After the Blog entry yesterday on Alpaca Tax Savings one or two people have e-mailed in to ask if I am correct in saying the Section 179 is still available. Yes it is.

Well here are the details to answer that question and please feel free to cut and paste any of this into an e-mail to send to your accountant.

President George W. Bush Signs Bill and Extends Section 179 Deductions
On May 25, 2007, the President signed into law H.R. 2206, the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007.
This Act extends the benefits of Section 179 until 2010 and increases the maximum annual deduction from $112,000 to $125,000 for purchases made in the financial year 2007.

The other piece of legislation that you need to be aware of is that the amount of annual cost additions that trigger a phase-out of the 179 deduction was increased from $450,000 to $500,000. This means the $125,000 limit is reduced by the amount by which the total cost of the property placed in service during the tax year exceeds $500,000. For a detailed description for the Section 179 deduction, see IRS Publication 225, "Farmer's Tax Guide", Chapter 7.

This time of year, as we approach the end of the tax year is an excellent time of year to be buying alpacas. Depreciation of alpacas, and especially the IRS Section 179 deduction, provide great opportunities to save a significant amount of dollars.

Between now and December 31, 2007 is the very best time to purchase alpacas. Using the Section 179 deduction to offset your earned income for this year you can have the government provide a 40% discount on newly purchased alpacas. Of course, the exact discount depends on which tax bracket you are in.

The Section 179 deduction is still available and you can currently purchase $125,000 worth of alpacas and receive a $125,000 write-off on your tax return. Check with your accountant to make sure you will qualify before purchasing any alpacas.

Also at this time of year most of the females you purchase will already have been bred to Studs so your alpaca business will be getting off to a flying start. We always breed our females to Studmaster males who are part of the Ideal Alpaca Community so you will know exactly what to expect in terms of quality when the cria arrive next spring.

In addition, if you choose to finance your alpacas you may receive a cash refund from the IRS which can be used to help you purchase other assets needed for your alpaca breeding operatuion. Again check with your accountant to make sure you will qualify.

As we say here at Mulberry Alpacas:

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor (Financial) Performance.

The latest copy of Hobby Farms magazine which arrived today, this is the January/February issue....oh my goodness 2008 already in the world of magazine publishing. In the Livestock Q&A section on page 22 is a question on bottle feeding alpaca cria and ensuring they receive colostrum at birth. I only mention this because it also features a picture of my daughter pretending to bottle feed a cria...which we staged for the article.

I am so glad this week is over, everything I have touched has gone wrong in one way or another...... truly challenging.

A friend sent me through this picture of a jazzed up John Deere gator. This modified version must surely rank as one of the most pointless and useless vehicles in history.



Meanwhile in the farm office we have been linking our website to a farm with more alpacas than we have and we shall be doing some e-mail marketing on their behalf. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

The seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher took over from his taxi driver in order to make it to the airport in time for a flight, it has emerged.

Cabbie Tuncer Yilmaz watched in awe as the racing legend, 38, showed him how his job ought to be done.

"I found myself in the passenger seat, which was strange enough, but to have 'Schumi' behind the wheel of my cab was incredible," Mr Yilmaz told German newspaper the Muenchner Abendzeitung.

Schumacher, who lives in Switzerland, had flown in to an aerodrome near Coburg, Bavaria, on Saturday and taken a taxi to Gehuelz to pick up a new Australian Shepherd puppy.

On the 30km (19 mile) return journey, however, Schumacher felt they were short on time, and made a polite request to Mr Yilmaz that he be allowed to take over.
Unsurprisingly, and perhaps with a view to bettering himself professionally, the driver did so.
With his wife, two children and new addition to the family Ed, the Australian Shepherd pup, on board, Schumacher proceeded to put pedal to metal.
Famously, German autobahns have no blanket speed limits, so the driver was able to put the cab through its paces.

The retired champion gave the taxi driver a generous 100 euros (145 dollars) tip on top of the 60 euros fare.

I hear from the alpacawatch website that the upper respiratory infection aka the snots, which has plagued several alpaca farms this summer is now starting to slow and the number of new cases reported has fallen to a trickle. Not sure if this can be attributed to the cold weather that arrived or the declining public interest in these things once the initial excitement is over.

The weather here today was much warmer so the heating was off and the doors open (slightly) ...a stark contrast to earlier in the week when I was huddled round the fan heater cursing Oregonian winters...



Next Thursday my eldest son Jamie returns from his round the world adventure. It was his first long spell away from home and he has been gone almost 8 months so we will be very pleased to see him and Thursday of next week will be the shortest day of the year so after that the nights will be getting lighter...little by little. Here am I wishing the spring to hurry up and we haven't had Christmas yet....I think I better reset my expectations slightly.

For the first time this year the alpaca drinking troughs were frozen. How stupid am I not to have seen the frost warning and turned on the heaters. As it happens the main heater is broken for some reason so that had to be replaced but the other heater is working fine.

The pipe warmers are also on now so we have running water and can fill any number of water containers from that supply pipe.

The weather is mild here compared to other parts of the USA where the ice has been quite incredible. Lets hope it stays that way.

