You know you really live on a farm when...

a stray cat leaves kittens in your barn. This is the type of thing that never happened to me when I was growing up in a house in a neighborhood. Random creatures taking up residence? How unusual, and fun! We once had a possum that liked to live on our porch eating our cats' food and sleeping in the cats' beds. But more on that another time.

One day in late June, we found 7 kittens on a shelf in our boys' barn. We did play with them, they were irrestistible. They also had fleas and were tiny so we found a box, put towels in it, put the kittens back in the box, and left some food and water for mom. Later momma cat did come back and she stayed in the box with them for a day or so. Then she moved the kittens. My children were heartbroken. We kept an eye out for them but never saw them again. Until...

About ten days later, I was having a conversation with our farm manager and we heard a loud meowing coming from under the machine shed. Out comes this adorable and very scraggly orange kitten. One of my girls had been telling me that she was dreaming of getting an orange kitten. Poof! Like at Disney World, wishes do come true!

We have been through a lot with this little one. We've had him since he was about 4 weeks old. His mom and littermates were never found. He's a hoodlum, decidedly naughty and wild, but he's now a part of the family. He should have made a terrific barn cat. He was practically born in a barn, but after enjoying life in air conditioning, he informs us that he is strictly an inside kitty and has no intention of being content with life "out there". So much for my allergies.

Note to self: buy stock in company that makes Claritin.

Gustav Brings Back That Old Feeling...

This morning I woke up with an unpleasant feeling in my stomach. It was that all too familiar feeling of being in the path of a hurricane. Since 1992, I have lived close enough to the water to be evacuating for hurricanes. We have been through all this with Hurricanes Andrew, Dennis, Ivan, and Katrina as well as some lesser known ones in South Florida. DH has about had it with the whole thing. I agree as being responsible for over 50 alpacas, 4 children, 8 dogs, 3 cats, and a rabbit is unbelievably stressful with a hurricane bearing down on you. We have had offers to help us evacuate the alpacas. THANKS so much. We will wait and see where the 3 day forecast puts Gustav. In the meantime I have to find evacuation places for the rest of the critters. The 6 Great Pyrenees are my biggest concern at this point.

To read about how we evacuated 42 alpacas and 4 Great Pyrs for Hurricane Ivan click here and go to the second half of the page. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

MagKenna Lei

Here is 4 month old MagKenna Lei. She is truly our pride and joy! Our first Magnum cria, and can you believe that she is black? I mean really black. (Magnum is fawn and her dam, Antigia, is grey) She has been shorn and it is growing in BLACK! When she was born I thought that we needed a very different name for her. I was walking through the room with a basket of laundry and heard Kelly Ripa tell Helen Hunt that she loved her daughter's name (On Regis and Kelly). My ears perked up. Her daughter's name is "McKenna Lei". She said that it meant "many flowers from Heaven". That did it, we changed it a bit to give Magnum credit for this little doll, but we got the idea from Helen Hunt.

Here's To Good Health!

"Nobody can be in good health if he does not have fresh air, sunshine, and good water."

~ Flying Hawk, Ogala Sioux Chief

Rainy Day on the Farm

Rainy Day on the Farm

Tropical Storm Fay dissipated into a Tropical Depression and just about missed us. Hooray! We are having quite a bit of rain though. Wet alpacas look kinda funny like fluffy dogs do when they get wet. Always good for a giggle.

Prepping for Tropical Storm Faye

Busy today preparing for a rainy weekend. Hubby has been tracking Faye since the beginning. Our favorite place to do this is noaa. Currently Faye has max sustained winds at 45MPH. She does seem to be leaving a lot of rain in her wake. Our ground is already saturated from a rainy summer, but we are high so I doubt we will have any bad flooding on our farm. Faye should be here this afternoon with the center of the storm coming around 4-6am.

I have gotten out the board games and am washing towels and sheets so I can let the kids help me fold later. We are all getting our computer time in early so we can unplug once the storm gets here. I have made rice krispy treats, always a huge hit at our house.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup clear Karo syrup
• 1 cup peanut butter (I use Peter Pan Plus to add vitamins)
• 6 cups rice crispies
• 12oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 12oz. butterscotch morsels


• Melt butterscotch chips, then add chocolate chips. I use a double boiler for this.
• Add sugar and Karo syrup to large saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring frequently, until it is clear and bubbles begin to form.
• Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in peanut butter.
• Stir in 6 cups rice crispies.
• Grease 13x9 pan. Spoon rice crispy mixture into pan.
• Spread the melted chocolate mixture over the rice crispies
• Allow to cool completely and set before cutting.
• Store covered. Enjoy!
  
  See ya on the other side of Tropical Storm Faye.

Nothing Says Summer Like Belly Baths

Our farm is in the Deep South. Alpacas can be raised in the South, but the heat and humidity is a challenge for alpaca farmers. Alpacas can actually die of heat stress so we are serious about keeping our critters cool. Fans are a must. Alpacas cool through their bellies so we water their tummies with a hose when we are concerned about an individual or the whole herd getting too hot. We want our alpacas to be acclimated to our Southern climate so we do not water everyone's belly every day, but we do use that technique when needed. Alpacas are like people. Some are hot natured. Others never seem to break a sweat all summer. They are all so different. I used to think that the black ones would be more hot. And I do think they would if they sat out in the sun all day with their deep pigment drawing the sun to them, but they sit in front of fans in the barn most of the day. In general black alpacas are not as dense as their lighter colored friends so most of the blacks aren't terribly hot relatively speaking. Density is probably the biggest factor after individual heat tolerance. If you want to raise alpacas in the Southeast I recommend you build your herd around fineness and not try to specialize in density at least at the beginning. The more follicles of fiber, the less room for their skin to breathe.


With regards to heat, we were told by our mentor to buy alpacas from our region when we were getting started. We followed that advice to a certain degee. But after a few years in the alpaca business, with some experience under our belt, we bought a herdsire from Maine. We brought him home after the AOBA National Conference in June. The next morning after we returned home, I opened that back door to go check on our new macho.

A wall of heat and humidity hit me in the face. I thought that I must have killed this poor alpaca to bring him down here as he was used to a much cooler and less humid existence. Panicked, I ran out and found him sunbathing in the field. For the rest of his life that boy loved to sunbathe and never appeared to be affected at all by our climate. We have also had a couple of alpacas who were born and raised here that don't like the heat. So you never know. A few look at me plaintively in the summer with nostrils flaring, their eyes saying "Can't you please do something about this?" I wish I could. Summers can be miserable here. For those gals I just pray that when they sell they go to cooler climates. For more on keeping alpacas cool in summer, here's an article on Preventing Heat Stress in Alpacas. Hang in there, it's almost over!

Got comments and/or tips for keeping animals cool in summer? Share them with us!