Lessons Learned, 2008

It's Labor Day weekend, and summer is drawing to a close. This was our first summer as a business, so I wanted to capture a few things:

-Ten inches of rain and a few small hailstones wreak havoc on your fruit harvest. We had deluges of rain back in June. Our peach crop was coming along very nicely. However, at harvest, most of the fruit had tiny holes on them, where the skin was bruised and the fruit was rotten. Jeez. We didn't even get enough peaches this year to make a batch of jam for ourselves, let alone have enough to sell.
-Strawberries, on the other hand, benefitted greatly from the rainy June. We had a wonderful strawberry yield. If only we had enough of them to sell...,.
-I make a kick ass hot pepper sauce. We just discovered a great recipe today - some roasted cayenne peppers, garlic, and vinegar. It's got heat, but still has plenty of flavor. Next year, we're thinking of planting an entire section of peppers just so we can sell the sauce. We'll have to go back to the business plan and re-evaluate this idea.....
-Slightly underripe tomatoes make great sauce. If you pick the fruit before it ripens completely, the plant will put it's energy back into producing more. We have an incredible bounty of salsa and tomato sauce this year.
-Four year old boys are really good at watering. Just have them pretend to be firefighters, and have them point the hose at the garden. Voila - they're occupied, and you can cross something off the to-do list!

Introducing....Sweet Caroline!!

We have a name! My husband thought of it, actually, but I love it. Our farm name, Offbeat Acres, is derived from the fact that we're both musicians, so we wanted all our cria names to have a musical theme as well. We were originally thinking of blues singers, but she just didn't look like a Susan Tedeschi or Billie Holiday. (We actually thought of the name June Carter too, but had a hard time figuring out what her nickname would be - great suggestion, though!)




So....I admit, I'm a huge dork, and a huge Neil Diamond fan. Sweet Caroline is one of those songs that just makes you smile, and this cria makes me smile every time I see her. We'll call her "Sweetie". Perfect!

Update on the Boys

Don't our boys have it rough? I wish I could spend my days lounging in the sun....

Check back in a few weeks, we'll have yarn and roving available, from fiber produced by our very own Offbeat Alpacas!

(Btw, the baby is on the right in the background - she is growing like a weed)!

Out of the mouths of babes

My husband and boys were home when the cria was born. Our older son is almost 4, so my husband was trying to explain to him what was happening with Sabetha, without being too graphic. My husband said "Sabetha's baby is coming today". To which my boy replied, "Good! When Dick and Patty get here, Dick can push me on the swing!"

Gotta love that logic. Dick and Patty are the breeders where we got our first alpacas, so our course, they're going to bring the baby. My son got his first lesson in the birds and the bees that day.

Btw, the cria is now 7 days old, and has gained 1.5 lbs. She loves to run along the fence line so the alpaca boys on the other side can chase her. Sabetha has little tolerance for this, though, and scolds the boys. What interesting creatures they are.

Baby pictures!!!

We have a cria! Baby was born on Tuesday, August 12th, at about 12:45 in the afternoon. She is primarily dark brown, with a black face and black stockings. What a beaut.....except, we still don't have a name. Johnny Cash won't work, for obvious reasons....




Our thoughts:
Melody in the Mist
Black Sunshine
Riley
BB Queen

Any other ideas?

Name that alpaca

Hey folks,

It's August 6th, and still no cria. In the meantime, if any of you have an idea for a name, post a comment. I've already warned my husband that if it's a black male, he WILL be named after Johnny Cash. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Sabetha & cria watch

This is Sabetha. She is a true black alpaca. It is August in Wisconsin, and today it was 86 degrees. To make matters worse, she is 11 months pregnant. Do not be alarmed (yet); alpacas normal gestation period is 11 1/2 months. But still - she must be hot.

We have decided to take the plunge into alpaca breeding. Instead of wading into the kiddie pool, we dove into the deep end, without a life jacket. Oh well - it was a calculated risk.

Sabetha is a beautiful animal, and is bred to Clint, "AKA A Fistful of Dollars". This should be another gorgeous animal, and we can't wait to meet her...or him.

Check back in a few weeks for baby pictures! We'll also have an open house in September, if you want to meet the critters in person!

Home Sweet Home

I had to go to Orlando for business this week. The trip was okay. I know, Orlando is a great place to vacation, but it was the last week in July (over 90 degrees and terribly humid), and my family stayed home. The meetings were okay, and I got to see my best friend from college (Hi Pen!) so the trip wasn't a complete loss.

Things you've missed:

-Our raspberries are done for the year. I don't get it - last year we had berries coming out of our ears. I made 2 batches of jam, and froze over 20 pints. This year, there was one batch of jam, and only 2 pints put up.
-We are still on cria watch. Sabetha is due August 11th, and there is no news to report. This is our first cria, so we're a bit anxious.
-Nature trails in Wisconsin do not have signs that say "Warning - do not touch poisonous or dangerous animals such as snakes or alligators". There IS a silver lining for our terrible winters.
-And finally, it's good to be home. This was my first trip away from my boys, and it seemed like an eternity.