Willow, Again

Don't worry, folks, this is a good post. Hula Honey, part of our original animals purchased from Apple Orchard Alpacas back in 2008, finally had her first cria. She's a beautiful little dark fawn girl with some grey spots. My 5 year old wanted to name her after Willow, from last summer. So, I am pleased to introduce "Willow Nelson-Again".

"Mom, can we name her Willow, again?". Sure, baby.

This is Willow, a few hours after birth. The other picture is big sister Caroline, meeting the new Willow for the first time.

Offbeat on TV!

Hey folks,

If you're in the Madison area, check out the Channel 3 morning show (WISC, the CBS affiliate). Roni, Felicja and I will be on TV this Friday morning to promote the Great Midwest Alpaca Fest!

Our segment airs about 6:40, if you want to have the DVRs ready!

Meet the egg ladies

We have chickens now. Four laying hens. They like with the boy alpacas, and are supposed to help keep the bugs down around the poop pile. Everything is going fine and it looks like they've even made a few friends.

Also, if you're looking for the latest news, become a fan of Offbeat Acres on Facebook!

A sure sign of spring

All of my barn shoes / boots are wet, muddy, or covered in dried poop soup. Not familiar with poop soup? Take some manure, add some frozen pee, and pile some snow nearby. Add some sun, and let the whole thing melt. Voila - poop soup. Anybody want some?

The glamorous life of alpacas

Ah, the glamorous alpaca life. This afternoon, I was sitting in my pasture, feeding treats to my girls. It was lovely. Little Felicja and Roni were smelling my hair, and Sabetha was being really sweet. Meridian was even taking treats. And then - the spitting began. I got it on my hair, face, hand, even eyes, and... it ...was the stinky, half chewed food kind of spit too. Gross.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Santa was good to us this year - we just got 3 new alpacas from Dougherty Creek Farms! They are Silly Millie, DCF Veronica, and DCF Kacie. We are really excited about these girls. Pictured at left is Silly Milly and Kacie, the mother / daughter pair. Both are beautiful. Milly is dense, straight, and conformationally strong. Kacie is still very young, but she looks like she'll have the same excellent conformation. Kacie's fiber is fine and showing some crimp, and we're hoping she'll do well next spring in the show ring.





Veronica is pictured at right. (We call her Roni). We are tremendously excited about this animal. Roni is dense, crimpy, with an incredible staple lenghth. Roni's fleece is incredibly soft - it's hard to keep your hands off of her. Roni will be bred to Ferrari's Excel later this spring, and that should be an outstanding cria!

May you all have safe travels this Christmas. In case you're wondering why I'm blogging on Christmas morning, it's the calm before the storm. My boys haven't gotten up yet!!

New website / socks & scarves

A quick December update:

-Our redesigned website has been unveiled! Check it out, and tell us what you think: www.offbeatacres.com. Paul and I did it together (he handled the artwork / layout, and I did the text and pages). Let us know if you need help with your website, we're contemplating a side venture to our farm.

-Thank you to everyone who bought socks and scarves for Christmas!! Our sales were outstanding this year. We are even starting to see repeat customers, who can't get enough alpaca wear!

Lil Willow

Willow lost her battle over the weekend. It is sad, but it's also part of this business. Alpacas are ultimately livestock, and stuff like this is going to happen.

There are a few silver linings. Willow did not suffer, or go through a major decline. She was a little slow to get in the barn for the morning feeding, but that's it. She was sunning herself in the pasture, and it looked liked she died in her sleep.


The other silver lining came from the UW Vet Hospital. The vet who saw her back in August told us he would be interested in doing a necropsy when she passed. We didn't think much of it at the time, but decided to take him up on the offer. Paul said the doc was very excited to get her, and promised to treat her with utmost respect. The doc is doing research on alpacas with heart conditions, and will be able to learn a lot by comparing Willow's X-rays and test results from her August exam with the actual heart and how it's grown over the past few months.

Good bye, Willow. Rest in peace.

The Lord

We have purchased our first herdsire. Actually, he's a Junior Herdsire, which means he's too young to breed yet, but we're hoping all goes well.

His name is Robasia's Lord Muireach. We call him either "The Lord" or "Muireach". I have some other pretty obnoxious names for him too (My Pretty Boy, for example). We'll start breeding him next year. His first "date" has already been arranged - ask for details sometime.

NAFD Update

Thank you to everyone who came out during National Alpaca Farm Days! We had a wonderful weekend, and great turnout.

Thank you to the fiber artists who came out and share their craft!

Thank you to Cicely Combs who shared her artwork!

Thank you to Lynne Johnson of Sauk Creek Alpacas who brought lots of alpaca knowledge (and some of her beautiful fiber).

All in all, it was a great weekend. Stop back next year - we'll have 3 crias to watch, and a lot more fiber on display! Drop a note if you need socks or scarves for Christmas - info@offbeatacres.com. We'll even gift wrap them!

