It’s been a crazy and busy week- too much going on to even sit and think. We’ve been paying extra attention to our newest members. Last week about this time I was out at Our Ancestral Farm with Dr. Cannedy doing a herd check on the alpacas.
Hembras (females) waiting for their hands on check at Our Ancestral Farm
My head is still spinning from the week, but I’ll share (what I can remember) from the week:
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Meetings, some multiple times, with 7 different contractors: 1) the fence company putting up new fencing in the Farmyard, 2) the handyman repairing barns, 3) the painters- the whole farmyard is being repainted, 4) the plumbers working on the sump pump down at bears 5) the tree service cutting down some dead trees around grounds, 6) electricians running the lines for the generator for our support hall, 7) our bear pool pump fabricators (we thought we had an issue/leak with the bear pool)
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Extra scheduled and impromptu projects: 1) bear yard mowing, 2) wolf pool draining and dealing with faulty valve, 3)12 folks from Biogen Idec pruning and cleaning in the bear yard Friday morning, 4) Farmyard grading to prevent trip hazards from all the rain.
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Dr. Vanderford has been around. We had lemur physicals (I am sure
Kimberly will write about that when she has time) and Einstein opossum seems to have had a fall- he hurt his leg and broke some teeth. He was off-site getting radiographs earlier and we were relieved that he did not break any bones, however, we think he hurt and even broke some teeth. We’re in process of scheduling him for follow up now.
Dr. Vanderford waits for Einstein to be asleep before she checks on his teeth.
The most unexpected highlight of my week was coming home one night and finding 40 pounds of sweet potatoes on my doorstep. My neighbor is so kind! I mentioned the bears eat a lot of sweet potatoes this time of year, and two days later this box was waiting for me. She’s always dropping off items: 3 watermelons were on my doorstep last week, 1 bag of canned pumpkin showed up a few months ago (for Chummix Goat medicine) as did watermelons all summer long.
This week isn’t looking much calmer than last. Please think happy, good weather, good health thoughts our way!
Jonathan lays the alpacas down, straightens them out, and ties their legs. It goes pretty quickly and easily.
Awww- Ray was so fluffy before! Now they all look like drenched crazy giraffe poodles.
What’s going to happen with the wool?
We divided the wool into “good quality” and “bad quality”. We’ll use the latter for enrichment for other animals as well as educational programs. We’re not sure yet what we will do with the “good quality”. Sell, make things…
What’s the difference between good and bad quality wool?
The good stuff is taken strictly from the body. The neck, legs and head isnt really good enough to use and its not as long as the hairs on the body
Sounds like a good fund raiser.
They are so skinny now. Imagine what our bears would look like if we shaved them!