Garden

Donna and I put in a garden this year for the first time in quite a
while. Only about 6X12 but we're getting a lot of production so far. We
have tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, red peppers, cucumbers, and some
dwarf carrots.

We basically just used some of our composted alpaca manure on top of the ground, set the plants, added water and stayed out of the way. Picture
shows the first crop of green beans- we roasted these in the oven in a ginger/garlic/honey recipe we both really like and they were great.

Second picture shows a small garden plot we put up by the guest cabin. Donna's dad, sister and her sister's husband are staying with us this summer so they put out a few plants as well.

Next year, maybe we'll be a bit more ambitious and put in a larger plot.

Red Winged Blackbird

We have a new visitor to our bird feeders this year. A Red Winged

Red Winged Blackbird

Blackbird. We've seen these in the area before but haven't ever seen any
up at our place until now. Just go this one shot where you can just make out some of the markings on the wing.

Arthur and Aries Have Arrived

Can't believe it has been so long since I posted! A few weeks ago, we brought two new alpacas to the farm. Aries and Arthur. These two are half brothers (same father) and have been together for so long that they never go far from each other. They are both well over a year old but on the small side which we like. Arthur is super friendly, will walk right up to you for a kiss- Aries is shy but does fine once you get hold of him, lol.

More of these two later.

Paca Coats

We're supposed to have temps in the low 30's tonight so decided to put
coats on the pacas since they were just sheared. Here are a couple of
pictures- Donna made their coats last year and looks like she's going to
have to make a couple of new ones as the smallest coats just barely fit.
The guys seem to tolerate wearing them pretty well and hope they'll
appreciate them in the morning.

Plaques made with Trex

There are some pet and animal memorials I'm working on using the CNC
router. They're all from white Trex decking material- the black color
comes from a spray can of enamel paint. Working out the best way to
preserve the paint if these are left outdoors.

Shearing Complete

Here are a couple of pictures of the alpacas after they were sheared. We
plan to use the blanket fleece from each of the boys to make yarn. We
combined all the rest of the fleece from the legs, head, neck, etc.
together and will send it off to be made in to rug yarn like we've done
the last two years. We still haven't finished working on all the fleece
from last year so now we have 7 more blankets to work on!

Alpaca Shearing

Matt Best was here today to shear our alpacas, it's a quick process.
Arrived on site at 11:45 and was driving away at 12:45 after shearing 7
alpacas. Here are some pictures of Pepe getting sheared. Will do a
couple more posts with some shots of the crew after they were done.