Temptation

I've been good this week, but I've wanted to be so bad!  This week has been full of temptation...

First I saw an ad for 3 free female alpacas in a nearby town (I actually know the farm).  A few days later I found another ad for free pet/fiber quality male alpacas (I know this farm too).  I would love to have more alpacas...  As much as I prefer llamas to alpacas, alpacas produce so much more fiber (at least on average).  I do eventually plan to get 2-3 more alpacas to raise for fiber, but I managed to talk myself out of considering adding more right now.

My first 3 fiber alpacas.  Unfortunately the two white ones were fairly brainless so they were sold after a couple of years.

The third temptation was the LFA sale this past weekend.  For the first time in years, I really wasn't super interested in any of the llamas in the regular sale, but there was a male in the claims futurity that I would have loved to bring home!  He is a gorgeous paint, half Argentine, with multiple halter and fleece winnings.  Just what I'm looking for!  Again, lucky for me I have ABSOLUTELY no business buying a breeding male right now.  I just don't have room.

These temptations, especially the LFA sale (and also seeing tons of pictures from the ILR Gathering show the same weekend), have really given me the bug to start a breeding herd again.  I want nothing more than to be able to get back into breeding and selling (and showing!) llamas!

My goal for my breeding herd in the past was always to breed the all-around llama...personality (and training), conformation, and fiber.  Not to toot my own horn, but I think I've done pretty well.  (I guess this is a good time to mention that Kara (Autumn Hill's Karakoram) was entered in her first 2 shorn fleece classes in the past 2 weeks, and she won a Grand Champion Double Coat (The Fiber Frenzy) and a Reserve Grand Champion Double Coat (ILR Gathering)!!  So proud of my girl, and my breeding program!)

Kara's fleece from last year, right before shearing.

When I start a breeding herd again, that is still going to be my focus.  I don't expect to have performance champions (though I have raised one!), but I want my babies to have a handleable personality, so with extensive training they could be!  I'd love to have halter champions (and have raised several who have gotten champions in halter, one even got enough to be an ALSA Halter Champion!).  And of course I want fine, single coat fleece, but this one I'm going to step up a notch.  I'm sick of having beautiful fleeces, but only getting 1 pound of prime fleece per animal!  As a fiber farm, animals need to produce more fleece to make it profitable.  I also happen to love thick bone structure in a llama, so my plan is to introduce some Argentine bloodlines into my herd in the future.  Argentines have extremely dense fiber, capable of producing 5+ pounds of prime fleece (and often are single coat).  Adding thick bones would just be a plus!

The pride and joy of my breeding program, Autumn Hill's Khatadyn.  He finished his ALSA Halter Champion!

Autumn Hill's Charity, multiple fleece and youth performance champion.

Autumn Hill's Rainier, winner of multiple fiber and halter champions and some great performance placings too!  He's also Kara's full brother.

I really can't afford to get several full Argentine llamas (even in the future), so my plan is to get an Argentine male and a couple heavy wool North American females (and maybe even a heavy wool NA male too).  I've heard that Argentines can increase fiber on their crias in just one generation (even 25% Argentine llamas can have thicker fiber), so I think that might be the way to start and make it more reasonable.

I fully intend on Kara being one of my cornerstone females in a future breeding program.  She has interesting bloodlines, and represents 2 of my favorite llamas from my past breeding program.  She hasn't been in the halter ring in almost 2 years (!), but she did very well at her first 2 shows as a juvenile.  I'm really hoping she will impress the judges when she gets back in the ring this fall.  And of course her recent fleece placings are very encouraging.

A terrible picture of Kara.

I also have high hopes for another representative of my former breeding program, and it hasn't even been conceived yet!  I'm not sure I've announced this here yet, but I'm getting a baby llama in 1.5-2 years!  I've regretted selling May (Little May Flowers) since the day she left our farm almost 8 years ago, and I finally decided to do something about it.  I'm going to "rent" May for the next year...any day now she will be bred to a gorgeous ALSA Halter Champion male, and hopefully have a fabulous baby in about a year.  Once the baby is weaned, I will bring him/her out to my farm in NY.  I'm really excited to have a relative of April (Alder Crest April Showers) in my breeding herd again, and I think the dad will add some great traits to the cria (one of his crias was an ALSA National Champion in halter).  Needless to say I hope the baby is a girl, but a male would actually be okay since it will be completely unrelated to Kara.

May definitely has a lot of great traits to pass on to a cria.

Who wouldn't want a cria related to this beautiful girl (April)??

