Paca D'Lites Alpaca Ranch

2012-02-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Wilbur is now 268 lbs! He has worked his way into our hearts. On October 11, 2011, Wilbur came to us all the way from California, weighing in at a mere 40 lbs. He was sunburned, wrinkly, and very, very frightened.

Hailey, with some advice from our awesome farrier, Joe Spearman, began winning Wilbur over by offering him apples...and then Nilla Wafers. It was instant love!

Through the months, Hailey has fed Wilbur every day, bathed and conditioned him every other day, and taken him on walks in our pasture and, yes, even our neighborhood every single day.

How can you not become attached to an animal after spending that much time with it? Wilbur loves to have his chin and belly scratched. In fact, if Hailey even comes near Wilbur's belly, he falls over for her to get a "good angle" to scratch all over.

Now for the hard part... From the very beginning, we knew that Wilbur is an FFA project. That means that all barrow pigs (male) have a terminal show. Wilbur's terminal show is this Thursday at the Fort Worth Stock Show. The teachers warned us. They've seen it over and over again. Kids crying while having to say goodbye to their "pets". Let's call it what it is. Yes, they become "pets".

However, unless you are a complete vegan and are against eating meat all together, you must realize that the meat you purchase at that grocery store in the clear plastic wrap actually comes from an animal on a farm somewhere.

Animals have been used for meat for ages. Not so long ago, animals were treated with respect. Now, you can watch films that show chickens stacked on top of each other in barns where they never even get to taste fresh grass or feel the sunshine on their backs. Cows spend their entire lives in a barn at a feeding trough, being fattened up for slaughter... again, never getting to graze free range. There is simply too much of a demand for meat and too many people who do not understand what is happening to these animals. The more demand for food (fast and pre-processed), the more the industry seems to make poor decisions on the care of these creatures. We've got to grow them faster in the shortest amount of time... after all, it's a money thing, right?

Why am I bringing this up? I am hoping you will consider a couple of things. I am hoping you will consider buying locally, from a farm that raises their animals with respect and consideration. Do a simple internet search to find a farmer's market or a farm near you that raises their animals on pasture. Purchase your eggs from ranches that have "true" free range chickens (more than just a 12" space to roam in front of their cage). Consider preparing more meals at home and eating dinner as a family, rather than running through a drive thru. And last, but not least, consider eating a couple of nights a week "meat free".

It is really hard sending Wilbur off. However, we know that during the time he has been with us, he has lived a very good life. He has had constant attention, proper feeding, exercise, and play time.

As we say goodbye, we realize that as we close one chapter in our lives, another one opens up. With death, there is always new birth. This has been an eye opening experience for us. We appreciate more where our food comes from and we are more intentional about our choices. We hope that by reading this, you will be, too.

It's here!

2011-10-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well, after a long trip from California (can you believe that???), this little guy was tired and worn out. He was "chosen" at the Waco fair by Hailey's Ag teacher for her to use for her FFA project. We picked him up at the Plano Ag barn this afternoon after school. He's sunburned and scratched up. It must have been a rough weekend!

This little guy wasn't so sure he wanted out of the truck. He squeeled and squeeled and squeeled! Man, are they LOUD!

Hailey made sure everything was set in his new home...a horse stall. See the shavings? Believe it or not, that is like his kitty litter box! Tee hee! It's supposed to cut down on the amount of shavings we'll go through.

Hailey uses some gentle persuasion to get her new little guy into his stall. He wants to make a run for it!

Ok, honestly, we were expecting this adorable little "Wilbur" pig. This guy... well, he's so ugly he's cute.

You can see the scratches on his side from the other pigs. Hmmm... kind of like a cat fight? Kitty litter box? I'm sensing a theme here...

Our new little "Wilbur" settled in pretty quickly and even ate some feed out of Hailey's hand. He's got a nice 10 x10 stall, with shavings, food on demand, and water. He sure likes snorting at Tysin, our LGD (livestock guardian dog), too. They really checked each other out through the hog wire. So, now you know what the surprise was. Betcha didn't think of that one, did ya? Ha ha! And the adventure begins...

Rain!

2011-10-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, long time since we've seen some of this! I am praising God we have finally gotten some rain. Seriously folks. The cracks in our pasture look like they go down about 4 or 5 feet into the ground. This can cause some serious damage to an animal who's foot gets caught.

Ah! Looking out onto the pool, you can see the rain coming down. It is such a beautiful sight!

The alpacas stayed under cover while they waited for the rain to end. However, it rained for a good portion of the afternoon. So...they were under the eaves for quite a while. Not that I am complaining!

The chickens are a different story. Usually, when it rains, they stay inside too. However, this time, most of the chickens stayed outside during the rain. I don't know if they are expecting worms to work their way up or what! They were running like crazy from one section of the pasture to the next. Maybe the grasshoppers were more prevalent in the rain? I don't know. They sure looked funny running around in the rain, though!

Ok, here is a hint for tomorrow. It's coming home in this... ooh! The excitement is building!

New animals abound...

2011-10-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am sooooooo enjoying this fall weather! I head out anywhere between 6am and 8am to do my chores...when it's still just a tad bit chilly. I love it!

The alpacas have finally come out of their stalls to enjoy the new, cooler weather. They've been spending the majority of their days inside the stalls under misters and fans.

The chickens have finally come outside, too. They are enjoying their "dirt baths" in the pastures and have been sunning their feathers. See, even the chickens enjoy the sunshine!

Our cria from early summer is growing by leaps and bounds. She's begun eating grain and has even been known to push the larger "moms" away from their feed bowls. Soon, she will need to be weaned off of her mama's milk.

Our cria aren't the only ones growing up around here! I had to put a shameless mama picture in here of my youngest son. He's seven years old now. I can't believe how fast time goes.

Our oldest son is in Senior High going to homecoming, our daughter is in High School getting ready for her first fall dance, and our youngest is getting THIS BIG! I don't want to even begin to talk about my age. I still feel so young, though! How in the world is it possible for me to have children this old??? Pinch me before it's all over and I've missed it all. Take loads and loads of time to spend with your kiddos. Before you know it, you'll be an empty nester. I know I can hear an AMEN to that!

Upon heading through the pasture, we stumbled upon this particular weed. It's just an ordinary weed of MANY in our pasture. You can tell all of the grass is gone. The drought this summer has left us with nothing except for some sturdy weeds that seem to grow without any nourishment whatsoever. Amazing, huh? Anyway, there was something peculiar about this weed. Upon further investigation, we determined why. Do you notice anything? Look closely...

There is an entire nest of baby bunnies here. We found five baby bunnies nestled closely under the weed bush. What a great place for the mama to hide her young! Last year, you may remember, a mama rabbit laid her young inside one of our hay feeders. NOT a good idea. I believe only three made it out of ten in that one. All five of these bunnies have survived and have finally left the nest. We see them hopping through the pasture some evenings when we go out to do our chores. They are soooooooo cute!

I also want to mention we have had TWO baby opossums in our pasture lately, too. What are the odds? Everything is coming up for food and water! Don't worry! No animals (opossums) were harmed in the catching of these animals. All animals have participated in a relocation program... relocated out of our pasture! :o)

I haven't been the best at posting things lately, but will need to post again this coming Monday. We have a surprise coming? Wanna know what it is? Check back in on Monday to find out how the saga continues... (hint: Hailey is taking on something new)Don't you hate cliffhangers????? Smile....

Summer days...

2011-09-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Whew! I think we may have actually made it through the hottest summer on record, yet, in Texas. The record heat and added drought made it really hard on the alpacas. I, for one, am so thankful that the heat is subsiding. My daughter and her classmate are working on a project for their art class. They took pictures all over the property and opened my eyes to things all around me every day that I tend to take for granted.

For instance, we have the most beautiful trees in our yard. When I drive into town, I don't find many trees like this. Areas are completely flattened, all trees removed, before neighborhoods are begun. So, most of the trees in town are rather small. We are blessed to have many, many big, large trees around our house.

I am so very blessed to have my alpacas. They have such a calming effect. This is a picture of Charlene Tilton. Oh how I love this alpaca. She is quiet and beautiful, with a determined spirit.

This is one of MANY large cracks on our property. When you have acreage, you don't water. It simply isn't cost effective. Due to the drought, we have cracks that look as if they go down 4 feet. Really... we could lose a chicken in these holes! Pray for rain!!!

Ah, manure. Yes, we have it every day, every where. I clean the stalls every evening, but leave the pastures to work sometimes once every month or two (depending on the heat!). Here is some wonderful compost just waiting to be used in those cracks! Tee hee!

Here is a wonderful picture of my rusty trailer. Yes, it really is that rusty, but I love it! Do you know of anyone who can strip down an old trailer and restore it? Cheap???

Ok, seriously. If you had an eye booger, I would tell you about it or I would help you remove it. My daughter and her friend just take a picture of it! This is Belle, our handicapped, Rocky Mountain horse. She was born on my birthday years ago. I simply love her. She is spoiled ROTTEN!

Here is a picture of one of the cedar trees in our pasture, along with some horse manure also waiting to be picked up sometime when the weather cools down a little. Actually, I don't pick up the manure in the pasture. I drag it with a harrow. It's much easier... :o)

T-posts still sitting in the pasture waiting to be put up. I have all kinds of ideas, I just need assistance implementing them... LOL.

Well, believe it or not, these tires are actually good! Good for training alpacas on obstacles, that is! No, they won't work on the horse trailer anymore, but they still can serve a purpose. When was the last time I used them for obstacle training, you ask? Uh.... I'm working on getting our FFA students out for that. My alpaca whisperer has been busy taking pictures of the property (see above pictures). Gotta work on that, too.There you have it. I'm not very good about keeping you up to date with all that's going on with the ranch. For that, I am sorry. I tend to volunteer for too much, thus, reducing the amount of time I have to work on my own stuff. Yes, I realize it is a problem. God is working on me. Sometimes, I'm just not a very good listener. :o(I am praying each of you are having a blessed week. Happy trails until we meet again...

Precious delivery

2011-05-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Are you reading this picture?

We had bred Charlene to Mt. Everest last year, along with Cotton and Lucy. Cotton had a beautiful male cria that only lived for seven days. We thought that Lucy and Charlene had either miscarried or never got pregnant. Charlene never did spit off before Everest had to return home.

About five days ago, I started thinking I was seeing "activity" on Charlene. Then, three days ago, I swore I saw a leg pushing out of Charlene's side. After feeling her belly, we felt movement and just knew she was pregnant.

Charlene was at 360 days gestation when she finally delivered her little female cria.

Can you see how much this little girl looks like her mother? She is cute as a button!

Blessings abound here at the ranch. We are praising God for His tender mercies, after the loss of the little male cria. What a blessing indeed...

A loooooooong story...

2011-05-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

It happened again. While collecting chicken eggs out of the nesting boxes, my daughter found another egg eater! These darned rat snakes love to feast on chicken eggs. As you can see, this particular snake is BIG!

Tim had me take various pictures to show a friend of his how you know a snake is not poisonous. If the head is triangular, the snake is generally poisonous. If the eyes look like cat eyes, it is generally poisonous. See how the eyes on this snake are not "cat like"? See how the head is not triangular?

A blunt tail indicates a poisonous snake. The tail on this snake is pointed. So, it is not poisonous. This is a rat snake. They generally feed on mice and rats. So, they are good to have around....unless you have small chicks or eggs around. Yes, they will eat small chicks. We've lost a few to snakes.

As you can see here, my daughter does not take after me when it comes to snakes. I will touch it's back when someone else is holding it, but that is as far as I go. Someone else has to catch it. If no one is around to help, I kill it! My husband believes in the "catch and release" program for snakes. We have friends that raise horses on their property and they love for us to give them the snakes. It keeps their rodent population down. If we can't get by their place, we simply release the snakes in a field far, far away from our property. We have a no return policy here at our place.

And then there were none...

2011-04-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a weekend we had. I spent all last night crying...so much that my eyes hurt and I have a headache this morning. Excedrin Migraine, kick in please.

It all began Saturday night. Our precious little cria didn't want to take his bottle. Was he beginning to finally latch on to mama? Was he beginning to get enough milk from his dam? We weighed him and he hadn't lost any weight. Yeah! Maybe this was the beginning of a good thing...although we would miss bottle feeding this little guy.

You see, for the past week, we have been supplementing our little alpaca with milk replacer via a bottle. When we begin walking to the pasture, we are almost knocked over by our little cria running across the grass to meet us with an expectant "Hummmmm!". He would let us hold him in our arms and love all over him while we gave him his bottle. It was the highlight of our day.

The next morning, Easter Sunday, our little guy was a little wobbly on his feet. Was he weak from not enough milk? We offered him a bottle, but he again refused to eat. We weighed him again. The same weight. Hmmm... he wasn't losing any weight, but he wasn't gaining either. We were heading over to my mom's house for Easter brunch. We would swing back by and check on him, offer him a bottle, and weigh him again before heading over to Tim's family's house.

At 2:00 pm, we knew something was very, very wrong. Our little cria was wobbling much more. He was having a hard time standing now. His temperature was 102.3...not too high, but not normal either. We placed an emergency call into our vet. Dr. Lane was on duty. Thank you, Jesus! He is the only vet in the clinic that has experience or will even work with alpacas. He figured the shaking was from a low sugar balance. We were told to get some Karo syrup down him and get him into the clinic. So, I loaded up and began my trek to Farmersville, praying the whole way.

We made it! Dr. Lane arrived shortly after our arrival and began checking out our little guy. His blood sugar was great! His red cell count was normal. Everything on him checked out, but he still had a fever and shaking. His lungs were clear, but there was a heart murmur. Apparently, this is normal in alpaca cria, and can resolve itself within three weeks of life. However, sometimes it doesn't, and the animal doesn't survive. That would be something we would have to get re-checked in three weeks. Dr. Lane gave our little baby a shot of antibiotics. He figured he had to have some sort of infection...maybe the onset of pneumonia or something else. Dr. Lane said if he still had a fever in four days, to come back for more antibiotics. There was nothing else he could do, since everything else checked out ok. He was very concerned about the cria's continued shaking. He said it was either from the infection or the heart problem. Oh boy... here we go.

