Moving into launch position

With the the entire crew here lending a hand this past Monday, we made short work of herd health day. Though I had to take off around 2PM to fetch the kiddos from school, by the time I returned it was all done. Done! Though I can’t seem to put my finger on it exactly, somehow it all feels less burdensome then it sometimes did in years past. Perhaps I’m finally mellowing with age just a bit? Hope springs eternal. In any case, it’s always nice to have those mid-winter toenail sessions whipped out as quickly as possible. I have to say that all the moisture of the week leading into herd health also definitely made the work for us that were actually doing the nail trimming (my beloved was the other trimmer) a lot easier too. It was almost like all of the alpacas had just gotten out of a warm bath! And that was with a couple pairs of old, relatively dull trimmers. Our new sets of shiny (and sharp) nail trimmers arrived belatedly via USPS on Tuesday just in time for…nail trimming in May. Oh, well.

With herd health out of the way and our small trailer headed off later in the day to have some much needed and overdue work done on it, we took the opportunity yesterday to shift some animals around the farm. There was a small group of crias that were weaned from their dams at the Arena and brought down to join their peers at the Main Barn. Several of them are doing some major league thumb sucking today. I was just up at the Main Barn a little while ago and the general vibe there right now is whiney. Yes, Mariella honey, I promise that this too shall pass and no, I don’t have any milk, sorry.

We also took the opportunity to shift the Main Barn itself around a bit so that one side of the barn is now all males, with one group of juvenile weaners and another of yearling show boys, and the other side with the same age groupings but with all females (for those that haven’t been here before, the MB has an 8′ aisle running down the middle that splits it in two halves lengthwise). As long as the truck and trailer were already hooked up and running, we also brought the small group of older, mostly yearling, females that are rejoining the spring show strings down from the Arena as well. It was important that we get them off of the dry lot we have at the top of the hill and get them out running in the paddocks of the middle barn so that hopefully they can work some of the accumulated dust out of their fleeces before the shows come around.

We’re getting there. About 10 days from now the final juvis to join the spring show roster will be weaned and then the dye will be set for show season. Though we are not terribly fond of the “wean and show” routine where you are taking a brand new weaner into the ring, we figure that mid-March ought to give the little guys enough time to adjust. It also helps that virtually all of them will be going on the road with other youngsters that they’ve known since they were no older than a week or two. Regardless, it’s definitely going to be interesting. Roughly half of the animals at the Main Barn will head to the North American together, with the core of that group then turning around 10 days later and making the long trek to Kansas City for the Futurity.

Kimmy has already been round pen and halter training some of the rookies, though now she and Jennifer will tackle that group in earnest. Rumor has it they have ambitions of doing preliminary training at a pace of 4 new weaners each day. Yours truly, who is known to be wound a little tighter than his better half, will wait to step in only after there are some little ones that have the basics down and just need walking and repetition. “Let the wild rumpus begin!”

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