And On We Go

Boy! A lot has been happening since I wrote last.

Our Alpaca have settled in nicely and outside of Majorette spitting at me occasionally we are getting along just fine. I have been breeding animals of one kind or another for over forty years and have never came across animals like these camalids. They are at the same time gentle and calm or aggressive and fierce depending on the situation. Fencing is geared more to keeping others out than the alpacas in. They do not bother the fence or gates but are content to stay behind the flimsiest of restraints. If they perceive a threat from another animal (dog, fox, raccoon or barn cat) they line up facing the threat and stamp their feet, if provoked further they attack. I no longer have a problem with raccoon in my barn.

We plan to take Mikala to the “Alpaca Ontario” show in Orangeville Ont. On April 7 – 9. This has made it a requirement that we halter train her and clean her up. “Honest! I didn’t know there was burdock in the paddock” whined the husband to his glaring wife. After several days we had most of the burs and straw picked out of some of the finest fleece I have ever seen. -----Then came the humidity.---- The floors in the alpaca’s part of our barn became wet. No I do not mean damp, I mean water on the floor wet. To counter this I put three bales of straw in pens that normally require only one bale. This solved most of our problem. I say most of the problem because Mikala started rolling in the one stall pushing the straw away until she was down to bare floor. This bare area got wet again and as Mikala rolled on this spot the dampness and dirt transferred to her fleece. Now this white animal was not only damp but also her color had changed to a dingy gray, almost black in places, and now had straw worked into the fleece we had just picked all of the burs out of.

I was talking to another breeder who has a similar problem with one of her show prospects. We think that we should see if we could get the show committee to open a new class. Along with black, white, tan, etc. we could have a class called mud. I’ll bet that every owner of a white animal would be for it.

I have also finally finished a website featuring the alpacas. It is a little short on content right now but I will be adding information and stories as events transpire and I learn about these unique animals. To this end I will be taking photos at the show and adding them, along with a right up, to the website shortly after the show weekend.

And so it goes chasing the dream.

The Begining

On Saturday December 10, 2005 our first Alpacas arrived at Wild Rose Alpacas. The girls, as I soon started calling them, were a white Peruvian born female, Majorette, her 2005 daughter, Mikala, also white and a black two year old, Velvet.

Heather and Norris of Brier Run Alpacas delivered the girls for us. Due to a recent snow fall we where unable to get the truck and trailer any place close to the barn. No problem! We’ll just put the halters on the animals and lead them to their new home.

There was no problem putting the halters on, in fact Majorette didn’t even stand up when Norris haltered her. My wife Calista chose to lead Velvet as she had handled her at Brier Run when we visited there. I would take Mikala and Norris would bring Majorette who was still sitting in the trailer placidly chewing her cud.

Mikala made a little fuss after which she was willing to come along with me; the same was true of Calista’s charge, Velvet. Majorette, on the other hand, saw no reason to leave the trailer or for that matter to even get to her feet. She lay there chewing her cud in spite of Norris pushing on her in an attempt to encourage her to rise.

After a great deal of pushing and prodding this seasoned female finally got to her feet and was pulled and shoved out of the trailer. At this point Majorette must have decided that this was some sort of a slaughterhouse where they tortured you to death as she began screaming for her life. She stepped off of the trailer onto solid ground ---- and immediately lay down again.

Now both Norris and Heather were attempting to get Majorette to her feet. They alternated from Norris pulling on the lead and Heather pushing on the animals rump to rocking the reclining Alpaca back and forth side ways. At one point Norris lifted her clear of the ground and she kept all four legs tight against here belly. All of this tugging and rocking no doubt kept the animal from falling asleep as did her screaming, but had little effect on getting her to stand.

Just about the time that I was considering the front end loader Majorette decided that she would get up and head for the barn following her daughter Mikala and Velvet bringing up the rear. Through the gate with no problem we were half way to the barn when this female of the species plopped down on the ground again.

More pushing and shoving and rocking and giving verbal encouragement and we were again moving to the barn.

Eventually we got all three girls into their new accommodations.

This day I learned some thing. There is more than one way to resist doing that which one does not wish to do. You can buck and jump around like Velvet and Mikala or you can just lie down and passively refuse to budge as Majorette did.

Since bucking and jumping around requires that you use a lot of energy you will eventually tire and give in. Just lying down and not moving requires those who wish you to do something to exert their energy. Perhaps I will try this the next time my wife wants me to do something, just lay down on the couch and not move. It is my opinion that this will last about as long as it takes my wife to get the broom---or a pail of ice water.

