August 2008

Hay there!!

Posted on August 13, 2008 at 11:34 pm in

Uncategorized

We have hay!! 3.5 tons of it to be exact!!

Julia got a call this morning that the hay we ordered a month or so ago was going to be delivered today. This is big for us, this will get us through the next year (and then some). We were getting worried about finding hay. We had talked to MANY different alpaca ranchers about where they got hay, and then we almost always got, “Yes we have some hay, I’ll get you the information on where we got it later.” Later would come and go and no information. We would hear from some that with the cost of hay going up, that there wasn’t as much hay this year, and a couple of our friends were worried that they were not going to get hay at all. One of the farms we know got hay, but had to take First Cut Orchard Grass. Orchard Grass hay is what we want, but 2nd or 3rd cut is much better for alpacas.

Well, our 2nd cut hay was being delivered today!! WOO HOO!!!

We had spent most of Sunday morning cleaning up our old hay stack (with old, crappy straw).

It was about 10″ thick of matted hay/straw/poop in front, and then a few bales in the back. This isn’t anything we wanted to use for the alpacas (maybe the rabbits, but not the alpacas). We got about 1/2 of it out on Saturday and found that there is a metal floor there with some pallets. This is good for hay.

Today, Julia and the girls got the rest of the hay moved over to our secondary hay barn.

Crappy Stuff Moved:

Area waiting for new hay!!

They girls did a great job helping out. Lilian helped move all the bad stuff to the composting pile and Georgia helped buck the old bales to the new spot!! Aislyn also helped as much as she could. They did a great job!!

Well, the hay was delivered by 2 guys, and they started unloading the hay.

All this hay is ours:

Nice looking HAY!!

The hay starting to get stacked:

And here is our hay. All 60+ bales.

This will feed our 10 alpacas for the next year, and give us enough extra just in case we need to feed more hay than we are planning (I’ll talk about alpaca nutrition soon, just know that the alpacas will get most of their nutrition from the pastures, and the hay is a supplement. Right now with our pastures being not as green, the are eating more hay).

Now, no rolling in the hay!! It’s for the alpacas!!

Bil

Alpacas in the News!!

Posted on August 8, 2008 at 1:52 pm in

Alpacas

Ok, not really the true news, EVEN BETTER!!! Alpacas were discussed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!!

Here is a video of the segment.

I think this would be a great investment for the Iraqis!! They should give us at Silk Creek Alpacas a call, and soon!! I thought it was funny that they used an old poncho. I remember having one as a kid and always wondered what they made them out of since it always seemed to be part animal fur and part dried up sticks.

Enjoy!

Bil

More Chicken Coop ideas

Posted on August 3, 2008 at 11:04 pm in

Uncategorized

Ok, I have been playing with Google 3D SketchUp for about a year now, and really enjoy making 3D items in it. So, I thought, why not draw 3D plans for my chicken coop so I could show people what I was thinking.

Here is a picture of what I currently have:

So, here are my ideas. This first one is what the door will look like. This is going to be on the back end of the trailer (and yes, I didn’t add a roof because I wanted people to see inside).

I will have the door so when closed, it will hinge on itself and not stick out over the top, but when opened, it will be long enough (about 30″) so it will not be too steep an angle for the chickens. You can also see the access door on the back where we can add water and feed.

This next picture is from the other end (from where the tongue is). It has the picture of the three nests and where I want 2 windows on the front (that will be covered by a 2 foot overhang of the roof for rain and sun coverage).

The outside door on the nests will hang down with rope or chain so it will give a nice surface to put the egg basket, and then close back up with a latch so the chickens can get their privacy again.

The 2 round things inside are just a feed bucket and a waterer.

So, comments, possible changes, any suggestions?

Bil

My next project!

Posted on August 2, 2008 at 11:32 pm in

Chickens,
Family

Ok, in my last blog (that I finished about 10 minutes ago) I mentioned that I was beginning to work on my next project. What is my next project?

