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2009 Postings


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January 2009

Weanling's Day Two

Date: Wednesday January 07, 2009

Day two of the weaning of Bob and Ben. Well, it is snowing today. When I arrived for the morning feeding I noticed the two boys sitting at the gate, covered in snow. Refusing to join the boys in the shed.

I gave them some high calorie grain to keep them warm and as usual, put hay in the two bays of the boys shed. By the time I had finished chores I noticed that Giles had positioned himself in such a way that the two youngsters were unable to get close to the bucket. He had the entire doorway blocked and would turn and scold at them if they tried to come near. They would saunter off back toward the gate.

I grabbed another flake of hay and headed back out to the boys shed. This time I moved the bucket just outside the door, so there was access around the bucket. This was a rookie mistake. You see, you MUST allow for at least 1 1/2 alpaca lengths around a bucket, otherwise one alpaca can use their front and back for taking over feeding time. Bob and Ben ran back to the hay feeder and now I see them happily taking part in feeding time with the rest of the boys. Another good day!

Weaning

Date: Tuesday January 06, 2009

Ahhh, weanlings. Sometimes I wonder if weaning is harder on the weanling or harder on the farmer. Listening to their pittiful cries or watching them pace when they are due for a snack is at times heartwrenching, but something that has to be done. I always have felt this process is more difficult for the boys than it is for the girls. The boys not only are weaned, but are exposed to a new group of alpacas and they have to find their place in the pecking order and develop new releationships. Which brings me to the story of Ben.

We have a beautiful junior herdsire, Wawiobwan, who is being 'weaned' for his third time now. He is far from a macho, at just over 1 1/2 years old. The first time we put him in with the older boys he paced the fencline day and night whining for his mom (Clover). Through sleet, snow and freezing rain he stood out in the paddock, stoic, waiting for me to give in. We tried to use feeding time as a way to bring him closer to the rest of the boys in the group. He refused to leave the fenceline so we would feed him in that area, away from the rest of the boys. Eventually we brought his bowl closer and closer to the group feeding area hoping he would catch on and develop some sort of bond with the other guys.

During this time we monitored his health and weight. Many weanlings will lose weight during this stressful time. It is to be expected. Unfortunately Ben lost too much weight during the stress of this weaning period that we put him back in with the females. He was not showing any interest in doing the things that boys would do, so we knew it would be okay to mix him with unbred females.

By this time his mom's milk had dried up so he was officially not nursing and technically weaned. But we knew at some point he would have to go back in with the big boys.

Well, that time has come. Luckily we had another little boy on our farm that Ben has bonded with, Bob. Today I put Ben and Bob in the boys paddock to a much different experience. You see, where Ben is the soft spoken momma's boy, Bob is a terror. From the day he was born he was all boy all the time. Harrassing everyone and everything. Quite the go-getter. Sparring between he and Ben is entertaining and a daily occurrence. Very wild kingdom without the blood curtling screams. Just playful.

This time the experience of separating Ben from his mom seems to be a little better. The moment I put them in the pen with the big boys, Bob and Ben kicked up their heels and ran around exploring their new environment. Once that was over, Bob went and picked on every male in the paddock, running full speed, gaining air time and checking them full force. Which is typically retaliated by a large ball of spit and scolding from the victim. Ben seemed less interested in where his mom was and I even caught him heading down to the boys shed to get to the hay feeder. We will continue to monitor his weight in the coming days and if he starts to drop we will come up with a special feeding routine to keep the calories coming in. But I have good feelings this time around.

Progress

Date: Monday January 05, 2009

After what seems like forever, we have finally made some noticeable progress on the barn. Noticebale in that the one thing everyone notices is that we haven't had our siding up yet. Friends and family kept asking "When is that siding going up?" What they were unable to realize is that we had a number of other projects we felt the need to get done before snow began to fall and pile up.

Our rough cut pine boards arrived on site in early spring. They were milled by our favorite local mill and delivered to the site. Paul and Joe stayed and helped us sticker and stack the siding. The boards were freshly cut and milled so we had to give them time to dry. Unfortunately we experienced an extremely wet spring and summer, so it took much longer than we would have hoped. Once the boards were below the correct percent moisture (I believe that magic number was below 13%) we began the staining. The staining was accomplished using a paint sprayer. For this first coat the sprayer was fine. Coverage is lacking and we had planned on needing a second coat once the boards are all installed. Using the sprayer used less paint than if we had used brushes or rollers to coat the boards, thus in the end saving us a bit of money on this step.

Well, during the fall we spent our nights and weekends spraying the siding with the stain. Then hanging it to dry. We also managed to install the stairs to the second floor. This is fantastic. No more climbing the ladder to get to the hay storage!

In November we completed some much needed structural work to the roof. Seems that last years snow, one of the largest snow fall amounts we had experienced up here, indicated we may have underengineered our roof beams. In just a couple days worth of work during the month of November, Steve and I installed new LVL beams and strengthened the roofline. We are ready for the snow this year! Having completed those tasks (among many others that are not significant enough to mention) we had finally come to a point where we can get that siding up.

After a few days of prep work we can finally say the siding has begun. The girls were thrilled to get to into the barn and find at least one wall was nearly complete. It is funny how they react to new spaces. The first thing the alpacas wanted to do when we let them in was to begin a dust bath party. It seems that when one goes - they all go.