Leap Day Snow & Ice Storm

I know we have had a mild winter here in North East Michigan, but I think Mother Nature is now trying to play "catch up".  We had snow and freezing rain here yesterday. We now have to "dig out" the alpaca pens so they will be able to walk  and pronk. We have some hard pack snow drifts as you can see in this picture by one of the chicken coops.

Snow Drift

The alpacas do not mind snow, they just don't like deep snow as it is hard for them to walk in.

A few of the girls

 Guys

As you can see they will cush in the snow and chew their cud. These guys are very content.

Our Maremma guard dogs fair very well in the snow. Meadow loves to sit on top of the snow piles to better watch the barnyard during the day. We have to tie her up in the daytime, as she will not let the mail person drive down our private road to deliver our mail. She will actually sit in the middle of the road and bark at the cars to stop them. We have tried and tried to get her to stop doing this, but she thinks it's part of her job to protect the alpacas, goats and our property.

Meadow

Pan doesn't mind the snow either. Here is a picture of him being the "gate guardian".

Pan

I'm not complaining though as my heart goes out to all of those people who live in the south, where they had those terrible tornadoes yesterday.

Mother nature can paint a beautiful picture.

Well the good news about all of this, is that we should not have another leap year storm for at least 4 more years!  :)

More babies!

I'm back again to update everyone about life here on the ranch. Sorry for the delay in posting, but my personnel life was keeping me from updating all of the ranch's social media sites. We have been busy here on the ranch and I also did a lot of arts & craft shows this past summer.

We had a new kid goat born on Sept. 2nd.  He is a Nigerian dwarf goat.  I nicknamed him Houdini as he is small enough to fit through the pen's fence and escapes.

Mom & Son

We also have a brand new cria born on Sept. 16th to Lizzie.  She is our eldest female and is an original imported alpaca from Peru.  Here are some pictures of  him and Lizzie.

Just born

Nursing

Curious alpacas

Pan guarding his newest alpaca

We are having our annual Open House this coming weekend. Sept. 24th & 25th.  It is from 11:00 to 6:00 pm both days.  Come out to visit the new babies and see demonstrations. See next post for more information.

Our Annual Spring Brushing of the Maremmas

Now that the weather is warming, our Maremma's start to shed their second coat.  They have two coats to keep them warm during the winter. Here is a picture of Gary brushing Pan.

They shed so much, I could spin a lot of yarn with it.

Here is Pan after his first brushing. There will be several more as he is not done shedding all of that undercoat.