What is it you may ask? Well, it’s our new mobile chicken coop. Well, right now it’s a trailer my dad had and we inherited (well, he left it at the old house, so possession being 9/10ths . . . ). This is my plan. I’m going to keep all the wood that is on it and then add to it. I’ll be adding a roof made of corrugated fiberglass panels (you can see 2 of them in the trailer right now). I’ll need to add 3 more panels to cover the top. They’ll extend over the side to add a covered area outside for the chickens. My plan for the top is to make it like a shoe box top, and make it so we can take it off to clean out the coop. I’ll make a frame out of 2×4’s and then put the panels on the frame.

On the back of the trailer, I’ll have the door with a ramp that will fold up so the door will close so we can lock them in at night. On the other end, the side with the tongue, I’ll be adding the nests. I’m not exactly sure how I will build this part yet. I’ve thought about building it on the outside, but maybe on the inside with doors so we can get the egg’s out. Not sure yet.

I’m going to add some additional pictures so you can see the progress over the next few weeks. We hope to get some chickens at the Lane County Fair.

You might be asking “Why do you need a chicken coop, I thought you had one?” Well, we had 2! Both of them are DISGUSTING!!! Layers of chicken poop, not nice at all, and not what we wanted. I’ve already torn down one of them, and will be doing the same to the other soon. Also, I want to have our chickens out in the pasture so they will be Pastured Poultry like Joel Salatin. Chickens in the pasture will help in a few ways.

Pastured chickens are healthier.
Pastured chickens produce better eggs. They taste better, look better, and some say they are also better for you.
Pastured chickens that are moved around to different pastures, will not trample and kill the grass like they will if they are in the same place year round.
Pastured chickens produce healthier alpacas. WHAT DID HE SAY?!? Yes, pastured chickens can help the alpacas be healthier. They will scratch through the beans and break them open. This will help them break down quicker, will dry them out, and will kill and eat any parasites that might be in the beans, thus making it less likely that the alpacas will get worms.

So, here are some pictures:

More pictures and updates to come soon!!

Bill

Day at the Farm!

Posted on August 2, 2008 at 10:45 pm in

My dad asked me to describe a day at the farm, and what we will be doing with the alpacas. Well, here was our day at the farm today.

We woke up around 7:00 (mainly because the dogs wanted to go out). After getting dressed, Julia went out to check on the alpacas while I went to the front yard and set-up the sprinkler to add a tiny bit of green to the grass. One of my favorite sprinklers we had as a kid was this tractor that would drive itself along the hose and you could cover a large area of ground. Well, once we moved out here, I had to find one and we did! Jerry’s had one. It looks just like this, but it is red.

Julia while checking on the alpacas filled their water buckets (they were only down a few inches) and checked on how they were doing with the hay. They still had plenty of hay, so she just watched them for a while.

We were planning on running in to Cascade Hardware to take a look at what they had in their rental center. They have a little bit of everything we might need in the future. The next thing we will be renting is a post hole auger for some posts in the barn and new fencing. We then had to purchase some items we needed. Some hinges for Aislyn’s door so we can re-hang it, some blades to cut some cattle panels with the Dremel, WD-40, sink drains and one of the wheels on our cart was in terrible shape, so I purchased a no-flat wheel to replace it. I’ll replace the other one when (and if) it goes flat.

Once we got home I started to fix the cart and pumped up the one tire that was still good, and tried to replace the old wheel with the new one. Well, the new one did not fit the axel, it was too small, so one more trip to Cascade (we’ll be making A LOT of trips to Cascade!!) to return the wheel. Since I was going back, I took the lawn mower with me to drop off at Cascade to have it sharpened and given a tune-up (it’s been at least 5 years since it had a tune-up or the blade has been sharpened).