After arriving home, our little guy continued to shake worse and worse. We brought him in our house and placed him in the bathtub with lots of blankets. We held him and stroked his little neck, telling him how much we loved him. I prayed and prayed for God to answer my prayers, to save this little one. At one point, the cria died. He went listless, stopped breathing, and lost all color in his gums. I continued holding him, crying, praying. In a few long, long seconds, he gasped for air and came back to life. Oh, thank you, God! We were going to experience a miracle! I just knew it! He began humming and looking at me. He was still breathing really hard. His temperature was raising higher and higher and was now at 104.8. We were spraying his belly with tepid water, trying to bring his temperature down. We got it down to normal. However, his breathing was still very labored. Tim and I watched and waited, hoping for God to heal this little precious baby. However, it was not in His plan. Minutes later, he began gasping for air. Very slowly, he gave up his life.

You know, I began thinking, how must it have felt to watch Jesus dying on the cross? What would it have felt like from His mother's perspective? What about all of his disciples and followers? What must they have felt? To watch the One in whom they had loved, suffer and die?

I admit...I absolutely love animals. It is extremely hard for me to watch an animal die. It is even harder for me to watch my loved one's die. I have witnessed both...numerous times. It is excruciatingly painful. How much more to watch my Savior die? It is too hard to imagine. But that's not how it ends! Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death, giving us the promise of eternal life, for those who believe and put their trust in Him!

I believe God loves animals, too. I believe that it grieved God to watch my little cria die. I believe God felt my pain as I watched him die. However, I have faith that God works all things together for His good and perfect will. It seems only fitting to end with this...

I believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

May you experience God's peace, comfort, and grace today and every day. God hears our cries and feels our pain. He experienced it all...everything. I read in "Our Daily Bread" the following:

"Living forever means living out the thought of eternity that God has placed in our hearts; meeting again one’s believing loved ones, lost through separating death; living in a world without sorrow; seeing our Lord who loves us and gave everything to unite us to Him forever.

But I see another meaning. Since we have this life and the next, we don’t have to “have it all” now. We can live in broken and ruined bodies for a time; we can endure poverty and hardship for a while; we can face loneliness, heartache, and pain for a season. Why? There is a second birth—life in heaven forever." —David Roper

Praise be to God the Father! There is a second life... life in heaven forever.

Baby cria: Day 2

2011-04-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, of course I had to post some more pictures of our little cria. He seems to be doing well and is keeping up with mom.

As you can see, my kids just love being around him and holding him. Hayden wouldn't let me catch him in a photo. He's too cool. :o)

Have a blessed day!

It's a BOY!

2011-04-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Cotton finally delivered a male cria yesterday morning at 7:00 A.M. I, of course, missed the whole birthing! I went out at just a few minutes after 7:00 to feed the animals. When I entered the pasture, I saw that this little guy had just been born.

Cotton has been bagging up for over a week now, so I was glad the delivery day finally came! My family already had tickets for Six Flags (perfect timing, huh?), so the hubby and kids went without me. I spent the day out in the pasture, knitting a hat, while watching the cria first stand, walk, run, and eat.

What a perfect day for a delivery! The temperature was just perfect and the breeze was wonderful. It was very relaxing just sitting out in my chair watching the dynamics of the group.

It's quite a show watching the dynamics of the herd when a new one arrives. Everyone came over to sniff him out and then welcome him to their group. Lucy, who is Cotton's daughter, began nuzzling the little one right away. It was so sweet! She rubbed her head up and down his neck. When he stood, she would nudge him along, as if encouraging him to walk.

It didn't take long before this little guy was up and running with the herd! It's amazing how quickly they figure out their legs! This will be the only birth we have this year on the ranch. We've cut back, due to the economy. While I am very, very sorry we won't have more, I am very thankful for this little cutie! My kids are already working on a name for him. I'll keep you posted!

These animals are so wonderful. I feel so very, very blessed to have them as a part of my life!

And they're FINISHED!

2011-04-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today, we headed over to Don's place to shear his five alpacas. Don "acquired" these animals when he purchased his property a couple of years ago. His alpacas are more for yard art, than anything else. So, once per year, we make a trip over to Don's place to shear his animals.

The shearing was rather uneventful, with the exception of Jose, who in attempting to catch an alpaca, hit his head on a metal bar and gashed his forehead. I would like to state, though, that no animals were hurt in the shearing of these animals. :o)

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day today and was perfect for shearing. The animals are now ready for the heat of summer. And Tim, well, he gets another year's rest from shearing.

Hats and scarves

2011-04-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Those are our latest "thangs" for our Fiber Day.

Donna brought in a Hummel blanket she made years ago for a Christmas present to the president of the Hummel club. It was recently returned to her for a keepsake. Isn't it amazing!?!

Anna is working on her sixth hat! Joyce, Anna and I took a break from the hats and made some new scarves out of a yarn Diane introduced us to.

Iris has finished her baby blanket for charity.

All in a days "work". We're having fun!!!

Shearing day a SUCCESS!

2011-04-07T19:14:00.001-07:00

I would like to send a great, big THANK YOU to each and every one of you! Wow! What an absolutely AMAZING set of friends we have! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU! for showing up to help us out with shearing. We can't tell you how much easier it was this year compared to last year. Many hands do make light the work. Our alpacas are all shorn and more prepared to handle the heat of summer and I've got a craft room full of fiber to begin processing!

And now, since pictures are like a thousand words... Enjoy!

Baskets were setup to collect all of the leg, belly, and top knot fiber. This fiber is too course to be used in garments or other items close to the skin. This will either be turned into rug yarn or will be used to stuff pillows, etc.

The table is set and we are ready to go!

The "victims" unknowingly await for their turn on the mats. Do you see the "deer in the headlight" look? Uh huh...

Oh no! You can't make me go! I won't do it!

Well, since you put it that way... I'm a sucker for a chin scratch.

Anna was my FANTASTIC "bag lady". She pulled all of the blankets off onto a plastic sheet and rolled it like a burrito.

Peggy used to be a vet tech. She loves animals and LOVES to clip toenails... I know! Go figure! Thank you, Peggy!

Proof I was there... I was... REALLY!

Oh that luscious fiber! Jammer STILL has it! Ooo la la!

Another thanks goes out to Tim and his son, Michael. You would have thought these two grew up around alpacas. They were AWESOME! Thanks, guys!

An on-looker. "Boy am I glad they only trim my wings!"

"What are you looking at????"

The bag lady in action. I love you, bag lady!!!

Just for cuteness. Isn't she the cutest???

I can't begin to thank the Sutter family. They showed up, for the very first time EVER, and pitched in to help. They cleaned the alpacas before bringing them to the mats. What a HUGE help. Thank you!!!

Feels like butter! Really! :o)

More butter. Thank you, Ruth, for your help, too! What a great friend!

Dee and Mark were fantastic helpers, too. They pitched in on a variety of jobs. Dee is an alpaca LOVER!

Hailey became our chef for the day, making approximately 96 hotdogs. You go girl! We were really, really hungry.

After all of their fiber comes off, they really want a good hosing. It just feels sooooo good!

"Get me in my face, on my back, belly, rump, I don't care! Just GET ME!"

Ahhhhh!!!!!

"While all of y'all were busy with the alpacas, just LOOK what I found!!!"

Thank you to everyone who helped...
Brian and Dawn
Gordon and Ruth
James
Tim and Michael
The entire Sutter family
Peggy
Mark and Anna
Mark and Dee
Ted

I hope I didn't miss anyone!

Thank you to each of you for giving up your Saturday to help us out. You are simply amazing and we are humbled by your friendships. May God bless you for your blessing to us!

Fiber beauties!

2011-03-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our little "gang" of friends get together every Thursday to work on our knit projects. Sometimes we card fiber, spin, crochet, knit, felt, whatever. The important part is that we are holding each other accountable to completing our projects AND that we have time to socialize with our friends. I like the latter part the best! Tee hee!

Here is my nutty friend, Anna, with her latest hat. This is how large the hats are BEFORE we felt them. We think she should leave it this size. What do you think?

My friend, Marie, is trying to sell her tri-loom. While it sits over here at my house (anyone interested?), my daughter decided to give it a test run. She has created two of these beautiful shawls on the loom. She sewed them together to make a larger, woven shawl. It is SOLD! Her choir teacher has already purchased it!

Donna has been working on her state fair project...knitting two sides to an afghan at the same time. There is a lot of yarn being "thrown" around here. She continues to amaze us with her talents.

Iris has been working on baby blankets for the Medical City of Dallas. She is a little shy about having here picture taken.

Here is my latest hat creation. Our latest craze is to add fun fur around the brim.

Joyce Jackson is shown here with her hat creation. Isn't that a beautiful green color?

Here are all of the hats we've been making. Can you tell we are on a roll?

Anna brought two bags FULL of seeds from the flowers in her garden for each of us to share. Thank you, Anna!

Let the Shearing Begin!

2011-03-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, looking at my blog, I notice I haven't been writing very much, have I? It's been a whirl wind of activities around here. We have had numerous farm visits, activities, and well, just life going on around here. We are awaiting two alpaca cria to be born either late next month or early May. I'll keep you posted on that one (ha ha...get it?).

We have set our 2011 shearing date for Saturday, April 2nd, beginning at 9:00 am. Many of you over the year have indicated you would like to attend / help us with this. We have fourteen animals to shear and another five animals for a farm down the road. So, it's going to be busy, busy, busy. As you know, Tim does the shearing for our ranch. However, he needs lots of help. There are the people who halter and lead the animals to the shearing area, someone to help with the rope system, a "head" person (to hold the alpacas head during the shearing), a person to help "scoop" away the fleece as it is being shorn off of the animal, a person to bag the fleece, and OF COURSE, a photographer (don't everyone jump on that one, ok). Lastly, we need someone to sweep or blow the area clean between animal shearings. Are you up for the task? If so, let us know! We can always use some help!

We hope to hear from you soon!

Friendship...

2010-12-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

Do you have friends, who just out of the blue, who just randomly do nice things for you? Ruth Tice decided I needed some flowers. Reason? Just to be nice. Aren't these beautiful? They have the most wonderful fragrance, too. What can you do for a friend today? Call them up and tell them how much you value their friendship...hand write them a card and drop it in the mail...or send them some flowers. Spread a little sunshine around in your little area of the world today and let someone know how much you care. Thank you, Ruth! You are one in a million and I value your friendship immensely!

Fun in Farmersville

2010-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we have when we head to Diane's shop, Fiber Circle, in Farmersville. Our Thursday, fiber day, ladies try to make a trip up to Diane's shop once per month.

Diane has been knitting and crocheting since she was three. She has published multiple magazines on knitting, machine knitting and crocheting. The best part? Diane is wonderful about sharing her knowledge with others. When our group makes our monthly trek up to Diane's yarn shop, we pick out a project to knit. Diane sits down and teaches each of us something new.

Here, Anna shows off a scarf Diane helped us make. This pattern is called "Pom Pom Frenzy". I've since made about eight of these scarves for gifts.

Tatsuko and Kazuko show off their "Pom Pom Frenzy" scarves, too. There are many variations of this scarf, with each of them being Fun! Fun! Fun!

Lois and Evelyn are experienced knitters. Evelyn machine knits some incredible fantastic suits, shawls, skirts, pants, etc. If you have a machine knitting question, Evelyn is a "go to" person. Lois is equally skilled. We are blessed to have them in our little group. They are a joy to be around.

Iris spends her time hunting down the most incredible yarns in the shop. She "teases and tempts" us with her finds. Iris knits around the clock, so she doesn't hardly sit down at the yarn shop to knit, but instead spends her time finding yarns to work with for the remainder of the month. Iris teaches a knitting class at her church and is always on the lookout for new and excited yarns to use. Diane's shop always has plenty to choose from.

In this picture, Anna is showing off the scarf I finished that day. This pattern is called, "Diane's Favorite Scarf". It involves increases and dropping stitches that makes the knitting go even faster. This scarf is made out of alpaca yarn with some fun ribbon yarn.

Lastly, Diane sent us each home with some homemade fudge. Oooooeeeee! This is some of the most delicious fudge EVER! Chocolate pecan and Peanut Butter fudge were two of the flavors I came home with. They are SCRUMPTIOUS! This would make a wonderful gift for someone this Christmas. So, make the short trip to Farmersville this Christmas. You won't be sorry!

Kid 'N Ewe and Lamas, Too!

2010-12-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

This was my first year to attend the annual Kid 'N Ewe and Lamas, Too event in Boerne, TX. I coordinated the Spin-off Competition for the State of Texas Alpaca Ranchers. It was a huge success with 111 entries. Whoo hoo!

Joyce Jackson helped me setup my booth. We had everything from raw alpaca fiber, to scarves, shawls, teddy bears, bags, aprons, etc.

Sales were pretty good. I paid for my expenses, plus a little. I had the most wonderful time enjoying the company of old friends and meeting new friends, too! Cindy Telisak, of Jacob's Reward Farm, a good friend of mine, situated her booth next to mine. We left the partitions open between us and setup an area for spinners to drop by and spin with us. Our group of spinners became so large we had to "move them" to the center aisle.

I met a wonderful new friend, Mary Bensel, aka Grandma TuTu. Mary makes some amazing things. She has a delightful personality and was a joy to spend the weekend with!

If you get the chance, you need to make the trip down to Boerne next year in November. It's a craft person's delight!

Another visit at the farm...

2010-12-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

Iris Arias, a close neighbor of mine, invited the women from her church and knitting group, out to visit our ranch. The objective: to learn how yarn is "created". Ah...I love this kind of field trip. The trip began by showing everyone the animals. Everyone gets a kick out of feeding the alpacas and being surrounded by faces looking up at you exclaiming, "feed ME! Feed ME!".

We then went into the breezeway for a quick (very quick) lesson in picking, washing, carding, and spinning fiber. I think it was an eye opener for everyone to realize just how much work is involved in making yarn. So, the next time you pull out some yarn to use in your projects, remember what all is involved to get it to that point. :o)

As the group began to leave, a few remained to check out what was left of my vegetable garden. We cleared off most of the remaining peppers and some cherry tomatoes. Aurora Diaz left with a bounty of vegetables to enjoy. She loves her garden and is looking forward to getting some compost to add to her garden next spring.

We ended the visit with the kids getting to hold some of our chicks. What is it about kids and chickens? Every visit we seem to have out here, the children say the chickens were their favorite part of the trip. Go figure...

Rest in Peace, my dear sweet friend...

