Friday, March 26, 2010

The Alpaca Arrival

Tuesday was the big day-the long awaited arrival of our three fluffy alpacas. It felt like Christmas morning, watching Art pull up the driveway with a giant white present holding our boys.

The boys were given a grand tour of their new pasture. We walked them around to show them their toilet, watering and feeding area, and shelter. Once released they seemed to be content with their new surroundings and were happy about all of the fresh grass. They even went over to the toilet together and pooped unanimously.




Lotta (their brave guardian) has been introduced slowly over the past couple of days. The alpacas scare the bejesus out of her. Mic is the most dominant and wants Lotta to know he is in charge. At this point I can't really see Lotta taking on a mountain lion, but I think Mic can take care of himself.



Here is a picture of poor Lotta trying to sneak around the pasture without disturbing Mic.

I have had fun trying to take pics of the alpacas. Here are their "head shots."

Mic

Remmy

Pablo

Our evenings have been spent sitting in the pasture, enjoying the funny sounds the alpacas make. It is even more interesting to watch all of our neighbors stop to talk to the boys. You would think we had giraffes in the front pasture with all of the slowing down and goggling these alpacas have caused.



In other news, the same Tuesday the alpacas arrived, Peanut was attacked by a fox in front of Glenn. Glenn managed to scare off the fox, but the fox got Peanut's tail and left her with some lacerations. My experience fixing up Ethel made this repair a bit easier. She will be on the mend for a few weeks, send her some good vibes if you can!

9 comments:

  1. It migt be very enjoyable travel for children,have nice weekend,I hope your bees perfect too.I wish very prodactive years and seasons.Best wishes.

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  2. How exciting! I'm looking forward to reading all your alpaca stories.

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  3. What beautiful alpacas! I am so excited for your family. We are sending happy, healing vibes Peanuts way from Utah.

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  4. I'm so so very excited for you guys!!! Can't wait to meet the boys in June. Keep up the action shots with Lotta and we'll send Peanut plenty of positive vibes.

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  5. Those Alpacas are AWESOME! What is their purpose other than being cool and becoming your friends...?

    Sorry about poor Peanut :(

    We want to come visit soon and see those cool creatures (and you guys too, of course)!

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  6. How fun! I can't stop smiling looking at your alpacas...in some photos they look like overgrown standard poodles and their faces remind me of truffula trees ;-) I can see why you would rather sit with them than inside with the tele. Do you see a lot of mountain lions there? I hope nobody gets hurt. I will send healing vibes to Peanut. Maybe Lotta needs another dog friend to help her with Mic? Do alpacas spit like camels do?

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  7. We had a fox attack last Sunday and our Buff Orpington has a wound in almost the same place as Peanut. We also found another wound below on the hens leg where we think the canine teeth caught her.

    I would be very grateful if you would share your methods for caring for the wounds. We cleaned the area with betadine and have been putting neosporin on the wounds.

    Hope your hen is healing well!

    The alpacas look so composed. Almost as if they were there to pass approval on their new digs. Cute!

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  8. Thanks for the positive vibes for Peanut. :)

    Rebecca and Andrea- Can't wait to have you over soon!

    Doris-We do not see a lot of mountain lions, but we know they are out there. We have tried sending Pumpkin in with Lotta, but he cannot help but chase the alpacas. I can see Lotta is made for this kind of work (she does not attack the livestock). She is getting accustomed to the alpacas, slowly. Alpacas do spit when angry. We have not yet seen a spit. The boys are pretty mellow.

    Callie-I'm sorry to hear about your Buff Orpington! I use steri-strips to close the wounds (after cleaning them out with betadine). I was unable to close one of Ethel's wounds and ended up using a wet to dry daily dressing with Neosporin. Chickens are amazing at healing their skin!

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  9. Your alpacas are beautiful and your family is extremely lucky! I'm sure they are quite a hit with the kids :) Mayu (www.shopmayu.com) is a 100% hand-knit alpaca accessories company I started a few years ago. We would love it if you checked out our products :) An added bonus is our giveaway taking place for a beautiful scarf! Really easy to enter at http://shopmayu.com/blog/

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