Moving, Part 2!

We're back in central Montana! Half of the alpacas have arrived. We chose to ship the pregnant females first, to make sure they had plenty of time to recover from the trip and get adjusted to the new location before crias are due. The first cria is due at the end of May.

The second load of alpacas is due any day now. Shipper Dick Hegeman does an outstanding job of moving alpacas. Since he has his own alpaca ranch, he knows to stop regularly to allow the animals to stand up (alpacas sit down, or kush, while traveling), and he checks to make sure everyone is eating and drinking well. The second trailer load contains all the stud males...hopefully they will not fight too much among themselves while on the road.

The weather in Montana is much improved over our experience of last year. Last year there was still plenty of snow on the ground, and weather systems came through every few days. This year the only snow left is in the deep coulees, and the pasture grass is green already. The sun has been shining and life is good!

Nothing makes me happier than watching alpacas enjoying their new pastures!

Trailer Travel and Travails

In my prior life, B.A. (Before Alpacas), I could not imagine towing a trailer across country. Even with growing up on a farm, because we had small stock (goats, rabbits, etc.), I had no experience with trailers. We just used the back of our Nissan truck with the camper shell to haul animals around. But I sure heard my share of harrowing trailer stories in which the term 'jack knife' was used to good effect. I somehow had the feeling that towing a trailer was way more adventure than I needed to have.

Enter the alpacas followed by the Rodeo/Chedesky fire in 2002. When the towering flames, which ultimately burned over 500,000 acres, forced friends of ours to evacuate their alpaca ranch, we realized that we needed to get serious. If an emergency struck, we had to be able to get all the animals off our place in one trip. All of a sudden I was the owner of a full-sized truck and a 16 foot stock trailer...which meant that I had to learn to pull a trailer safely.

The first time out on the road I felt like I was driving a big rig! Not only was my truck twice as high as any vehicle I had ever owned, but the trailer running behind seemed to take up the entire lane and then some. I was hugging the edge of the road, going about 30 miles under the speed limit, and sure that I would either end up in the ditch or sideswipe some on-coming car. And I was only driving 2 miles to the Safeway to use their parking lot to practice turning and backing! By the time I got there, I was shaking, sweaty, and about ready to give up.

Well, you never know what you can do until you try. Turns out I am pretty good at trailering. Since I have had to attend many alpaca shows by myself, not to mention moving to Montana and back to Arizona...it's a good thing! It did not take too long before I learned how to hook up, maneuver, back, and park the trailer. Towing it is easy. In fact, after a few hours on the road, I kind of forget the trailer is even back there.

I've also found there are many uses for trailers, now that I have one. You can pick up a big load of hay, move furniture from or to storage, make a temporary dog kennel, keep alpacas out of the weather if there is no room in the barn, set up an alpaca retail booth out of the rain if your tent blows down at a craft fair, store stuff you don't want to get wet, and even put a spare bed in it for kids when you have over-flow company.

I guess I have made my peace with towing a trailer now that we own two, the smaller one in the photo and the larger stock trailer. But you'll never catch me towing an RV! Those things are dangerous!

Some Thoughts on Living the Rural Life

Living in the country...it's what many of us dream of, while working at some high-stress 9 to 5 job. We envision the peace and quiet, the lovely scenery, the joys of setting our own schedules. Utopia!

And it is utopia. But like anything worth having, you make some sacrifices. For example, town is not so easy to get to any more. Which means all those cool things we do in town might now be only a weekly, or even monthly, treat.

Those daily (or more than daily?) trips to the coffee shop are now a thing of the past. I have traded my skinny, extra hot, 5 pump morning chai for the more pedestrian tea bag of choice. But I love my morning hot tea, often sipped while gazing out of my window at the fields and alpaca pastures, watching birds at my bird feeders or while puttering in the garden.

