The Dear Alpaca Farm Journal

We have been working hard on our vacation making sure everything is good for the Alpacas. We have gone to see about the LGD. A couple an hour away breed Maremma. She is very protective of her dogs. We invitied them to come to our farm to check us out to see if we were good enough for her dogs. They take in Resuces also. Looks like the Alpacas slept out in the rain last night. Most feel good since the temp was 80 and humdity was 75 yesterday.
The Elec and plumbing have not been put in the barn yet. This is out of our hands since we can not control other peoples work habits. Over all things have been well. Thanks again everyone for helping.

Pacs came home Sat. at 6pm. Then came morning and one 6 year old grandson. He went in the female paddock, grandpa said go get your glasses on. Grandpa went into the pasture, grandson went to get glasses and guess what. 6 year comes into me at the computer and said the females are out. I looked out the window and to my surprize grandpa is leaping the fence trying to get the females back in the barn. The gate had been left open, by guess who?
I run out in the cold mud in my sock feet, but we did get them in and everything was ok. What will be next?

We think we are ready. It has been a long week and we are tired. Our brothers and sisters and sons and daughters, friends and everyone has been such a help. We thank you all.
Of course their is still a few flukes. N. Mohawk the electric co. has not been here to hook up to the new barn. We did not manage to get a LGD yet. But Farm Family was very fast in getting our Ins. Policy done.
Again thanks everyone.

Yesterday was Tuesday and it started out nice. Four of us working all day to finish before the count down ends. I am glad we were working inside, man did the rain come down. But also an up side, now we know which low spots to fill in the pastures. Also the huge pile of old wood we have we can burn now.
Today will be a day of rest. Right. We will not work on the farm but spend the day getting all the last minute things to finish on Thurs. and Friday.

CAUSE THE PACAS COME HOME SATURDAY.

Here we are again in Upstate Northern New York. Yesterday was Labor Day and it sure was full of Labor.
Jim’s brother, my son and nephew, and a friend from our old town came over to help today. We worked untill about 6pm. Brought home over 200 bales of hay and had to unstack and restack and get rid of the wet ones. Finished the divider wall between the Alpaca barn and workshop. Finished the tin on the barn. Put in the rest of the fence posts. We have the paddocks to finish and about 5 gates to make. Whew i think we are almost there.

It was so hot. We all kept going 3 working on the fencing 2 working on the paddocks and 2 more on the walls. All 10 alpacas home next Saturday.
We are so tired. Thanks everyone for helping.
Hope we can keep this pace up.

Today was a good day. The weather was great. Helpers coming from all over. Three Acres of fence post in and fence up. We are on vacation this next week good thing. The alpacas are coming home on Sat. Sept 11.
Tomorrow hope to finish making 3 to 6 pastures out of the 3 acres. We also hope to start putting the paddocks in the barn. We need to make 4-6 gates. Get the electric hooked up. The water put in. Go pick up 200 bales of hay.
Send in the paper work for the next Alpaca show in Oct. On and on. Wish us luck.

This is the first weekend in a long time that no one has been here to help us.
So we of course are having the 8 and 6 year old granchildren that come over on the weekend help us. We did 5 hours of putting in ceder fence posts. We have a tractor with an auger attached to dig the holes and then we place them and pack them. We did 26 yesterday and hope to get some more today. The Alpacas come home in two weeks so we had better get busy.
We have one weeks vaction to really get things done.
I am working on getting a guard dog. We hope to get a Anatolian or Pyr.

Today two sons came over each with a friend. So that made a total of 6 of us working on the pole barn. We had the kit delivered the first week of June and here we are with it about 3/4 done. The weather was great only got up to about 70 with a low of 40 over night. If you are going to get a pole barn kit give us a call we will talk you through some of it. We have had our problems.
We are in Upstate Northern NY and for pasture grass we have planted 80% Orchard, 10% timothy and 10% Alfalfa. The White Tail deer i worry about they have been running through these pastures for years. I am afraid they will be jumping the fences. I hope to get a guard dog.

Now I see why my husband wants to buy another Tractor (John Deere of course). Ours went in to be fixed and was gone only a week and we sure could have used it. Does this mean I now get a 2nd computer? The computer went to be fixed for less then a week and I really needed it. Remember what i was saying about watch your budget.
Well we have 3 weeks and two days and the Alpacas come home. We have to put the walls on the pole barn, put the paddocks in and all the fencing and gates. Do you think we will make it???? We both work full time and drive an hour home.

Last Saturday Aug the 14, 2004.
The workers arrived and started work on the new driveway. We hope some day to connect the old and new, so we can have a U shaped one. Then the cement trucks started to arrive for the floor in the pole barn. We had estimated 36 yards of cement. Well we are finding out that most things you plan seem to cost more then you think. Keep this in mind when you work up your budget. We ended up putting in 41 yards of cement. Oh and the new pasture we had seeded with just the right mixture of grass seed. Well cement trucks do not care. We will be smoothing and seeding that again.

Of course we had them broom the cement where the Alpacas will be staying so they will not slip when the floor gets wet. We did not forget the drains. We also remembered to dig a 5 foot deep trench to put the water line in below frost level. Remember we are in Upstate Northern NY where the snow gets deep and the weather can be 30 below zero (Brrrrrrrrrrr). We are installing a Frank Water Fountain to keep the water heated in the winter.
Good bye for now.

This is a wonderful thing for Jim and me. I am almost 50 and Jim is in his late 50’s and here we are married for only 6 months and we are making our dream come true.

Our Alpacas (all 10) should be coming home on Sept 11-04.
We are working hard on getting our 40 x 70 pole barn built, with help from our friends, and great relatives (thanks guys).

Hope to have pictures up soon.

We have been through a lot in the last year and a half. Decided Alpacas were for us. We visited 12 farms here in NY and Vermont and have been to 4 shows.

Jim and I bought 18 acres in Oct of 2003. Land that has not been worked in at least 20 years, and the house had not been lived in for 3 years.

We both work full time an hour away (makes for a long day).
Fixed house up to move into, and cleared the land. Bought 300 ceder post and fences so we can start out with 3 acres fenced in.

So much more I could say.

If you have any questions feel free to email us. We can tell you our experience. We are here to help you get started in

Alpacas… A relaxed way of life.

Sharon & Jim Dear