Well, we knew it couldn't last forever. Today my two little visiting alpaca gals had to go home with their REAL owner, back to Red Barn Alpacas. We drew blood last weekend and, yesterday received the blood progesterone (pregnancy) results. Cocoa, who was bred to Valentino, had a progesterone level of 3.06, Cotton, who was bred to Nickleby had a level of 3.87 with only 1 try and Cassy, who was also bred to Nickle, had a level of 3.64 also on the 1st try! Good going boys and girls!
If you have heard that many alpaca people just stick their animals in their vans and take off without bothering with the livestock trailer, here's proof! Here's my friend Helen, just putting her two girls (who ARE for sale, by the way,) inside her van and taking off for home.
A little help shoving their furry behinds inside while Helen jumps out and Voila! Porta-Paca! I will miss these two though. They are sweet and lovey-dovey and were a lot of fun to have as visitors. I get attached to all "my" girls even the ones who just come here for breeding.
Part II - DIVINE RETRIBUTION????
Only a few days ago in a Previous Post I was kidding around about the Other Tom Perez (the politician) and saying that I was sick of getting e-mail and calls for him and I ordered his bumper sticker and all that. I WAS only joking, and it's not like I KNOW the guy!
So today my Tom and I went to visit our kids at Catoctin Quaker Camp, part of the
Baltimore Yearly Meeting Camping Program and who should I see standing not 4 feet away from me but THE OTHER TOM PEREZ! His kids are now going to the same camp as my kids! He is not Quaker, nor does he live in Frederick County so I am thinking that this ia a pretty weird coincidence!
The question is, is this a warning from the Supreme being not to tease others or is it just meant to be that our paths would eventually cross due to the name thing? I'm playing it safe and covering both bases. So I have now got the message and will refrain from teasing others on the blog - No, really! OK, maybe not.
Part 3 - Comments
If any of you were wondering (like me) whether or not people can see the comments you leave, the answer is No. This blogging software stinks and I am thinking that I should upgrade to Media Wiki but, in the time being, if you post a comment, I will cut it and paste it in here even if it is, God Forbid, negative. I promise.
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( 3 / 580 )How Quirky is this little blogging software!!! It's not clear to me if anyone else but me can see the comments people leave here so, PLEASE! Somebody take pity on me and tell me if you can read them! I can only read them if I login as the owner of the blog first. That can't be right. Is that because I don't use Internet Explorer (tool of the devil?) I DO have my popups turned on so it's not that.
Here, for example is a comment from Ms. Smarty Pants, Sue Ives. YES! I am naming you as the culprit Sue - Ha! - but I will give you a plug for your own web site because I'm that nice of a person. (Laugh out Loud) Also, I am very jealous that you have a blog and seem to actually know how your own blogging software works! And the address for that web site and blog would be AlpacasofNottinghamHollow.com
SUE'S COMMENT REGARDING MY FREDERICK FAIR POST:
Great blog Kate! Now tell us what you really feel! ROFL
Thank you for sharing with us. I wish you all the success imaginable for The Great Frederick Fair Alpaca Show.
Sue Ives
Blog owner's note: For those of you not "in the know" ROFL means "Rolling on the Floor Laughing".
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( 3 / 591 )You cannot be a real livestock farmer and NOT obsess about HAY. We worry about hay that is too damp, hay that is too stemmy and has prickles in it, hay that is bad, hay that is moldy, even hay that is too good and will make the alpacas fat. Mostly, though, we worry about running out of hay.
We were close to running out when we arranged to make an emergency hay trip to our neighbor and friend who owns a beautiful dairy farm. Since it has been about 100 degrees the last few days, we waited until evening to get the hay, hoping for the temperature to drop to, Oh, let's say 85 degrees or something bearable like that. But then we realized that a storm was approaching and our lovely hay might be getting wet before we ever got it into our barn so we raced out to the dairy.
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the milking parlour but all the pretty Holsteins are already gone back to the fields. I LOVE cows! And I desperately want a holstein of my own but I don't want to milk!
Our mission? Pick up the hay and get it into our barn BEFORE the storm arrived and made our lovely hay a soggy mess.
I climbed up into the hay wagon and started throwing bales down from the top of the pile while my husband and the dairy owner stacked them in our flatbed trailer. It's impossible to seem at all dignified when you are balanced on top of a huge pile of hay, trying to keep your footing, throwing hay bales down below you and hoping not to tumble down the pile yourself so don't even try! But we got about 50 bales down in a very short time all the while listening to the ominous rumble of the approaching storm. The sky was darkening rapidly when we tied the bales together and jumped back into the truck to drive home.
We raced back to the farm ahead of the approaching storm and Tom positioned the truck and trailer so that he could back them right into the barn. Forget about unloading the hay, we just hoped to get it inside before the rain descended.
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I ran to the barn to open the doors and guide the trailer in while Tom backed up the hill. If there was some sort of contest at the fair for guys who can back up a trailer at practically full speed and still guide it precisely where they wanted it to go, Tom would surely win. And, it isn't easy because, when you're backing a trailer, you have to turn the wheel the opposite way from the way you want it to turn, something I, myself, could never manage to do. Back up a hill with the trailer and guide it inside a door with inches to spare on either side? Forget about it! Tom made it look easy though.
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I couldn't believe how lucky we were going to get! The storm was upon us but the first drops waited until just AFTER the trailer cleared the door of the barn and the hay made it inside! The alpacas were somewhat non-plussed to see a big truck and trailer INSIDE the barn. "What the heck is that?!!", they seemed to be thinking.
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My job was to stand in the back of the barn and yell when Tom got within 2 feet of the back doors.
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Then, it came. Huge sheets of rain, moving in waves across the fields, lightening, thunder and fairly large pellets of hail were all around us and the wind blustering through the barn but the hay was safe! What a thrill! These are the little adventures that make our lives so entertaining and satisfying and we owe it all to the alpacas!
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( 3 / 166 )Things are slow on the farm today. We will draw blood tomorrow to send out for Progesterone (pregnancy) tests on 3 female alpacas. I am sending out invitations by e-mail asking alpaca people to enter fleeces and skeins at the Great Frederick Fair of which I am the fleece show superintendent. I am also receiving e-mails and one that I get all too frequently is from various people asking if my husband is Tom Perez, who is running for Attorney General of MD.
The OTHER Tom Perez - politician at left
I AM married to a Tom Perez and he is an Hispanic (sometimes these calls and e-mails are in Spanish.) but he is a pharmacist and alpaca farmer and he is NOT a politician unless you count the fact that he is the former president of the Maryland Alpaca Breeders Association. Nor do we live in Montgomery County. MC is OK but we are proud to live in Frederick County, Maryland. Y, Si, hablamos Espanol pero por mi parte, necessito que me habla despacio por favor.
Tom Perez the alpaca farmer
The latest e-mail on this subject contained a web site address for the campaign of the other Tom Perez so, of course, I clicked on it and found a place to request a yard sign and bumper sticker asking people to vote for Tom Perez. Yes, this is somewhat juvenile and also a clear case of "work avoidance" and time wasting but I do intend to use the bumper sticker and yard sign because I do actually agree with the politics of this OTHER Tom Perez. Get yours here:
Get a yard sign and/or bumper sticker for campaign of Tom Perez
Maybe we should host a fund raiser for the OTHER Tom Perez at our alpaca farm? I hope he does win Attorney General but I still think that MY Tom Perez is cuter! Lo siento Senior Perez, abogado pero, entiende, el otro es mi esposo.
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