I also took the old wheel with me and went to Les Schawabs to see if there was anyway they could fix the old tire. It was bent out of shape, and looked dead, but the guys at Les Schawabs were able to fix it in about 5 minutes. WOO HOO!!! I went back home and fixed the cart in just a few minutes, and it was time to start what the cart will be used for regularly – BEAN PATROL!!!

And here’s what 2 alpacas can do in the bean production area in only 24 hours:

So, once we have all our alpacas, we will have 10. So times that pile by 5 and then times that by 365. That’s what we will spend a lot of our time doing!! The good thing is, alpaca manure doesn’t smell, and is extremely rich in nutrients. It makes great garden fertilizer!! We will be composting the beans with other yard debris, and our garden next year will be amazing!! I’ll be doing an experiment next year and have 1/2 of our garden with Alpaca Beans and 1/2 without. Stay tuned to see the fun!

After this, I worked on farm data management. I updated our web page at http://www.silkcreekalpacas.com to make sure all the date was correct and up to day. I also updated our AlpacaNation web site. I also made sure all our data on AlpacaEase (a program that helps me keep track of the alpacas and the financial side of the farm).

Around 2:00, we had to run and pick-up Lilian from her friends house where she had stayed the night, and pick-up Georgia from Rebeca’s house where she had stayed so she could get the new book in some vampire series, Twilight I think it is. We got the oil changed at Oil Can Henry’s and then returned home to Cottage Grove.

Julia and I added some chicken wire to the fence between the yard and the alpacas so Bandit couldn’t get through the fence. I put up the alpaca signs on the front fence so people would know what type of animals we have.

We then just enjoyed the alpacas the rest of the evening. Lilian enjoyed the alpacas at close range.

Look how tall Lilian is getting!! YIKES!!!

I then worked on my next project for a while (I’ll talk about that in my next blog), and then we enjoyed a beautiful sunset (with Julia enjoying it with the alpacas.)

We had some chicken for dinner, and then enjoyed playing on the computer, watching TV, reading, and just enjoying having a normal day on the farm.

Bil

Hi mom, we’re home!!

Posted on August 1, 2008 at 8:20 pm in

About Us,
Alpacas

Well, today was the day, we finally had Zach & Rogue come home! I had to work today so I wasn’t able to be here when they got here, but Julia and Lilian were able to take some pictures. Lilian and her friend Barbara were very excited to have the Zach & Rogue come today. They set up chairs in the front yard by the road so they could sit and wait for the trailer to come around the bend.

From what I have been told, it was a pretty uneventful transfer of alpacas. Diana Chappell of Chappell’s Alpaca Junction (where we purchased Zach, Rogue, & Aurora from and where Aurora and Helena are still at) showed up just after 10:00 am and pulled in to our front pasture and turned around so the back of the trailer was right at the gate.

The boys were then led out of the trailer and in to the barn so they could be shown the hay and the water.

Ok, maybe everything didn’t go without a little pulling!

They enjoyed the barn.

They then spent the rest of the day just wandering around our pasture enjoying the new grass, rolling around and just getting used to the new surroundings.

They seem to be doing great! Thanks to Diana for all her help with not only on purchasing the alpacas, but all the knowledge she has!!

We went to dinner tonight and when we got back, we took some of the WABA Feed (Wilamette Alpaca Breeders Association Alpaca Pellets) out to the boys to see if they would like it. They were out in the pasture, so I walked out with some in a tub shaking it so they could hear it. I held some out in my hand and Rogue came up and ate out of my hand and Zach came up and sniffed it, but decided he didn’t feel like eating right then.

We got the boys in the barn, and just put the pellets near the hay, and just sat down to watch. Zach LOVES the WABA Feed!!! He didn’t like sharing at all. Rogue enjoyed it as well (once he found the 2nd batch we had put out for him).

It is very fun to sit here at the computer and look out the door and see alpacas! This is what life is supposed to be like!! Being an alpaca rancher is a GREAT thing!!

Bil

Silk Creek Alpacas (& Chickens, Turkeys and other Animals)