Hi Ho, Hi Ho It's off to show we go!

What a raining day! Uck! The worst part is that I had to take Buccaneer over to Sahalie Higher Ground in Olivet for the vet check needed for the show. We went there dry and came home soaked! YUCK! It gave me the chance to figure out what else I need to quickly do to the trailer before our long drive to Davidson tomorrow. Denise and I are going to caravan all of our pacas together.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the barn is coming along......slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwly. Why can't everyone work at my pace. I tell you, they would accomplish alot!

Oh, and the wonder why chicks are growing too. Hubby is so excited to see his little chickens grow...and four turkey too.

Kidney Walk Fundraiser

Woo Hoo! What a wonderful day! Where were you? Huh?
We missed you and you missed out on some awesome door prizes along with fabulous company and me! Yup, you got it, you missed out on the Wonder Why Gal!

Not only did I get a few pages done in our Disney vacation scrapbook but I learned how to use a drop spindle today from a wonderful lady,Shannon, check out her blog http://spinsanityspindles.blogspot.com/ but I won the best door prizes including a special kidney spindle so I can spin my own alpaca fiber.

Ultimately, the best part about today was that we raised money for the Kidney Foundation Walk which will be held on May 31, 2009 in Portage, MI at the Celery Flats and I am now going to be part of a team.

Ok, look at these awesome pics and ask yourself why, oh why did I not attend this wonderful event? Oh, I didn't even mention the great Tacos and taco salad we ate.....and the awesome no bake cookies. Ummmmm, cookies!

Oh, how I love a craft day! Thank you Holly and Sarah for coordinating a great day of fun and I look forward to future scrapbooking, knitting, spinning, fundraising.....great times!

Get 'er Done!

FYI, I am NOT a Larry the Cable Guy fan but that phrase does say it all! The barn is coming along...slowly. As you can see from the pic, my boys are waiting for it to be completed too and not because they want a bigger barn but because they want that green pasture on the other side. They have eaten the existing pasture down to brown and Hubby is almost done fencing in the new pasture space which will give a total for four more acres that we are going to rotate. As soon as we can do that, we need to re-seed the existing acre and let it rest and grow again.

Yikes! A whole lotta work and I have a Wonderful Grumpy doing it all! He has laid all the posts and fencing for the new pasture all by himself.

National Kidney Foundation Charity Craft Event

Hey check this out! I will be there and I am bringing some of my suri fiber for the spinners to play with....I am going to attempt to scrapbook a bit too!

Join us for a Charity Craft Event in Battle Creek!

Saturday, April 25th

10-4

$25 proceeds to benefit the National Kidney Foundation

Take a day to yourself and have some fun!

Space to scrapbook, knit, crochet, spin, embroidery, cross stitch, needle point! Heck, if you want, bring a book and read!

We will have a Creative Memories Consultant, knitting instruction, and drop spindles to try out. Now’s your chance to learn a new craft!

Register now to reserve your spot!!

Hourly drawings! Freebies and Fun!! Scrapbook supplies, yarn, jewelery, Kalamazoo Kings tickets, Olde Peninsula etc, it's all awesome.

A delicious lunch is included, along with snacks, and beverages!

Home Grange #129
B dr South and 9 1/2 mile road
Battle Creek, MI 49033

and on their farm they had some chickens E I E I O

I am going to take a moment and not talk alpaca. hmmm, is that possible?

Grumpy loves his chickens. I think he likes them better than the alpacas. Oops. Well, I only said a moment now didn't I? Anyways, he had a hen that was acting all maternal and wanted to nest so he moved her to a different part of the coop....well, low and behold the eggs hatched today. He is just so happy. Of course the order of chicks that he placed last winter just arrived too so we are swarming with chicks....now if that darn barn ever gets done then I can get the rest of the herd home!

Oh, I have finished my first scarf. Yikes! I say yikes because I have taken on quite the task for the second scarf, the spiral scarf....we'll see. I am also going to start an alpaca scarf...finally!

Rain, rain go away....listen here snow, you go too!

Aggghhh! Snow, rain, snow, rain, slush....I can't take it anymore! Yes, I know, this weather is making the pasture nice and green but, yikes, I just want that 70 degree weather from last weekend again.

Well, the barn is slowly making progress. The weather, yes we'll blame the weather, has been making the guys work a bit slower and cut out early too. Oh well, I am going to let Hubby take care of them....I promised myself that I would no longer stress over that barn build.

Meanwhile I am cranking away on my first full length scarf for my son. My goal is to work up to alpaca yarn but for now I am using a nice beginner's sports weight from Your Local Yarn Shop on Columbia Ave, who is co-owned by a fellow alpaca breeder.