Of South America and Knitting

What possible connection could knitting here in Southwestern Ontario have with South America you might ask? Well they both have south in their name. They also both have a thriving fiber industry. Now the question that likely comes to your mind is; what has all of this have to do with a heritage poultry enthusiast? The answer to that is nothing until yesterday.

To explain all of this we need to go back a few weeks to the Canadian thanksgiving weekend. One of the very few family traditions that my wife and I have is a trip to the agricultural fair in Brigden Ont. While touring the live stock exhibitions my wife spotted a display of Alpaca. For those who are unfamiliar with the Alpaca they are native to the Andes Mountains in South America. Size wise they are a little larger than a dairy goat and are related to the LLama only with a better disposition-less spitting more sneezing. Their dense fiber is harvested, spun and made into soft, warm, high quality clothing.

To shorten the story we were soon talking to the friendly folks who owned this group of interesting animals. Since they were starting to load up to go home and their farm, Brier Run Alpaca, was on our way home arrangments materialized for a stop. After spending the intervening time learning as much as we could about Alpacas, their fiber, husbandry and the industry as a whole, we returned to Brier Run yesterday and purchased our first animals.

We chose two animals, Majorette a Chilean born, bred female and her 2005 daughter Brier Run Mikala (See photo). Mikala is an outstanding animal and is headed for the show ring.

this coming spring.

Having finished the fencing I am now free to start preparing accommodations for our new acquisition, which will be arriving at our farm in about thirty days.

And so it Goes

Chasing The Dream

New furnace and old houses

We now have our new furnace running. This has excited my wife more than I realized. The other day she told me that she had reported to her fellow employees where she works that her new furnace had actually came on at three thirty in the morning. I have no doubt that it did in fact come on at three thirty in the morning but how did she know, Was she waiting up to check on it? Any way I am glad that we have finally been able to do some up-grades on this old house of ours.

Our house started life as a cheese factory that served some of the early settlers in this area. Moved from the next concession through the farm to its present location on the historic Talbot Line AKA Talbot Trail it continued to serve the community as a cheese factory for many more years.

Some time in the 1800’s a 40 ft. by 80 ft bank barn was added. And a two hundred animal dairy herd called the three hundred acre farm home. This farm has now been split up into fifty-acre lots and I own the home fifty.

The factory was turned into a house and some rooms were added.

The original foundation was made from rocks and boulders, likely removed from the fields, and cemented together. This stone varies in size from a few inches to about four feet in diameter. The newer additions have a concrete block foundation. All of the lumber used in the framing is rough cut and a full two inches thick.

The furnace we removed started out as a coal burner that had been converted to burn oil, with a gravity air flow system and huge delivery pipes. At some point someone had added a blower to the airflow system. This furnace and ductwork, except for some of the cold air return, all had to be removed before we could install the new equipment.

We were looking ahead so we had the parts for central air that go in the furnace installed. Then the gentleman that we were buying the furnace from found an Air conditioning unit that was ordered by another customer but due to a money problem was never installed. I purchased a $4500 unit for $3000.

Our next upgrade is to rewire the entire house.

And so it goes - Chasing the dream.

Of fence heat and magazines

Good news! We finally have a secure pasture for our cattle. After chasing them hither and yon they are finally confined behind some decent fence some new and some repaired. We are now in the process of putting up new fence around another eight or so acres of former hay field. Next year we will take the first cutting off and then let the cattle graze the rest.

We are not spending all of our money for our animal’s comfort. Today we had workmen in to remove our old furnace. By this time next week we will have a new energy efficient heating system complete with new ductwork.

Now about the interesting stuff: By Tuesday the October issue of the Jubilee Acres news magazine will be sent out to all of the subscribed members. This magazine features articles about different breeds of chickens written recently by Hans L Schippers. Hans lives in Holland and has published many books and articles on poultry. I do an article on the principles of poultry housing and of course there is a My Comments section. To receive your quarterly issue free in your e-mail in box subscribe to day from the link at the bottom of this URL; by the way there are links to several other articles on this page.

And so it goes chasing the dream.

The Great Cattle Hunt

It is a wonderful time saver to have a creak running through the middle of your cow pasture. The one that divides our gully almost in half has water in it almost all year, even in dry years like we are having this year. This water source does have some drawbacks.

