Let's Bring Everyone Up To Date...

What a month! Everything that could happen has happened!
Lost 2 alpacas, one rooster.
Okay...I can deal with that. It sucks, but I can deal.
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Then...a car wreck. Some idiot passed me on a double yellow line as I was in the middle of a turn into my driveway and ripped off my bumper, bent my tie rod and various other small damages.
So, been dealing with that and the insurance company, etc.
Okay....
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A cousin of the Darlin' Man passed away the start of the month. He was only 49, but he had abused drugs and alcohol from a young age. He died of cirrhosis.
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Then last Friday my Uncle George died. He was 88, he and his wife had been married 67 years, almost 68.
Uncle George was the last of his generation in our family. He out-lived all of his siblings. And was the longest lived of any of the men in his family as long back as we can trace! He had a long life and, according to those who were there, seemed "ready to go". He asked to be helped with a bath, saying; "I need to be clean, I'm not going dirty!", got his pajamas on, laid down in bed, sighed and was gone. A peaceful passing.
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Then yesterday, the Darlin' Mans son called to announce the birth of his first, a boy.

The Darlin' Man is now a Grandpa!
The Darlin' Man will be going down there this weekend to meet his new grandson.
Life goes on!
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The past couple of days were vicious cold, but today we will be in the 30s, tomorrow in the 40s (YAY!!!).
Spring comes...a little later than most folks out there, but Spring does arrive nonetheless.
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This morning:

Breakfast!

Champagne with her private spot.

 

Uhmm...it's Spring, why is there snow still here!?

Champagne graciously shares with Mambo the sheep.

Chaser, our new buck!

Meet Beatrix!

Anna the alpaca gave birth this morning. A wee girl, and we named her Beatrix.
She is lovely!

We have separated Anna and Beatrix into their own section of the barn and they have a couple of stalls made comfy with a layers of straw or three. Yeah, I wanted to make it extra fluffy and warm for them.

Christmas on the Cheap

We scaled back holiday celebrations here. With the Darlin' Man scampering about the country trying to get everything done for his physical, etc. for the new job, we just kept it very simple.
Trees are expensive here, and, we tossed out the old plastic one after last year because it was so bedraggled.
So, our tree:

 Our tree with the presents under it:

 I didn't buy any wrapping paper. So, I used what we already had (Batman Christmas wrapping paper, lol!) Or presents were sorta concealed in shopping bags we already had laying around!
Everyone got needed items...a lot of socks and underwear. A knife for one, a small coffee maker for another, a used video game for another. Soda and special candies for the guys. Each dog got a new chewy bone.
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Here's a couple of new pics of Angus. He is so adorable and I am handling him every day....even though his mama gets upset.

So...We Have These Pregnant Animals.....

My days and nights have been busy watching over 5 pregnant goats and 2 pregnant alpacas.
First, the alpacas.
Ana gave birth about a week ago, but unfortunately her little cria (baby alpaca) died after only a few minutes. We have no idea what wrong.
Yesterday, I checked on Alice and all was well, everything calm.
A scant fifteen minutes later, my son went out to change the ducks water and SURPRISE!, Alice had a wee one! We quickly transferred her to our *nursery* pen with the wee one. My son had to carry the little one and we determined it is a male!
Say hello to ANGUS!