I think today will be a good knitting day since the weather is awful outside, that is after I bury our pet water dragon, Twinkle Winkle (RIP 4/20/09) She has been acting odd for a few weeks and last night she went into her little water hole and never came out. She will be missed and she will also be the last reptile we ever own.

Farm Store

Hooray! I just sold the first item ever from my farm. I decided to have a small boutique/farm store with finger puppets, alpaca teddy bears, limited yarn, socks, scarves, hats, etc. I won't have a large inventory but items that can be easily delivered. I am so excited.

Yesterday the elementary hosted a fun fair and I donated two of my alpaca teddy bears for the silent auction. I was so excited to see everyone touch and hold those soft adorable bears and I was glad that they went to a wonderful cause...my children's school. With that donation, I was hoping to get more exposure for my farm. So hopefully more people will contact me...

Today I paid off my contract for Buccaneer and Midnight Aire. They are mine! All mine! HOORAY! I have to thank Tom and Denise Sowles from Sahalie Suri at Higher Ground in Olivet, yet again, for all the wonderful support and guidance they have given me in starting my farm. They have been wonderful mentors. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mission Impossible?

I have only been dreaming of my new barn since I first brought my alpacas home and finally.....today....the posts went up. HOORAY! We are on our way to having the new barn and getting the rest of my herd home. Woo Hoo! Let's do a Paca Dance! Ok, let's not, but jump for joy at least ;-)

Also, I spoke with Denise Sowles....she is the best, and I am going to be showing another one of my boys at the Michigan Show. Baronson's Haze. I don't even have him home yet because I have absolutely no room. She took him to a few shows last year and he placed so we decided to promote the guy a bit more. He is getting to the breeding age and he is so handsome!


So what does a girl do who has been layed off while trying to start up a farm? Scoop Poo! It's very theraputic....NOT! But it does need to be done! I decided to compost bed the barn this last winter to give more warmth to the barn and more comfort to the pacas...well I should have been more diligent about scooping the poo because I have about two feet of poo/hay/straw/urine to scoop and it is stinky and hard work. The plus side is that I have a lot of trees that needed mulching and fertilizing so they are getting their fill!

The pasture....

Well, we are finally going to start building the new barn to house all my pacas. Darn the whole loan process. Anyways, we are also increasing the pasture so the alpaca have plenty of grazing and play space. Hubby has generously agreed to give up five acres of hunting space for my farm. He's a keeper. Last weekend we started to dig the holes and lay the post. Actually, Hubby did all the work. Apparently, I can't measure worth beans...and I am not talking alpaca beans. He got all the posts in....HOORAY! He's a keeper! Now we are waiting for the rain to stop so we can start installing the fencing. Gotta love Michigan weather.

Of course the delay in materials would have to be added to the mix. The pole barn place had all my lumber last week then thoughtfully sold it to someone else so everything that was supposed to be delivered today isn't here.

Yikes....another test to my patience.

No ribbons for Buck...yet.

Bummer, Buccaneer didn't get a ribbon today. He only got the gate. It was a tough class and wonderful competition. There were some beautiful boys there. He was a champ in my eyes. He behaved so well around all the other alpaca and all the people walking about. We got a lot of exposure and a lot of people looked at my boy...that was the point of it all. Buck and I survived our first show. Now we can say, been there and done that.



Next show is in Davidson in May.

Indiana Invitational

Wow! What a long day. We went to the show and found out that Buccaneer will be showing in the very last class of the show...Sunday afternoon. Saturday was an exciting day getting to watch friends show their alpaca and just getting to roam around the expo meeting people. I took Buccaneer out a few different times to let him walk around. He is being such a good boy even though his is showing his dominance with the Sahalie boys. Tom and Denise Sowles have been complete angels helping me get my show career going.



Well, I am off to day two of the show. Wish my boy luck!

Buccaneer's Big Break, Yeah baby!

I am so excited. The Indiana Invitational in Fort Wayne begins tomorrow. Denise Sowles, Sahalie Suri, is going to take him down and let him stay in her pens. It's going to be my first show EVER! and Buccaneer's first show EVER! Yeee Haaaa! It was so hard to take him to Denise's house this morning. I won't have my boy here all weekend long. I can't wait to drive down to the Fort and be with him tomorrow. I have no clue when I will be showing him but the excitement is there!

I also FINALLY closed on the mortgage refi so that we can build our bigger barn. This has been in the works since January but through the wonderful economic crud, our mortgage took FOREVER to close. Funds get cut next week and hopefully we can start building the following week. HOORAY! The excavation guys are coming on Monday to get the land ready. YEEE HAAA!

I also bought a horse trailer today. Now I can cart the alpaca around without having to lift the heeve hoo into the Pilot. It needs a new paint job but other than that...it's mine!

Ok, tomorrow night I should be full of stories.

HOORAY!