FIVE!

Guess what we have?  Go ahead...guess!

There are FIVE of them!  Did you guess what they are?  From the sounds of them, they sound like a bunch of howler monkies but they are five baby raccoons 5-6 days old.   Their eyes and ears are not open.  Their little ears are just beginning to flip out from their head and their eyes hopefully will open any time.  I've never had 5 at one time so little before.  I usually get 1-3 and then further in the season I'll get 1 or two (5 years ago I had 16 babies at one time - but most were a couple of months old and didn't require bottle feeding).

In the mean time, we are back on baby patrol.  They are doing great, eating from a nurser well, doing their business well and often and screaming like crazy.  So far they only get up once in the night to be fed - usually between midnight and 2 AM and I am on the night shift and early morning shift.

After feeding I rub their head and neck and they pur like kittens.  I love that sound!  The screaming I could do without.  Hopefully once their eyes are open they will settle down a little.

We weren't really prepared for them this year (you know the Big D and all that nonsense) so we scrambled and got together what we could find and made due until Monday when I could go get new nursers and kitten formula.  They like the nurser a lot better than the dropper.

Both kids are excited to have babies this year and are a big help in taking care of them.  They get the afternoon shift after school and go a great job!

Now if we can just get them out of the howler monkey stage ;-0)

Save The Date

Saturday, May 1 you are invited to attend 2010 Shearing Day!  It will be held at the old lumber yard (traditional arts building area over by the county annex).  Whispering Pine Alpacas will be there to be sheared and my llamas and alpacas will be there to be sheared.
Come say hi.  You can learn the difference between the Llama and Alpaca, pet them both, visit with some spinners and weavers and we will be doing some other fiber demonstrations like wet felting and needle felting.
Come by 10:00 and see my kids and animals in the Brown County Spring Blossom Parade and then wander over to the shearing event.  There will be lots of other things going on in BC that day so I'm sure you can find something to do.
Come see Patrick, Jack, Ted, Sidney, Xanchoo and Peach!

This is Patrick - my shy boy.  He is also my biggest Alpaca.  He has an aswesome fleece!  So Soft and when you love on him, you just want to bury your face in him he is so soft.

Here is Ted (Teddy Bear).  You can come hear him "sing".  He is very vocal and has a lot to say.  Hmmm
Ted will also eat out of your hand so we will have some treats available for you to share with him (and the others).

This is Sidney, after she went through the sprinklers and in need of a brush out.  She is my mama Llama (mom to Peach and Xanchoo).  I'm hoping that she is with cria now and if she is she will be due sometime in July or August.

This is Jack (I call him Hippy Jack or Jack Jack).  His "bangs" are in his eyes most of the time.  He is a Suri Alpaca so you can see the difference in the two breeds of Alpacas when you visit.  He is a bit high strung too so you may be able to pet him or maybe not.

The boy child and Xanchoo.  Xanny is just 2 years old and is my youngest.  He still has a lot of spunk in him.  Last year during show season, he did very well taking first place in several events. Of course he had a very good handler last year and I'm hoping the same person will handle him this year - he needs it.

Last but not least we have Peach and the girl child.  Peach is my biggest Llama (tallest).  I sometimes have a hard time getting her halter on if she doesn't want it on as she sticks her nose up in the air and it makes it hard to reach.

So there you have it, your formal invitation to shearing.

The Princess Has A Birthday

So today the Princess turns 14!  Yes, I begin and end my week with my children turning another year older.

Here she is with Holly her alpaca (who sadly passed away a year ago this past December ;-0( )  Holly was a real character, she liked to compete in the PR events during the fair because she liked to dress up and show off.  She did not like showmanship because it was boring.  She did like obstacles because she got to run and jump over things, she tolerated pack class and liked the water hazard the best because she could lay down in it.  We miss her a lot.

Anyway, 14 years ago today I was lounging around St. Vincent hospital waiting for the Princess (or Lula Bell as I call her) to make her appearance.  She DID NOT want to be born!  She was born on a Tuesday evening (almost Wednesday) and I had been induced with her the day before at 9:00 AM.  Yes, she took her sweet time!

My parents came from Iowa to be with me and my friend Beth was there too and everyone kept coming in to entertain me for the day.  The doctors and nurses kept coming in to see how things were moving along, and they weren't.  At one point, they said that they needed to make a decision because she was in distress (this freaked me out).  I guess that was the motivation she needed because things started to progress a little faster after that.  It was still several hours before she was actually here I think total of 38 hours from the time they started to induce until she finally made it out.  Can you say STUBORN?  Not much has changed and I have NO IDEA where she gets it from - must be from her dad's side of the family ;-0)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LULA BELL!