Is he not the cutest thing on four legs? I love his coloring. I know, solid white fleece brings the best price, but I think he looks so adorable!
Mama Alice and baby Angus doing well so far!
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Remember our hand raised duck, Daffy?
We assumed Daffy was a boy. Well, a couple of weeks ago she presented us with an egg...then another, then another!
That's MISS Daffy, thankyouverymuch!
She has a private pen and a private wading pool, so obviously, her eggs are not fertile. We have tried to put a drake in there with her, but she chases them out. However, when my son goes out to her pen, she makes lovey-dovey eyes at him and preens herself and then tries to cuddle up to him.
Imprint much?
Don't know how we are going to solve this little problem!
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The Darlin' Man's son got his Drivers License....YAY! That means that I no longer have to do the bulk of the driving around here. What a relief!
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Speaking of the Darlin' Man...he kept sending out those job applications, day after day, just hoping to get an interview for his *dream job* working for the railroad.
FINALLY, CSX called! But the interview was in Indiana! So, for his Christmas present, we agreed he would go to the interview. He went by bus and had to get a motel room (financial bite we were NOT expecting right now!) The interview went well.....very well! As soon as he passes the medical exam, he is hired! They offered him a job contract that he readily accepted. After the medical exam he will be given a date to report for training at their school in Atlanta. We are soooo happy! Yes, it means he will have to work away from home for a bit, but the pay/insurance/other benefits are so good we couldn't pass it up.
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Onto our move and all that. We plan to buy the house through an LLC  that we are currently forming. As soon as the LLC is registered and we have locked in everything, we will be buying the house in New Hampshire and moving. So....YAY!!!!!!! We have all the paperwork started, so it is a matter of waiting now.
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The goats are stubbornly refusing to kid. I think Champagne will be first, followed closely by Nola, then Lilac and Gabby and lastly, Nikki.
Going to be a wild and wacky Holiday season here, considering all the does will kid within a 2 week period (I think).
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Hope you and yours are having a fun Yuletide season!

My Animal Family

I have my human family and I have my animal family. Both are important to me....although if a member of my animal family is not working out, I can sell them or give them away!
Here's my current mammalian animal family...we'll leave the birds for another day!

Siona...*Queen* of the house!

Victor, our newest addition in his sweater sleeve coat

Victor, all naked

Baby

Tabatha, the fellas dog and my sons constant buddy

Champagne, looking for snacks

Gabrielle, aka Gabby, *Queen* of the goats

Nola and Nikki, Mama and daughter

Lilac, about to have breakfast

Alice, Ana and Alberto Alpaca

Alberto, taking a nap

 I love all the critters here!

Shearing Day and Other Disasters...

Shearing day was Saturday. Before shearing, the alpacas looked like this:

         Fluffy Alapacas

 Afterwards.....not so much!

Alarmingly not-so-fluffy alpacas

Unflattering rear view

Yes, they make me giggle a bit, too.

Shearing day started out just fine.
The guy we bought the alpacas from generously offered to put our 3 in his trailer with his and drive them all to the shearers. He would arrive at noon on Saturday. My son, The Girl and myself would be going, the Darlin' Man is on a field exercise.
He arrived at noon, we loaded up our three with little problem (okay, Ana pitched a fit)  and then it was noticed the trailer had a flat tire. So, we unloaded ours and got water for his while he drove back to his house to get an air compressor.
Oh crap....the valve stem is busted....gotta go get another tire. Check all trailer tires...another tire has a busted valve stem.
So, he leaves to get new tires.
Returns, gets new tires on trailer, call shearers...they are okay with us being two HOURS late.
Reload my annoyed alpacas (Ana really pitched a conniption fit this time!).
He tells me to follow him over in my car. He has a friend and his son with him in his pick-up.
On TransMountain  Highway.
One third of the way up the mountain....my car blows up. Well, the radiator and every hose blows up.
With such force that it blew out part of the dash and scalding coolant sprays all over the interior of the car.
I get the car pulled over safely and put on the emergency brake and we all bail out.
I have no cell phone. Well, I have an old one, but it's broke, so, yeah.
It takes 30 minutes to flag someone down to get them to call me a tow truck.
An hour after that with no tow truck in sight, a policeman pulls over. HE calls the tow truck company who tells him they "got backed up". So he calls a different towing company and they show up in 15 minutes! (Thank you Officer Salazzar!)
The tow truck driver does a great job and gets us home about a half hour after that. (Thanks J.R.!)
I call the alpaca guy's cell phone and tell him the situation. He thought he lost us on the road!
And not only are the alpaca's sheared, he is almost all the way back to our place!
So....that was shearing day.

The ONLY bright spot in the day.....
Guess who was waiting for us when we got home?

NUGGET IS BACK!!!!