It's Breeding Season..........

We are expecting a cria this month from "Sammie" and we just bred Trellianna to Doc's Golden Leopard or "Doc" for short. Doc is a large boy, Dark Rose Grey in color with great fiber and conformation plus Peruvian Don Julio in his bloodline. Trellianna is also a big girl and we're hoping for a big boned animal possibly silver grey. However, alpaca breeding is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get!

Below is a picture of the happy couple hooking up and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we have a girl 345 days from now.

Nearing the Finish Line!

Jim and I are rounding third base and looking for home. We built the door frames for the barn and we're waiting for the oak to air dry and shrink up a bit before we face the front of the doors with it.


Here's a photo of one of the two decked areas in the main barn.


Meanwhile, we got busy framing the bathroom on the smaller building and the rough-in was finished today. The oak boxing is being cut at the sawmill and should be ready to pickup in a couple of days. That will go up fast. We'll start running the electric tomorrow to have lighting and outlets for both structures.


We also have two new additions to our farm in the form of Maremma LGD's. The Maremma is an American version of the Italian name "Maremmano-Abruzzese". A Maremma is a livestock guarding dog, bred in Italy for centuries to guard large flocks of sheep on the plains and in the mountains. The Maremma originally lived day and night with its flock, and its white coat mimics the coat of the sheep in its flock. It was bred to take responsibility for keeping the flock safe from 4-legged predators, primarily the wolf, and from 2-legged thieves; and kept proficient at its job by frequent life-and-death battles with the wolves.

We named the male Santo and the female Lucia. It's a play on my mothers' maiden name which is Santa Lucia! They are not quite 5 months old and Santo is close to 70 lbs. while Lucia is smaller at around 50 lbs. They are settling in nicely here at the farm and there is no doubt in our minds that they will be proficient at keeping our animals safe from predators.

Here's Tara sandwiched between Santo (left) and Lucia (right):

Tara Goes Bush Hogging!

The field is getting tall and it's time to do some bush hogging. A bush hog, for those of you from New York, LA or Mars, is the term used for a large rotary cutter mower pulled behind a farm tractor. With it, you can purge your land of brush and weeds up to the thickness of your forearm.

Think of it as a lawnmower on a massive dose of steroids. It will cut through grass, weeds, brush, and saplings up to 3-1/2″ in diameter.

Like most farm equipment, they’re not especially safe, so you can also rid yourself of your forearms and other appendages if you’re not careful!

Tara loves to bush hog (she says it's relaxing and peaceful). Looks like a lot of work to me! I snapped a couple of photos for posterity.

Going Batty!

Today we finished the trim around the door frames and also on the front gable end. We had time to start the bat boards and got about 1/2 a shed side done. It's going up fairly easily so it should go fast. Friday will be a half day working because we're celebrating our son Kris' birthday in the late afternoon with a barbeque. We'll be throwing the shindig (where else) in the barn!

I have posted some pictures below after today's progress:

The Cupola is Up!

The cupola has found its home on top of the roof. And what a bugger that thing was. I'll just leave it at that! At least now we know how to assemble it so, if there ever is a next time we'll know what to do!

The gable trim and ridge caps are finished on both structures. We also started the trim work and finished the four corners and rear wall on the barn with the oak trim.

You'll see the updated pictures below:





Oh...... I forgot....... the fencing material is in.............. So I've got that going for me!