Shopping? Unless it takes place at the grocery store, the hardware store or the feed store, it is pretty much not a big part of my life now. Luckily, the alpacas do not seem to care that they see me in the same barn clothes every day, and I have truly not missed paying for all the stuff I used to 'need'. And if I do get the shopping bug...well, I just log on to my favorite on-line stores. Plus, it is amazing how much cool stuff you can find at some feed stores. The Big R chain rocks!

Speaking of logging on, one of the biggest challenges of the country lifestyle is getting connected. Forget wireless internet. If you are lucky, your farm will be served by satellite or cable, but many rural areas still only have dial up options. I have been known to hit the library while in town, just to get a faster internet connection. On the other hand, I have so much to do every day that I don't spend nearly the amount of time on-line, which has certainly helped my dress size (oops! I mean Carhartts size!).

It's funny, though. Most of the things that used to fill my life in town, I don't miss at all. They've been replaced by the wonder of waking up every day to a lifestyle that I love, with the animals and people that bring me joy. Trip to the mall? Not interested. I have baby alpacas to halter train, barns to clean, dogs to walk, and gardens to tend. See you at the feed store!

New Event for Alpaca Lovers!

Join 5 southern Arizona farms for two days of FREE education on all things alpaca, including:
-alpaca care
-building your alpaca facility
-choosing the right alpaca
-working with fiber (skirting, cleaning, fiber arts)
-setting up your alpaca store
-marketing
-selling in the new economy

All classes are taught by friendly, knowledgeable breeders with years of alpaca experience! In addition to classes, watch fiber arts and alpaca husbandry demonstrations, make your own felt project, and visit the alpaca store. Lunch is available for purchase each day, and snacks and beverages will be available.

Space is limited for this event, so reserve your spot today! Event will be held in Sonoita, AZ, at Square Top Ranch.

To register, call Deb at (520) 455-5126, or email clouddancer@infomagic.net.

Event sponsors: Cloud Dancer Alpacas, Square Top Ranch, Cienega Creek Farm, Desert Mountain Alpacas and Madera Canyon Alpacas and Fiber Works.

Best Tips for Halter Training

I have been halter training the juvenile alpacas. We are late in doing this. Usually I have them trained at weaning, which is around six months of age. These guys are all ten, eleven or twelve months old. Moving to Montana and then back to Arizona meant a lot of things got delayed this year!

But the youngsters are coming along beautifully. I had a helper today - someone who had never trained an animal before. Of course, I had to train my helper first, before we could train the babies. While explaining the process I realized that the best advice I ever got for training alpacas came from a Special Ed teacher. She said that working with special ed kids requires you to think really hard about all the steps in the process of whatever skill you are trying to teach. "Chunk it down" is how she phrased it. It is a perfect motto for training animals.

We tend to think of outcomes. What do I want this animal to do? I want it to walk on a lead. So we grab the alpaca, shove a halter on its head, snap on a lead rope and off we go. Typically all hell breaks loose at this point, and we can't figure out what went wrong.

What went wrong is that we need to think of baby steps instead of the ultimate outcome. Even something as simple as walking on a lead comes from learning to do many smaller things. Some of the steps include:

-learning to have a human handler in close proximity without running away
-learning to stand quietly while restrained by an arm around the neck
-learning not to pull away when the halter is being put over the nose
-learning that the halter noseband will not cut off breathing (if it is positioned correctly, that is)
-learning to stand quietly when the headband latch is fastened
-learning to accept the feel of the halter on the head
-learning to accept the feel of the added weight of the lead rope snap hanging from the halter
-learning to accept the long 'snakey' looking lead rope
-learning that a tug on the lead rope, which creates pressure behind the alpaca's ears, means to move forward
-learning to keep moving forward until the handler stops
-learning that a tug to the side means to turn to that side
-learning to walk in unfamiliar areas with the handler, past scary things such as gates, vehicles, cats, wind-blown weeds, etc.
-learning to stop and stand when the handler stops
-learning not to race past the handler when spooked
-learning to allow the handler to approach and touch the alpaca
-learning to allow the handler to remove the halter without pulling away

Whew! That is a lengthy list for the most basic of alpaca training projects. It is always amazing to me how quickly the alpacas learn all this. I never teach lessons longer than 15 to 20 minutes, and in about three lessons I can have any alpaca walking pretty well on the lead. Give me another three lessons and they will look like they were born wearing a halter and walking on the lead.

