Coventry Farmer's Market Fiber Twist

Here are some photos of our spot at our awesome Farmer's Market here in town. This was our set-up for the 'Fiber Twist' - an annual event that draws all sorts of spinners, weavers, knitters, and fiber artists of all kinds. In addition to a few alpacas and angora bunnies, we had all sorts of alpaca and alpaca-blend products for sale. Our first event was a huge success, and we met lots of wonderful people throughout the day. We will hopefully be lining up some dates for the winter market (held at Coventry High School on Sundays from 11-2) and I will post them when I know which weekend(s) we will be there. We will have lots of warm snugglies on hand - from socks and scarves, mittens and hats, to hand-dyed yarns and fiber batts. You will surely find something for everyone on your holiday list! Stay tuned for upcoming dates!

The Gentleman's First Adventure... BIRTH.

Welcome GreenPaca Gauge and The Gentleman ('Gent')...

These two little guys were born a day apart, and have become best buddies over the last few weeks. Gent (the fawn) was born first, and for his mother Princesa, labor and delivery was not a pleasant experience. Being a maiden, Gent is her first cria, and anyone observing her going through labor would have thought she was dying. I even had some worries for a while because she was being so dramatic. Between the moaning, the grunting, laying around sprawled out in awkward positions, and refusing to eat, she was fit to be tied with whatever was going on inside her belly. And this went on for almost 2 days. *sigh*

When the delivery process finally began, it was obvious that this wasn't going to be your ordinary, easy alpaca birth. First, the cria was stuck at the nose and one foot for what seemed like forever. With a little help, he was out to his hips, and there he hung for, again, forever. With back legs and his hips still tangled up in mom, we put a call into the vet for some assistance with a 'stuck' cria. Well, don't you know as soon as you put a call into the vet, the situation takes care of itself?!?!? Sure enough, baby finally works himself free, and out he comes. Wonderful! Baby is here!

Well..... apparently we weren't in the clear yet. With all of the stress of a difficult birth, baby is breathing hard through the mouth, instead of the normal, healthy nasal breathing. And now I'm worrying about defects in his breathing passages, obstructions, you name it. After a lot of suctioning and watching him like a hawk for the next 20 minutes, his breathing started to normalize and, as a result, mine did too. Wonderful! Baby is breathing!

Well..... apparently we weren't in the clear yet. Being a new mom, I'm sure Princesa was thinking, 'Thank goodness that evil thing is out of me!' She was laying down, chewing her cud 10 feet from Gent, not even looking in his direction. No checking him out, no smelling of tail or top knot, nothing. *Sigh* Hasn't this been difficult enough already?!?!? Now we've got to get mama to accept baby. After some nudging and coaxing, we had Princesa up and moving in Gent's direction. A sniff of the top knot. Okay... She looks around. Chewing her cud, she just stands there, not really seeming to care. Wait... a sniff of the body, and then the tail. Okay good! It's a start! More cud chewing... more sniffing... and then.... she lays down right next to him! *sigh of relief* Wonderful! Mama and baby are bonding!

Well..... apparently we weren't out of the clear yet. After a little while of cushing together after this eventful birth, Gent starts to try and get his legs under him like every new cria does within an hour or so of birth. He's having some trouble figuring out this whole new thing called 'balance,' and is wobbling and falling left and right. He does the cria wheelbarrow walk, gets tangled up in his own legs, all of the typical fumbling that babies do when learning to walk at an hour old. When he finally starts to figure it out, I notice that he seems to be favoring one of his back legs a little. The more steady he gets on his feet, the more apparent the limp is, and I do a quick examination to make sure that there is nothing stuck in his foot and that both legs feel the same. In my highly untrained opinion, everything looked and felt fine. But there was no escaping the fact that there was a limp that seemed to be originating at the hip. *sigh* Is the hip out of place? Is something wrong with his leg? My alpaca mentor and I discuss the difficult birth, how he was stuck at the hip, and his awkward position during birth. We decide to observe the leg and his gait closely the next 24 hours and see if there is any improvement.

Twenty-four hours go by. There is a slight improvement. I give it another 24. Slight improvement. Another 24. Getting better and stronger... Well, after a total of 6 closely scrutinized days and a little help from some JumpStart paste, Gent was running, jumping, and playing like normal with all of his little alpaca buddies. Especially with little Gauge, who was born in the midst of Gent's dramatic and nail-biting recovery from birth. Wonderful! Two healthy crias!

Now a month old, Gent is a happy and healthy little bugger, and Princesa looks like an old pro at this mothering bit. He earned his name, 'The Gentleman,' because he was calm and sweet, strong and commanding from day 1. His fleece is GORGEOUS, and we sincerely hope he lives up to his lineage. Gent will be in the show ring in the spring, and hopefully turning the heads of all the ladies... :) What girl doesn't want a true gentleman???

Another Girl!

Yesterday turned out to be quite the crazy day... After having family over for lunch, we went out to hose down the alpacas around 12:30-1:00, and then they headed off to carry out the rest of their day's events. I spent the next hour watching the Sear's repairman fix my refrigerator, and then I was back out to the barn to rake stalls and check water buckets. I WAS NOT expecting to see a brand new baby. I got to the barn door and stopped for a second, like I normally do, to survey the crowd of alpacas. Amongst the sea of large bodies, was a little tiny cria that was not there just an hour or so before. I think I just stood there in shock for a second, registering, because the only other female in the cria stall wasn't due until the middle of July. When I had finally processed that Tui had just given birth 3 weeks premature, the size of the little cria made sense, and I started into my normal 'Oh my gosh, there's a baby' routine.