Autumn Hill's Blazing Starr, May's first cria and one of my best production to date.

Unfortunately, even though I have all this completely planned out (I even know what farms I'm going to "shop" at!), I don't think it will be happening any time soon.  My barn is just not set up for a larger herd, so it all will have to wait until we either move or build a new barn.  I'm definitely itching to get started though!

Definitely my best group of crias ever!

Llama Biography #13: Autumn Hill's Blazing Starr

The problem with me and this blog is that while I have tons of topics to write about, I am always lacking the necessary pictures to successfully illustrate the articles.  That is the situation that I once again find myself in, so I'm writing another biography...

Llama #13 in our herd was quite the interesting character...  Autumn Hill's Blazing Starr (aka Blaze) was born in September 2003, 2 weeks early!  He was the first cria for his dam, Little May Flowers (who was also the first cria ever born on our farm!).  Blaze came out a little "undercooked" (premature), and along with May being a first time mom, she really didn't want a whole lot to do with him.  Luckily he was a fighter, and my mom was also determined to keep him alive!  May and Blaze had to be locked in the barn for about 3 days after he was born, during which my mom bottle fed Blaze fairly regularly.  After 3 days, May seemed to catch on that Blaze was her responsibility and decided to let him nurse.  It was a long 3 days for my mom, but Blaze was definitely worth it!

Blaze at about a month of age.  Look at the presence!

May, while she was pregnant with Blaze.

Blaze's sire was SHAG Guido, a beautiful white suri-type male.  I was never a huge fan of Guido, but we sent 3 females to Shagbark Ridge Llamas to be bred in the fall of 2002, and he seemed to be a good fit for May.  Luckily it was a great cross!

Guido, Blaze's sire.

Blaze was definitely one of the nicest crias we had ever had born on the farm.  He had the most gorgeous suri-type fiber, and great conformation.  Unfortunately he got his mom's tiny ears, but that was just about the only bad thing about him!

Blaze at about 4 months of age.

Blaze's fabulous fiber.

In the spring of 2004, I knew Blaze had to be in my show string.  Along with his 2 "friends" (female crias born the same time as Blaze), he headed to the Western Ohio Triple Crown for his first show.  Blaze was shown in the Heavy Wool Juvenile Male class.  It was a pretty big class, but Blaze behaved respectably well.  I really wanted Blaze to place in the class, but was shocked when the judge pulled him out for 1st place!  We then went back for the Grand & Reserve class, but by that time Blaze had had enough of standing still so he didn't stand a chance.  While at the show, Blaze and another of our crias, Faith, caught the attention of a large alpaca breeder from Ohio.  Before the show was over Blaze and Faith had been sold, and they would move to their new farm after they were completely weaned in a few months.

Autumn Hill's Faith.

While I was sad that Blaze's show career was over, he ended up having a great home.  When he was older, he sired one cria (out of another of our animals, Autumn Hill's Charity who was sold to the same farm later on), Blaze of Glory.  Blaze was then gelded and sold to be an alpaca companion.

Blaze of Glory, Blaze's son.

Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to talk about soon!

Llama Biography #11: Autumn Hill's Tatoka

Things have been pretty quiet around the farm, and I keep forgetting to take pictures of things, so I'm going to be lazy and do another biography post.

Llama #11 on our farm was Autumn Hill's Tatoka.  In spring 2001, we took 2 of our breeding females (April and Sheba) to Yellow Wood Llamas in Martinsville, IN to be bred to 2 of their males.  April was to be bred to PPF Pablo Cruz, a beautiful white male with a red head.  She was bred and spit off several times before returning home with Sheba.  Later in the fall we determined that April didn't hold the pregnancy, so she went back to YWL to be bred again.  She was bred again, and during one of the spit tests she actually attacked Pablo!  We hoped she would hold the pregnancy and took her home again.  About a year later (in October 2002), Tatoka was born.

Autumn Hill's Tatoka at 1 month of age.  (Unfortunately this is the only digital picture I have of him!)

April was notorious for having her babies when no one was home.  On the day Tatoka was born, my mom came home to check on April during her lunch hour.  Barely an hour later, my sister and I came home on the school bus to find the baby already born and walking around!  Tatoka is a Native American word for "antelope" (I believe in the Lakota language).  Tatoka was running around the pasture almost as soon as he could stand on 4 legs, so we thought the name was appropriate.

Alder Crest April Showers, Tatoka's mom, at the 2002 Great Lakes Regionals.  Tatoka was only 2 weeks old at the time of this show, and he was a huge hit!