2010-11-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

A little over a week ago, I went out to the barn to find blood all over the ground. After inspecting all of the alpacas, then my mare, Belle, I finally found the culprit. My old barrel racing horse, Squirt. He looked to have cut his self and was bleeding. I called the vet and he came out that afternoon.

Dr. Wallis checked out Squirt and showed me what appeared to be a very large tumor inside his pelvic area. He let me know that it didn't look good. Because of the location, Squirt would need a specialist to go in and see if the tumor could be removed. The location is around a lot of blood vessels, and it isn't something my vet hospital felt comfortable doing. Due to Squirt's age, surgery didn't sound like a very good option either. We didn't know how long the tumor had been there, so we didn't know how fast it was growing. Dr. Wallis gave me some antibiotics to give Squirt and gave instructions to "clean" out the area once per week.

After a week had passed, I again came out to the barn to find lots and lots of blood. The tumor had torn again. The tumor must have been painful, because Squirt was actually biting at it and flicking it with his tail. Dr. Wallis gave me the horrible news. It was time for me to let Squirt go. I could prolong his time in this world with pain killers, but that would be selfish.

You see, I purchased Squirt 18 years ago, before I had kids. I had only been married a year and had moved out onto our property recently. It was a "no brainer" for me to get a horse. I had already gotten a sweet mare that I had been trail riding on.

I had a female boss at the time who ran in the National Barrel Racing Association (NBRA). She encouraged me to get involved and ride with her. Out we went on the hunt for a barrel horse for me. A friend of hers contacted her to let her know that her daughter was heading off to college and needed money. She was selling her gelding she had raised from birth. She had already been riding him on the barrel racing circuit and had been doing quite well. He was only five years old and was quick as a bullet. When we went out to visit, it was the typical horse owner situation. The horses had an absolutely gorgeous barn to live in, while the owners lived in a run down trailer home. Horsey people usually put all of their money into their animals. Sound familiar? Well, it was love at first sight. I tried out Squirt on the barrels and he was a natural. So, I plopped down my money and my heart. I was in love.

Squirt and I rode in a few competitions and did very well. I met all kinds of friends through my horse buddy. I met many people in the area who were looking for friends to ride with. All of the area around Southfork Ranch was farm land and open pastures. We would meet up and run through the pastures as fast as our horses would take us. Squirt was SCARY fast! In an arena, I knew he was fast on barrels, but hadn't experienced his speed until we got in an open space. He made my heart race and I felt exhilaration when we rode together. It felt as if we were "one" body. We were connected. He knew what I wanted and I knew what he was thinking. We were best friends. Only animal lovers can understand that.

Years passed. I remember my last barrel race out at the Collin County Youth park. Squirt ran so fast, he almost dropped me out of the saddle! Because of my own stupidity, I stopped him early before he crossed the time barrier. We still got second place. It was days later that I found out I was six weeks pregnant. My racing days came to an end. That didn't stop me from riding, though. When I was only weeks from my due date, my husband and I went on a cattle drive through Parker. Mr. Donihoo, a long time resident of Parker, needed some cattle moved and called upon the Parker residents. My vet informed me that if I went into labor, he would NOT assist in the delivery. After all, he is an animal vet, not an OBGYN. Tee hee!

As years passed, I met more friends through my beloved Squirt. My good friend, Cindy Martin, brought her horses over to my barn to stay for years. It was then that I added my third horse to the mix, Fancy. Fancy was a Rocky Mountain horse and had a smooth, even gate. Squirt got a rest as I spent my days training this horse. We began breeding horses at that time and then added Belle to the herd. Horses came and went from the property, but Squirt would remain. He was special. There are just some animals that you never let go of. Squirt was one of them.

Over the years and with the addition of three children total, Squirt would teach each of my children how to ride. Hailey really loved Squirt. He was so good with her. He didn't know what the children were asking when they rode him. He was leg pressure trained. Each of the kids took their turn learning to figure out how to express to him what they wanted. All the while, he remained calm and patient. My youngest, now six, has been riding Squirt ever since he was little. I believe he started riding Squirt when he was two. Hailey's friends came over and rode him, Harrison's friends, the stream of kids never stopped.

Squirt spent his life loving the ride. He always perked up when we would load up the trailer. What exciting adventure would we experience together on that particular day? Would it be Lake Ray Roberts? Lake Lavon? A day with friends out on the trail.

The bible doesn't tell us where our beloved pets go after death. A recent article from Focus on the Family was titled, "Do All Pets Go to Heaven?". In the article it says, "A man once asked Dr. Billy Graham whether his dog would go to heaven. The great evangelist answered: 'God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.'...The book of Isaiah (11:6-9) offers a stirring image of what Heaven will be like, and it does suggest there will be animals, all living in beautiful and peaceful coexistence." I choose to believe my beloved Squirt will be in heaven when I get there (ask me how I know I'm going to heaven and who my Savior is). I know he is running through the pastures of heaven in a new, healthy body.

So, as painful as it is to be living without my dear sweet friend, I say, "Happy trails, my beloved friend. Until we meet again one day. Happy trails..."

Culprits caught!

2010-11-07T07:51:00.000-08:00

In the past month, we have caught and released three different possums.
In the nineteen years we've lived here, we've only seen one other. This past month, THREE! The new developments seem to be bringing more and more animals out of their natural homes and into our "yards". I don't mind the possums here except that they eat the chicken eggs and some of them carry a disease called EPM that is devastating to horses. So, we use a large animal trap to hold the possum until we can get it to a new home. We take them far away and release them back into a wooded, creek area. Hopefully, our chicken egg counts will begin to go back up. Only time will tell...

Basket making day

2010-10-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we got my daughter off to a speech tournament, my oldest son off to a baseball game, watched my youngest son's soccer game, and THEN I finally got to head off to my basket making class. Whew! I almost bailed, but am so glad I didn't.

When I got to Nancy's house, Faye, Joyce, and Marie were already 'in action' getting their baskets started. Ooh! It looked like fun and the weather was FANTASTIC! (Thank you, dear Lord God in heaven!)

So, I rolled up my sleeves and got right in. Nancy's niece, a delightful 13 year old named Katherine, was eager to assist me.

We cut reed in various lengths to get the bottom of our baskets started. After we had the base completed, we soaked the basket in water to make it more flexible. Then, we began working our way up the sides.

Ok, remember how I said I was late getting to this class? I was two hours late. Thank you, MaryAnn for making me not the only one who was late! MaryAnn didn't bail out either, but showed up and got to work. She looks miserable, doesn't she? Tee hee!

We worked until we got to the top of the basket. We are heading back for the second part of the class on another day when we add a taller section to one side of the basket. I'm really looking forward to it. This was really, really fun. I think my daughter would really enjoy this craft, as well. Oh boy! ANOTHER craft for us to do! It's just so darned much fun! :o)

I'll post the completed basket after class number two. And then, we'll begin a pie basket that Katherine told us about...and then a chicken basket... and then an egg basket.....oh my!

Thursday's Road Trip!

2010-09-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

If you didn't make it to this week's fiber day, then you missed one heck of a trip! We met at 9:00 am at my house.

We loaded up and headed for Farmersville, Texas, home of Fiber Circle Publishing (now yarn shop). Wow! If you haven't made a trip up to Diane's yarn shop in awhile, you are in for a treat!

Walls and walls of yarn are to be found EVERYWHERE! There is a second story with a balcony that is loaded with great things.

Everyone was enamored with a certain "pom pom ball yarn". Diane immediately began giving us an impromptu lesson on a scarf design. We had a blast!

Diane's shop is filled with yarn, knitted scarves, hats, sweaters, vests, shawls, etc. You name it, she's got it! Diane is an avid knitter and crocheter and published magazines on both for many years. She designs her own patterns and is very willing to share with others. Also included in her shop is a decadent fudge, some yummy jellies, jams, smoked jalapenos, and many dip mixes. You just can't go wrong with this place.

Later, we headed down to the 'Sugar Hill Restaurant' for a delicious lunch. For $7.95, you get an all you can eat buffet of wonderful hot food, many cold salads (tuna salad, chicken salad, broccoli salad, pasta salad, green salad, etc.) and soup. The food was wonderful. Give it a try when you are in town.

We finished up our road trip with filled bags of goodies, anxious for our next visit. This is a fantastic yarn shop. We had so much fun! Don't worry Diane. We'll be back! We're HOOKED! :o)

A new home

2010-09-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my dear, sweet friend, Peggy, I found out about a place called the CC Young Retirement Community. There had been a number of women living in this retirement community that loved to weave. However, as the years went on and the ladies began to pass, the looms became unused. In comes Hinke from the Dallas Weaving Guild. She had been mentoring these ladies on the looms for awhile. Hinka was to find new homes for the looms. I was blessed to have received one of these 4 harness looms. My daughter and I were so excited, we could hardly contain ourselves!

My dear husband drove me down to the retirement community and began figuring how exactly we were going to get this thing through the doors. We got it out and loaded into the back of our truck. Down Central Expressway we went with our loom in the back. I can just imagine what many people must have been thinking!

My daughter began immediately working on the loom to make a scarf. Harrison was quickly behind her to try his hand at this age old craft. They've already woven quite a bit and are still enjoying the thrill. I can't wait until I get a turn!

It's raining, it's pouring!

2010-09-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Wow! We sure did experience a lot of rain today! It began in the middle of the night and continued for most of the day. That didn't dampen the spirits of Del and her daughter, Carissa. They had been planning a trip to our place for awhile. So, we made out way out into the rain to check on the animals.

Tysin, our LGD was thrilled to meet our visitors. He loves a good scratch on his chin.

We then made our way over to the chicken coop to check out all of the chickens. They had already laid seven eggs by 10:30 am. Carissa was thrilled to get the opportunity to collect them for us! We then proceeded over to the alpaca area, where our guests fed the alpacas a little brunch snack. They were still a little full from breakfast, but were happy to take a nibble or two from the offerings.

The chicks were a big hit. These chicks are living in our backyard until they are big enough to fend themselves from the snakes that appear in the barn every now and then. We've learned our lesson from taking them out too early. The snakes just love the chicks!

It just wouldn't be the same without a kiss goodbye. Lucy decided to give Carissa a little kiss. You could almost imagine her saying, "Thanks for the snack!".

What did you do on this rainy day?

Butterflies

2010-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

We have a plant that is some sort of magnet for caterpillars.
We pulled approximately 42 caterpillars off of the plant and added them to my smallest child's bug house. He kept them in his room, periodically adding leaves so they had enough to eat. Eventually, the caterpillars went into cocoons.

Today, we noticed five of the cocoons had opened and five beautiful butterflies had emerged! It was raining hard that day, but my littlest decided it was best to let them out to spread their wings. It was a beautiful sight to see! We still have another 37 to go!

Would you help?

2010-09-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get together 140 blankets (lap blankets) for the residents at Collinwood Nursing Home in Plano, TX. I discussed this with my Thursday group of fiber enthusiasts. They've agreed to help out. I then went to the DFW Machine Knitters Guild meeting on Saturday. They are going to help, too! Are you interested in donating a blanket to this cause?

Psalm 112:5-9 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor.

Paca D'Lites Ranch hits the NASCAR race track!

2010-09-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

The North Texas Power Truck Association got together to help out charity. Each member brought their trucks out to the Texas Motor Speedway to take some laps around the track...FAST!

Here we are on the entrance ramp to the speedway. There was a pace car at the front and another car at the rear. Everyone had to make sure and keep up or they would be escorted off of the track. We reached speeds of anywhere between 85 and 100 mph!

Honestly, I didn't think it would be much fun, until we actually DID it! Whew! What a BLAST! The whole family was in the truck. My husband drove and each of the three kids was in the back seat. We all got to experience the ride together.

The best part was, all of this went to charity!

At the end, they tempt you with, "You wanna do this again?" Ha ha! If you get the chance, check this out next year. There were all kinds of car clubs out there, too. Have fun!

More spin-off entries!

2010-08-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

I arrived home today to find two buckets of postal mail sitting on my front porch. Wow! We've got a lot of last minute entries for the State of Texas Alpaca Rancher Spin-off Competition! I haven't opened them all up yet, but I'm thinking we might have another 20 or so entries here! This is great news for our organization.

Any income (after expenses are paid, of course) received from shows like this enable our organization to partially fund educational courses for our members. This is a win, win situation. A lot of the breeders cannot afford really expensive classes, but if our organization can fund a portion of the fees for speakers or some of the other expenses for seminars, the costs are greatly reduced for our members. It's just exciting to see it all coming together. Anyway, I just thought some of you might want to know where I spend my time. Lots and lots of time for the business is spent on the computer doing things just like this. I wrote the software the judges use to judge events like these. Part of the work is getting everyone's information into the software and then separating out the fleece from the identifying information. We can't let the judges know whose fleece they are looking at or who it belongs to. We want an unbiased judging. So, there's a bunch of up front work that has to be done before sending the entries off to the judges. It's all in a days work... but fun, nonetheless!

Hay delivery!

2010-08-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

About once every year, we have to replenish our hay supply. When you are feeding fourteen alpacas and two horses hay twice per day, it adds up! Every year, my dear husband makes a trip out north to get some good coastal hay.

When we had five horses, along with the alpacas, we needed 250 bales of hay per year. Since we've cut down on the number of horses, we only need 150 bales of hay per year. That works out pretty well because our trailer only holds 100 bales of hay. So later, after it cools down a bit, we'll go back for the additional 50 bales of hay OR I can just go and pick up a couple of large, round bales to put out in the pasture. What people don't understand is how much this costs. Square bales are costing around $6 per bale (give or take $0.50). This last little trip cost us $600. Now mind you, this doesn't include the cost of grain that we feed the animals. It all adds up.

I don't like charging people for farm tours. It just doesn't "feel right". However, a friend of mine recently suggested that I put out a jar for "donations to the feed bills" on farm tours. What a great idea! That idea is sounding better and better. That may help out when we go back for the additional 50 bales of hay!

What do you think?

Raising chicks

2010-08-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well, my dear daughter and I decided to try and incubate some eggs about 21 days ago. In fact, it was the day before she left for her mission trip. I told her I wasn't about to start those eggs and keep up with them during the time frame of her absence. So, we waited. Well, we actually waited 12 days. Eggs should only be held for a maximum of 10 days before incubating, to ensure a higher hatch rate. Well, here is the proof. Out of about 24 eggs, only two hatched.

