Llama Biography #20: Autumn Hill's Catastrophie

Unlike her name suggests, Autumn Hill's Catastrophie (aka Taz) was anything but a disaster...in fact she was one of the most gorgeous and sweet llamas to ever be born on our farm.

Autumn Hill's Catastrophie at the 2007 Ohio State Fair.

About 6 months after Randallama's Cherokee joined our farm, we decided to breed our best three females to him.  The first was Little May Flowers, who delivered the beautiful Autumn Hill's Trillium the next fall.  The second was SHAG Cattera, the dam to Autumn Hill's Catastrophie.  And last but not least was May's own dam, Alder Crest April Showers, who delivered Autumn Hill's Inali.

SHAG Cattera, Taz's dam.

Randallama's Cherokee, Taz's sire.

Taz and her two half siblings, Trillium (L) and Inali (R).

Almost a week after Trilly was born, I came home from school to find the most gorgeous spotted baby with Cattera.  All I could think as I was walking across the pasture to see the cria was "let it be a girl, let it be a girl!", and it was!  Taz was gorgeous from the start, and quite a big baby.  She had a lot of fun playing with her two half siblings and the other cria we had born that fall.  Babies are always so much more fun in groups!

Newborn Taz with Cattera.

Taz (behind the tree!) with her cria friends.

Taz grew up to be a gorgeous girl, and sweet as can be.  And did I mention huge?  She was absolutely enormous!

Such a sweet girl!

Unfortunately Taz was never a huge fan of the show ring.  She went to her first show (the Western Ohio Triple Crown) with her two half siblings, and managed a respectable placing in a huge Medium Wool Juvenile Female class (Trilly beat her though).  I continued to show her on and off for the next few years, but she really never enjoyed it.  Her fleece did amazing in the shorn and walking fleece classes though, winning several firsts and champions.

Taz at her first show.

Taz winning Reserve Grand walking fleece.

When Taz got older, we knew she had to become part of our breeding program, so we sold her sire Cherokee and bought an unrelated male, MRLF Ridge Runner.  Taz was bred to Ridge in the fall of 2007, and delivered her first cria, Autumn Hill's McKinley the next year.  Taz was a great mom and Mac was adorable!  She was bred back to Ridge again that year, and had Autumn Hill's Annapurna the year after.  Once again a truly stunning cria!

Taz and her first cria, Autumn Hill's McKinley.

Taz and her second cria, Autumn Hill's Annapurna.

After Annie was weaned it was decided that Taz needed to find a new home where she could be better utilized as a breeding female (I was once again downsizing the herd).  My mom about killed me, but Taz found a great home on the East coast and has since delivered a stunning reverse appy daughter!

We have roving! Finally!

After a long wait, mostly due to me procrastinating on skirting fleeces all summer, I finally got my roving back from the mill!  It actually came in January, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures til now.

The fleeces came back in 3 batches of roving: a reddish-brown huacaya alpaca, a tan/grey llama, and a black llama/suri alpaca blend.

The red-brown huacaya alpaca roving is from Ralph.  Ralph is my pathetic little alpaca with all sorts of problems (scoliosis, short tail, etc.), but he has a great personality and pretty nice fiber.  He doesn't produce as much as most alpacas seem to though, I normally only get 2-3lbs of prime fiber.  His roving is extremely crimpy and soft, with absolutely no vegetable matter!  Priced at $3.00/oz.

Ralph in full fleece. 

Ralph winning costume at the Indiana State Fair.

The tan/grey llama blend is from Sedona, Bluff, and Duque.  Sedona was a friend's llama who has beautiful silky tan fleece.  Bluff of course is our main (now only!) breeding female, who is due with another fine-fibered beauty in April!  Bluff is mostly white with some red spots.  And Duque is our old retired show gelding.  He was dark brown when he was born, but has faded to a gorgeous silver grey.  This blend is a very nice silky llama- not as much crimp as huacaya alpaca, but very fine and has a lot of luster.  It is also very clean.  Priced at $3.50/oz.

