Llama Biography #21: Autumn Hill's Inali

I have to admit it, Inali was one of my favorite llamas.  If only he had been a girl I would've been set for life!

Fuzzy boy!

When we got our new herdsire, Randallama's Cherokee, in 2004, we bred him to a bunch of our females that fall.  Alder Crest April Showers was one of those females.  April is pretty much my favorite llama, so I was excited to have another baby from her.

April, Inali's dam.

Cherokee, Inali's sire.

When the fall of 2005 came around, we had two Cherokee crias (Trillium and Catastrophie) born in late September.  Just three days after Catastrophie was born, I came home to find a baby running around with April.  As I was walking from the house out to the barn I kept hoping that it was a girl, but of course it turned out to be a boy!  But he was adorable!  April has a good track record of throwing babies with big bone and heavy fiber, and Inali got all of it!  He is built just like her.

Just a few hours old.

Mom and baby.

Fuzzy boy growing up!

Such a ham!

Trillium sold right after her first show in 2006, so Inali became my show boy for the year.  He didn't do great in halter because he was pretty small (although he did get a few 3rd places in large classes at the Indy Open and Llama Showcase), but by the time the 4-H fair came around he was doing great in performance!  We won Grand Champion Senior Performance, Grand Champion Showmanship, and Grand Champion Costume at the Shelby County Fair.  Unfortunately our show season was cut short, as Inali sold at the Llama Showcase show and went to his new home in northern Indiana shortly after the 4-H fair.

Shortly after being shorn.

Inali has a wonderful home where he is loved and spoiled.  He actually lives with a bunch of horses.  I went back a year after I sold him to shear him, and it was scary how much he looked like his mom!

Inali (now affectionally called Chewy) with his horse buddy.

New Llamas!

I've been putting off writing this blog post for awhile, as I just couldn't think of anything to write.  But then it hit me, I haven't talked about my new llamas!

Last fall I made the decision to find Mr. T a new home.  He just wasn't meshing with me or the herd, and I didn't think it was fair for him to be picked on all the time.  Luckily a friend of mine was interested, so she's getting T this spring and I'm getting a breeding to her gorgeous male for Kara next spring!

With T gone, I realized I had room for another llama!  I've been thinking about adding a new guard llama since I moved to New York.  April certainly isn't getting any younger (she'll be 21 years old in a month!), and I'd like to have a replacement sooner rather than later.  So I started the search for a guard llama.  Surprisingly enough, a good guard llama is hard to come by in the east!  A former customer of mine happened to have a few females for sale, two of which seemed to have guard potential.  The dark brown girl caught my eye, and I decided to make her mine!  So I'd like to introduce Colby, our new guard llama!  And the best part, she's going to be bred to Autumn Hill's Rainier in May, for a 2016 cria!  I'm very excited to have one of Rainier's first babies on my farm!  My husband wants me to start a line of guard llamas in my breeding herd, so Colby (and hopefully her cria) may just be the beginning of that.  Since she's getting bred this spring, she probably won't join the herd until August or September.

As if one new llama wasn't enough, I decided to go all out and look for a new show girl.  Kara will get bred next spring, so this will likely be her last show season.  Ralph isn't real happy about being shown recently, so I need someone new!  I asked around at a lot of different farms, but finally went back to a farm I've been dying to have a llama from...Mark Smith Llamas from Indiana.  I've always admired his animals (usually from behind them in the show ring!), and was determined to finally have one of my own.  I love the males that he has (in fact, I bought Kara's mom Bluff partly because she was a Tuna Catcher daughter), and was thrilled to find a young female who is a Mystery's Timone daughter and Tuna Catcher granddaughter!  So I'd like to introduce MSF Regal Princess (I really need to come up with a better nick-name though!), my new show girl and future breeding llama!  I'm just thrilled with her, and can't wait to see her in person next month!  I'm hoping to performance train her this year.  I wish I could get her to more shows, but it looks like its just going to be the NY State Fair this year.  More next year I hope!

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!

Snow, and Cold, and I Don't Want to Go Outside!!