So, my daughter doesn't have to worry about nearly the amount of stink in her room now, while the chicks stay inside until they are large enough to survive in the coop. Hailey's really good friend, Bonnie, has decided she wants to give a go at hatching chicks, so she has borrowed our incubator and about 15 eggs. We'll let you know how that turns out in about 21 more days! :o)

State of Texas Alpaca Ranchers Spin-off Competition

2010-08-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Whew! That's a mouthful on the title, isn't it? Well, I've been busy, busy, busy lately receiving, sorting paperwork, entering data into our judges online system, and separating identification papers on our Spin-off competition entries. So far, we have 55 entries for this year's Spin-off! That's already above the national average for a show this year! Whoo hoo! I think the judges are going to be really impressed by all of the entries. The best part of my job (the show Superintendent) is getting to put my hands in all of this fleece. Oo la la! Good luck to everyone in the competition!

Fiber Prep Day

2010-07-31T16:48:00.000-07:00

It's been long overdue! My friend, Marie Little, of "The Little Alpaca Ranch", came over and held me accountable on getting my fiber prepared for spinning...well, at least the first step in getting it prepared.

The first step, which I didn't even get a picture of (darn!), is to lay the fleece out on a skirting table. We need to identify where the neck and tail end are. Then, we take out all of the pieces around the leg area, the neck area, and tail area that are full of dirt and debris. It's not worth cleaning all of the really dirty parts. Then, we look for rough, coarse hairs that are not the same softness as the rest of the fleece. We take that out, too. Then we look for second cuts. These are the cuts that the shearer makes when he's gone back a second time across the alpacas body with the shears. They are really short pieces that are not worth using for yarn. Lastly, we try to pick out all of the "guard hairs". These are kind of like little pieces of our gray hair that are straight and wirey. In fabric, sweaters of other clothing next to our skin, they make our skin itch, so we want to take those out, too. We try to select breedings to our alpacas so there is little to no guard hair on the blanket. Its cuts down on the work! :o)

The next phase is washing the fleece. All we use is big 'ole tubs of water with some very gentle detergent to help lift out the dirt. We let it soak for awhile, then drain it, soak again, and drain again. Then we put it in another tub of clear rinse water.

We had a washing machine go out on us this year. Nothing worked, except for the spin cycle. BONUS! I got a brand, spankin' new washing machine and a spin cycle outside for my fiber preparations! Yipee! This old washing machine really helped out when we needed to drain the water out of the fleece in between washings and the rinsing. What a blessing on both my back and my hands!

After all that is done, we place the cleaned fleeces on a drying rack. This nifty piece of equipment was picked up by a friend of mine at a local grocery store. It is used for drying clothing...unless you live on an alpaca ranch! Then, it's the perfect piece of equipment for drying fleece! Tee hee!

Well, now you've gotten a glimpse into the BEGINNING of the process for making yarn. There is still so much more to go, though. Another day, another day. I'll just hold you in suspense...

:o)

Where have you been?

2010-07-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since June 6th!!! Well, we spent a week in Colorado at Horncreek Family Camp. What a blast that was! We went river rafting, 4 wheeling, out to see the sand dunes (yes, there are sand dunes in the middle of the mountains in Colorado), went down into an old volcano, went water sliding and so much more. If you are interested in a fantastic family camp, check them out.

After we got back, we began serving all week at our church's Vacation Bible Extreme. What a blast! If you haven't checked out the VBX at Chase Oaks Church in Plano, you're missing something! I got to lead worship with my beautiful daughter and my oldest son ran the tech for the older kids. My youngest got to enjoy everything VBX has to offer. The most amazing thing happens, though. By blessing others (ie. the kids), I always find that it is I who is blessed the most. Thank you, Jesus.

We did manage to have our Thursday fiber gathering last week. What fun that was! Kazuko brought three more friends with her... Hisayo, Mihoko and Hikari. Welcome! We had a blast getting to know each of you!

My daughter worked on the knitting machine, making baby blankets for Medical City of Dallas. She was able to complete two blankets on Thursday and later completed another two! Way to go!

While Kazuko and her friends were busy spinning and plying their yarn, Donna and Iris were busy with their knitting.

This picture is what Donna is working on. She needs to use magnifying glasses to see all of the intricate work. She uses extremely small needles to work with...even smaller than toothpicks!

I sure wish you could see this better. Iris makes the most GORGEOUS scarves! This is a picture of what she is working on now. She has a wonderful knack for mixing yarns to bring out the most beautiful colors. I can't wait to see this one completed!

Poor Anna didn't get much accomplished. She spent most of the day helping others...including ME! Anna is our resident expert on crochet. I've decided I'm going to make a hobo bag, much like one my daughter purchased. I haven't crocheted in YEARS (more than you can imagine) so I needed some hand holding through this. :o)

As always, after coming back from vacations, there is lots of yard work to be done. We have spent this week trimming trees and bushes. The gardening is beginning to pay off, as well. I've already gotten quite a few tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. No cucumbers or poblano peppers yet. But, there is always tomorrow...

PS. Here is a picture of our 2009 babies! Look how big they've gotten!

A Scavenger Hunt, Oh My!

2010-06-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

This really doesn't have much to do with Paca D'Lites Alpaca Ranch, other than that our ranch was one of the stops on the trip. This was just too cute not to pass on.

Our Lifegroup, from Chase Oaks Church in Plano, had a scavenger hunt Saturday night. The locations were written in "code". We had to figure out where these locations were, drive to the locations, and think of creative ways to take a picture of ourselves at the location. It was the guys versus the gals.

This was sooooo much fun! Much to my surprise, the ladies were absolutely fine with going through the pasture and into the alpaca stall to pick up / hug on alpacas. I really and truly thought there would be some "Ew" factor involved here from some of the women. Nope. But, take a look at the guys picture! Ha ha! Some of these guys weren't too thrilled with the prospect. Funny huh?

We had many locations to find. One of our stops was the Target Superstore in Murphy. The guys did a great job on this one. Looks like the boys are taking a quick trip around the parking lot while they are there. Yeah, I think the guys won this stop for the creative juices.

Another location we stopped at was Chick-Fil-A. These employees are the best! The guys got to get their picture taken behind the register. As you can see, a number of the employees got in on this picture. The women took over the drive-thru. Of course, we actually got drinks to help sustain us on our trip. :o)

We went to Baskin-Robbins, Deno's restaurant, Albertsons...

Lowe's Hardware store...

Murphy City Hall...

Murphy Fire Department...

24 Hour Fitness...

Murphy Baptist Church...

FireHouse Subs... Did you know there is going to be a new FireHouse Subs going in right across from 24 Hour Fitness? I didn't even know that sign was there!

Japanese restaurant that I can't even remember the name of...

We had soooo much fun doing this! A big thank you to the Schells for coordinating this event! We had a fantastic time!

The Joys of friendship

2010-06-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you, Thursdays are one of my favorite days. When our little group of fiber enthusiasts get together, we have a ball! We had nine women over yesterday, all working on different projects.

Iris makes the most beautiful scarves. She is always working on at least two! Today, she finished up a beautiful red scarf that everyone was oohing and ahhing over.

My mom made it for the first time, too. Yeah, mom! She is beginning to crochet a shawl that she found a pattern for in a magazine. She hasn't crocheted in awhile, so this was a great place to get started at! Anna is advanced in crochet, so she was a big help.

Edee continues to work on the most awesome lace weight yarn. She is so fun to watch as she spins different rovings up into yarn. She is an advanced spinner! She is also the comic relief to the group. She's a real hoot!

Faye joined us again. We've sure missed her! Look at this beautiful shawl she is currently working on. It is a basket weave technique for knitting. She is creating "fingers" at the bottom of each end of the shawl that she will later knit together to make it sort of like a poncho. Gorgeous!

Shitomi, Yoriko, and Tatsuko all returned with their first spinning projects on the drop spindles. We were AMAZED to see what they had done! These women are spinning like they have had three or more years worth of experience! Their yarn was consistent, thin, and just plain incredible!

Shitomi and Yoriko plied their yarns today.

Shitomi shows off her two skeins of yarn that she plied! Fantastic! Way to go, Shitomi!

How did I miss a picture of Anna? Anna crocheted today, as well. (Did I mention she makes beautiful shawls and is advanced in crochet?) Well, she also is a gardener! Look at these gorgeous flowers she brought to me! Oooh la la! I get to smell and look at these Hydrangeas each morning when I enter my kitchen. Delightful!

God continues to bless me over and over again with the most wonderful friends. What a joy friendship brings! May each of you be blessed with the love of Christ today and every day!

Oh how sweet it is!

2010-05-31T14:26:00.001-07:00

Ooo wee! We've been busy around the ranch lately! The chicken stalls have been stripped down and loaded up with fresh shavings.

The chickens have been hard at work, laying approximately three dozen eggs per day.

They are spending most of the afternoon under the eaves of the barn, near the water. It's hot!

Our garden is doing really well. The lettuce is all but gone. I picked a gallon sized bag worth of lettuce this morning.

The tomato plants are beginning to get fruit on them. Yipee! I can't wait to taste the juicy yellow and red tomatoes off of the vine.

As you can see from the picture, the cucumber plants and butternut squash plants are growing quite well, too.

We've got green and purple bell peppers, sugar babies (watermelon), artichokes, carrots, strawberries, and lots and lots of peppers (jalapeno, habanero, etc.). Mmmm... mmmm...

While most of us are spending time outside in the sunshine, most of the alpacas are spending their time inside the barn. It's pretty darn hot for animals wearing coats. Even though the alpacas have been shorn, it still gets hot. Most of our alpacas are spending their time in front of the fans. The babies are even sharing their stall with some chickens, which seem to think that the alpaca stall is cooler than the chicken coop!

The horses don't seem to mind the heat at all and continue to spend the day outside grazing on the pasture grass and hay in the feeders.

Yesterday, we spent the day at my sister-in-laws farm. We had tons of fun hanging out, playing kickball, fishing, playing washers, and just catching up.

Two of my hubbies sisters were in from out of town, so there was lots of catching up to do! And look what we brought home with us! We got lots of pecans from my sister-in-laws trees. Oooh are those gonna taste good!

Tonight, we've got friends coming over for a barbeque and swim party. Isn't it just so sweet that we live in a free country?

I want to take the time to thank each of my family members and everyone else who has ever served in the armed forces, fighting to protect our country. May God bless each and every one of you immensely! For those of you still serving, I will continue to pray for your protection and safety. God bless you!

How exactly do you make that yarn?

2010-05-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the most wonderful days of gathering we have had in quite some time for our Thursday, knit days. Anna joined us with an incredible spinning wheel that her father-in-law made! How about that? Edee was a peach and helped figure out some things that needed to be done to get Anna's wheel ready for spinning. Thank you, Edee! Anna was an absolute delight and we are thrilled she will be visiting us again. Welcome Anna!

Kazuko brought four of her friends out to visit us also. Each wanted to learn how to spin yarn on a drop spindle. Let me tell you, these women are talented! They each picked up spinning so quickly! Yoriko, Shitomi, Tatsko, and Kazuko all left with much yarn on their drop spindles. I don't know if they had more fun spinning the yarn, or if the rest of us had more fun just watching the excitement in their eyes!

Iris brought many of her wonderful scarves that she has knit to show everyone. We were all amazed at the gorgeous colors and patterns she has created. Donna continues to do her amazing work with her 000 size needles. Yep, you read that right. They are smaller than toothpicks. Eek! My eyes hurt just thinking about it! Beautiful work as always, Donna! Kazuko and all of her friends will be ready to start knitting when they finish spinning up their rovings into yarn. Ooh! Which one of the scarf patterns to choose from? They were all so pretty!

Iris and I were talking this morning about our day yesterday. We believe this weeks gathering is one of the best we've had in a long time. So, thank you Anna, Kazuko, Yoriko, Shitomi, and Tatsko for bringing your sweet smiles and excitement to our day! We hope you continue to join us and share your excitement.

Mountains, in Parker???

2010-05-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Yep. We've brought a mountain into Parker, Texas. His name is Fuzzy Acres Mount Everest, a son of MFI Brock. This guy is built! His offspring have had some of the softest, densest fleece I've seen. Ohhh, to put your hands in the fleece! Ooo la la! Everest is a light fawn but has thrown many whites. So, he's taking a little business trip over here. We're breeding him to a few of our alpacas. So far, he seems to be enjoying himself! LOL!

The ABCs of "What do you do?"

2010-05-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

I was contacted back in March by a wonderful lady who had just moved here from Ohio named Sherry. This lady is amazing! She has only been here a few months and has already started up a group for pre-school children and their parents to visit various events in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. They have been busy doing all kinds of things. One of the things she did in Ohio was visit an alpaca ranch. So, we set the date.

The group was small, but very energetic about finding out what exactly we do here at our little ranch. So, we gave them the ABCs of how it works around here. We began by taking them out to the alpaca area and told them a little about the animals. We showed them their feet, teeth, and let them put their hands on their backs to feel how very soft their fleece is. There wasn't much fleece there since the alpacas were shorn only a week or two ago. However, they were able to quickly tell this was no ordinary fleeced animal! Everyone oohed and ahhhd over them.

Next we moved on to the chicken area. Sometimes, small children are really afraid of chickens, however, this was an adventuresome group of kids! They marveled at how soft the chickens were. They picked them up and held them. We talked about the different breeds of chickens and how they lay different colored eggs. We talked about how, even though the color of eggs was different, that they each tasted just the same. Many of the children were familiar with the "Green Eggs and Ham" book by Dr. Seuss. They really thought the green chicken eggs were cool. The children helped me collect the eggs out of the nesting boxes. I think this was a highlight of the trip!

Finally, we moved into the back yard to see what it is we actually DO with the fleece. We started by dumping a fleece onto a skirting table. We talked about how all of the belly hair, second cuts, hay, and junk needed to be removed from the fleece before we could move any further. After all, we want our yarn to be the most representative of that wonderful animal, don't we?

Next, we pulled out our cards (dog combs) and carded the fleece. Most of the time, we would wash our fleece before moving to this step. However, for time sake, we were ready to skip this step! We talked about how carding makes all of the individual fibers lay down in the same direction, almost like when we brush our hair. When we are done, we have a nice roll of fleece ready to begin spinning.

