Alpacas are sheared for the summer!

Well, our alpacas, Cadee & Cricket were sheared this morning. I would have some photos of the shearing, but my batteries of our camera were exhausted. It went well & we learned a lot.



Cadee & Cricket
 

We saved their wool in hopes to have it cleaned, spun & ready for weaving. We learned that the wool is numbered by where it is on the alpaca. The "firsts" are on the main middle body. The "seconds" are around the neck & the "thirds" are around the lower legs & the tail area. All of this wool can be used, but the thirds are usually used for weaving purses & hats. The better quality wool is used as scarves, which are close to your neck & are softer.

Chicken Processing!

We have now processed a chicken! We processed two of our roosters yesterday as a family. Dean & Dawson had the not so pleasant task of  gathering the roosters from their free ranging on our land. They enticed them with some corn scratchings. Dean, with sharpen axe be-headed them. He then hung them up & skinned them, Skinning them helps us avoid having to de-feather them.
 

"Hey, has anyone seen Tonto?", "No, but I'm sure he's just hanging around somewhere."
Seriously though, we do teach our children to respect all life. We are thankful for the opportunity to raise, process & eat from our land.

Dahlia & I then gutted them. It was a tedious step, as you have to pull it all out in one motion. You have to try & not puncture any organs. Puncturing could cause unwanted items from the bladder, oil gland & such all over & not be good. You get the idea.

 

Dahlia's face says it all! She really did not mind, as she enjoyed dissecting when she took Biology. She was simply "posing" for cameraman, Dawson. 

We cut the chicken in portions to add to stews, dumpling's & such for later. For now, it is all in our freezer.

Our Alpacas & Bees have arrived!

Here is the daughter, Cricket.  She has some hay in her mouth.

Here is the mother, Cadee running.


 

Our alpacas arrived this past Saturday! Mother & daughter have been busy exploring their new acreage. Our critters that are sharing the pasture with them are our chickens, ducks & goats. They are trying to figure out who these strange Muppet like creatures are. 



Yes, I am not using any safety gear like the suit, hat or gloves. I have always been inspired by the movie,
 Fried Green Tomatoes...Idgie Threadgoode, the Bee charmer...one of my favorite movie characters. :-)

I picked up my NUCS this morning & immediately started installing them into my hive boxes. Thankfully, I did not get stung & had a pleasant experience doing all of this for the first time. I was able to spot the queen in each NUC while placing the frames in. The colonies were very strong. Good brood & capped honey already visible. The honey flow will be coming up next month, where  I will be extracting the honey for our family.

Here you can see the bees. The items on the bottom are the NUC
 boxes that the bees came in. I transferred the frames with bees, brood & honey into the new hive boxes.



Here is a short video of the bees entering their new home.