I love the start of a new year….the feeling of starting all over again with a clean slate, the optimism that anything is possible.
This year that is more true than usual. You see, I was blessed enough to be able to retire at the end of 2013. After almost 34 years with the same company, they made me an offer that I could not refuse :). To be able to start over so to speak with a whole new direction is more exciting than I can say and something that I never thought would happen.
So to start things off, let me bring you all up to date on all the animals we added to the ranch last year that I did not have the time to blog about.
This is Independence, or Indy for short. She was born on 11/14 after a very quick labor. I barely had time to make it out to the pasture before she was on the ground. Those are the types of labor we like.
Indy with her Mom Malibu, and sister Muse in the background. I coated Indy after her birth as it was a cool day and alpaca moms do not lick their babies dry the way cows do…I did not want her to catch a chill.
We have since rebred Malibu to Indy’s sire, Toulouse, in the hopes of getting another lovely light rose grey cria.
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| Toulouse |
And here is Indy greeting our Lama Dolly.
All of these pics were taken within a few hours of Indy’s birth…it is amazing to me how quickly they get on their feet and get going but when you look at the fact that Alpacas have no defenses from predators other than to run, it makes a lot of sense.
These are our 3 new boys who have joined us to either be herd sires or fiber boys…it is too soon to tell which way we will go.
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| Orlando |
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| Tuffy & Tango |
Angus and Scout, our Appaloosas
And last, but certainly not least, is Adam, our new Great Pyrenees guardian dog and Belle’s new mate.
There is so much to say about Adam that it will need to wait until a later post.
Until then, I wish you all a very Happy New Year!
Diana