After carding the fleece, we were ready to spin. Spinning is so easy! We talked about how we could twist our hair right on our heads. This is a lot like spinning the fleece. We talked about how we would then take two or more of those twisted yarns and would make the spinning wheel go in the opposite direction to ply the yarn together. More oohs and ahhhs. :o)

We completed our perfect afternoon by feeding the chickens and the alpacas. The chickens all ran up to the children and began eating their goods. Mmm mmm.... apples, pears, oranges, OH MY! Next, the alpacas got their chance. The alpacas preferred the lettuce over all of the fruit (what's wrong with them???). The children got a kick out of the alpacas lips tickling their hands as they removed the food from them.

Ah! The ABCs of the farm life. Children, friendly animals, and a whole lot of fun. What could be better?

Girl's day out at the farm?

2010-05-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Shitomi, Nao, Kazuko, and Taztko all came out for a visit on Monday to collect some farm fresh eggs. They told me that many Japanese dishes are prepared with raw eggs. They were excited about the prospect of getting farm fresh eggs. I gave them a tour of the chicken coop and then took them over to see the alpacas. We talked about how their fleece is processed and all of the wonderful things we can make from their fleece...scarves, shawls, hats, etc. The ladies were amazed an are interested in joining our Thursday knitting group to learn more! It's so wonderful to see others get excited about these amazing creatures. I just gained three new friends and hopefully, some new knitting partners! See how much fun you can have on a girl's day out?

Shearing Day at our ranch

2010-04-26T14:26:00.001-07:00

Well, today we sheared eleven of our fourteen alpacas. This was our first time to shear the alpacas ourselves. In years past, we have left the shearing to the professionals. However, after seven years of assisting the professional as "helpers", my husband decided it was time for us to try this adventure ourselves. So, off he went to purchase a pair of professional, electric sheep shears and the restraint system just like the one we were so used to with the prior shearings at the other ranch. Some mats were purchased at Lowes and we were ready. With the assistance of our two oldest children and a dear, sweet friend, we began the adventure.

We began with our two white alpacas, who needed to have their dense fleece removed first. If we quit after they were done, we were good. We didn't know how many we wanted to shear on the first day. However, things were rolling along fairly well and before we knew it, we had eleven done!

The only thing that prevented us from finishing the last three animals was that we didn't have enough blades. Darn! We got better and better as we went along.

I now have a room FULL of fleece to process. I'm hoping for nice weather this week! We will, hopefully, get the last three animals (our males) done this Thursday night. What a feeling of accomplishment! My dear hubby did a great job, for his first time shearing! I'm so glad we chose to do it ourselves this go round. From here on out, we have the option of doing it at our own pace. What a sigh of relief!

Ooo la la! That fleece is scrumptious!

2010-04-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well, thanks to Edee, I wasn't the only one at our Thursday fiber day today! Thanks, Edee! :o) We had a blast! We started late, due to my kids having checkups at the doctor. We started with lunch and then got down to business. We decided it was to beautiful of a day to waste inside. So, we moved our "work" outdoors. I showed Edee around the chicken area. She visited with the new alpaca cria. Then, we plopped down on the wooden swing glider and began our "work". Edee worked on getting her second sock going on her circular needles. Her first sock looks fantastic! I began spinning some cream colored alpaca roving. When I finished, I plied it with some green alpaca roving I had already spun up on another spool. It turned out scrumptious! Ooo la la! I can't wait to figure out what I'm going to knit up with this goodie! What do you think?

Got eggs?

2010-04-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Wow. I received an email from my neighbor this morning about what is going on at a large number of our nations egg producers. How very, very sad. Please, please consider purchasing your eggs from a local farm. Stop by and visit the farm and see how the animals are treated. Are they free to roam about the property? Do they appear to be well fed and happy? Are they clucking in a loud sing-song manner? You can tell a lot about how a chicken is feeling just by listening to their clucking. Animals need to live in an environment where they are cared for and where they can live out their lives in a humane manner. The eggs from free range eggs are so much better for you, too. An added bonus, if you ask me. Yes, they cost more. I charge $4 / dozen for my chicken eggs. However, it's well worth it. You don't support companies that do things like this. Please watch only if you are prepared to see some very disturbing footage.

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2010/04/investigation_rose_acre_rembrandt_040710.html

Thanks for the consideration.

Farm Fresh eggs that you pick up at the farm

2010-03-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends!

I am writing you this morning to let you know, that I will have to go up on my egg prices. After running last years taxes, I found that I took a BIG loss. So, I ran the number on this years business. I've already spent almost $300 in chicken feed. Here is the negative. I've only made $203 in sales.

I enjoy my chickens enough that doing the daily morning and evening feeding, mucking out the chicken coop, clipping wings, breaking ice in the water bucket (thank goodness this doesn't happen too often), and daily collection of eggs doesn't bother me. However, I need to at least break even on the cost of the feed. I sure hope this doesn't run all of you off. Effective immediately, I'm going to need to sell the eggs for $4 / dozen.

FDA regulations say that in order to "claim" your chickens are pasture raised (ie. the ones in the grocery stores), the hen only needs to have a 12" space of pasture. Some large companies are placing the chickens in cages with 12" runs outside of the cage. At our place, you can see the chickens all over the pasture. They only go inside at night. The rest of the time they are free ranging.

Why do I bring this up? Check out the following link: http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs
Here is what "Mother Earth News" research found:

Please help us spread the word — eggs from hens raised on pasture are far more nutritious than eggs from confined hens in factory farms.

LATEST RESULTS: New test results show that pastured egg producers are kicking the commercial industry's derriere when it comes to vitamin D! Eggs from hens raised on pasture show 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D as typical supermarket eggs. Learn more: Eggciting News!!!

RESULTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS STUDY: Eggs from hens allowed to peck on pasture are a heck of a lot better than those from chickens raised in cages! Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

These amazing results come from 14 flocks around the country that range freely on pasture or are housed in moveable pens that are rotated frequently to maximize access to fresh pasture and protect the birds from predators. We had six eggs from each of the 14 pastured flocks tested by an accredited laboratory in Portland, Ore. The chart in Meet the Real Free-range Eggs (October/November 2007) shows the average nutrient content of the samples, compared with the official egg nutrient data from the USDA for “conventional” (i.e. from confined hens) eggs. The chart lists the individual results from each flock.
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As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for being a customer of ours. You support our "habit" of raising chickens. We love our chickens so very much and wouldn't be able to afford them if it weren't for friends like you buying their eggs. So, THANK YOU!!!

Texas weather

2010-03-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, Friday, I'm out at the JFK Museum with my family wearing a short sleeve shirt and pants. I could have worn shorts, it was so warm out. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! Saturday morning, it's business as usual in the process of doing the barn chores. However, by noon, you could feel the weather changing as the wind kicked up a notch and the coolness kicked in. By the time I left my lifegroup Saturday night around 9:00 pm, there was already a collection of snow on the car. Who was as surprised as I was to wake up to this on Sunday morning? Whew! Hard to believe, but that's Texas weather for you! LOL!

Here is a picture of our chickens when I arrived outside this morning. There was SNOW inside the coop! The wind must have really been blowing to do this!

Even just outside the chicken coop, underneath the eaves of the barn, there was snow everywhere. I had to empty out the feeders in order to fill them up with feed. Of course, the water was frozen. Drag! Most of the chickens didn't even want to venture out this morning. Nathan, our rescue dog, decided he would eat the feed if the chickens didn't want it. He's pretty good friends with the chickens and doesn't bother them at all. Praise the Lord for that!

I closed up the crias with their moms last night, to try and keep out some of the blustering wind. The babies were waiting at the door, wanting to know what in the world was going on. They were the only alpacas that didn't have snow all over themselves from last night. Alpacas generally love the cold and the snow, due to them having thick, warm coats on. However, I always err on the side of precaution when it comes to my babies...especially since it was in the seventies just days before!

You can still see the snow falling this morning when my old barrel horse, Squirt, was waiting for me by the gate. He was smart enough to stay in under the covering during most of the night.

Everyone decided they would stay under cover for their morning hay. I'm sure when it starts to warm up a little, they will be back out again, enjoying the freshly laid snow.

It's just amazing. The snow is so beautiful and so UNLIKE what we normally have for a Texas winter. This has just been one crazy winter for us, hasn't it? The high today is supposed to only get to 38 degrees. Monday, it's supposed to be back up to 61 degrees and by Tuesday, it should be in the 70's again! Crazy...

Enjoy your day!
Cyndi

Getting the vegetable garden ready

2010-03-19T08:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, my dear daughter helped me load our tubs with compost from our animals. We went ahead and loaded every pot I could find, too. I'm getting started a little late this year, but am excited and ready to go!

A few days ago we filled egg cartons with some compost and planted many seeds. Some of the plants are already starting to peek their little heads through the soil. Then, we went to our local farm store and saw they already had some starter plants for sale. We purchased a strawberry plant and a butterleaf lettuce plant.
I am blessed to be a part of a fantastic neighborhood. I say neighborhood, even though everyone here lives on 2 - 5 acre lots. So, it's not your typical "neighborhood". Regardless, I live near a great bunch of people. Everyone knows each other and chips in to help with things whenever needed. My neighbors have already told me what they are putting in their gardens and I have told them, as well, what I've got going. This year, we intend to share our wealth. Each of us will grow some different things and share with one another. Last year, each of us had way too much of what we were growing and were able to share with friends. This year, we are being more intentional about helping each other. Don't worry! I'm sure there will still be extra for each of you! For instance, I am trying to grow some beets. I hate beets. Maybe I will like them this year and maybe not. If you like beets, let me know. I think I just might have some farm fresh ones for you!

Getting away for some fiber fun

2010-03-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got away for a break this past weekend to attend the Wildflower Fiber Retreat in Tyler, TX. I try to attend this event annually. I thoroughly enjoy it. The women who put this retreat on do a fantastic job. Pardon the poor photography, but the only camera I had was my phone. LOL!

This first picture was a class on creating a multi-media mailable piece of art. Heather Simpson taught this class and had literally hundreds of examples that she has collected from all over the world! Very fun...

Here is a picture of one of my very close friends, Joyce, and her inkle loom creation. I really wanted to take that class, but opted for the drop spindle class instead. Joyce created three different inspirations from her inkle loom, some of which "accidentally" got left in my truck from the return trip. Darn! Where did those things go???

As stated earlier, I took a wonderful class on the drop spindle, taught by Bev Madere. When I first learned to spin, I began on the drop spindle and hated it. I quickly moved over to the spinning wheel and have been spinning on the wheel ever since. So, I thought I'd give the drop spindle another chance...and loved it. Bev is a fantastic teacher and made the drop spindling FUN! Thanks, Bev!

Later, Ouijan Vinson, from Olde Oaks Farm, brought her llama, Bandit, for show and tell. Ouijan and I talked about the differences between all camelids... the camel, guanaco, vicuna, llama, and alpaca. We talked about their purposes, guardian versus fiber animal and about how easy they are to care for. We went over their fleece and a variety of other things. It was such a blessing to be able to do this. I thank the Wildflower committee for giving me the opportunity to speak at this retreat.

Another class offered at the retreat was backstrap weaving. Judy Pritchett taught us how to setup our loom and begin weaving. Everyone was very interested in this demo. See the beautiful work Judy has done in this picture?

One of the blessings of this retreat is the scenery. This retreat is located right in the middle of the piney woods at Camp Tyler. Marie and I took a walk down to the lake and through the woods. It was breath taking. Get out and enjoy nature today and enjoy the beauty God has created all around us! Sometimes, we just need to get away from the every day pace of life. Now, I'm ready to get back out and enjoy the beauty of my ranch. God has blessed me with the beauty of all the animals right here in my own backyard...

Blessings to you all!
Cyndi

Struggles...

2010-02-24T17:10:00.000-08:00

Today, well, the past few months actually, have been rough for many of my friends. Struggles abound. Our lesson this week in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) speaks of how "the gardener (God), prunes or trims fruit-bearing branches (believers) by removing obstructions or deadwood, enabling them to produce more and bigger fruit. God, our gardener, sovereignly places His people in situations where they can be most fruitful. While God's purging, chastening 'knife' may be painful, afterwards a Christian yields a harvest of righteousness and peace." Hebrews 12:6 says, "FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." Hebrews 6:11 says, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

I am praying for all of my friends out there who are hurting! I am praying that God will give each of you a peace that passes all understanding, that He will comfort you, and that you will feel His very breath upon your neck because He is so close to each of you. May He carry you through your trials as only a loving Father can. I will be praying for each of you...

Hugs,
Cyndi

2010 TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular a success!

2010-02-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

The annual TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular held out at the Will Rogers Colliseum in Ft. Worth was a success! Even with all of the snow, there were still approximately 500 alpacas in attendance! Whoo hoo! The Spin-off competition that I coordinated went well also, with 100 entries. Everyone seemed very pleased with the results and have promised to send samples in again next year.

I am not going to coordinate this event for TxOLAN next year, though. I was asked to run for the board of directors for the State of Texas Alpaca Ranchers. I’m not sure whether I will be elected or not, but I plan on coordinating a fleece event for this organization. It’s a ton of work, but oh so much fun!

Snow day

2010-02-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, did it ever snow last night! School was canceled and the kids got to stay home and play.

We got over 7 inches of snow! Amazing for Texas!

Tree branches broke all over and many people completely lost their trees, due the weight of the snow completely uprooting their large trees and knocking them over.

We bundled up the horses in winter coats. Since they were toasty warm under their coats, they stayed out in the pasture the entire day. They had a choice. They could have stayed in, but they chose to stay out.

The alpacas didn't seem to mind much. They just hung out under the eaves of the barn, chewing their cud.

Funny isn't it? When it's just really cold, all I want to do is stay in by a nice warm fire with a nice, hot cup of hot chocolate or my favorite, cappuccino. Mmm..mmm... However, when the cold includes some snow, everyone in the house it out in it! The kids were constantly bringing in pairs of gloves, hats and scarves that were wet and cold, then picking up a new set of each. The dryer got a workout today! Snow like this is really fun for awhile, but I am so very thankful we don't get snows like those up north. The aftermath brings so much mud and gunk that I prefer not to have it very often. The path to the barn is not so good right now. Add another thing to my list to fix once the warmer weather gets here! I'm thinking either crushed rock, road base, or some paving stones. Hmm... the crushed rock sounds like the easiest. I'm all for easy!

