Earth Day!

If you didn't hear from me for a couple of weeks in April, it is because I became consumed with our Earth Day project.  We decided as a family we would take on our first event as the Giving Tree Family Farm.  We sat down a couple of weeks ago and mapped out our booth.  Each member of the family had a huge "to do" list.  The first order of business was a logo.  My dad got to work with his favorite graphic designer and came up with this great logo.  Deciding on a name and logo were the most difficult tasks!

My sister came up with the design of the booth.  She had visions of white lace, antique plates to display the soap, and old books and boxes for props.  My mom spent a week putting all of our alpaca yarn into skeins and we designed posters and informational cards.  It truly was shaping up to be a family affair!  We all arrived to El Chorro Regional Park early on Earth Day.  Here is a picture of our completed booth.  We all loved the way it turned out.

Our booth was divided into four sections.  My sister makes jewelry and made special bee pieces for Earth Day.

Glenn and I were the bee experts.  We sold beeswax bars, candles and lip balm.  Glenn got some people seriously excited about keeping bees.  I loved showing off the bear claw marks in our beeswax.  

My mom was the "goat lady."  She spent hours talking to people about raising goats and all of the benefits of goat milk.  

The last section was the alpaca yarn display.  People loved the pictures of Mic, Pablo and Remy next to their skeins of yarn.  

Earth day was a great trial run for our young business.  The kids enjoyed their day in the sun: dancing, planting herbs, and making paw prints out of plaster.  The adults spent the day talking about our hobbies, hanging out with fellow Earth-loving friends, and sipping wine.  It may not have been the most profitable day, but it was a good day. 

A special thank you to Mother Earth for making it all possible!

You Give Me Fever

Once a week or so we put Banjo and Pumpkin in with the animals in the front pasture. This is our lazy way of giving everyone some extra exercise. Banjo and Pumpkin love getting to spend some time with the girls. After humping Pumpkin all week (and being humped by Pumpkin-it's only fair), Banjo is eager to get his hooves on members of his own species.


When Pumpkin and Banjo are initially released into the pasture, there are always a few minutes of pure chaos. The alpacas do not like Pumpkin and make effort to stomp him to death (don't worry about Pumpkin, he loves it). Lotta spends her time trying to get between the alpacas and Pumpkin. Once the stomping fest is over, Lotta and Pumpkin wrestle until they drop.





Banjo could care less about all of the chasing and stomping. He has one thing on his mind-Leche. Leche is apparently very "hot" as far as goats go. She is even sexier from the back side as far as I can gather from Banjo's behavior. Poor Leche has to be on her toes to resist Banjo's advances.

She escaped! I'll be frank-I put in this action shot because I think Banjos swinging sac is funny (sorry).

Here Leche is using Glenn (and Pearl) as a human shield.

Finally, Banjo got so fed up with trying to catch Leche he tried to make it with Oliver. Oliver politely declined the offer and went on playing with his stick.

I'll end this post with a picture of our new rooster. He is gorgeous and needs a name! We welcome suggestions. Photo by Glenn.

Oh, and also a picture of Pearl. I can't leave her out!

Guineas, Melons and Alpaca Corralling

I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never again talk about erections on my blog. Using the word "erection" in a post title alerted the people at Viagra to the fact that I am now running a pornography site. So, if you see random advertisements from Viagra in my comment section, please disregard. Here are a few recent farm updates.

The Guinea Fowl Roost

Glenn is loving my maternity leave. He has all day to work on the many projects he has going around the farm. Yesterday Glenn finished the construction of the guinea hen roost and decided to paint it red (like we are planning to paint the barn). We will be moving the guinea fowl into their new home this Saturday.




Big Melons!

We ordered seeds for this large "Bidwell Casaba Melon" from the seed saver catalogue last year. Glenn picked this variety because it was developed in Chico, CA and he thought it would have a good chance in our climate. They are turning out to be huge and so tasty. We will be planting this variety again next year for sure!

Alpaca Grooming

A couple of weekends ago we decided the alpacas were looking a bit unkempt so we gathered them up for a morning of grooming. Alpacas are decently easy to corral. They can be captured with only an (extremely frightening) rope. I watched as Grammy and Glenn roped in the alpacas and began to wonder why we even built a fence for them. It seems like we could have saved some money and made a large enclosure out of ropes. You can see Leche and Serio (the goats) laughing at the alpacas in the photo below.

Grammy haltered all of the alpacas and then I began to work out Remy's knots.


We "let" Glenn brush Pablo because he is a bit more wild than the other two. It was fun to watch them dance.

