September 2008

Family Night on the Farm

Posted on September 30, 2008 at 6:29 am in

This week for family night we built a barn!

Ok, it is more of a shelter, but it will be used like a barn! As you know, we have Jackie (the horse) with us, and she is in the back pasture where we don’t have any shelter. It will start to rain soon, so we thought it would be nice to have a place for her to go at night to stay dry. Our neighbor Howard found some wood for us that we could use. It is 3/4″ plywood that has 2×4 supports. Very sturdy!! They are 4′x8′ or 4′x4′ pieces.

You can see the wood in this picture behind the girls.

We were able to bolt together the pieces to make a 12′x12′ shelter in the back pasture. We got up the 4 walls yesterday. We are going to put a 2×12 header on the front and 2×4 header on the back to give us some slant to the roof, and then we’ll put corrugated metal on for the roof.

We were so busy, we once again forgot to take pictures. We’ll try to take some today of what we have done.

Bil

National Alpaca Farm Day

Posted on September 27, 2008 at 8:13 pm in

WAS A SUCCESS!!!

What a great day! We guess we had around 75+ people attend, and we just had a wonderful time talking with old friends, and meeting new.

We started out early this morning setting up the tents, getting the signs out and doing final clean up around the yard.

Rusty (my brother) and his kids got here at 9:00 and we were ready to go. Kim Sheehan, a friend from work, and owner of Brownie, came and brought her spinning wheel and spent most of the day showing people how to spin yarn, and brought some drop spindles so the kids could spin. Aislyn and Ryan were PRO’s at it. Kim was a GREAT addition to the day. She even showed Julia and Ryan how to knit, and Ryan was doing very well.

We had a pretty steady crowd from 10:00 until 3:00. Lots of friends from work & church (both Eugene & Cottage Grove). We also had a number of people from the community that saw our ad on Craigslist, newspaper & on signs we put up around town that stopped by. We also had the editor from the local newspaper (Cottage Grove Sentinel) stop by and take some pictures, and ask some questions, so if we get a story in this next weeks paper, I’ll let you know. We also were able to meet another local alpaca ranch owner. I have talked to them through email a couple of times, and they were able to stop by and it was great to meet them.

We were giving out Kettle Corn but we were asking for donations for the Cottage Grove High School theater department. We raised $83.50!! We are so surprised, and so happy! We want to thank all our friends and visitors that donated. The school needs it!

We also had a raffle for alpaca yarn and an alpaca activity book. We pulled 4 names, and we’ll be letting them know soon!

All in all it was a GREAT day. FUN! The weather was PERFECT. It was around 75 degrees and sunny all day.

We are looking forward to next years National Alpaca Farm Day.

Here are some pictures from today (we were so busy most of the day, that we didn’t take any pictures).

11 hours and counting . . .

Posted on September 26, 2008 at 10:06 pm in

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11 hours until National Alpaca Farm Day!!

We have spent the last month getting ready, and I think we are there!

We are excited to have friends and family coming down to visit our farm. We are also excited to see who from the community will be stopping by. We had a short story done in the local paper, and we have been on the community calendar on a local radio station. We have no idea how many people will come by, but we’re ready. We popped around 70 medium bags of kettle corn tonight, have around 200 bottles of water, a lot of ice, chocolate, and help from Rusty, Terry & Pattie.

Pictures later this weekend!!

Family night on the farm

Posted on September 22, 2008 at 10:16 pm in

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We spend every Monday night as a family. Playing games, telling stories, having treats, etc. Tonight we thought we would go out and ride Jackie as a family. We all went out and helped get Jackie ready. Aislyn and Lilian helped Georgia to brush and clean Jackie. Georgia and I then saddled Jackie up, and then we all took turns riding Jackie. Jackie was a little spunky tonight, but fun to ride. I think I cantored (sp?) for the first time.

We had a great night. Always fun to have Family Night!

Lilian kissing Zach

The Alpaca Whisperer

Georgia riding

Waiting their turn

Dancing

Julia

Unfortunately the batteries died, and that is all the pictures I could take.

Bil

National Alpaca Farm Day

Posted on September 15, 2008 at 8:50 pm in

NAFD NATIONAL ALPACA FARM DAY
September 27, 2008
9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Silk Creek Alpacas is going to participate in the 2nd Annual “National Alpaca Farm Day”

On September 27, alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will invite the public to come to their farm or ranch to meet their alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals. From 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on September 27th, Silk Creek Alpacas will welcome guests to join them for many activities including Alpaca Items Raffle, Alpaca Information, fleece spinning demonstrations, Fresh Kettle Corn & bottled water, and Meet & Greet the Alpacas, all FREE!

Yes, we are participating in National Alpaca Farm Day. We are going to open up the farm to visitors to come and learn about alpacas. This is an opportunity for people interested in getting in to alpacas to learn even more, and an opportunity for others just to come out and have a nice day on the farm, and enjoy some homemade kettle corn, have some fun, and meet the alpacas! We will be having Kim Sheehan, a spinner & alpaca owner from Eugene come and give spinning demonstrations between 10 & 2 (times are not set yet). We are excited to have Kim come down and showcase her skill!

We will have water (while supplies last), coloring pages for the kids, and the fiber we sheared from our alpacas out for display. If you can come by, DO!! If you can’t and want to, let us know and we’ll make another appointment to have you come out!

Bil

Hula Hooping on the Farm

Posted on September 14, 2008 at 11:27 pm in

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Aislyn wanted to break her Hula Hooping record tonight (it was about 30 seconds) so she went 26 or so minutes without stopping. Lilian than had to break that and go 40 minutes. Georgia wanted to join in and went about 3 minutes before she decided she had gone long enough. Here is our video record!!

