A Dozen and Counting . . .

Here is the count down to date . . . a dozen on the ground . . . nine boys and three girls . . . all out of Sun Tzu except for one beautiful girl out of a Glacial Storm son. 

June 19 - Marcella presented Susan Jones of Oregon Coast Alpacas with a feisty little man who is officially named Sinclair.  That did not stay his name for very long.  He was born the day before shearing day and there was a plethora of experienced alpaca people on the farm . . . including Carrie Hull of Coarse Broads and Timber Basin Alpacas and Hailey Parker from Snowy River Alpacas.  Maybe the poor little guy didn't have a chance with the three of us checking on him.  None of us ever saw him eat, pee or poop . . . yet he gained weight, was as active as could be and was in the middle of everything.  Think he was just testing the stupid humans.  He was nicknamed Sly . . . and Sly he was and is.  He continues to be the ringleader of this year's crias.

June 22 - a foursome.  My friend, former llama breeder and fiber artist, Rose Power, came over to check on the results of shearing day.  Little did she know she was going to have the opportunity to test her old mid-wifrey skills . . . three of them came within a twenty minute window.  Great fun . . . and only one little girl out of that quartet.  Loki delivered a handsome dark brown and white male . . . a spinner's dream . . . multiple colors out of the same animal.  Queen Amidala presented us with a little moustached dark brown male who became Hunter (named after our very own vet, Russ Hunter).  Elana presented Becky Hay of Autumn Meadows with a handsome almost black male named Zhavago.  He is very precocious and will come and lay next to you in the pasture. Then came our beautiful little fawn female, Aurora, out of Tiffany and Duke . . . the last breeding of a Glacial Storm male.  Do miss that guy.

June 23 - Another little girl, this time for Susan Jones of Oregon Coast Alpacas.  A gorgeous light brown female named SuzieQ.

June 25 - Lollipop delivered her first cria, a very handsome light fawn male that Peggy's mom named Tucker . . . seems appropriate that we have a future herdsire carrying the name of the farm.   Then twenty minutes later Chelsea's Athena delivered another very handsome male (and he is very white) who is named Quartz.

June 28 - Skyla had yet another male name Lava . . . the trend was getting a little overwhelming at this point.

July 10 - We had planned a trip to San Diego with great care to make sure the first wave of cria all had delivered prior to leaving.  Well . . . what do they say about the best laid plans . . . on the day we were scheduled to leave two of the girls had yet to deliver.  Peggy was just ready to jump in the shower (cutting it as close to flight time as possible) and of course there was a head and two legs hanging out of the back of Jasmine.  So it was rush down to the pasture to make sure all was good (find out it was yet another boy) and make a quick call to Susan Jones from Oregon Coast Alpacas to see if she could come over and complete the rest of the duties . . . luckily she was available and all was good . . . Thank you, Susan.  The other who was scheduled to deliver prior to our leaving town just delivered today . . . on day 384 . . . and no there was no confusion on her breeding date as she was only bred once.  So much for planning.  His name you might ask . . . this is a David naming philosophy.  We had yet to come up with a name for him so David resorted to his tried and true method . . . Jasmine's little man was our 80th male . . . so David said to name him Boy 80 . . . so we tried to make it a bit more warm and fuzzy so we made it Spanish . . . Nino Ochenta.

July 26 - Katrina presented Autumn Meadows a very crimpy dense grey male named Bayou.

August 1 - And today, Cordelia delivered a GIRL, the wait was worth it.  She is dark fawn and Peggy's mom thought we should have a girl named Astoria . . . after the town we live in.  We thought that was a pretty name.

That catches us up on this year's deliveries.  We only have one more we are waiting on for this group . . . Khani out of Hemingway's Bogart and K-2's Chandra.  It is her first.  She is not acting at all concerned and is on about day 342.  Her line typically results in girls . . . her granddam, Karoline, has only had four girls out of six to date; her mother, Chandra has had no boys out of four cria to date . . . let's hope Khani follows in their footsteps and helps improve our ratio of male to female cria. 

So I'm posting this entry even though it is not completed.  It is missing all the photos and a lot more links.  I'll start that part tomorrow.  It will make me feel a bit more caught up.