Alpaca Thiamine Deficiency Again

Christopher Gold had thiamine deficiency earlier this month. I caught it in the very early stages. It was the weekend & I was already out in the barn cleaning up manure. He kept humming over & over which he normally is a "talker" but this was not normal so I stopped & watched him. His legs were trembling & his head was starting to tremble also. I felt pretty confident that it was thiamine deficiency again as he had it twice last winter. I went in the house & got the thiamine & gave him a shot of 2cc. He is easy to handle & since he was unsteady & kinda woozy it was easy to corner him, get him haltered & tie him so I could give him the shot. Within an hour there was definite improvement & about 4 hours later you wouldn't even have known. Thank goodness it's a quick and easy fix & I keep thiamine on hand. He is the only one of my alpacas that gets this & so far it has only been in the winter. Here he just wanted to sit & look out the barn door. I had given him his shot but it hadn't had time to take effect yet. Poor Chrissy.





Thiamine deficiency (it's not known what causes it) makes them act very "drunken".....dizzy & it will make them go blind. It can be reversed though, luckily. A friend of mine had a llama that had it & had pretty much completely lost his eyesight. She thought for sure he was going to die but he didn't, he made a full recovery.

Next post, my Christmas present.

TTFN.

Ahhh.......This is the Life.....

.....Mama feeds me when I promptly remind her that it's breakfast & dinner time......I get to sleep on the couch & cuddle.....I have a little buddy (Ben) to play & keep company with when no one else is home........................this is life.......

Welcome Tristan & Petunia!

Look who came to live at my house! Welcome Tristan & Petunia!

This is Tristan........

and this is Petunia.

They are both Romney lambs from my friend's farm. I wasn't planning on getting any sheep (well, not just yet anyways). It all started with an innocent visit to my friend Karen's farm to see the white llama born to two dark brown parents.



I turned around & there he was! Tristan!.....with the most adorable face! He looked like an Olde Babydoll Southdown lamb which is what I am interested in getting in a year or two.


Well.......I just had to have him.
And of course you can't have just one by themselves.....so in the next pen were 3 little girls.


I picked Petunia.




They are very happy in their new home.


I just love them!


TTFN!

Fall Time This & Thats

I finished this pair of socks that I made for my neighbor. I am going to give them to him today. They came out really nice. The pattern was called "Hunter's Socks" & they have a double heel. I had never done a double heel before. It was very easy. I bought this wonderful DK weight yarn from Romney Ridge Farm. I was lucky, I had just a few yards left when I finished off the socks! Whew!

Went hiking again over in the White Mountains. I took a co-worker & her daughter with me this time. I took them on the Square Ledge Trail. When we came back down of the ledge, there was a 5 year old boy with his mother waiting for his father to climb to the top. The 5 year old climbs too! She said they started him when he was 2! The Dad is a guide in the White Mountains. You can see the little boy in the picture with his mother right behind him. Dad is at the top.

My alpacas are enjoying the maple leaves I give them. They love to roll in them & of course, eat them. They see me gathering them & they get excited. Some of them let me dump the tote over them & let the leaves fall down around them (since I'm dumping them over a 5ft fence).

You can see the ducks in the background, sitting in the shade of the barn. I don't know why they would want to be in the shade on a November day! Silly ducks!

Gus is getting old. I can see different signs, changes in him. He is about 9 now. He is the first bunny we ever got & he has out lived others.

Christopher was curious about the bucket. He wasn't sure if it was something that would attack him so he checked it out very cautiously. (Even though he sees me with it every day.)

Having their morning hay (before the maple leaves).

I finished spinning some of the brown dyed roving that I bought from Rolling Knolls Farm while at the Fryeburg Fair. I love the variation. I was very happy with how it came out. Now I'm anxious to spin the purple roving I bought from her.

My parents came to visit this weekend. They brought my birthday present & I love it! I have been wanting to get a dutch oven & cook delicious stews. I can't wait to try it. Maybe next weekend! We took them to Cabella's since my Dad had never been to one & my brother talks about it (and has a lot of stuff from there). LL Bean is the big thing out here. Their flagship store is in Freeport which is about 45min from here. I think I may go back & get one of the books on dutch oven cooking so I can use it next weekend. They also brought us some moose meat. My mother got her license this year.

Here is another one of the many projects I have going. I am making this scarf out of Spin-Off magazine (Winter 2004).

Here's mine in progress.

Well, got to get some other stuff done & my apple crisp is just about ready to come out of the oven.

TTFN.

Fryeburg Fair & Draft Horses

I went to the Fryeburg Fair this week. We had good weather for the most part of the fair week. I went & watched the draft horses pulling their wagons. It is a sight to see that I just love to watch. I love these dapple gray Percherons.

I chatted a bit with a gentleman next to me who was from Oklahoma. He and his wife had come out to the Fryeburg Fair because they had seen Oxen pulls listed. So they came out to see that & were surprised and treated to the draft horses pulling their wagons. He said they don't have that event out in the midwest. He said most of the horses are light horses that are ridden & that they don't have a lot of draft horses. I found that interesting.

I also was invited by one of the women who owned some of the draft ponies to come take driving lessons from her husband. Oh, the temptation! Someday...when I have more time!

This beautiful team of Percherons was from Sennett, New York. They won first place in the 8 horse hitch. They did work very nicely together.

These were also Percherons from Hi Lo Farm from Springfield, Vermont.

These draft ponies were really beautiful & they also worked very well together.

Oxen being taken for a walk.

Being scrubbed down for his show.

I went to see Jamey Johnson in concert Saturday night. It was a good concert, I like his singing. It was pretty cool when he sang "In Color" & the whole audience sang every single word to the song & drowned him out. He also sang "Give It Away" which he wrote but George Strait sings. I like Jamey singing it much better. It just fits his voice & persona much better.


I also bought some beautifully dyed Finn/Romney roving from Lisa of Rolling Knolls Farm. I love browns & the color was so beautiful I had to get it. Here it is spun singles just waiting for my to ply it. Like I don't already have enough of my own fiber to spin......well, it's always fun to try different fibers & colors.

I also bought some purple roving from her. Can't wait to spin this up, too!

TTFN.

Weaving More Overshot

The current project on my loom is cotton kitchen hand towels with a band of overshot pattern on each end in pearle cotton. I love how they are coming out. The pearle cotton really makes the overshot pop out with a bit of sheen. These pictures don't do them justice. I will sell these at my Holiday shows this November bundled with a bar of my handmade soap. They make a wonderful gift & they are always a good seller for me.

I'm kinda torn. I have a big old loom that was given to me. The elderly lady that owned it said she wanted it to go to someone who would use it. I would definitely use it if I had space to set it up. I keep holding onto it thinking someday I will have space. Now I'm thinking maybe I will let it go. I don't know. Guess I'll have to think on it some more.

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Calypso came in last weekend & had a seat right on the porch & said "I'm ready for my grooming now!" He's such a cuddle bug.




Well, I'm off now to work on my wool socks that I'm knitting for a gift.

TTFN!

Hiking the NH White Mountains II

Hubby & I went hiking in the White Mountains again. This time we took Champney Brook Trail off the Kankamagus Hwy. It was another beautiful day here in New England. We took a lunch & ate when we reached the falls.

These trees were growing on top of this big rock so their roots were exposed. It looked like something out of a horror movie where the trees come alive.....ha ha.

This section had a lot of roots exposed.

I should have taken pictures of the climb we had to make to get to Champney Falls & Pitcher Falls. It was quite a ways of steep "stairs".

This was Pitcher Falls which was just soooo awesome! It looked like someone just cut the ledge with a knife & spread it apart. You can just see hubby & Sadie on top of a rock at the bottom.

Sadie somehow got up on the rock all by herself but then couldn't get down so she needed a little help.

This is me & Sadie after the hike at a scenic rest area. Isn't she a good lookin' doggie!

And this is part of the view at the scenic rest stop.

Another beautiful day for hike. We had a great time & I can't wait to go again! I'd go every day if I could! I think when I retire I'll move to the White Mountains.

TTFN!