Remodeling the Kitchen

Our friend David is coming this weekend to remove and replace an old propane line so we can move our propane fireplace from the dining room to the living room, and also to install a propane line for our new dual-fuel Jenn-Air range. Can't wait to try out the new grill!

21 Jan 2014 Update: The project was not as simple as we thought, and the range was finally professionally installed in July 2012. The grill was a mess to clean, and we stopped eating meat in May 2013, however, our Coleman cast iron griddle fits perfectly on the grill unit, and we now love it.

Introducing Our New Cria (baby alpaca)

El Chocolate Blanco Tesoro, (White Chocolate Treasure), was born about7:30 this morning, and weighed in at a hefty 25.4 pounds. His father, Fir Cove Chocolatey, is bay black (very dark brown), and his mother, Fir Cove Flo Jo, is fawn. Chocolatey has only sired one other white cria, and, in that case, the mother was white. Tesoro is tall and strong, has lots of very curly white fleece, and is every bit as adventurous as his big brother, Marco Polo. He's also quite photogenic, so do check out the slide show. Mama, Flo Jo, is more than happy to have her pregnancy over with. She was miserably hot and uncomfortable for the past several days, and she was very grateful when I put up the canopy in her barn yard this afternoon.

2009 Shearing

Wow! It's been a very long time since I've posted to this blog! Time flies whether you're having fun or not.


I finally got my poor, miserably hot animals sheared on Tuesday, June 16th. Good alpaca/llama shearers are few and far between. This year my friend Sue and I were fortunate enough to have Ann Kizer, an outstanding shearer from Northern Idaho, come to our farms. Ann drives a long circuit through the Pacific Northwest each spring. Since we got on her schedule rather late, we had to wait until her return trip from Oregon, but it was well worth the wait. We started with my herd about 9:30 in the morning, and then moved on to Sue's farm about 1:00 in the afternoon. Check out my album "2009 Jun 16 Shearing" for some "before and after" shots of my animals and Sue's.



Buddy, although quite elderly,
still looks very suave and debonair
with his special "guard llama" haircut.

More Pictures of the December 18th Snowfall

One of the red barberry bushes near our driveway.

Our Neighbors' House

A Zoom Shot of Our Neighbors' Bird Feeder

The Nightly News, Except It's (Very) Early Morning...

Today I cleaned the two 12x12 animal shelters, and removed the straw bedding that had been exposed to the flood water. In the east (boys) barn, the water had only covered about the front 3' of the floor, so even with some wicking, I was able to save more than half of the straw. The west (girls and Buddy the Llama) barn sits several inches lower, so it didn't fare so well. I had to remove all of the straw and the pelleted wood bedding beneath it. The rubber stall matting now needs to be removed before we can add another layer of crushed rock to raise the level of the floor about 6". The sheets of matting are 4' x 6' x 3/4" thick rubber from recycled tires, and they are mega-heavy. Bill and I together can barely drag them, so I didn't even try to get them out by myself. Two young men from our church are supposed to come over tomorrow (make that THIS) morning, and help us take care of those two chores. Since Bill works for the state, he has Monday (MLK Day) off, so we are planning to bring all of the animals home that morning by making three trips with our Honda minivan. I will post pictures of that adventure on Monday evening.

The Suave and Debonair Mr. Santiago Meets the Ladies of Rosie Borders

We had such a bright and beautiful morning today that I couldn't resist when Sue's beautiful little gelding, Santiago, wanted to join my boys in their pen, and get an "up close and personal" look at the lovely ladies he's been eyeing from afar.

The Girls were duly impressed, and (their llama companion) Buddy was predictably unimpressed, when Santi strutted his stuff for them. The word "gelding" doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary!

Praise the Lord... REALLY!

We are SO very greatful! The river crested more than a foot lower than it was predicted to, and two feet below what we experienced in Dec 2007. We had no water in our garage or laundry room or under our house this time. We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights at the Super 8 near Olympia, and had no way of knowing what was happening at home. I drove down on both Thursday and Friday to feed our animals at their foster farm, and on Friday morning I was able to drive almost to our house before the water stopped me. I parked next to the barricade, and hopped out with my camera. Here's a picture of the road that runs past our private drive just 700' north of our property. I was standing in about 1 1/4" of water when I took the photo, and could go no further in my little slip-on barn boots. Next time, (for we now know that there will most likely be a next time), I will take my knee high Wolverines along when I leave. I'm facing west here, so the end of our road is to the left just where the road curves. The county road takes a serious dip just after this tee, so it wasn't possible to enter our road from either direction at that time. I couldn't see our property from here, not even through the trees, but when we drove in on Saturday afternoon, judging from the muddy water line on the lawn, it appeared that the water had stopped at least 6' from the foundation all around the house, and perhaps as much as 8-10'. Things could definitely have been much worse. Here's a shot of the slough that runs through the property across the street from us and under the bridge I was standing on when I took the previous picture.

We plan to keep our animals at our friend's farm for at least another week or two. We have cleanup to do in the fields and the animal sheds need to be mucked out and power washed. Also, there's a chance the warmer weather that has returned will cause further melting of the snow in the mountains, and another round of flooding. Moving the animals is not fun for them or for us, so we'd rather err on the safe side than have another traumatic morning like we had last week. By the time I remembered to take pictures at the foster farm, it was late in the day, but here are a couple of shots of the boys getting reaquainted with their friends from last winter:

Here is our Marco, on the left, greeting Sue's boy Paco, who is a half-brother to Marco's mother, Flo Jo. Their mother was the late Tiger's Princess. Paco, formerly named Rocky was sired by Fir Cove Chocolatey, as was Ricky, shown below with Sue.

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In the shot below, Coco Puff, Charles, and Marco are eyeing the hay in the next stall. As you can probably see, Charles was pretty stressed.

Puff and Marco really do have eyes, by the way! About five minutes after I took this picture, Sue and I gave all three of them haircuts, much to their (and our) combined irritation and relief.

Here is Sue with Ricky.
The lighting was poor; he is almost white, and has inherited his mom's huge and beautiful dark eyes.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Here Come Da Flood--Again!

Wednesday morning, with the help of a church friend and his horse trailer, we transported our alpacas and llama to our friend Sue's alpaca farm that is only about 4 miles from our place, but is on much higher ground. That night, Bill, Sue, and I set up a 10x10 canvas gazebo in Sue's spare field to shelter a hay bin for the girls and Buddy (our guard llama). The boys were at the same farm during flood season last winter, and were excited to get reacquainted with their old friends. We checked into the Super 8 in Lacey (east of Olympia) about 10:00 Wednesday night. We needed to stay in the Olympia area so Bill would be able to get to work in case the freeway was closed.

Our home was still accessable on Thursday morning, so I spent about three hours there doing laundry and making sure the cats and the goldfish were prepared for our absence. When I left, about noon, the water had crossed our private road just south of our property, and was beginning to creep up from our back pasture fence. I helped Sue with the animals for a couple of hours, and then headed back to Olympia for the night.

The river crested about 2 am in our area, but is receding more slowly than we had hoped, so we plan to stay at the hotel for one more night, and check out Saturday morning. Since the crest was about a foot lower than the flood of Dec 4-5, 2007, it is unlikely water entered our garage and laundry room this time around, but we won't know until we get back to the house. We will definitely have some pasture cleanup to do, but unlike last year, we removed the feeders and water buckets before we left.

I'm leaving for Rochester in about half an hour, and will take my camera so I can post pictures of the pacas and Buddy at their foster farm this evening.