Tatoka was one of the very first llamas that I sold.  He was sold to a new llama breeder and fiber artist in February 2003 (though he didn't leave the farm until he was weaned).  His new owner has since become a great friend, and she gives Tatoka a great home.  Tatoka was purchased to be a breeding male, but he was ultimately gelded and is now a farm greeter and fiber producer.  Every time I go to visit (his owner also has a fiber store!), it amazes me how much he looks like his mom!

Llama Biography #10: Autumn Hill's Catanna

We have actually made some progress on the fence (got 3 more corners put in!), but I don't have any pictures to show for it, so I thought I'd do another llama biography.

In June 2002, exactly 2 weeks after Autumn Hill's Charity was born, SHAG Cattera had her second baby.  Going along with our farm name and "Cat" theme for Cattera's babies, my sister named her Autumn Hill's Catanna.  Catanna was born over 2 weeks late, and was the biggest baby on our farm to date, starting out at 34 pounds!  Catanna is sired by the gorgeous Bauernheim's Showdown, a champion show llama owned by Shagbark Ridge Llamas.

Newborn Catanna.

Catanna was an especially sweet baby, just like Charity.  They were best buds, and it was funny seeing them together, as Charity was 2 weeks older but much smaller than Catanna.

Catanna at 4 months old.

Charity and Catanna even attended their first show together, the North American International Livestock Expo. in Louisville, KY.  Catanna was just old enough to show...she turned 5 months the day of the show!  She did very well for her first time, winning several ribbons with my sister in performance.  Catanna went on to be shown by my sister in 4-H and ALSA shows for a couple of years, and I even showed her occasionally.  She never really liked being shown, but she did respectfully well.

Catanna and my sister at her first show.

Catanna at the 2003 Western Ohio Triple Crown.

2003 Indiana State Fair.

2003 NAILE.

Catanna and I at the 2004 Southwest Ohio Llama Show.  She was Grand in halter!

Catanna and I at the 2004 Great Lakes Regionals.

Catanna was the first llama that my sister taught to kush (lay down on command), so she became the focal point of several pictures that year!

This was a Christmas card one year.

This has won several photo contests.  And yes, she was actually watching the TV!

When Catanna turned 2.5 yrs old, we decided it was time for her to become a mom.  She was bred to the famous Tuna Catcher (then owned by Mark Smith Farms, now deceased), and had the most gorgeous little grey male, which we named Autumn Hill's Khatadyn.  Khatadyn was sold before he was weaned, and went on to become an ALSA Halter Champion!

Khatadyn at 4 months old.

Catanna had a uterine prolapse when Khatadyn was born, so we decided to give her a year off before rebreeding her.  During her "break", I decided she should get back in the show ring.  By this time Catanna had really put on the pounds, so she didn't place as well in halter as she did as a cria.

Catanna and I at the 2006 Ohio State Fair.  She was huge!

After a year, we decided to breed Catanna to our new male, MRLF Ridge Runner.  Shortly after she was bred, the man who bought Khatadyn also purchased Catanna, and she moved to Tennessee to be with her son.  A year later, she delivered an adorable little paint male.  Unfortunately, she had another uterine prolapse, and the owner decided to retire her from breeding.  She still lives on his farm, and has a great home!

Catanna as a yearling.

From Llama to Lovely Yarn...A Processing Tale

After hemming and hawing about starting to process and spin Kara's fleece, I finally got around to it!  And once I started I just couldn't stop!  Kara's fleece from 2013 was sold in our farm's new CSA (community-supported agriculture) program.  Buyers could choose to receive raw fleece, carded batts, or handspun yarn.  Ralph and T's fleeces were sold raw through this program too, but Kara's was sold as handspun yarn.

Beautiful little Kara.

The story starts back in May when I went home to groom and shear llamas.  Over several days, I carefully brushed Kara out, eventually washing her and then shearing her by hand.  Her fleece was absolutely gorgeous!  The full blog post about shearing Kara is here.

Kara all groomed out, before shearing.

A few weeks later, I got around to carding the raw fiber in preparation for spinning.  It took me a couple of hours to card it all on my small drum carder.  The buyer wanted the colors mixed, so I would just pull random hand-fulls of fiber from the bag and add it to the carder.

Carding Kara's fleece.

Next, the big task...spinning!  The yarn was to be spun as a worsted weight, which is a bit thicker than I have been spinning recently.  My carding preparation wasn't perfect (it is hard when working with 7-8" long fiber!), so the yarn has a bit of texture.  I spun all the singles, and then plied.  I ended up with 4 skeins, totaling about 450 yards (I think!).  I love how the yarn turned out, the color is very tweedy and gorgeous.