Yesterday I called in at Heart Felt Designs a new store in Red Bluff California to say hi to Irene Fuller and her two business partners. Together the three of them have established Heart Felt Designs.

The store is vast and on three levels. There is a cellar, ground floor and first floor. (Or as Americans prefer to say a basement, first floor and second floor).
Between each of the main floors is a smaller mezzanine level where they have felting areas and an alpaca yarn display area.






There is clearly masses of room for expansion and it is obvious that the three partners have worked very hard to get the place looking so attractive, the holiday season is also the shopping season so I wish them every luck with their new endeavour.

Today we are heading south to San Fransisco..... no flowers in our hair...well in fact not even any hair in my case....

On the way south we are calling in at Heart Felt designs a new retail venture in Red Bluff, California. Three enterprising souls have taken 10,000 sq feet of retail space and converted it into a huge alpaca retail space.

Today has been very wet and very cold here at Mulberry Alpacas. Very much a day for indoor chores and the writing of Christmas cards.
The latest version of Alpacas magazine arrived in the mail and to be honest I find it a disappointment, its like opening a copy of Vogue Knitting with page after page of alpaca clad models. Don't get me wrong the photography is good and the printing superb but this magazine goes to alpaca breeders not millions of potential yarn buyers...or even garment buyers....what is the point? I mean think about it, what is the point??

The regular features are there Marty McGee on handling alpacas , Wayne Jarvis on alpaca genetics, Julie Wassom on alpaca marketing. ... its all good stuff but where is the variety. Its like being in Ground Hog Day....

Now I am sure many breeders will enjoy this issue because it feels like the industry is vibrant and that alpaca fashion is booming....this is known in the trade as drinking your own bathwater do not do it! Take a look at the magazine and ask yourself what is the purpose of the magazine?

Frankly it has curiosity value to me but is of no real value....so I think maybe Camelid Quarterly will be getting my vote as the most useful breeders magazine.

Well having volunteered to deliver some alpacas back to my place for other breeders to collect it came as something of a nasty surprise to discover that one alpaca was not the right alpaca....if you know what I mean?



Still all is well that ends well and the farm responsible swapped the alpacas today so now everyone is happy I guess. Well maybe not the alpaca that just went 300 miles south to then go 300 miles north again...that would be very boring!

The rain has turned the ground quite soft and the alpacas are now coated in mud and look quite disgusting...it is that dreadful time of year...dirty alpacas and everyone trying to squeeze next years membership out of you...I think that this year several people will be looking at value for money and deciding to downgrade or even cancel some of their alpaca related memberships.

Time will tell.

Back on the farm today after two days away. Mac had kept an eye on everything and the place looks very good.

The weather is just beautiful for this time of year and such a relief after watching windshield wipers for 10 hours....



Well time to press on and get sorted through the backlog before my two fellow alpaca breeders start showing up to collect their fine breeding stock.

Tuesday morning and I am feeling just a tad fragile after an excellent evening with Al and Jude at Pucara, we were trapped in by flooding water and the occasional power cut so we sampled some local reds...and very enjoyable they were. Plus the local Portland basket ball team won by one point in the last 2.8 seconds of the game.

I am now heading over to Northwest Alpacas home of Mike Safley and the Ideal Alpaca Community....I have a handful of pregnant girls to collect and am then going to transport two girls to my farm for the Shultz family and two more for the Mahr family. Both breeders will swing by on Wednesday and collect their alpacas.

Mike is as energised as ever about the alpaca industry and as always in innovating new marketing techniques all the time....you have to admire the guy.

The journey home is uneventful and I finally unload the alpacas at about 9pm and I am well and truly tired out...the concentration required on these long journeys is a real drain.

Its an early night for me then up early tomorrow to try and catch up on the backlog of e-mails.

Well not quite but it was definitely raining cats and dogs as I headed north on I-5.
SW Portland where I was headed was totally flooded.
As i arrived at the farm Al came out in his truck and said " follow me across this lake but make sure you do follow me as there is a bridge under there and either side is the river....wind your window down then if you go in the river you will be able to climb out fast...."

I followed him very carefully and in a scene from bible two trucks and a trailer appeared to travel across the surface of a lake....

The next day the water levels had gone down dramatically and life was slowly returning to normal for some very wet alpacas...

This morning we were up early and off to meet a neighbour we don't know who has rescued two llamas. We were giving a demonstration / teach -in on how to cut llama toe nails. Fortunately for us the two llamas concerned were packing animals in a previous life and so were very easy to handle.

Everything went well and despite some gusting winds which always get alpacas and llamas excited the storm that was coming up the valley held off until we ere safely home and had wrapped ourselves around a hot cup of coffee.

This afternoon we will be working on the web site which is of course an ongoing process. Sometimes I call this business a labor of love but recently it has become more of an expensive mistress....

During the week a lady called to ask if she could have some alpaca poop and I said that would be fine and she should swing by.

She duly arrived and when I got to the poop pile it was empty!

Now clearly at some point in the past i have said to someone that they can come by anytime and if I am not around they should just help themselves... at the time I didn't imagine they would come by so frequently and with such enthusiasm.

Fortunately the lady was creating a compost pile and took away the grass clippings which we had been storing so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Now I really must find out who is rustling my alpaca poop!