Duque going grey.

Duque on a hiking trip with my sister and her friend.

Beautiful Bluff.

Bluff and her first baby, Rainier.

The last batch of roving is a black silky llama/suri alpaca blend.  It is absolutely stunning!  It is extremely fine, completely clean, and so lustrous!  The fiber for this blend came from a suri alpaca from a friend's farm, plus our very own Annie and Ridge.  Annie is our only remaining cria, although she's leaving for a new home this month!  She definitely has the nicest fiber we've every produced- extremely fine and with gorgeous lock structure.  Ridge is actually Annie's dad, and she gets her fiber from him!  He has the finest fiber I've ever felt on a llama, even as an adult.  And he produces a ton of it!  He was our fabulous show boy and breeding male for a short while, but went to a new home when we decided to quit breeding.  He is the dad to Bluff's cria.  Priced at $5.00/oz.

Shows the luster but the color is much darker. 

This is a more accurate color representation.

Baby Annie.

Look at those locks!

Our big boy Ridge.

The curls!

All of this fiber is available on our Etsy store.  It is sure to spin like a dream!

End of the Show Season & Other News

Wow, I'm terrible at maintaining this blog!  I promise to get better, now that my life has calmed down a bit. This post is going to be very random, but I wanted to update everything that's going on around the farm!

First, pictures of some of my state fair entries!  Too much stuff to take individual pictures with ribbons, but you get the idea.

Handspun yarn & the pile of ribbons!

Felted & embroidered hat, handspun earband, and felted wreath.

Felted bag & flower.

Handspun shawl.

Next, onto some recent knitting projects.  First is a set of convertible mittens for my boyfriend.  This was the first pattern that I heavily modified, and I really live how they turned out!  Even more important, he loved them!!

The roving below is yak and merino...gorgeous stuff purchased from the Trading Post Fiber Shop in Pendleton, IN.  It is my current spinning project, which I will finally get to finish this weekend at the Pioneer Fair!

***Shameless plug:  If you're in the central Indiana area this weekend, come check out the Pioneer Fair at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.  Lots of people demonstrating pioneer crafts and other activities!  Special kids' activities throughout the day!***

And last but not least, a gorgeous silk/merino shawl that I knit.  It didn't end up as big as I was hoping for, but hopefully blocking will stretch it out somewhat.

 Now we'll move on to some farm news...

LamaFest was a ton of fun over Labor Day weekend.  Ralph and Annie came up to Lansing, and showed for 2 long days.  Ralph did very well for himself in the novice performance classes, but didn't quite place.  He was also last in halter!  Annie behaved very well on Saturday, but decided that a double show was too much stress, so Sunday wasn't quite as smooth!  She placed in halter and adult showmanship both days.

The best news from the show is that I'm adding a new little llama to the herd!  CNS Mr. T is coming from Chip N Seal Farm in Rushville.  He's a yearling gelding, and is going to be my newest show llama!  He already has quite a record in halter...almost has his Champion!  Hopefully I can finish that and his ROM next year, as well as get him used to performance and ground driving.  I have big plans for this little guy!  We're going to pick him up on Saturday evening, so more pics to come next week.  He's been shown quite a bit this summer, so we're going to quarantine him with Duque and Ralph until I can do fecals on him and the rest of the herd when I go home next month.

We also tried getting another farm addition, but it didn't quite work out.  Latte our angora rabbit seemed a bit lonely after her brother Mocha died last summer, so I finally found a friend for her.  We found a breeder of Harlequin rabbits (they are calico!) at the state fair this year, and she sold us a little 4 month old female.  Unfortunately Latte and the little girl didn't see eye to eye.  I think Latte is just too old for such an energetic youngster, so the new girl found another home with a 4-H club in Greenfield.

Well, I think that's enough news for one post!  I promise to post more regularly in the future...  I have back to back craft fairs next weekend, so hopefully I can report great success when those are over!  And I'm looking to add a puppy to my crazy life, so I may have big news in the near future!