Single ply yarn.

Plied yarn.

Last came washing...  Kara was washed before shearing, but I had no idea how much dirt could be left in the fiber!  As I spun, tons of dirt came flying out, so I knew the final yarn would need a lot of washing.  I think I washed the yarn 4 times in hot soapy water, followed by 3 rinses.  It was worth it though, the finished yarn is extremely soft and the color is gorgeous!

Rinsing the yarn.

Drying the yarn.

Beautiful yarn after washing.

My spinning companion (Abby, my Golden Retriever puppy)!

Shearing A Llama: Kara's 1st Haircut!

FINALLY I'm back in the land of camera-computer cords, and can update the blog!  I spent the past week back home in Indiana on the farm, and took lots of pictures as I was busy grooming, washing, and shearing llamas, but I somehow managed to forget the cord that connects the camera to the computer, and thus I couldn't share any of them!  But I'm back in New York now, and want to show off my naked llamas!

But first, the story of a baby llama's first haircut...

In case you don't remember her from previous posts, this is Kara (aka Autumn Hill's Karakoram).  She's the last baby llama we had born on the farm- she was born April 29, 2012.  She's been growing a beautiful fleece for the past year, which even won 2nd place at a llama show last fall (in walking fleece, which is judged on the llama).  It's been getting hot in the Midwest though, so Kara was more than ready to get rid of her heavy fleece.

This is baby Kara, the day she was born.

This is (a very wet-nosed) Kara, looking very grown up at just over a year old.

The first thing that had to be done was lots and LOTS of grooming!  Kara LOVES to get dirty, and her fleece really showed it.  Over the course of 2-3 days, I spent several hours brushing Kara.  Luckily she has her mom's sweet and manageable personality, so most of this was done with her loose in the training pen in our barn (as opposed to being tied in the chute so she doesn't move).  I brushed out the surface of her fleece, which had most of the dirt and grass, and then dug in deep and worked through every other inch of her barrel (belly) area!  I like to use a soft slicker brush when I groom, it gets a lot of debris out, and doesn't seem to pull the fiber.

Kara, BEFORE any grooming!

Grooming Kara out in the training pen.  She laid down about half-way through, but that's still not bad!

The second step was to blow the dirt and dust out of her fleece with a high power blower.  Kara had never had this done to her before, but luckily was very well behaved for it.  (A lot of babies freak out the first time they are blown out!)

Blowing Kara out.  It's not easy with such long fiber!

The AFTER grooming photo, BEFORE shearing.

The third step is another big one...washing!  Luckily Kara had a few other baths last fall for the two shows she went to, so this wasn't as scary for her.  When washing, I first soak the area I want to wash (when shearing I typically only wash the barrel (belly) area), then apply soap/shampoo with a handy contraption that hooks to the hose and dilutes the soap as it is sprayed, scrub just a little, and then rinse REALLY well with plain water.  I walk the llama around a bit to shake a good amount of water out, and then either stake them in the yard or put them in a pen to dry.  Kara isn't stake trained (yet!), so she and her mom Bluff went into a pen beside the barn to dry for a few hours.  I washed them around 10am, and Kara was still slightly damp when I sheared her about 8pm.

Kara getting washed.

Kara trying to escape from her pen beside the barn.

And last but not least, I do the actual shearing.  With Kara (and most baby llamas), I first removed the fiber with scissors, and then went back with electric horse clippers and smoothed out the cut.  She looked a bit ridiculous before I smoothed her out!  As I shear I'm very careful to place the fiber in a clean bucket or paper bag, and don't let it touch the ground.  This year I found a handy bucket that would hang on the doors of the chute, which made it easier to deposit the fiber.  And as I should have expected, Kara was an absolute angel when I sheared her!  She was rather worried while I sheared Bluff before it was her turn, but once she got in the chute she mellowed out very well.  Lots of grain helps too!

Shearing Kara, just starting on the second side.  You can see how rough her coat looks after the hand-shearing portion!

Now I have a beautiful shorn llama, and an even more beautiful bag of shorn fleece that I get to spin!  Kara's fleece was sold as handspun yarn as part of our new CSA program, so I get to process and spin all of her fiber, and then send it off to a very lucky person!

And the final AFTER shot!  I'm not the world's best shearer, so her cut is still a bit rough, but in a month you'll never be able to tell.  Kara is now much happier (and cooler!), and I can't wait to spin up her fiber!

I'll make another post soon with before and after pictures of the rest of the herd!