Construction Continues- and Some Alpacas are Characters!
April 15, 2009
Construction on the Office/Plant and barn proceeds -may actually be progressing towards completion! We had a wonderful video of the Sonrise Construction crew and many of the sub-contractors singing some beautiful hymns (many of them are members of the Antrim Mennonite Choral Group, here is a link to their CD on Amazon) in the beautiful reception area of the office/plant but unfortunately the camera containing the video was lost before I could transfer the video to my computer.
In the meanwhile Becky and Shane continue to get to know our animals up close and personally. They are in close contact on a daily basis while they clean the barn, (i.e., pick up alpaca beans (otherwise known as “poop”) and run the boys and girls out to and back from the pastures. The animals love the green grass and being outdoors, but Becky and Shane still don’t feel comfortable leaving them out all night.
Becky is getting to know their personalities:
- Jetta: is “such a b—-” at times, and so vocal, and yet when offered a piece of apple will ever so gently, gingerly, and sweetly take it from Becky as though she’s afraid of hurting her!
- Bridget: is not really into apples, but wants desperately to see what is going on when the others are being given pieces of apples.”What are you guys doing” she seems to say as she runs across the barn to see what all the excitement is about. She’s still attached to her mom Briana. If we ever sell one we’ll have to sell the other too so they can stay together. It would be cruel to separate them.
- Chase: is starting to become as curious as Dundee. Midori and Remedy are also curious ones. They will sidle up to Becky as she uses the rake and broom to clean up the barn and watch her intently as though they would like to learn and maybe help.
- Remedy: “Remy” for short. She should probably be called “REM Sleep” because it never quite seems like she is “there”. She’s looking but we’re not sure she’s receiving! Could she be a blond? She does have some light fleece. (My apologies to my blond -male and female- readers!) We sometimes wonder If anyone is in there? And yet she’s not stupid. And she also comes from a superb blood line with great genetics. Maybe she’s just too much of an aristocrat. We think she’s going to have to have a “date” with Princeton -another aristocrat with great blood lines.
- Maddy: is growing up fast! Her baby “pinkness” is fading and her hair is starting to grow over her eyes. (Kind of reminds you of some of those sultry vamps like Heda Lamarr seen in the movies in the 1940′s.)
- Chase & Dundee: have become bosom buddies. They go everywhere together, play together, and both seem to be in love with Bridget and Briana. Chase keeps trying to mount Briana. (He knows he should but is too young to know why!) She just ignores him. I don’t think I’m going to look forward to their teen years!
Story Of Spring Acres Alpacas
April 9, 2009
The Alpacas of Spring Acres ranch had its origin in Becky’s mind many years ago when she first read about llamas and decided that she might like to own some. Reality began to take shape in late 2007 with a visit to Alpaca Jack’s Suri Farm in Findlay, Ohio. There our gracious hosts, Jack and Miriam Donaldson, showed us around their farm. We even got to see a cria (baby alpaca) being born. (I don’t know how they managed to arrange that for us! Clever people, those Donaldsons!)) After that Becky, her daughter Jamie, and Jamie’s fiancé Shane Morgan visited Sea Ayre Suris, an alpaca farm in South Carolina. That sold us. Plans for The Alpacas of Spring Acres began to take shape.
In short order we hired a designer to develop a plan for a barn and new office building/fiber processing plant for Cervello from which we could coordinate the family partnership activities, manage Spring Acres Farm and the Alpaca ranch, and carryout the fiber processing and product manufacturing that we planned to develop. We studied topographical and aerial view maps to plan location of buildings and a series of interconnected fields through the woods. We developed a business plan which helped us obtain financing from The Community Bank in Zanesville, interviewed contractors, hired Sonrise Construction LLC out of Antrim, Oh. Construction began finally in spring 2008 after our hired hand JP, Al, Shane, Becky ,and Jaime spent months cutting timber and clearing the construction site. We hired independent contractors to build a mile long 6 foot high biosecurity fence and the internal fencing needed to prepare separate pastures. Shane, my good friend Jim Leach, Dave Rogers and Harley worked through the summer and fall to build entrance gates, build shelters in the pastures, help with additional land clearing and road building, additional fencing, repairs to older structures, and a new greenhouse.
In the meanwhile we expanded our knowledge about these incredible animals by attending seminars on “Alpaca Herd Management” sponsored by Alpaca Jack’s, and “Advanced Herd Health” by Pam Walker DVM and an OSU Vet school instructor. We attended various lectures on animal health and management delivered at the various Alpaca shows we attended. In March 2008 AJC attended the 2008 International Health Conference for Veterinarians, a week long course on camelid medicine, surgery, nutrition and reproduction, sponsored by the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. In order to make our farm safe and productive for our animals we walked the fields and woods with OSU Extension/USDA agents to plan our fields and eliminate dangers, developed management plans, and attended various OSU Extension and USDA sponsored course such as Management Intensive Grazing, Grazing Management Workshop, Farm Pond Management, Woodland Stewardship programs, and others. To help make our ranch financially sound and develop products for sale Becky attended marketing and farm product development seminars by Ellie Winslow. We both attended the 2008 Paca to Product conference.
We joined the Alpaca Registry Inc, AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association, OABA (Ohio Alpaca Breeders Association), Suri Network, and the ILR (International Lama Registry) from all of which we gained knowledge and always friendly help. We joined the Farm Bureau -another source of lectures and helpful information on Farm Safety and productivity.
And oh yes, we purchased our first animals from Alpaca Jack’s. (They were “agisted”, i.e., “boarded”, there until our barn were ready in Dec 2008.) Becky had her first show experience in the ring with an immature Aerosmith at the OABA show in 2008.
We discovered that Alpaca owners are a diverse, friendly, knowledgeable, family-oriented crowd who exemplify the hard working, entrepreneurial spirit that built this country and made it great!
Yes, we have been very busy!
Dundee
April 5, 2009
Dundee
ARI# 31217705
I’m tempted to rename Dundee to “Curious George”. Dundee always has to be first to investigate anyone who comes into the pen He’ll come right up to a stranger with a quizzical look on his face and cock his head slightly as if to ask “Now just who are you?” A quick sniff is likely to follow.
Dundee also has well known parents. His father is Sitka Scout and his mother is our own Jax Denali. He’s still very young, but growing fast. We expect him to be real show stopper.
Sea Ayre’s Jax Remedy
April 5, 2009
Sea Ayre’s Jax Remedy:
ARI #30872103
Remedy is a beautiful White female offspring of both a champion sire, Sitka Scout, and a champion dam, Raggedy Anne. Her own offspring will undoubtedly be champions in their own right and should produce the highest quality fleece.
About Alpacas
April 1, 2009
Andes Mountains
There are two varieties of Alpacas: Huacaya and Suri. Both have their own special attributes but Suris are the rarer. The Incan Empire depended on them for food, fuel, fiber for clothing, and transportation of goods. They remain the single most reliable source of wealth for the indigenous peoples of the Andes. So much so that from 1843 until the mid 1980′s exportation of these animals from the Andean countries was illegal. In the 1980′s a small number of animals were imported into North America. Subsequently importation into the USA was stopped, so most alpacas in the North American herd are “home grown.”