State Fair Results!

Well the State Fair is over...  (Has been for us for awhile, sorry about the lack of posts!)  The show was long, being 3 days instead of 2 this year, but as always it was a lot of fun!

On the lama end of things, we did pretty well.  Annie placed 3rd and 6th in halter (Silky Yearling Female and Medium Wool Yearling Female), out of large classes.  She also helped me place 6th in Adult Showmanship.

Showing Annie in halter.

Ralph was really on his game in performance.  He placed 2nd in halter (out of 2, but the judge said really nice things about him), 5th in pack (out of 35), and 8th in public relations (out of 40+).  His run in public relations was almost perfect, except for a refusal on the tires, which he always does at home!

Ralph and I after a performance class.

My fiber stuff did really well too.  My novelty skein (cotswold locks plied with bamboo) was the Sweepstakes winner (aka Best of Show) for the skeins, and most of my other entries placed first or second.  Not bad!

Next (and last) for the llama shows this year is Lama Fest in Lansing, MI over Labor Day weekend.  It will just be Ralph and Annie again...I'd love to bring Bluff, but the chance of hot weather is just not worth the risk.

Fair time!

Finally, it is time for the Indiana State Fair!  It is definitely one of my favorite shows of the year, and I can't wait to be back next Thursday.  This year they are having 2 completely separate shows (for the most part), so the llamas will be there for 3 full days instead of just 2.  I hope the animals don't get bored...it's going to be a long weekend.

Showing Ralph in halter.

All of my craft entries for the fair were submitted today.  Judging occurs this week so the items are ready for the fair to open on Friday.  I got all but 2 items that I was planning on submitting done in time, which isn't too bad.

Due to Bluff being bred (fingers crossed!) and April finally getting the retirement that she deserves, it is just going to be Annie and Ralph at the fair this year.  They both went last year, and Ralph did pretty well, getting 1st in halter, 5th in novice PR and 8th in novice pack (with 40+ entries in the novice classes!)!  Annie was really nervous at the show (pretty much all of the shows last year), so she didn't place, but she did respectable in performance as well.

The gang at the 2010 Indiana State Fair.

So Annie is replacing April as my showmanship companion, and I'm ditching costume this year.  I'll come up with a new one next year when I can show Bluff (and the baby!)...I'm thinking a zoo keeper and elephants!

If you're in the Indianapolis area this weekend, come over to the fairgrounds and say hi!  We'll be in the draft horse barn most of the day Thursday (setting up), and then the show is all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

Craft Marketplace

Long time, no post!  June has been really busy, and thus the blog has suffered.  I'll try not to let it happen in the future!

I've spent much of the past month preparing for the Meridian Crafters' & Artisans' Marketplace, which was held today in Okemos, MI.  I had a nice display of handspun yarn, knit and woven items (bags, cowls, scarves, hats, iPod cozies), and beaded knitting stitch markers.  I didn't sell much, but supposedly the first week is the slowest.  The marketplace is held on the 4th Sunday of every month from June to August, and then the 4th Saturday in September.  If you're in the Lansing area you should definitely check it out!

So I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera, here's a reminder of what I've been up to during this spring and summer.

First is the Hillsdale Hobo show...I got some gorgeous pictures of Annie!  It's amazing how the wind can help give great fiber pictures.

Next is shearing day on the farm.  Duque is the only llama that I can really trust on a stake-out line anymore, so he got to spend the day tied in the front yard, and one of our barn cats, Autumn, decided to make a visit.  Duque and Autumn have always been close friends, it's really cute!

Annie spent a few minutes tied to a tree, learning how to stand still for the show ring!  She was not pleased...

And last but not least is handsome Ridge.  He spent a month on the farm so we could get Bluff bred, so I went ahead and sheared him as well.  Now I have 2 more beautiful bags of fleece to process!

The last set of pictures is from the Allen County Open show in June.  I was able to get some nice pictures of Annie and Ralph.