New chicks have arrived!

2010-02-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

Wow! Has it been that long since I’ve blogged? Wow! So much has happened! On February 4th, we received another 25 chicks. We received 8 Welsummers, 8 Americaunas, and 9 Cuckoo Murans from Ideal Poultry. They have had an extended stay in my daughter’s room, and then had a VERY short stay in my youngest son’s room. They stink so bad, that we had to move them out to the breezeway. So, if you come by my house at night, you’ll see the red heat lamps on through the breezeway windows! :o)

We are getting approximately two dozen eggs per day again. The hens are starting up early! Usually, they don’t get back in full swing until daylight savings time hits. Bonus!

It's cold outside!

2010-01-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show the new cria coats I made. It got down into the teens and I was afraid the cria didn't have enough fleece yet to keep themselves warm. So, my dear friend, Cindy Telisak of Jacobs Reward Farm, and I both went on the hunt for fabric. We had a pattern that we got off of a website for llama coats. We found the perfect solution at a fabric store down off of Harry Hines Blvd. in Dallas. These coats are lined with warm, thick fleece and have a windbreaker type material on the outside. They served their purpose! The cria stayed warm!

Chicken Coop OVERHAUL!

2009-12-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

What a day! It was so pretty today, I knew it had to be spent outdoors. I convinced my dear husband to help me move the nesting boxes around. I wanted to place most of the nesting boxes out underneath the eves of the barn and move another smaller set into the adjacent coop. Then, I would take all of the roosts and put them in the one stall together. I think it's going to make cleaning out the coop a lot easier. Time will tell.

The first two pictures are shots of the existing structure in the barn. We had all of the nesting boxes and the large roost in one stall. The area underneath the eves had some lumber leaning against the side of the barn. We moved those out and hung some of the remaining siding.

Then, we removed all of the nesting boxes from the walls. They got a good cleaning while they were down! We sized up the situation and agreed the four sized nest box would go inside the adjacent stall. The other twelve boxes would go outside. We added some boards to the fronts to keep the litter in the boxes. After getting all of the nesting boxes moved and in place, we moved one of the roosts over into the stall with the larger roost.

Here's a picture of the stall with all of the roosts.

After finishing that, I decided to move the feeders outside, as well. The chickens just prefer being outside most of the day anyhow. So, out they went. We also have a hay feeder that the chickens enjoy laying in, too. So, it got put out under the eves, as well.
Here's a picture off all of the chickens up against the wall wondering what in the world we were doing!

I think it turned out pretty nice! I'm excited to see how this works out. Funny isn't it? Most women like moving their furniture around inside their house (I like doing that too). However, I sure get a kick out of making my outdoor area more productive, too!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your day was blessed with family, friends and merriment!

As most of you know, we had a blizzard of a snowstorm last night! Whew! We left church around 8:00 pm last night and the wind was whipping the snow everywhere! The kids were thrilled, to say the least. Barn chores were c o l d! This morning, I did my usual chores after the children opened all of their gifts.

The alpacas and horses were very happy out in the snow eating their hay. Both of our horses, an elderly alpaca, and the two babies all wore coats through the night. We went ahead and left them on today, for good measure. As you can see by the pictures, it was beautiful. The "twin" alpacas were romping around like crazy in the snow and slipping and sliding on the ice. I was worried they would break a leg! The "older" alpacas were more cautious, taking the walking ever so slowly. The horses...well what can I say? Their weight cracked right through the ice. The were thrilled when I turned the heater on in the waterer!

I feel so amazingly blessed. Politics, friends losing jobs, broken relationships, etc. tend to wear me down some days. Whenever I'm down, I just look up! I have Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour! No matter what happens in this world, I'm just passing through. This is not my home. I praise God that He gave His one and only Son to come to this earth to die on the cross for my sins. I am a sinner and need a Saviour. I will follow Him wherever He leads me, until He finally leads me home to be with Him forever. Do you know Him? Do you REALLY know Him? I pray that you do. May you all experience the love of Christ today and always! He's always waiting for you to come to Him. Come...

Praying your Christmas is blessed. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father." James 1:17 NIV

What a year!

2009-12-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally got our hay for the winter...150 bales. We're set! The kids were a big help getting the hay unloaded and into the barn. Here's a little picture taken BEFORE the work began. See how happy they are here? The picture was quite different when we were done. :o)

We began getting carrots from our garden. Here is a picture of the kids holding one of the carrots. They aren't the biggest, but they sure are tasty! What a treat getting these from our own garden! I've got arugula, green leaf, spinach, parsley, onions, and carrots growing this winter. We hosted a luncheon for the Mendenhall Elementary staff on Friday. I was able to make a very, very large salad with the greens, carrots, and onions from my garden. What a treat!

Today we hosted a gathering of people from Chase Oaks Church to package 120 gifts for the residents of the Collinwood Nursing Home in Plano. After the packaging was complete, we made a trip to the pasture for everyone to see the two babies that were born last month. Both are doing well and are the attention of the visitors! It was an absolutely gorgeous day for packing / farm visiting! We are very blessed indeed!

And then there were two

2009-11-04T04:34:00.001-08:00

Well, at approximately 10 am yesterday morning, another baby cria was delivered. This time, the baby belonged to Nisha, our foundation, grey female. It is another boy. This little guy is a rich, deep black color. The two little males look so cute hanging out in the pasture together, soaking up the sunshine. I put coats on last night to keep the chill off of them. The newest male isn't nursing as well as we'd like, so we are keeping a close eye on him. We need to name both of these boys! We are trying to stick with names from the t.v. show, "Dallas". We've already used the name "Jock Ewing". What do you think we should name these two little guys?

And the winner is...

2009-11-02T14:32:00.001-08:00

Dolly! She is the proud new mama of a baby boy, as of this morning! A beautiful, dark brown baby cria (alpaca) was found in our pasture at 11:00 am this morning, already dry and checking out his surroundings. He has been nursing well and has a very attentive mom.

Baby watch begins...

2009-10-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official! We begin our baby watch today. Nisha and Dolly are both 30 days out from their delivery date, which means they can have their babies anywhere 30 days prior to or after their delivery dates (but we all know the best laid plans go astray, now don't we?). Nisha looks like she is ready to pop. The last couple of nights, she lifts her legs and sets them back down, one at a time, as if to tell us how uncomfortable she is right now. Dolly is just, well, Dolly. She's so funny. She lost her baby last year, a still birth. So, this will be her first year being a mommy. She cried last year so much when she lost her baby that I just know she'll be a great mom. She even tried to "steal" Nisha's baby last year! Too funny! Anyway, it's an overcast day with two days of rain in the the forecast. Please don't let the babies come the next two days!

And, just because I love them so much, here is a picture of the chickens peaking into the backyard, wanting so much to "get to the other side".

Lost Donkey

2009-10-09T07:46:00.001-07:00

I know what you are thinking. "It looks like some sort of circus parade." It does, doesn't it? Last Saturday, I went out to feed our animals and I kept thinking someone was "watching" me. You know how you get that feeling, like there is a set of eyes following you every which way you move? I felt that way. I ignored it at first, but then, I got to looking around trying to figure out why I felt that way. Peeking over the top rung of our fence was a cute little donkey face, staring right at me. This wasn't an ordinary sized donkey. This was, well, miniature. What in the world was a miniature donkey doing in the street looking on into my alpaca pasture? Was he lonely? Was he hungry? Was he lost? Yep, yep, and yep. I went to the back door and hollered at my husband to come out and help me while I tried to catch this little donkey. He was hungry and came up for food almost immediately. However, when he saw Tim trying to put a rope around his neck, he panicked and began to run down the street. We could hear another donkey braying at him from down around the corner. He made it to the end of our neighborhood when he found what he was looking for. My neighbor had just brought home a FEMALE miniature donkey. Too funny! The little one that showed up at our house was a MALE. He was happy at last and very easy to catch. We realized that he belonged to another neighbor down the main road. She was called and hurried over. She explained that he was not halter trained and didn't know how we could get him home. So, the circus parade ensued. Mind you that while all of this is going on, the rest of the neighborhood is coming out to find out what is going on (thus, the audience and camera). I walked in front of the donkey with a bucket of feed, my daughter was holding out carrots, my husband was pushing from the back side of the donkey (don't EVEN go there), and our other neighbor held onto the rope, somewhat trying to direct where the donkey was heading. Quite a show, huh? And you thought living in the country was boring...

The good, the bad, and the ugly

2009-09-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's what living on a farm can be. I love sitting outside and watching my chickens peck at the ground. I love watching new cria pronking around in the pasture when they've first discovered their new legs. I love watching my horses as they gallop around with their tails in the air as they see an unfamiliar sight. However, there are some bad days. A couple of days ago, Cotton Mandy, one of our alpacas, miscarried her baby, only two months away from her due date. The cria (baby alpaca) was beautiful. It was a mahogany brown male. We don't know what happened. We came out to the barn in the evening to find that she was delivering the placenta. The vet came out and determined that the baby was stuck inside. It had already passed. We cry tears for the missed opportunity to share time with the new little one, but we praise God that He has a bigger plan. We are so thankful for the ones that are born healthy. We look forward to new births in December.

Hugs,
Cyndi

Thursday, Fiber day

2009-09-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

Every Thursday I host a "fiber day" for women who either raise sheep, goats, alpacas, or some other fiber animal, or anyone who enjoys working with animal fleece, crocheting, or knitting. We have a few machine knitters and quite a few hand knitters. It's quite fun!

Last week, we had a record turnout. Cindy Telisak was here with her spinning wheel, Donna, Joyce, Iris, Linda, Marlene, and Peggy were handknitting, and I was machine knitting. So, I was anxious to see how many people would drop by today.

Today, I decided to make a cake for my guests. However, the crowd was rather small today, consisting of Donna, Iris and myself. We had a wonderful time! We had more cake to share, too!

I have had many problems learning to hand knit left handed. Too many friends trying to assist, to many conversion problems from right to left handed knitting, and too many varieties of hand knitting! Whew! It's exhausting! So, a friend mentioned that I should just get on YouTube and search for left handed knitting instructions. I did. I picked up a washcloth that I had started when all of the instruction problems began and decided to just keep working on it. I didn't rip out what I had already done. It was so easy and I am quite pleased with the results. You will notice that I cut off the left side of the washcloth in the picture. That is the "ratty" section from before. I just wanted to show the beautiful section from today. Isn't it neat? I'm so excited! I only did a garter stitch, but am getting my tension down. Now, I'm ready to purl! Yeehaw! I'm learning to hand knit!

Summer garden still growing!

2009-09-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

I am amazed at how well the garden has done this year! I am getting a lot of green bell peppers, chili peppers, banana peppers, and squash still. The zucchini has slowed way down. The tomatoes are almost not existent anymore. One of my green bell peppers even began turning yellow. Can anyone tell me about that?

This has been so much fun this year! The raised beds have truly made it easier. The compost from the manure has been doing wonders, too. Amazing...simply amazing. I'm already making plans for what I'm going to plant next year.

We only got two watermelons off of our watermelon patch. The rabbits beat us to all of the rest of the melons. So, the chickens got some wonderful treats! The strawberry plants never produced anything but lots of foliage. The banana peppers win with the most produced. As fun as it was, I am looking forward to the cooler weather. Aren't you?

Hope you are having a bountiful end of summer!

Life on the farm...

2009-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

Well, there is a part of farming that is really, really great. There is also the bad part. We got to experience another bad part this morning.

Last night, we noticed we were missing one chicken (yes, we now do head counts in the coop due to our overly zealous livestock dog, Jane). We looked and looked in the dark for the one lost chicken. We finally gave up and hoped she would stay hunkered down until day break, when we could see better. That didn't happen. This morning, we found the remains of the one lost chicken. Yes, Jane had indeed found the chicken some time during the night. The worst part about this? This was my friend, Joyce's chicken. Her chickens are staying here for a spell until she gets things straightened out at her house. Ugh... double bummer. I have to explain to my dear friend that I have failed to keep her chicken safe. I explained to her up front, before bringing her chickens over here, that things do "happen" out here. I fully didn't expect for it to happen so soon, though. Harrison and I had a little burial for her this morning, along with one of our chickens that died during the night in the coop. It's hard. I won't lie to you. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I don't. Each of the animals here has a special place in our hearts, from the big horses down to the small chickens and everything in between. Life is hard, but God is good. God reminds me that there is a season for everything. I can thank Him for what He entrusts me with here on this earth, for as little or as much time given. So, I choose to thank God for the good things and pray He helps me through the bad. May you choose to thank Him for the good He has provided you with today...

Hugs,
Cyndi

Snakes!

2009-08-03T09:18:00.001-07:00

For the past two nights, we have had visitors in the barn. SNAKES! I was bragging in an earlier post about how we had only one encounter thus far with a snake this summer. I spoke too soon! Hailey was collecting chicken eggs again when she spotted the snake in one of the roosting boxes. Tim to the rescue!

The very next evening, Hailey is back out collecting chicken eggs when she noticed another visitor. This was the third and biggest snake this summer. We didn't get a picture of the last snake, but we did get one from the night before. The latest snake coughed up FOUR chicken eggs when Tim held him by his tail.

We don't kill these snakes around here. Yes, they are a hassle and they do eat our chickens eggs, which is why we don't want them on our property. However, these snakes are very beneficial to have in the area for keeping the rodent population down. So, we usually take the snakes to another area, usually by a creek, and release them.

Let's hope this is the last snake for the summer! There is no telling how many eggs we are losing to these guys!

Fiber Picking

2009-07-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

A friend of Cindy Telisak's, from Jacobs Reward Farm, came by for a visit today. Dawn was interested in finding out more about the alpaca breeding business. Dawn grew up with parents in the cattle industry, so she understands the "farm" life. Alpacas are really easy to care for. I spend approximately 45 minutes each morning feeding the alpacas, horses, and chickens. I check water buckets, hay buckets, and let the chickens out to begin their free ranging. The pregnant mamas are closed in their stalls for the day and the misters are turned on. Everyone has access to a stall with fans and misters.

