Having run irrigation on the newly mown hay field this week it soon became apparent that the irrigation ditches were in need of some TLC (tender loving care).

This morning we set about cleaning out the ditches and of course having run water all day Monday and Tuesday they were kind of wet and muddy...so it was very important not to let the tractor slip in while ploughing (plowing for my American readers) the ditches.

Just as you should never think about the bunker in golf - you should never think about the ditch.....as it will draw you in like a magnet..



I jumped off - but I think there was little chance it would roll over, still...better safe than sorry.

Of course Macario thought it was hilarious and only stopped laughing when I tried to take his picture...



The tractor was rescued by the Expedition which when in 4 wheel drive low ratio will pull just about anything... a lesson learnt.

On those rare occasions when there isn't anything urgent or important and you get the chance to hang out with some of the alpacas then you remember why you were taken under their spell in the first place.



Even though there is masses of fresh grass the alpacas always like to chow down on some hay at the end of the day and working on the basis that a little of what you fancy does you good I make sure they can get hay if they want it.





In fact this alpaca is so special she may just tempt me into the show ring later this year.....time will tell....what am I saying...when am I ever going to have time to do halter training.....??

Isn't it always the way you watch and wait then as soon as you go into town for an hour or so the mun delivers her new cria. Its almost like they stand there waiting for you to go.

By the time we arrived home the baby was safely delivered and on his feet and Southern Cross had passed the placenta intact. The new boy was feeding just fine and enjoying the summer sunshine.



Southern Cross is black with a white beard and she was mated to Juan Pablo who is pure white so I was hoping for a white girl...in my wildest dreams... What actually arrived is a lovely brown boy with a white beard...fascinating really as that is just the same color pattern as Latte who is another Southern Cross progeny. Who was sired by El Toro (from Chile) so no genetic connection to Juan Pablo.

The new arrival is feeding at regular intervals and we have given his navel a good spraying so all is well on the alpaca farm ....... as always the remainder of the herd are fascinated by new arrivals.

At long last the replacement part for the irrigation is at Ewin Irrigation - the solid 5/8ths diameter plastic shaft has now been replaced by one of solid machined steel. the part was replaced under warranty thank the Lord - because the shipping alione ws $80 !!

Talk about industrial strength...the new part went on quite well and I even managed to discover more about the irrigation wheel - which I thought I knew like the back of my hand.

The irrigation is now running again and not before time it has been so dry and hot and we have been able to irrigate for over a week now.

Alpaca cria watch continues and Southern Cross looks like she is about ready to deliver judging by her size and behavior - tomorrow could be the big day.

We are still on cria watch for a new arrival courtesy of Southern Cross.
You can of course never be truly be certain with the breeding dates and we always err on the side of safety and use the earliest possible date of conception in order to accurate predict the birth date.

Juan Pablo is a full Accoyo grandson of the great Vengador who was one of the foundation male at Pacific Crest Alpacas and who sired hundreds of blue ribbon and championship offspring alpacas.

Juan Pablo has classic Accoyo type, is extremely dense, and has beautiful crimpy, soft handling fleece measuring 21.4 microns at three years of age. His grandsire on the Dam’s side is Accoyo’s King.

Southern Cross is a very ordinary black female alpaca so we will see what emerges.........

No news on the alpaca front I thought our alpaca Southern Cross was going to have a cria this morning but it turned out to be a false alarm. Still the day is not over yet and my alpacas pay scant regard to the rule about always birthing before noon.

I am assuming the female alpacas Latte is now pregnant to Conman. But will do one more spit test before doing an ultrasound exam. In fact I will probably get the vet to bring the ultrasound when she comes to examine Southern Crosses new cria and draw blood for IgG testing which ensures the new alpacas immune system is up to scratch and of course a few drops of blood for the ARI DNA testing and registration.

The hay is now all dry and yesterday afternoon we got it baled.

News from Peru: In the first half of the year alpaca fiber exports from Arequipa increased 30 percent, compared to the same period in 2007, totaling sales of 800 million dollars, the president of the Peruvian Institute of Alpaca and Camelids (IPAC), Mauricio Chirinos Chirinos, stated today..

Alpaca fiber exports and Value Added products such as garments and accessories are the main items exported to Asia. The European market is another main consumer, Chirinos said.

Alpaca fiber volume exports are expected to increase 12 percent by the end of the year based on the interest of Asians and Europeans in garments made with this material. The APEC meeting held in Arequipa allowed other Asian and European countries to get to know alpaca fiber, its production and processing, resulting in an increase in demand.”

Meanwhile back in sunny southern Oregon the fruit trees are all starting to produce fruits which is something of a miracle given my past experience with fruit growing.

Okay the holiday is over it was great fun but we are now back at the alpaca coal face, so to speak.

Still no sign of the replacement part for the irrigation wheel which broke on the 3rd of July and which I thought was on order but turns out they couldn't find the part number for so had waited three days.....but even then I had to call them to find out what was going on... hard to believe people who work for an irrigation company have so little sense or urgency when it comes to broken irrigation equipment!

The electric gates had stopped working when we used the remote controls in the cars and so an investigation of the system was in order. When I flicked the cover off the radio receiver it was totally full of ants and ant eggs....the problem was obvious. So the ants are now dead and I am hoping that once I vacuum them all out of there then everything will return to normal..



The weather is very warm and into the high 80's so the alpacas are all sheltering under the shade of a tree. Still no sign of a cria from Southern Cross but she is starting to look like a new arrival could be here any day.



Of course once we have a new baby alpaca then I have to try and remember all the people who said they wanted me to call them once it had arrived. I really should keep a list of some sort.