All Our Animals

Posted on September 13, 2008 at 9:14 pm in

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While talking to Rusty today he wanted to see pictures of all our animals, so here they all are, all 16!!

Talbot

Bandit

Aurora

Helena (Aurora’s daughter)

Feline

Sunshine (Feline’s Daughter)

Milkyway

Brownie (Milkyway’s Daughter)

Alsea (Milkyway’s 2 year old daughter)

Endeavour

Rogue

Zach (Aurora’s 1 year old son)

Miss Scarlet

Sniffles

Lava Lamp

Jackie

There they all are. All 16. Who would have ever thought I would own 16 animals? Not me!!

Bil

The Gang’s All Here!!

Posted on September 13, 2008 at 8:46 pm in

Well as of 4:30 this afternoon, we have all our animals on property.

2 Dogs
3 Rabbits
1 Horse
& 10 Alpacas!!!

We are so excited!

We borrowed our neighbor Howard’s horse trailer to go pick up our alpacas. I went over yesterday and Howard helped me hook it up to our car. We wanted to get an early start in the morning.

Julia and I left around 8:30 this morning and headed to Portland to pick up Alsea, Feline & Sunshine. It was a easy trip up. Great weather, sunny & clear. It was a great day for a drive. There was a lot of traffic on I-5 southbound but very little going north bound. There was an OSU game today so I think that was part of the traffice. After a couple of stops along the way, we made it to Northwest Alpacas around 11:30. We had called Steve when we were near the 205 and when we got there, Jose was ready for us. We pulled in, and Jose backed his van up to our trailer. He already had Feline, Alsea & Sunshine in the van. We opened up the back door of the van and they girls jumped right in. We were there for about 5 minutes and then back on the road.

We decided that since I-5 was so crowded we would head down to Newberg and get on 99w and come down that way to Junction City. We called Rusty and planned to meet him in Rickreal so Jessica could come over and pet the alpacas. We stopped in McMinnville to get gas (some idiot in front of us decided he had enough gas and decided to drive away before they had taken the gas hose out of his car. Thank goodness that the hose didn’t break!!).

We made it to Rickreal and then Rusty pulled in about 3 minutes later. We had a great time talking with Rusty and Jessica. It was fun seeing them, and I think they enjoyed seeing the alpacas! We then headed back on the road and headed down to Junction City to Chapelle’s Alpaca Junction to pick up Aurora and Helena. We got there in no time! It was great to see Diana and her kids, and to see all the alpacas. We really enjoy talking with Diana, she has TONS of information, and we always learn a lot while we are there. We were there about an hour and we were able to see Diliberate who we bred with Aurora. We then got back on the road, and made it down to our farm at 4:30. It was a great day.

We pulled the trailer in to the pasture and then let the alpacas out and let them play. They jumped around a lot and explored all the corners of the 2 girls alpacas. It was fun to watch them enjoy their new pasture.

It feels good to have all of our animals now here.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Getting Ready to leave:

Northwest Alpacas

Our Rig

Enjoying the hay in the trailer

Rusty & Jessica

Diliberate at Chapell’s Alpaca Junction

A good friend

All the girls ready to go!

Arriving Home!

Excited to see the Alpacas

Pulling in to the pasture

Getting ready

Release the Hounds! (ok Alpacas)

Here they come

Aislyn with the Alpacas

Lilian enjoying Aurora & Helena

Feline & Alsea

Aurora & Helena

Sunshine & Feline

Milkyway trying to figure out what is going on

All together

CONGA LINE!!

The boys checking out Alsea

Helena & Aurora

A lot more to clean up after!!

Hail Hail the Gangs all here!!

WOO HOO!!!

They like Aislyn

All the baby girls going to play

Georgia’s Favorite Picture

So do you have any food for me?

Enjoying dinner!

That’s it for today. We are all doing great, and very happy to have all the animals here!

Bil

New Video of Georgia Riding Jackie

Posted on September 9, 2008 at 9:58 pm in

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Here is a quick video of Georgia riding Jackie in our back pasture.

The song is Dream Big by Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band (go check them out, they are great!!!)

Bil

Night of Firsts!

Posted on September 9, 2008 at 9:00 pm in

Well, tonight was a night of firsts, and not a night of good firsts. While I was in here working on the blog, Julia and her sister were out with the alpacas talking with our neighbor. She has 2 dogs, and are fairly well trained dogs. Well, her oldest dog got away from her, went down to the ditch, and came over to our property and started chasing the three boys. She was able to separate the boys, and started chasing Rogue. Julia, Becca and our neighbor tried to catch the dog but she was too fast. She was able to bite Rogue on the back leg, and caused Rogue to run in to a fence. Well, our neighbor got the dog and Julia and Becca got the alpacas in the barn. The girls came in and told me they needed help, and I went out to help Julia look at Rogue and see if he was ok.

I caught him, and Julia started checking him out. He seemes to be doing ok. They are all nervous now, and really don’t want to eat right now.

The 2nd first tonight is while Julia and I were checking out Rogue, Rogue turned his head and spit at Julia right in the face. A direct hit!!! BULLSEYE!! 9 A WINNER!!! BINGO!!! SPOT ON!!! DEAD CENTER!!! Just to let you know, alpaca spit STINKS!!! Thank goodness that Julia closed her eyes and mouth.

We got everybody calmed down, and Julia went in to take a LONG shower, and everybody seems to be doing ok. I’m going to go check on the boys later to see how they are doing.

Bil

Older Posts

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

September 2008

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