In the evening, Hayden and Hailey assist with the barn chores. Hailey is responsible for the horses and the chickens, and then refills hay feeders for the alpacas. Hayden feeds the alpacas grain and refills all of the water buckets. I am responsible for cleaning the stalls and overhang areas. This usually takes approximately 45 minutes for all of us combined. It's not too bad. Those are the daily chores. Of course, there are days when we trim toenails, do weighings, give annual shots, collect fecals for tests, shearing, etc. All in all, alpacas are pretty darn easy to care for.

After returning to the house, Dawn mentioned she would be interested in the fiber aspect of raising alpacas and asked if I would show her how to clean a fleece. So, into the breezeway we went. Nisha's fiber was already on the skirting table. We began picking the hay out of the fleece and skirting it as we went. Before I knew it, we were done! Wow! It goes so much faster when you have a friend to do it with! As you can see, the results are beautiful! Nisha's fiber is now ready to be washed and sent off to the processor. It is a beautiful grey "cloud" of fiber. Ahhh... this is the part I love...putting my hands in all of this gorgeous fiber! It's soooo soft. It reminds me of those Charmin commercials. "It is so squeezably soft!" Grin... Go ahead. You can squeeze the alpaca fiber all you want!

First Snake of the Year

2009-07-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

We "found" our first snake of the year the other day. Hailey was doing her usual chores of feeding the horses and chickens. When she went to collect the chicken eggs, she felt something "scaley" in the nest box. She immediately withdrew her hand and SCREAMED! Hayden and I ran over to find out what had happened. There in one of the nest boxes for the chickens was this snake. He had enjoyed a delightful meal of chicken eggs. Hayden promptly went and got a pair of gloves and proceeded to collect the snake. We put it in a bucket until morning.

Here is a picture of Tim and Harrison examining the snake. We usually don't kill the snakes we find at our place. They are simply "relocated" to another place to keep the rat population down. This is a rat snake. However, rat snakes enjoy chicken eggs, too, so we don't like them around our place for that reason.

Harrison was brave and even held the snake by it's head. Something mom doesn't like doing AT ALL. It's part of life in the country. I'm just thankful this is the only snake we've seen thus far this year. Let's hope it's the last!

Fiber Day at the farm

2009-07-16T21:01:00.001-07:00

Thursdays are fiber days at our place. The crowd was small today, but the work was productive! We missed all of our friends that didn't make it!

Donna completed an absolutely gorgeous lap blanket for the VA Hospital. She is entering it beforehand into the State Fair of Texas. So, today she began working on another blanket. This blanket has a large star in the center. You can see the outline of it in the picture. She is amazing!

Rebecca joined us for the first time today. Yeah, Rebecca! Rebecca is new to knitting, but hasn't let that slow her down one bit. She is making six inch squares out of some scrumptious yarns to later put together for a friend who is having a baby. This is going to be one gorgeous baby blanket! You go girl!

Iris makes the most AMAZING scarves! She worked on two today that were beautiful! I believe she was using a Turkish knitting technique. I'm not really sure how she does it, but it is truly an amazing work of art.

This is a picture of a shawl that I was taught how to make last Thursday by Faye. She wasn't here today to witness this. I had so much fun making it! We started at 9:30 am and worked until about 3:00 pm (minus our lunch break). I was so close that I picked it up again this evening. I just had to see it completed!

Here is my beautiful daughter, Hailey, modeling the newly finished shawl. I used a cotton blend on this shawl to get the hang of it. Now, I think I'm going to go get some of Tania's fiber that I handspun into yarn and make one out of it. Don't you think this would look pretty in solid black? Or, maybe I should use Nisha's yarn, which is a dark grey color. Hmmm... decisions, decisions. What do you think?

Update on my garden

2009-07-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

Many of you have been asking about my garden. Well, here are some recent pictures. The garden continues to thrive, giving us tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, and jalapeno peppers on a regular basis. We have three watermelon continuing to grow and a few green bell peppers. The cantaloupe just haven't ever done anything.

I've already made five loaves of zucchini bread and even made a fresh loaf for my friend, Meshach tonight for Lifegroup. I'm really getting a "kick" out of this garden. I can't believe how much enjoyment it has brought me. It's been a lot of fun!

Good luck in your garden!

HOT days of summer

2009-07-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's been well over 100 degrees the past few days. It felt like 106 degrees with the heat index yesterday. The alpacas are staying indoors until the evening. We keep misters and fans on them during the day to keep the stalls cool. When we let them out, they get a hosing down on their bellies before they head out to play for the evening. Khunu, as well as the others, just LOVE to roll in the sand after the hosing. It looks so wonderful on his WHITE fleece, doesn't it? We don't worry about the looks of the fleece during this weather. All of that will wash out later. For now, we are all just trying to stay in out of the heat. We'll come out and do some more playing when the sun starts to go down and the temperatures are slightly cooler. Enjoy your day!

Chicken Coop is CLEAN again

2009-07-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of those events around the farm that I always look forward to...NOT! We were very blessed this year to have one of Hailey's friends, Bonnie, over to spend the fourth of July with us. We spent the evening over at my sister-in-law's house shooting off fireworks and enjoying a good meal together. Bonnie had never shot fireworks off before (I didn't think that was possible!), so it was a special treat for her! We got home around 12:30 AM on Sunday. Sunday was unusually cool (down in the high 80's) for this time of year, so I decided this was the time to clean out the chicken coop. Mind you, the chicken coop is two horse stalls, approximately 12' x 12', with approximately six inches of "flooring". What a work out! Anyway, Bonnie wasn't too keen on the idea at first. Up until this time, she felt that Hailey was living the coolest life ever on an alpaca ranch. I figured this would open her eyes to the lifestyle of WORK! :o) Well, both of the girls were wonderful helpers. We got everything removed, scrubbed down, hosed off, and setup again. Upon completion, I asked Bonnie, "Well, what do you think? Do you still think Hailey has it made living out here?". Bonnie answered with an emphatic, "YES!". Wow, who would have thought? I'm thinking, next time, I'm inviting more of Hailey's friends over! Grin...

Celebrate Freedom!

2009-07-10T14:56:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, June 27th, the Christian radio station, KLTY, presented a free concert at Southfork Ranch (across the street). This is an annual event, complete with many different Christian artists performing live, followed by a great firework display. What does this have to do with Paca D'Lites Ranch, you might ask? Well, because this is directly across the street from us, we decide to open up our little place to friends for parking, an air-conditioned break, a cool dip in a swimming pool, and plenty of hamburgers and hotdogs for their hunger buster! The crowd was a little thinner this year, probably due to the heat (it's been over 100 degrees lately!). However, fun and laughter still abounds. We enjoy spending the late evening hanging out on our driveway with our friends watching the evening firework display. May God bless America and all of those who have served in the military fighting to preserve our freedoms! We look forward to spending time with our friends and enjoying the concert again next year!

Delicious vegetables get a new home

2009-06-30T21:29:00.001-07:00

What a day! After spending the morning taking my dad to his doctor's appointment, I came home to spend some time singing with my friends. Jennifer Stewart, Norie Hicks, and myself have all felt the "calling" to minister to the elderly with our singing. So, the trio has begun selecting and working on songs to sing for our next ministry opportunity. My parents are already getting us setup to sing at their retirement home soon. God will provide other opportunities.

After singing with my friends, I got to work in the kitchen. My daughter and I began by canning all of our garden tomatoes. Mmm mmm... I can't wait to use those jars of goodness! Next, we set out to make a scrumptious zucchini bread with our garden zucchinis. We used a recipe provided to me by my friend, Astrid Thomson. The house smelled wonderful while the bread was baking. It filled all the rooms with a cinnamon, allspice, fresh bread smell. I could hardly stand the wait for it to come out of the oven! Voila! One hour later and we have two loaves of zucchini bread. They are a tad bit dry, so I'll have to jockey with the recipe a little for next time. There are plenty more zucchini ready to be harvested from the garden in a day or two. Now, what in the world can I make with the yellow squash and all of the jalapeno peppers I've got?

Rain, rain, oh how I love the rain!

2009-06-29T20:57:00.001-07:00

We finally got some much needed rain today. It was wonderful! The temperature dropped and the breeze kicked up a notch or two. It felt great! The grass received a much needed drink of water. Thank you, Lord! By evening, the temperature was back up again and the humidity had begun. Yuk!

The family and I had to unload over 200 pieces of decking and 5, 80 lb bags of concrete. We were drenched by the time we were done. I'm exhausted! However, we are one step closer to getting our decking completed. Yippee!

The animals got a chance to get out and enjoy the pasture while the heat had died down. By evening, they were hunkered down back in the stalls in front of the fans. I'm not sure what the forecast looks like for tomorrow. However, I sure am thankful for the blessings we received today! Thank you, Jesus!

Succulent Vegetables

2009-06-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Let's just get something straight right off the bat. I am a "brown" thumb. Yep. I've tried over and over again to grow things, but they just end of dying. I either over water, under water, give them too much sun, or not enough.

I've heard over and over again about the benefits of alpaca compost (aren't you glad I called it that?). Most of the alpaca farmers I know, have vegetable gardens. My sister-in-law, Terri, has a HUGE garden. She is what I would call a "GREEN" thumb. (Notice I capitalized the word GREEN?) Everything she plants yields a bountiful harvest. I've watched year after year and wished I could have a garden even a fraction of the size of hers.

Well, this year I decided to make a go of it again. My neighbor, Jonie Coble, showed me a little garden she had started in one of her horse's water troughs. Hmmm... I thought. I could do that with some of the bath tubs I had out in our pasture. We had acquired three bathtubs some years ago and used them as water troughs when we were raising horses. So, I purchased some strawberry, yellow pepper, jalapeno pepper, squash, carrots, tomato, watermelon and cantaloupe seeds, as well as a packet called "Cut Flower Garden". Crazy right? Well, I had three bathtubs to fill! Then, my neighbor, Hal Camp,called me up and let me know that he had another bathtub for me to have for my garden. Seems he was remodeling his bathroom and needed to get rid of his old tub. BONUS! Now I had FOUR tubs!

Well, the seed packet labeled "celery" turned out to be zucchini and the packet labeled cantaloupe turned out to be yellow squash. How do they mess up on that??? Anyway, I filled each of the tubs up with alpaca compost. I planted each of the seeds (with a little help from my five year old son) and voila! Two months later and I have some AWESOME vegetables and fruit! Pictured is a basketful of our bounty! The zucchini and squash are growing like gang-busters! I only have ONE watermelon, but oh, am I happy! Wow, it feels great collecting fruits of my labor! I know that there are absolutely NO PESTICIDES whatsoever on them. They are fresh and delicious.

So, thanks for letting me share my garden with you. Oh yeah! Here are some pictures of my little flower garden, too. Isn't it pretty? The butterflies and bees seem to like it, too. Maybe I'll even cut some fresh flowers for my table tomorrow. What do you think?

Happy Trails!

Mistakes made...

2009-06-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we were loading up the truck getting ready to leave for vacation on June 12th. We needed to leave out by 5:00 AM in order to make our 12 hour drive to Colorado and be on time for dinner at the cabin. We were actually doing quite well with our packing! Evening chores were running a bit behind schedule. I wanted to meet with our neighbor, Rachel, to go over the chore list one last time before we left. Due to time constraints, we agreed to meet at the barn around 9:30 PM. No problem. That gives me more time to load some things in the truck for the trip.

9:30 PM rolls around and I head out to the barn to meet Rachel. I notice something small and black on the ground. Oh great! I'm thinking the skunk that has been spraying my two dogs over the past two weeks is back! However, this small animal is ALL black. As I get through the second gate, I get a better look. Oh for crying out loud! It's a CRIA! How in the world did that happen? Who's cria was it? Well, by deductions, Tim and I figured it out. Last year, some neighbor kids had come through our pasture to visit our children. Tim happened to be outside and noticed that the gate had been left OPEN to the male area. Tim found one of the males mounted on one of our females, but figured he had caught "it" in time. Nope. That obviously didn't happen. She was indeed bred. Precautions have already been made (after the mishap) and were double checked again after this unexpected delivery.

Tim and I stayed up all night making sure the cria was nursing well before we left. Neither of us made it to bed before our departure, so we traded driving often. We are so very fortunate to have such a wonderful neighbor. Rachel has been a 4-H student for many years, raises goats, rabbits and chickens. Her mother is a nurse. They have been through numerous birthings with all of their animals. So, we felt quite comfortable having her watch our new little one while we were away. And that she did, coming over every couple of hours to make sure the baby was latching on and getting enough milk.

So, be careful! Make sure your pastures and gates are not only "animal" proofed, but make sure they are "neighbor" proofed, as well!

Happy Trails!

To shear or not to shear...that is the question.

2009-06-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dogs that is! :o) Well, as posted previously, our alpacas received a shearing back in late March. They are still enjoying their cool haircuts out in the pastures and the relief it brings from the heat of summer. The grass has emerged thanks to all of the rain we have been receiving and the alpacas are enjoying the sweet taste.

Our recently acquired Maremma livestock guardian dogs also received a new haircut. This was NOT done by a professional, but by my dear hubby, Tim. As you can see, he needs to work on his skills. :o) We didn't mind, though, and neither did Tyson and Jane, the dogs. They were so hot with their long coats and were thrilled to feel the relief of it coming off of their backs! They immediately began romping in the pasture, playing as if they were new pups again. I want to mention the fact that before we got these two dogs, we heard a pack of coyotes every night roaming through the neighborhood. They had been over at the house behind us and across the street at Southfork Ranch. It was getting a little too close for comfort. However, since Tyson and Jane have come to live with us, we have heard NO COYOTES at all. Our neighbors are even thanking us! Tyson still likes to bark way too much, but he's getting better. Time will fix that, I'm sure. Oh, by the way, Nathan, our other dog, and Jane are getting along much better, too. So, we're just one big happy family now. Thanks for your prayers!!!

Bountiful garden!

2009-06-02T08:56:00.001-07:00

Wow! Can I show you just how GOOD alpaca compost is??? Whoo hoo! I was sooooo late getting my garden started this year...we're talking the END of April! I bought some seeds from the Lowe's hardware store in Murphy. I picked up some cantaloupe, watermelon (yeah, I know...wishful thinking), yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, strawberries, yellow peppers, jalapeno peppers and carrots. I also got some cilantro and rosemary.