Last Sunday my wife, Calista, and I were mending some fences (no, no, the fence in the cow pasture). Being almost done where the creak enters the front part of the property we let the cows into the pasture. They had gotten through the fence that we had just mended so that is where they headed for first. Seeing us still working on the breach they turned and headed for where the watercourse exited the property. Only slowing down enough to go into the creak they were out of our field and heading for the bush at the back part of the concession.

Off my wife and I went in hot pursuit. One of our Black Angus heifers never went trough the fence and Lucy, having gone through the fence, never took her calf Bullette ( See photo in “Cows And Bullets” below.) into the weeds on the other side. Unfortunately the rest of the cattle were now out of site and in the bush by this time. We took the cattle we had back to the barn and confined them there.

Let me tell you about this bush. It belongs to a city gentleman who wishes to return it to its natural state, this seems to mean to let it grow wild. I have lived on my farm for thirteen years and during that time the bush has been left on it’s own. It is now full of undergrowth consisting of wild rose, wild raspberry, some other kind of bush with long thorns plus lots of stinging nettle. Calista was dressed in shorts and a short-sleeved top; I was a little better off in genes and a t-shirt.

After four hours of literally beating the bushes for the $%&U] cattle we emerged tired and bleeding from the scratches inflicted by the many thorns and not having seen or heard hide, hair or moo of the cattle. It was now five PM and time to take my grandson Peter home to London.

Upon returning home we resumed our search for our wayward bovines with flashlights and a full moon.

This was not the first time that these cattle had escaped. In the past they had always made their way back to the closest gate to the barn, which they consider home. Calista went on foot back through the hay field that borders the pasture and runs beyond it along the edge of the bush. I took the pick up truck down the other side of the hay field. It wasn’t long before my wife hollered that she had spotted three of them coming along the fence to the rear of the barn and heading toward the gate. (No big surprise) I circled around the opposite side of the field with the pick up and soon found three more coming along a ways behind the others. I went back and opened the gate and we soon had these wanderers, plus another group, through the gate and into the barn where we closed them in.

After counting our prisoners three times both my wife and I decided that we were one cow short of the nine we should have had. Our next thought was; Why is there no mooing? Lone cows moo for the heard and all was quiet on the home front.

After feeding the cows we had, off we trudged back out to the hay field to search for our one hold out.

We first checked along the route taken by the first cows to return. I was able to back track them along the edge of the field and through some places grown up with Golden Rod as high as my head and depressions in the ground to step into.

At the very back of our property my wife spotted the reflection of eyes in the beam of her flashlight. Darn the eyes were in the bean field. Well nothing for it, off I go wading through the beans. The eyes disappear immediately. After wading through beans and hay for another hour or so we start to wonder aloud if we had miss counted the animals in the barn. But we did both count them thee times and my wife even knew which one we were missing, Frieda, a yearling heifer was the wayward one. We continued to search.

At midnight or a little after we agreed that there was no point in continuing the search in the dark and I would continue the search in the morning and Calista would go to work.

On our way past he barn we went in to make sure that our Houdini cattle were going to stay put. While there we took a quick count. WHAT DO YOU MEEN THERE ARE NINE COWS HERE? We counted them three times earlier and there were only eight. This can't be. We did see the reflection of eyes in the bean field. Then it dawned on us; we had just spent two hours chasing a dear around the bean field and pasture.

The cattle are still confined to the barn until the fence at the creak is made secure.

Cows and Bullets

Hi All:

Boy has it been busy around Jubilee Acres lately. Since I last posted to this blog we have taken in over a thousand bales of hay and 200 bales of straw, installed a swimming pool, fixed the hydro supply to the new pool, chased the cows around the front yard, replaced some fence, fixed the hay mower, published an e-magazine, and started work on a web site for a client.

On the up side of things, Lucy our matriarch cow, gave birth to a bull calf. (Bullette's photo on right) Peter, my eleven-year-old grandson, was watching our yearling bull trying to mount one of the cows that was in heat, a job that he was way too short for. Of course Peter asked: “Why is he doing that”? My wife told him that the bull seeks out the cows that are in heat and points them out for us. Peter replied: “O like a heat seeking bullet”. When Lucy’s calf turned out to be a bull we explained to Peter that he would be next years bull even though right now he is so tinny. Upon hearing this Peter promptly named Lucy’s calf “Bullette”.

I am having a limited time special for anyone wanting a web site built. For details please visit, Wordsmith On Line.

Also keep in mind that a new issue of the
Jubilee Acres e-magazine will be sent out the first week of October. For those of you that have not subscribed to this on line publication you may sign up for your free subscription at the Jubilee Acres web site.

And so it goes Chasing The Dream.