want me getting too close, but I talked soothingly to her and told her I was just going to help her baby and started removing the caul from it. She allowed me to do it and only threatened to nip or spit at me a couple of times, but she made sure she let me know how she felt about it with her facial expressions and noises!

After a bit of that, I really didn’t know what else I could or should do, so I ran inside to alert the family that we had a new baby! For Mike, it was much like when I went into labor with Vince – at first, paralyzing disbelief, but then he sprang into action.

While Mike was gathering supplies and his thoughts, I went out to check again on the cria and took Anneliese with me so that she could see it too. It was only on this 2^nd trip that I realized it was Puddle Jumper’s baby and not Alissa’s! We had been on maternity watch with Alissa but weren’t expecting PJ to birth for another week or so, so I had just assumed it was Alissa when I went in to make the announcement. Mike was REALLY shocked when I told him it was PJ’s cria!

Mike went out to take a look and to assess things. The first thing he said after looking the baby over and helping PJ to understand he was there to help her baby was, “This cria is dieing.”

After that, Dad was called to come over and with two phones, he and Mike were on the line trying to find our vet – or any livestock vet – who could either see the mother and cria, or at least advise us on what to do.

Apparently vets – even livestock vets – don’t do any business on Sundays regardless. The first “emergency” number we got asked “What’s an alpaca?” when Dad was trying to explain what was going on to her!

Eventually we found one that understood the cria at least somewhat and would listen to the situation with us. She agreed that this cria was dieing, so now we had to make a decision on what our next step was. Our only choices were to allow the cria to die, or to transport both PJ and the cria to Cornell for treatment – however we all felt that the trip would probably be too stressful for the cria and it would arrive there DOA anyway. The fact that the cria was a male made this hard decision a small bit easier. By the time we spent the money for travel & treatment at Cornell, we would probably still end up at a deficit, even if it survived. Had it been a female, we probably would have attempted a transport. However, we couldn’t just let the little guy lay there and suffer. The vet recommended a 40cc injection of potassium to hasten the process and take him out of his pain.

Dad went out on a pharmacy mission to find enough liquid potassium. We had the syringes and tubing and all the other necessary gear – just no potassium. Turns out you can’t find it that easily over the counter in the quantity that we needed.

Out of options and alternatives, Mike and Dad bundled the little cria up and drove him to a domestic emergency vet to be put down. Poor PJ looked very confused and sad when they carried him away. She had been laying very compliantly next to the 3 of them in the field for several hours – apparently aware that her baby was in bad shape and allowing Mike and Dad to try to help him.

Mike held the cria in his lap and held his head, looking into his eyes as he went under. This was a very, very sad and trying day for us. It might have been easier to take had it not been the first baby born on our land, and not at the boarding farm where all of our other cria’s have been born.

I keep wondering had I found him sooner, if I could have done more to save him. PJ delivered the placenta right after I found the baby and according to our books anyway, that would happen between 4 to 6 hours after birth. We have no idea how long he had been laying there like that. Maybe he was born completely in the caul – I did find him with it wrapped around his middle and all. Perhaps brain damage from that?

We don’t know. We don’t have any answers yet. After the little baby – Anneliese had already named him “Fitty” (as in Fifty Cent – the rapper) – was put under, Mike and Dad came back for the placenta and drove it and Fitty down to Cornell for an autopsy. Results were inconclusive as of yesterday, but we’re still waiting for the results of two more tests.

Puddle Jumper was a mess. Every time she would see us she would come running to the fence, looking and crying for her baby. She spent several days just roaming in the area where she had birthed Fitty, crying for her loss. It was absolutely breaking my heart – how do you explain it to her? All she knows is the humans left with her baby and he never came back! I wish she could read the autopsy report when it’s final so she could understand.

It’s been a week now since PJ lost her baby and she seems to be herself again. Our vet said that after 3 days or so she would kind of let it go. I don’t know about that. She might move on, but I don’t know that she’ll just forget it happened. I’ve heard some amazing stories about mother alpacas that recognized their young after not seeing them for several years.

My worry is that now we are once again on maternity watch for Alissa. I don’t want to have a Solomon type situation out in the pasture with two moms battling for ownership of the same cria. I’m a bit nervous about that – and naturally, nervous that this birth goes much better and that we have a healthy cria on the ground when her time comes.

When Anneliese named the cria “Fitty” (Fifty Cent) we didn’t even know if it was male or female yet. The joke was that the name would be perfect if it were a male, because fifty cents would be about all it was worth if that were the case. We had a hearty chuckle about that but now I just feel guilty – and like a big jerk.