I used to love winter, I really did...then I moved to upstate NY and moved my 5 llamas (ok, 4 llamas and 1 alpaca) there as well and my love of winter went down the drain.

Our first big snowfall of the year.

I thought I knew what winter in upstate NY was all about; after all, I spent 4 years here during college.  Note to self: walking from a dorm to class and back is much different than driving 1 hour every day plus doing chores and taking care of livestock!

The llamas don't mind the snow too much.  As long as I lure them outside with hay!

Now, as much as I hate to say it, I don't like winter nearly as much.  I don't have time to play in it like I used to (I've only gone XC skiing twice this winter, and haven't gone downhill skiing at all!), and I'm just sick of it!

XC skiing with Abby last winter.

I'm slowly but surely figuring out some ways to make winter more bearable though, at least where the lamas are concerned.  I no longer feel bad about locking them inside at night, because they stay warmer and I worry less.  The two oldies also wear coats (with wool sweaters underneath) 24-7.  I've added a "litter box" to the barn to make cleanup easier.  And I've installed a plastic strip door (think walk-in freezer) to the barn door to keep the cold and wind out.  I still hate dragging poop down to the garden through 12" of snow though!

April in her coat.

So, what are your thoughts on winter?  Have they changed since you were a kid? ;)

I'm Back!

Well, after a very long winter hiatus (due to the holidays, vacation, and lack of a computer), I'm back in the blogging world!

Due to the craziness of the holidays and starting a new job, I haven't really accomplished much in terms of llamas or fiber...  I did get a bunch of new knit items that my mom made listed on Etsy tonight...check them out!

A crochet scarf I made over Christmas vacation...up on Etsy now!

The exciting news from the past week or two is that I'm going to be growing my llama herd this year!  I found a fabulous new home for Mr. T, and in exchange Kara gets a date with a gorgeous part Argentine male next spring.  I'm also looking at purchasing a bred guard llama and a show female (possibly bred as well), so I could be doubling my herd in a couple of years!  Very excited to have some new blood in the herd, and especially babies!

Lamas in the snow.

I'm going to try and be better about posting for the rest of the winter, even though there isn't a whole lot going on.  I do have a ton of knitting patterns to publish though, so if you've been waiting you may just get lucky!

Winter Garden Prep

Obviously I haven't been doing any gardening recently, but I have been preparing for next year!

Despite previous work by my in-laws, the soil in the garden is terrible!  Full of clay and rocks.  Last year we added quite a bit of compost before tilling, and I wanted to add a bunch more this winter.

I also had some moldy hay that I decided to lay down.

Instead of dumping the llama poop in one compost pile all winter and then moving it in the spring, I've decided just to dump the poop on top of the garden all winter!

I also hauled a huge load of leaves from the front yard to a new garden spot.  Leaves break down into great compost!

I also ordered a bunch of seeds, some compostable pots, and a floating row cover for next year!  Now I just need a few soaker hoses and I'm set for spring!

Rhinebeck!

I'm officially the worst blogger in the world!  I promise I'm going to start posting once a week...

Anyway, I figured it was time to share some pictures from Rhinebeck!  (aka the NY Sheep and Wool Festival)

It was a gorgeous (but cold) day at the fiber festival.

Lots and lots of people as usual!

I only took a couple of pictures of my stuff on display, and I can only show one of them as the other is of a gift that has not yet been given!

I walked all over the yarn display looking for my yarn, only to find it with the first place winners!  Boy was I shocked!

I took lots of pictures once I got all my stuff back though!

A superfine merino/cashmere/mulberry silk blend entered in the blended category.

Colorwork wool mittens entered in the special item (mittens & gloves) category.

Suri alpaca/llama entered in the exotic category.

A handspun camel/silk cabled lace cowl entered in the small item handspun yarn category.  I also entered a pair of socks in the commercial yarn category but they didn't place!  Apparently I have tension issues...

The winning skein...100% BFL in the 2 ply natural wool category.

100% merino in the 2 ply dyed category.

All in all I didn't do too bad!  I also had a shetland yarn entry that didn't place, but it was definitely the worst of my skeins.  Now to plan for next year!  And of course to get all of these gorgeous pieces up on Etsy!