National Alpaca Farm Days!

Directions from Madison:
Take I-94 East towards Milwaukee
Get off at Exit 244 Hwy N - Cottage Grove / Sun Prairie
Turn left at the bottom of the ramp, northbound on Hwy N
Take the first right onto Hwy TT (four way stop)
Go 3 miles, and turn left on Pierceville Rd
Our farm is the third place on the left.

Directions from Milwaukee:
Take I-94 West towards Madison
Get off at Exit 244 Hwy N - Cottage Grove / Sun Prairie
Turn right at the bottom of the ramp, northbound on Hwy N
Take the first right onto Hwy TT (four way stop)
Go 3 miles, and turn left on Pierceville Rd
Our farm is the third place on the left.

Signs will be posted, once you get off the Interstate!

Come - meet the alpacas!

Offbeat Acres is proud to be participating in National Alpaca Farm Days on September 26 & 27.

We are located at 5453 Pierceville Road, Cottage Grove, WI. National Alpaca Farm Days is a great, free opportunity for the public to come meet alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals.

We will also feature barn tours, pictures with the alpacas, fiber demonstrations, local artists, refreshments, and fresh country air. All activities are free.

Alpaca yarn, roving, socks, and scarves will be available for purchase. $1 from every pair of socks and scarf sold will be donated to Shelter from the Storm, an all breed dog and cat rescue serving the greater Madison area. Painting, jewelry, and other art will also be for sale.

For more information, contact Erin Egan, (608) 219-6369, e-mail info@offbeatacres.com or visit www.offbeatacres.com.

Willow update

Willow is doing fine. She's up and running around, and is cute as a button.

Right now, we're treating every day as a gift....

Another bad day

We took Willow for an ultrasound today. When her heart murmur was diagnosed a week ago, we initially decided against it. We changed our mind over the weekend, just so we knew exactly what we were dealing with.

The news is bad. Willow's heart has 2 holes in it, and there's also a problem with the vein connecting her heart to her lungs. (I'm probably not explaining that right, but it's close enough). The vet doesn't think she'll live more than a year, and eventually die from congestive heart failure.

We brought her home and put her back in the pasture with mom. Now, we watch and wait. Over the past few weeks, she's been gaining weight and been more active, so I thought she was getting better. Now, I know how wrong (stupidly optimistic) I was.

I guess the silver lining is this: when she passes, we will know nothing could have prevented this. Our vet at the UW is also doing research on heart problems in camelids, so he took some extra pictures of her for his research. I guess that's something to cling too, but I'm still sad.

Cria update

The baby has a heart murmur. We thought something was up, because she spends an awful lot of time just laying around in the pasture. I guess this isn't uncommon with crias that are early. The good news is that she is gaining weight and growing. I've also heard that the murmur is more pronounced as it's starting to close. The vet didn't notice it during the first vet check, and now my husband can feel it. Maybe that's a good sign. Until she's up and running around, I'm going to worry about her.

We named her Willow Nelson, by the way. Let's hope I get to see that name printed on an ARI certificate someday.

SURPRISE!

We have a new cria! Baby was born about 3 weeks early, but looks healthy. She's standing up, walking around, nursing, and even weighs 1.2 pounds more than her sister from last year, who was full term.

Bam Bam, Striking a Pose

Check out our website - www.offbeatacres.com. Notice any resemblance between the narrator and this guy?

Before and After

Shearing is done for the year. Check out the before and after pictures of Bam Bam.


Wish I could lose 6 pounds, just like that. We do have all the raw fiber sitting around for the next few weeks. Shoot an e-mail if you're interested in it. Otherwise, we'll skirt it and send some to the fiber co-op and the rest will go to the mill for yarn / roving.

Weekend Recap

We survived our first alpaca show. Sweet Caroline got a ribbon. (Don't get too excited - she was 6th out of 6). However, we heard a lot of good comments about her, and are hoping her fiber will get even better after she is shorn in a few weeks. It was a really nice show, too, and we enjoyed a lot of foot traffic being on the main floor. Our other alpaca that went to the show, Hula Honey, got the gate (no ribbon - there were more than 6 alpacas in her class). I have to tell you folks, there is some stiff competition out there and we need to make careful breeding decisions.

We met some really fun people at the show too. It's been a year that we've been in the business, and still no regrets.

The boys, Bam Bam and Titanium, also did the Breakfast on the Farm at the UW. I think they enjoyed themselves, but they did start to get a little annoyed after the third hour. We sold a lot of socks and a scarf, and gave away a lot of magnets, so it was a good outing for us too.

It's GMAF Time!

The Offbeat Acres alpacas will be out and about this weekend. On Friday morning, Titanium and Bam Bam will appear on the Channel 3 morning show, promoting the Great Midwest Alpaca Fest. We're showing Caroline and Hula at the show this weekend too.

Stop by and visit us! We're in stall 537, right inside the North Entrance on the main floor. You may even get a lovely parting gift!