Finally, all the boys were clean and I was able to snap one quick picture before they rolled in dirt.

Our audience: Oliver and my two cute nephews, Reid and Owen.

Shorn 'Nuff

My dad gets the credit (or blame?) for this week's blog title. This Cinco de Mayo we celebrated by going to an alpaca shearing party. Art picked up our boys and drove them to the farm of their youth (Alpacas of Cripple Creek) for the shearing day extravaganza. Mic, Remmy, Pablo and 43 other beautiful alpacas lost their fiber to help commemorate the Mexican victory over the French in 1862.

Out of our gang, Remmy was chosen to go first. He was walked out to the shearing mat, flipped on his side and tied down. Glenn tried to comfort him during the process. As you can see, the whole thing was mesmerizing for Oliver.



Remmy's thick blanket was shaved off and collected in a bag. His leg and neck fiber were collected in a different bag. The bags were then weighed. Remmy only lost 4.4 pound of fiber, but it looks as though he has lost 50.


Pablo and Mic were not quite as easy. I don't think Mic was too happy about having his head shaved. Here is the last picture of Mic in all of his furry glory. He is getting his legs sheared.

Pablo's teeth were getting too long and need to be filed. If you love the smell of burning hair, you would have been excited to witness Pablo's teeth cutting. I sort of wish I had stepped outside (at least it was over very quickly).

My job was to run around and collect fiber and put it in the proper bags, then sweep quickly, while staying out of the way of the shearer. What I learned from my experience is that you never, ever lift up and tug the shearer's electrical cord in order to sweep better. As Glenn and my dad later reminded me, "Never get in the way of a man and his electrical cord."

Here are the "after" head shots:

Mic

Remmy

Pablo

Poor Remmy is looking at the still furry alpacas wistfully.

Three Goats, Three Alpacas, Two Swarms, One Livestock Guardian Dog, and a Fetus

I have several farm updates! I planned on blogging last week, but I got sick with a gallbladder issue and spent the last part of the week throwing up, going to the ED, and eating a liquid diet. (By the way, I promised myself I would not mention poop or vomit anymore in my posts, but here I go again, sorry). So, the good news is that I have lost a few pounds over the past few days. I was starting to get a little big around the middle. So here are the things that have happened around here over the past two weeks.

1. SWARM CAPTURE

Glenn was working in my parents' greenhouse last week, when he heard a swarm of bees fly into one of their oak trees. Glenn excitedly called me, so I rushed home from work to help him capture the swarm that landed 15-20 feet off the ground. I didn’t do much but take pictures and curse when the swarm landed on my head under the tree, but I can’t miss an opportunity to watch a swarm removal. Glenn went up the ladder countless times to collect all of the bees. The bees are satisfied with their new home and now live in our front yard.


2. ALPACA, DOG, GOAT

The three alpacas, dog and goat have all managed to work out their differences and seem to live in peace with each other. Our goat, Leche, thinks she is an alpaca, and has been seen grazing, sleeping and frolicking with the alpacas. When Lotta gets a little too rough for her, she runs to the alpacas for defense and they actually seem to take care of her. You can see Leche in the shelter eating with the alpacas, while Lotta is forced to stay outside.

Occasionally, Lotta will do something silly, like wake Mic up from a nap. Below Mic is giving Lotta a good warning spit in the face.


3. BABY BB

We decided to have an ultrasound this time around for some peace of mind (mine, mostly), but we did not find out the sex of the baby. Both grandmas came to the appointment as we were lucky enough to schedule it when Glenn’s parents were in town visiting. Here is a peek at her profile. Glenn is already claiming she looks like him. He’s probably right, Oliver was born looking like a miniature version of him (and that’s a good thing; Glenn is pretty cute).

4. NEW GOATS

Glenn brought home the new babies! We have been working with them, trying to get them on the bottle, but the male in particular seems to like eating alfalfa instead. Here are both Grandmas, each holding a new baby goat. In the second picture we are attempting to lure them back to the house with an alfalfa “carrot.”



5. WILDFLOWER BIKE RIDE

The annual Wildflower bike ride rode through again this year. As usual we woke up early to cheer on the bicyclists. Our alpacas and goats were quite a hit. Oliver served as the alpaca guide, taking photographs with the bicyclists and alpacas, and correcting people when they called Remmy or Mic a llama.

6. BACKYARD SWARM

Yesterday I heard a loud buzzing sound in the back under the oak trees. It turned out to be a swarm in action. I have only seen swarms once they have settled onto a tree, so this was a real treat for me. The air was thick with bees. It was beautiful! Just look at how many bees were in the air at the time of the swarm.