Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a healthy & prosperous New Year!




Oreo visited the girls this morning to say hello. Trellianna was the first to meet and greet!



Giada Nera is getting bigger every day.

Ambriel's Giada Nera

We finally came up with a name for the cria. Her name is Giada Nera which is Italian in origin and means black jade.

The cria is doing extremely well. I had separated mother and daughter for a few days so they could bond. I finally let them intermingle with the rest of the herd yesterday afternoon and everyone got along just fine. The cria made sure she stayed real close to mom.

Lucia says, "Don't worry kid, I'll protect ya!"

Santo Standing Guard

A New Addition

We have a new addition on the farm. Argento, our silver girl, gave birth this morning around 11:00 am. I had checked on the girls earlier and everything seemed fine. I went to the post office and when I came back I saw the cria nursing. I had Argento pegged for an October 20th delivery however, last year the cria came three weeks early. So, I was suspecting she might give birth early this year as well and lo and behold she did on gestation day 333. The cria is a true black female weighing in at 16 lbs. I don't have a name as of yet but I do have a few pictures.







She is a spitting image of her daddy Massimo who is pictured below:

We were hoping for silver as Massimo's sire was silver but it's a female and she's healthy. Plus, alpaca breeding is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!

Snow!

And lots of it. A freaky snow storm came in overnight from the south. Don't ask me how that happened but it did. I'm sure Al Gore can explain it!


It dumped 8" of snow in about 9 hours. This morning I had to shovel the driveway and an area of the lawn so the little dogs could do their business. Their tiny heads would have been peeking out of the snow had I let them out.


The big dogs loved it though, and as I traipsed through the field to head down to the barn they came frolicking up to greet me.


When I got to the barn all the alpacas were nice and dry. They were all happy to see me because they knew I would give them some sweet feed.




I snapped a few more pictures and then made my way back to the house.


I decided to build a snowman in case the grandkids came out. At first I was wondering what the heck a 54 year old is doing out here. After all, I am in my heart attack years! But it soon turned into happy memories when I was a kid growing up in Fairfield, CT. Tara kept opening up the front door tossing me items for the snowman like a carrot, buttons and a scarf. I let her handle the designing. There's no telling what I would come up with!

It's a Winter Wonderland!

While the northern U.S. was getting pummeled with blizzard conditions, today we had our first snowfall as well. Although this wasn't bad, it's enough to make you stay indoors.

The dogs and alpacas didn't seem to mind as they were out most of the day. But it was Sunday, so NFL football kept me busy and I even cooked me a burger outside on the BBQ grill. Tara thought I was nuts. I told her I was tailgating!

While I was waiting on my burger I took a picture and a video.

Trellianna Has a Cria

And his name is Toscano. That's three males in a row for Trellianna. Not that there's anything wrong with that but, we'd like to get a female out of her at least once! He was born last Friday, October 29th around 8:30am. It was a normal birth and Toscano weighed in at 17lbs. Mom and cria are doing well. Here are some photos below:

"Toscano"

"Trellianna with her cria"

"Small, Medium & Large"

Today I bred Thorello to our newest foundation female Pearlie Girl.

Pearlie - Loves to eat!

Thor - Becoming quite the Stud!

I also bred Massimo to Argento and I will field test both of them in a couple of weeks.

Intoducing Augusto!

I took the dogs outside at 7:30 this morning and looked down towards the barn to put my eyeballs on Aurora who is a bit overdue to give birth. I saw her strolling outside the barn door looking normal, and all the girls were in and around the barn as well. They haven't come out to graze yet so I went ahead and poured me a cup of coffee and turned on the TV. I'm sitting in the kitchen drinking my coffee and it's now 8 am and Tara peeks out the window and says, "Do you know you have a baby outside?" I said, "No way!" And she said, "What's that cria next to Santo? It's not Rosetta 'cause she's over there!" I looked outside and sure enough there's Santo laying right next to the cria, just the two of them and nobody else. I said "oops, I'd better get out there."

So, I went to check on the little one and pulled off some of the dried membrane still attached to his fleece. Aurora saw me and came over to voice her displeasure that I was messing with her baby. At this point I checked the cria out, saw it was a male, looked strong and healthy, then he went to nurse with mom so I left the two alone.

I went to the barn to arrange the stalls and gates so Aurora and cria can have alone time to bond for a few days. They have their own separate pasture and barn stalls where they can see the other alpacas, I just don't want the animals all together just yet.

Tara came down to the barn and said that's Augusto! Which is Italian in origin which means magnificent, majestic. He's a bit on the small side weighing in at 13 pounds although the gestation period was 355 days. We'll keep an eye on him although right now everything looks normal. He's nursing, active and alert.

My guess is Aurora had the cria around 6:30 this morning in the barn. He followed everyone out around 7:45, walked about 300 feet and kushed near the rest of the herd. Santo laid down beside him to protect him.

Here's a couple of pictures from this morning: