You never know what you’re gonna get!!!

More on this later…..

We had some visitors a few weeks ago…

Might be on TV!

This is our Brazoria “Zori” for short.  She is the granddaughter of a Dom Lucilio dam, Nirvana’s Sari, and the half sister to Poseidon’s Isaac.  Her sire is Escondidos Makulu the multi award winning white son of the late PCA Accoyo El Nino.

Zori just won the Brown Color Championship at the January 2010 AOK Alpaca Blast-Off!  Not too often is it that a the juvie wins the class, but Zori got it done.  Zori beat out 27 other dark, medium and light brown female alpacas.  We are tickled pink. 

Zori will be going to the 2010 TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular in February 2010.  We are thankful to have such a beautiful little girl at our ranch.

Lately I have been doing some research on the Paco-Vicuña.  The Paco-Vicuña Registry describes this animal as a special alpaca that exhibits the phenotypical traits of it’s ancestor, the vicuña. 

We have a female alpaca that was born with fairly ’normal’ coloring (below) who now has changed to look quite different.  For a while we were calling her our ‘two-tone’, but have come to realize that she may be a paco-vicuña. 

The picture below shows Bailey now.  Her coloration has changed quite a bit as she has matured.  Her bib is much more evident, she is a bit more finer boned as vicuña are.  She also had a vicuña-type head, and her fleece is fine, coming in at 18.1 AFD

Here is a brief description of a vicuña.  “The vicuña has roamed the Andes for thousands of years. It is the wild ancestor of the alpaca. The vicuña manages to be both majestic and delicate at the same time standing proud but having beautiful and fine features. The vicuña typically weighs between 90 and 110 lbs. It has a light colored, longer fibered bib on its chest and very little leg wool. It also only has a small amount of head wool and a thin deer like head, with large and protruding eyes that allow it to see in a much broader range than an alpaca. The vicuña have some of the finest fleece in the world but it grows very slowly compared to an alpaca. The vicuñas’ micron count (width of a single strand) is 8 to 13 microns, whereas most alpacas are in the 20 to 32 micron range.”

This is Bailey today (above).

 

Above is a picture of a wild vicuña.

 

This picture, above, is a paco-vicuña.  (Above two pictures courtesy of  the Paco-Vicuña Registry page).  Our Bailey looks so similar to this animal except her color variations are more bold.

Got a ranch to sell….

Does it have Medina River frontage….

Try some good ole Hill Country innovation!

Some friends have asked what we do to keep our alpacas warm when we are having these COLD winter days here in Texas.  Well, for the most part, the adults don’t mind the cold at all.  They each have about 3-4 inches of fleece on them and are just fine even on the mornings where we come down to find them with  frost on their backs!  

It’s the little ones that I am most concerned about.  We have two who are under three weeks old, so we put these cria coats on them to keep them warm.  Frankly, I don’t know if I do it for them or for me.  I do know that I sleep better at night knowing that I have supplied the little ones with another layer of warmth on a cold night.

Anyway, I am going to have to recalculate what ‘cold enough for a coat’ is now that we have had 8 degrees here in the hill country for a low temperature.  Actually, the determination on whether or not a cria needs a coat depends on the health of the cria, how old the cria is and whether or not the cria is able to maintain a stable temperature themselves.  I think most of the healthy, gaining atleast half a pound a day, running and playing with the other crias, probably don’t need a coat,  but, they sure are cute in their colorful little coats.

BTW, the reason we have the pink vet wrap around the little one in the green coat is because she is about to outgrow her coat and the other crias love to chew on the velcro straps and undo them.  Two mornings in a row this little girl had her coat hanging in front of her from around her neck because her belly strap had come undone.  Now, I’m sure that didn’t keep her warm that night, did it?

Wanna sell your ranch….

Got some beautiful Medina River frontage….

Try some Hill Country innovation.  Good on you!

On the Courthouse property, no less!  A nativity…

Love the cowboys, the longhorn, the turkey, the cactus, the goat, the pig, and the sheep at the nativity.  ACLU – stay away from my courthouse!!!  This is America at it’s best.

And a Wildcat fan to boot!  Go K-State!

Santa Mini!

Harley was a little worried about all the DOGS!