These animals are really smart and learn fast. They will learn what you want them to learn, or they will learn something less helpful. It's all in how well you teach.

Alpacas Don't Like Change!

Have you ever noticed how annoying it is to break your routine? Or what a relief it is to get back to it? I travel quite a bit, and one of the things that I have noticed is that the closer that I can stick to my normal 'home' routine, even when I am half a continent away in a strange hotel room, the more grounded I feel.

After almost 14 years working with alpacas, I have no qualms at saying they feel the same way. Of course their routine does not involve a morning cup of tea or 20 minutes of yoga, but they do have a routine. Feeding schedules, type of feed, pen cleaning, moving between barns and pastures, cud chewing time...the more I can keep them on the same schedule, the more secure they are.

I have had visitors ask if the alpacas get bored, and surely they do if there is not enough in their daily routine for stimulation. But generally the more I can keep their daily schedule the same from day to day, the more calm the alpacas are. Moving things around - changing feeding times, switching pastures or stalls, putting different alpacas together - causes stress, which for an alpaca manifests as: more talking (whining), more spitting or aggressive behavior between alpacas, and less quiet time. Stressed alpacas, just like stressed humans, get sick more, especially ulcers.

So my role as alpaca caretaker is to try to keep the number of changes to a minimum, or, as the humerous saying goes: change is good - you go first! Of course, by keeping my alpacas' routines on schedule, I keep myself on schedule, and then I am also less stressed. It's the alpaca farm version of yoga!

Life is What Happens While You are Making Other Plans

Life takes interesting paths, most of which are not at all what we had planned. Well, as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, develop a plan. Our plan was to sell our Flagstaff house over 18 months or 2 years, and meanwhile slowly build our dream alpaca ranch on the 95 acres in central Montana that we purchased 12 years ago.

When our home in Flagstaff sold within 2 months of listing, we had to make a decision...move north without any facilities in place or move to a rental property. We could not find any rentals suitable for livestock within driving distance of Flagstaff, where Don's optometric practice is still open. Since we needed his income to pull this off, we opted to move the alpacas north with me as their caretaker, while Don was to stay in northern Arizona.

So in April of this year I headed to Lewistown, Montana with all 34 alpacas, cats and dogs. The plan was to live in a motor home while our barn, including the apartment, was quickly built. Unfortunately this was the most bizarre Montana weather year that anyone can recall. We had snow (lots of it) until early June, then rain until mid-July. The shortest summer on record ended with frost in early September and the return of winter October 1st. The strange weather created many construction delays.

Faced with a still-incomplete and untested facility and a serious Montana winter on the doorstep, Don and I determined that the safest course of action was to move back to warmer climes. In the best of circumstances, dealing with winter in the northcountry is no joke, but combine that with one person trying to handle over 30 head of livestock and there was a recipe for disaster building.

Fortunately, life presented us with an amazing alternative option. Our close friends, Mark and Rachel Hendrickson, had retired from the alpaca business a couple of years ago and their awesome facility was sitting virtually empty, along with a lovely two story home formerly used by caretakers.

While it has been an expensive change in plans, we now have the alpacas and the pets settled into their new accommodations in the rolling oak-covered hills of southeastern Arizona. Blue skies and sunny days have replaced gale force winds and horizontal snow. Living at Heartland Ranch is like having a spa-retreat experience while we wait for better weather to arrive in Montana - not in our original plans but truly the best of Plan B's.