Well, not only did the fact that the little one was 3 weeks early throw me off, but she (Yes, SHE!) was up and running, jumping, and even kicking at less than 2 hours old. It had apparently not been the smoothest birth either, as her snow white fleece was stained red. And with as hot as it was and with all of the fans on high, the blood was already quite dried in. Yuck. As soon as Hector got home, we gave her a sponge bath with some warm water and we were able to loosen much of it up, and get her nice shiny white fiber to show through. Despite what seems to have been not a perfect birthing experience, mom is healthy as can be, and baby is stronger than I would expect from a premi. Her gait is strong, legs are straight as can be, ears up, up on her pasterns - really just in excellent shape! And nursing right away, too. Mom's milk hadn't completely dropped yet, but it was there, and this little girl was all over it! Nursing. Running. Nursing. Running. She just kept going for the next two hours or so...

And then, she crashed. EXHAUSTED. She plopped herself down and could barely hold her head up at times. I have to say, it was making me a little nervous - she was flat out in the middle of the stall, the other babies nudging her to get up and play, mom hovering over her, and all the while I'm just praying she doesn't get stepped on. I kept an eye on her from the back of the barn while she just laid there quite motionless, watching her breathing like a hawk. After what seemed like forever with hardly any movement, this little girl was back up on her feet and nursing and running again. Phew! Hector and I then weighed her (14.8 pounds - not bad for a premi) and sent her and mom back off to the rest of the pack...

Getting ready to head back inside, I noticed Jennifer (due on Monday, along with Princesa) was not acting quite like herself, so I stuck around to observe a little while longer. She was mirring a little more than normal, I could see the baby kicking like crazy, and when she laid down, she kicked her legs way out to the side. Ughhh. I had just moved her OUT of the cria stall to give the little ones less distraction from their moms, and now I had to move her back in. So back into the cria stall she went, and there I stayed watching until dark.

Well, there are no new crias on the ground yet this morning, but you better believe I am keeping a close eye on all of these little buggers - moms, babies, everyone. With Jen and Princesa due in 2 days, there will be more new cria pics up soon I'm sure!

BTW - the pic is of the new cria and Lacy, our week old little girl. Lacy is attached at the hip to the new baby, and quite a nuisance to mama Tui. LOL Tui will teach her to back off... Lacy has already been given a nice green top coat a few times...

New Baby GIRL!

Well, she has been much anticipated here at GreenPaca Farms - simply because she is A GIRL. In our last 3 years of breeding, Hector and I have had 10 crias - 8 of which have been boys. Yes, almost ALL BOYS. So you can imagine how excited we were to have our 15 year old Laguna give us a beautiful light fawn female. She weighed in at 17.4 pounds, and is straight as an arrow. Hector will tip her after the last 3 crias drop in the next few weeks, so she'll be ready for the spring '11 show ring. Born last Friday, she is now a week old and running, jumping, and playing with our 1st 2010 cria, who is so happy to finally have a friend his size. Stay tuned for more baby pics!

My First Dye Pot

Finally! After a long time of longing for some bright colors to start spinning, I have finally jumped in and completed my first dyeing experiment. Not really having a clue what I was doing, I followed the directions that came with my sample package of Greener Shades Dyes, and threw a bunch of fibers into a pot with some Flame Red powder. This dye pot not only had a bunch of alpaca fiber, but also some corriedale, bamboo, silk noil, firestar, and icicle. I then did 2 exhaust baths with some llama, then angora, all coming out in various shades of pink. SUPER FUN. I am so addicted to dyeing. I have since done some greens, purples, blues, and some mixtures thereof. Now that everything is dry, packaged, and labeled, I'm off to the carder to blend my lovely new colors with some beautiful natural browns and fawns... :)

Angoras!

Original Post Date: 4/12/10

The bunnies have arrived! Just before Easter we brought home two English angoras that have long been anticipated by me, myself, and I. I am getting used to the daily grooming sessions, and still trying to figure out how to keep them from dumping their food dishes. Riley is still not quite sure of them, as every rabbit she has known to date she has been allowed to chase from the yard. She has gotten a few licks in here and there, but every one remains safe and sound at this point.

I am so excited to begin blending the angora with the alpaca. I have been spoiled spinning and wearing the alpaca, but now I'm afraid I won't be able to part with my creations with the angora mixed in... It is just UNBELIEVABLY SOFT.

On a different note, shearing season is upon us and we still have some openings for any farms who are still in need of a shearer. Just drop us a line on the contact page to submit a request!

End of 2009 Update

Original Post Date: 11/11/09

Well, fall show season is officially over for us, and it's time to take all of the wonderful 'data' we gathered on potential herdsires, and start to plan our breeding decisions for next year. The shows offer great opportunities to scope out the up and coming boys, as well as see a few that are still holding their own as they get older. We had the opportunity to connect with some amazing people this fall, and are looking forward to some road trips in 2010! We are very excited to pair up some of our girls with some really promising prospects!

As much as we love the shows, it is nice to not have to travel for a little while. Time to dig into all of that fiber that's been put on hold! So far, we've been processing our fiber in only it's natural state. This winter's goal is to experiment with some natural dyes and see what we can come up with! I have to say, I do love all of the beautiful natural colors that our animals produce, but I think I'm starving for a bit of COLOR! I'm already thinking about my spring planting, and what I need to add more of in the vegetable and flower gardens... Elderberry, red onions, hmmm... Be sure to check my progress in the Fiber Shop! Hopefully I will have some great new products in some great new colors available!