As you may be able to tell from the pictures, the garden is growing like gang busters! Yes, you may also notice that my raised bed is in none other than BATHTUBS! My wonderful neighbor, Jonie Coble, showed me how she was using an old horse water trough for her garden. I already had two bathtubs sitting in my pasture empty from when I had a bunch of horses. So, I moved them into my backyard for the garden. Then, my other neighbor, Hal Camp, realized what I was doing and offered the two bathtubs he had just ripped out of his house. So, I now have three bathtubs filled with garden delights and another bathtub filled with flowers! I'm so excited! I've already got zucchini, tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers! They aren't ripe enough to pick yet, but should be very soon. Oh yes! The alpaca compost is the gift that keeps on giving!

Paca DLites gets a face lift!

2009-06-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well, for about three years now, we have been needing to replace the decking around our pool. The wood was rotted and the cement was cracking. We found out that our neighbor's son-in-law did construction. So, we had him down to take a look at the damage. He placed a bid and began working immediately. Wow! What a job! First, he had to remove all of the fencing from around the pool. Then, he brought in a jack hammer to break through all of the concrete and ripped out the decking by hand. After three days of work, we now have a cleared area for our new deck! The stones will find a new home under our tree for a little patio area of sorts. We'll get to that after everything else is done. The diving board is laying up against the fence and the handrails are on the porch. We're getting really excited now! John will begin leveling out the ground to be able to install the 2 x 6 base boards.

There is still a huge tree trunk to be removed. We've tried numerous things to try and get it out, but with no luck. This came from a huge pine tree that died last summer. We lost the pine tree and two photenia plants last summer. Not sure what happened to them, but they died all at the same time.

If any of you are interested in getting some handy work done, John Kenney does great work! His number is 903-776-2365. Give him a call!

Heartworm Negative!

2009-05-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we took our two dogs to the vet yesterday. Both of them are Heartworm negative! Yipee! That is always a concern when you get dogs from the shelter. Tysin has an ear infection and "kennel cough", so he's being treated with antibiotics. We have been so happy with how they are working out with our animals AND our family! They are great dogs. Another happy ending to a story. So, if you are considering getting another dog, cat, horse, donkey, or other animal, be sure to check out your local shelter or rescue group. You'll literally be saving a life!

Two dogs rescued!

2009-05-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

We rescued two Maremmas (or are the Great Pyrs?) from the Tri-City Shelter on Monday. They were taken by an organization called "SPIN" to Noah's Ark Vet Hospital in McKinney on Tuesday to be spayed / neutered. Wednesday was spent recovering. Thursday, we brought them home!

The large male is named "Tysin" and the small female has been named "Jane". I don't know if those names will stick or not, but that's what they are for now. We are in the process of seeing if we can acclimate them to our alpacas, chickens and horses. So far, the only problem seems to be with our horses. Tysin has kept me awake the past two nights barking at the horses. :o(

Both of these dogs are precious. We are so hoping they work out to be Livestock Guardian dogs for our animals. Jane doesn't like our previous adoptee, "Nathan" either (adopted a year and a half ago from the Second Chance SPCA). She is letting him know that she is the alpha dog. We've got our work cut out for us!

If you get a chance, come on by and check out these sweet dogs. Hopefully, they will be out roaming the pasture making sure everything is safe!

Girl Scout Outing

2009-05-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to blogging about this! My good friend, Jill Moore, is a Girl Scout leader. The wonderful girls in her troop needed to earn an "animal badge". So, she called upon Paca D'Lites Ranch to show off our animals and our fiber processing sequence. So, on Thursday, April 16th, the most well mannered, beautiful young ladies and their parents came out to visit our little place. We started off by talking about all of the "rules" about being around alpacas, like no running or chasing the alpacas. Don't come up right behind them (they might kick you!). We talked about how some of the alpacas are pregnant, so we didn't want to yell or act crazy around them. Next, we entered the front paddock with the male alpacas.

We talked all about alpacas and even got Mr. Tim to show us one's teeth! Where are those top teeth? We learned they don't have top teeth in the front of their mouths!

The girls had some fun feeding the alpacas some grain while we talked all about them. Then, we came back to the front yard for a fiber processing demo.

We felt the difference between 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds in the bags of raw fleece.

We pulled some raw fleece out and placed it on the skirting table. We picked a little and talked about what makes a good fleece. Then, they checked out the picker. Ooh! It was a little scary with all of those nails! Everyone knew not to put their hands in that one. Next, we discussed the drum carder and how it was a lot like combing our own hair. It gets all of those fibers going in the same direction. Why do we do that?

Well, we moved over to the spinning wheel to find out! Oh, that was fun!

But not as much fun as seeing a real knitting machine in action! Everyone agreed that would be much faster than knitting by hand. :o)

The girls ate a snack and drank some juice. Next, we headed out to the barn to see all of the chickens, chicks, and their nesting boxes. Mmmm.. there were lots of eggs in there, ready to be collected. Then, we were headed off to our neighbor's house, the Bakers. Oh yeah! It gets even better! The girls got to see all of the Baker's goats and rabbits! Many of them are pregnant, so we had to be careful not to startle them either.

Rachel and Jim collected two of the baby goats and lead the goats mother over to the backyard where a milking stand was positioned. Everyone got to take turns milking the mama goat. What fun that was! Some of the girls learned they had quite the skill of milking goats! :o) Last, but not least, we headed back over to Paca D'Lites to see some of the products made with the alpaca fiber (fleece). We saw teddy bears, shawls, socks, and finger puppets. The event went off without a hitch, thanks to the girls. Wow! I had a great time! I hope they did, too!

Are there ducks in the forcast?

2009-04-20T17:51:00.001-07:00

We received rain beginning Thursday night through Saturday morning off and on. After picking up the kids from school, we always to a "pass" to check on the animals. We were very surpristed to see some new animals in our pasture. Ducks! If you look closely at the pictures, you will see that there is actually enough water standing in the back of our pasture for the ducks to SWIM! Yep, you got it. They are actually swimming in our pasture. The water doesn't last long, but it was just enough for these passer-bys to check it out. What a hoot! The alpacas didn't seem to even care. You can see they are still grazing in the background. We enjoyed watching the ducks for awhile and then bid them farewell. Too cute...

Alpaca Chute Complete!

2009-04-20T17:42:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my neighbor, Joni, I have a brand new alpaca chute! I saw some plans online and took them down to Joni to look at(she is a woodworking expert). She came up with detailed plans and schematics for the design. We went to Lowe's Hardware, purchased the materials, and began building this puppy. It took two afternoons to build. Sweet... This will be ever so helpful for weigh-ins, toenail clippings, ultrasounds, and anything else we need to do while having the animals hold still for us! Whoo hoo! Thanks, Joni!

Beautiful Shorn Alpacas

2009-04-07T11:21:00.001-07:00

Well, I promised pictures of my shorn alpacas. Here they are! They look so much smaller, don't they? It got really cold last night, but everyone survived. The weather is incredibly beautiful today. The alpacas are pronking around in the pasture and rolling around in all of the hay the horses dropped on the ground (they are sooo wasteful!). I've been inside most of the day taking care of my sick daughter :o( but have been taking snippets of time to go outside and get some fresh air. It is so relaxing to watch these animals. I made myself a cup of hot cappuccino and wandered outback to the pasture while Hailey slept. Ahhhh... just what I needed. Sunshine makes all the difference in the world! I pray that each of you are spending some time outside enjoying all that God has given you, too. May you each be blessed immensely today and always!

Shearing Days a success!

2009-04-06T09:39:00.001-07:00

Shearing days were a success! Tim, my husband, worked the shearing for three days in a row. The "team" of workers sheared approximately 73 alpacas on day 1, 84 on day 2, and 53 on day 3. That's a lot of alpacas! As you can see from the video, this requires the help of quite a few people. There are people who are responsible for catching and haltering the alpacas and getting them on the mats for the rope people. There are two people who are responsible for attaching the ropes and stretching the alpaca. There is the shearer, himself, and his "head" guy. The "head" guy is responsible for manipulating the head/neck of the alpaca whenever the shearer is ready to move on to a different section of the alpaca for shearing. There is a "butt" person who is responsible for manipulating the back end of the alpaca. There are one to two people constantly collecting the fleece and putting it in the appropriate bags (i.e. neck separated from leg separated from blanket). There are people sweeping the mats between shearing, people tracking what animals have been done and checking off the spreadsheet, people prepping bags with animals name and labeling which part of fleece is going into the bag (three parts mentioned above). As you can see, it is quite an operation. It reminds me of when the Amish people would gather to raise a barn. It is a really neat experience with great camaraderie. In the end, we have bags and bags of luscious fiber and clean looking animals! Oh happy day!

New Chick Coop!

2009-03-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, due to an "incident" with our dog (argh!), we built a new chick coop for our six week old chicks on Sunday. We took a little less than half of one of our existing chicken coops and made it into a chick coop. We used existing panels we had on the property, added mesh (to make the holes smaller), mounted them to the walls, and added more mesh that drops from the ceiling to enclose the entire area. It is complete with a little gate for going in and out of. Since it incorporates the entire height of the stall, it is tall enough to stand up in and walk around. We left the roost from the chicken area so the chicks even have an area to roost on. The chicks have an area that is approximately 10' x 3' in size. Pretty slick! The pictures are horrible, but you get the idea.

Our next adventure for the day on Sunday was to swap the female alpacas with the male alpacas. To date, the male alpacas have had the prime grazing spot with the horses. The females, on the other hand, have been "stuck" in the front two paddocks. Please note, there are four males and ten females. The females really needed the bigger pasture to graze on. In order to do that, more panels had to be moved and things picked up more (what, you say? The females are more important than the males? You betcha!). Anyway, that all got done, too, and here is the result. Happy females grazing in the big pasture with the horses!

Here is a picture of the male alpacas all pushed up against the fenceline of one of the two paddocks they are now located in for grazing. You can almost see the looks on their faces like, "Hey! How 'cum they get the good stuff now??? NO FAIR!" :oP

Here is just a picture that I like to call, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." In this case, it literally IS greener on the other side! Our chickens have been eating all of the grass in their paddock. We are going to have to try some more 'options' for getting more grass in their area and/or relocating or getting them more area to 'peck'. Oh, life on the ranch! Believe it or not, I love this kind of stuff and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Oh, the farm life

2009-03-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a fantastic week and a half! Last weekend, I attended a fiber retreat in Tyler, TX on my birthday. What a blast! I sold enough alpaca products to even pay for my trip, plus a little. Sweet...

This week was spring break for the kids. We spent the week making day trips, starting out Monday by going to the Dr Pepper museum. Tuesday was spent at Fossil Rim...total blast. We got to feed giraffes and zebras (among other things) from our hands. Uber cool. Wednesday was spent at the Ft. Worth Zoo. Fun, but a downer after going to Fossil Rim. We spent Wednesday evening at a drive in theater out just past Ennis. Total blast for the family (putt putt golf, dinner and a movie out of the back of our truck). Thursday, we went on a historic train ride from Grapevine to the Fort Worth Stockyards, hung out for a couple of hours shopping, and then rode the train back home again. Today, Tim took two of our kids fishing out in Tyler. We finished up this evening at church...or so we thought.

Then, our luck changed. Upon our arrival home, we headed out to feed our animals. We found four of our chicks dead in our backyard. We located seven others and returned them to our chick pen. We still can't find the other two chicks. Apparently, our own dog broke in to our chick pen and began his "hay day" chasing down chicks and killing them. Yep, this is part of the farm life. Sometimes it's great and other times it just stinks.

We learned tonight at church from the book of Nehemiah to praise God in the good times and the bad. Regardless of how bad your life is going, you need to depend on God, to be obedient, to focus on God. We are to celebrate regardless of our situation, because God IS GOOD ALL THE TIME. So, I thank God that only four chicks were killed and not more. I thank God that my children are learning to deal with the pain of loss with pets rather than friends, and that with every death on the farm, there is also new life. Yes, God is good. I am so thankful that I am a child of God and that God is sovereign. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to me. I choose to celebrate life, even in the midst of death...

Love the Parker lifestyle!

2009-03-05T11:00:00.001-08:00

Wow! I just spent the morning talking with my neighbor, Marynell. She is a master gardener and herbalist. We just sat and chatted about all of the things going on in our "little" town. This truly is a wonderful place to live! We've been out here for 17 years now. I love it! It reminds me of Mayberry. The neighbors all know one another, the police, fire fighters, city personnel, etc. It has that small town feel. What a way to live! Do you know your neighbors? If not, I encourage you to take the initiative to invite them over for coffee, tea, or dinner. It's wonderful to know everyone on a first name basis in our neighborhood. Most of us have animals (most people own horses, goats, chickens, dogs, ALPACAS, etc.). It feels like family. I love it here! Go out and extend your family to your neighbors! You won't regret it!

Eggs! Eggs! and more Eggs!!!

2009-03-03T17:30:00.001-08:00

Well, we are officially collecting between 24 and 28 eggs per day now! It's GREAT! I really love having chickens. They are so much fun to watch in the pasture and yum, how I love those free range eggs! We've got plenty of these yummies now, so if you are interested in tasting some yourself, give us a holler!

Blessings,
Cyndi

2009-01-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

Oh my, has the temperature changed! We're back to heavy sweaters and coats. The alpacas are loving it! Our horses are running, kicking and feeling all frisky! And...we collected 24 chicken eggs last night! Wow! Those little ladies are really producing right now.

We tested our three alpaca females, Cotton, Dolly, and Nisha with our male, Jammer this morning (we call it "spitting off"). They all appear to still be pregnant and should be due next November. I love birthing season! Genoux, on the other hand, is still open (not bred). She was bred to YoYo this morning.

Life is good...

80 degrees in January?

2009-01-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

Who would have guessed it! It was 32 degrees this morning when I was out doing barn chores. I had to even break some ice out of the water buckets. This afternoon it was 80 degrees and I was out hosing down the alpacas trying to cool them down! That's Texas weather for you! If you don't like it, just hold on a minute. It's gonna change! :o)

What an absolutely gorgeous day. I spent most of it running errands for my parents and myself. I spent this afternoon meeting with the guidance counselor for my oldest son who is starting highschool next year. Oh my, how time flies. We've got his four year plan in order. Life just goes by to darn quick!

I have so much to be thankful for. I took a beautiful bike ride along with my three children today. It was the perfect weather. The chickens were happy running around the pasture, the horses took naps out by the back fence, and the alpacas romped around playfully as they got their bellies hosed down. Yep, I'd say that's a pretty nice day...