Well that's the big day over for another year and its amazing just how quickly these days come around.
I spent the morning taking down the flags and other bits and pieces from the day before. I must have somehow erased some of the pictures I took of yesterdays party and the very talented Marimba player...oh well c'est la vie.

The parade really was exceptional this year and I spent far more time clapping and waving than taking photographs.



I was hoping we would get the hay baled today but it looks like being very late Sunday or even Monday before we will get it out of here. Which is a something of a shame as I was expecting to run the hay field irrigation on Monday and Tuesday but that is quite impossible if there are hay bales in the field.

Hopefully the replacement part for the irrigation will be in on Monday so we can get the unit back up and running...how it broke I will never know - it is very unusual and I can only think that one of the farm hands has broken it somehow...but no obvious explanation. And that's another good reason to get the hay out of here as once the part is replaced on the water wheel all the tubing has to be pulled out so that the winding mechanism can be reset.

the alpacas are starting to feel the heat and enjoy nothing more than being hosed down with a cold stream of fresh well water - they just love it!

Yep its Independence Day here in the USA and what could be more nostalgic than a London Bus in the Ashland 4th of July Parade.......



The local children loved hoping on and off the bus as it made its regal way along the parade route....headed for Victoria Station.......

Hope your day was as good as mine.....Southern cross is still hanging on to her cria so no new news on that front.

Very hard to get going today as I am still feeling the effects of yesterdays road trip. But there is no rest in the alpaca farming game. We have had contractors in painting the house exterior for the last two weeks and their work has now come to a end thank goodness.

The hay is starting to dry out very quickly now so I do hope we can get it bailed straight after the glorious 4th of July. I could say I am in the hands of the gods on that one but the truth of the matter is that I am in the hands of John Pierson the local contractor who cuts and bails all of our hay.

Latte who I brought from Portland yesterday, has settled straight back in with the other alpacas in the herd and its just like she was never away. Southern Cross her mother is due to have a cria this weekend so I will be on cria watch from the 6th of July onwards.

When I was driving up to Portland yesterday I was overtaken by Bill Schweitzer and his mother. Bill is my most recent alpaca client and is now busy upgrading his fencing and creating a building to house his new alpacas which are still here at Mulberry Alpacas. Then if I didn't go and bump into them in Cost Co this morning while stocking up on goodies for July the 4th.....its a small small alpaca world.

Oh well must keep going I better go get out the flags and start hanging them up for tomorrow.

As quickly as they arrived the storm warnings have now been lifted and so its time to mow that hay field.......there was talk of a crop circle forming but John Pierson got here with his mower and two hours later it was leveled.



This is a shot looking along one of the rows with the grass still standing on the left and the newly mown grass on the right....the grass dries out and then we can call it hay. But I bet you knew that anyway...didn't you?

I have kept hay out all year this year and it fascinate me that there are times when the alpacas prefer the hay to fresh pasture. I don't discourage this eating of hay as I am sure it helps to keep their stools firm. But thats just my theory.

Off to Portland and back via Grants Pass in one day tomorrow so I need to gas the truck and prepare the trailer. Everything has to be connected and set up as i want to be on the road no later than 5am tomorrow so there is no opportunity to start sorting things out in the morning.

Here is my trailer preparation check list;

Tire pressures including spare.
Safety chains
Electrical connections (lights indicators etc)
Emergency brakes
Battery for cooling fans and closed circuit TV
Halters and lead reigns
Temporary fencing (in case of breakdown)
Alpaca first aid kit
Fresh water
Fresh pellets
Hay
Wheel jack
Tire iron
Instant tire repair.
Road flares
Torch (latern as Americans call it)
AAA membership and cell phone

I am not totally sure if it is possible to have a Hurricane in the Pacific North West but whatever we had last night came pretty close and we saw it come speeding up the valley then slam into the house. A combination of very strong winds, wild rain and an electrical storm thrown in for good measure. My daughter tells me that Hurricane is from the Mid-16th century. Via Spanish Taino hurakán "god of the storm" - laptops and Google where would we be without them?

Luckily we only suffered minor damage to some of the older trees so no real harm done.



Just as well we didn't mow yesterday.....

Just as I was getting my hopes up that we would be able to mow the hay field today I heard that there are storm warnings for Saturday, Sunday and Monday so that puts grass cutting on hold. Its been bad enough having to wait this long for a decent stretch of good weather but it would be very disappointing to mow the grass and then have it get wet...so once again we find ourselves waiting.

The real problem with these unexpected delays is that I have skipped irrigating for almost a month now so that the hay field would be dry and easy to cut. Now it is totally parched and I fear the quality might be below its usually high standard.

Time to keep one eye on Southern Cross who is due to deliver in the next few days and one eye on the weather forecasts, fingers crossed.

As usual I was busy minding my own business just assuming that the irrigation was doing its stuff on the alpaca pastures when I noticed the pump had shut off. This usually means that the last filter is full of weeds - but today as I restarted the pump and a gusher shot skywards I realised it meant the high pressure hose had failed and while I was tempted to run and take a picture of the spectacle I opted to fix the problem.

Fortunately like most major parts that are likely to fail time and bitter experience has told me to keep parts close to hand. Its ironic really because even the local dealer is dreadful at stocking parts which are bound to fail every season.

Thinking about it more I guess its just a great way of reducing inventory and pushing the cost and responsibility of stocking parts onto the farmers... well that's enough speculation on the motivations of irrigation companies.

I am going up to Portland on Wednesday to collect two female alpacas one of my own called Latte and another for a friend so I need to find out exactly where the second animal has to be delivered to as i will be just a bit bushed after 12 hours of interstate driving with a trailer. Speaking of which I better make a note to prep the trailer on Tuesday.