Rhythms

For the majority of my life thus far I have been a formal student - that is, enrolled in some type of formal academic program.  I lived and breathed and slept and sweated and cried academia.  My life had a rhythm that was dictated from outside of itself - the rhythm of the school year. It ebbed and flowed like the tide, cresting at midterms and finals, and entering a trough during the hot summer months, only to start up again in the fall. There were smaller troughs throughout the year when we had short breaks for Christmas, Easter, March, Thanksgiving and other such occasions.  Th rhythm was as predictable as it was familiar.   Busy times and less busy times.  Stressful times and less stressful times.

I'm still a student, though at a much slower pace, but primarily I am a mother.  My life has a different rhythm now, although it is still dictated outside of itself - this time by a squirmy little Bean rather than a calendar.  Our days settle into a rhythm of eating, sleeping, toileting, playing...however the rhythm is not nearly as predictable or familiar as the academic rhythm was.  If the academic rhythm was a steady march the rhythm of being a mom is a swing dance inspired by a group who is making up the music as they go along.

Along with the daily rhythm of being a mom comes the rhythm of living on the farm.  This rhythm not only goes from day to day but also cycles through the year.  While we don't plant seed (except for a few small container gardens) and will not (likely) be harvesting any hay this year, the rhythm of farm life is still dictated by the weather and cycles through the year, with only minor variations from year to year.  Spring brings the Alpaca Ontario show, followed by shearing, birthing, breeding, fencing and all manner of other summer activities - with swim team thrown in there for good measure.  The fall brings the Rockton Fair and the Alpaca Ontario sponsored fall show (this year it will be the all new Cavalcade of Champions), followed by Christmas craft shows.  The rhythm of farm life could be compared to a square dance - dances between couples (the day to day rhythm) taking place within the larger dance of the square (the yearly rhythm).

Dancing to the rhythm allows us to find order in our lives.  The rhythm give us all something in common, a common link, a common beat.  However, no matter the dance there is a something that all dances have in common: the need for rest.

When I got sick in 2008 I learned that my dance, my own personal rhythm would require more rests than the average dance.  My rhythm was slower.  There were are times when I forget that my rhythm is slower, that my dance requires great rests, and I pay dearly for those times.  It would be an untruth to say that I have completely embraced this slower pace of life - there are still times it frustrates me to no end that I have to slow down.  But it has taught me to savor the slow times.  It has taught me that without the rests, the dance becomes a dance marathon where you dance feverishly until you drop and a rest becomes forced.  Forced rests are not nearly enjoyable as rests that you choose - take it from someone who has been forced to rest many times.

You can't stop the dance altogether and you can't completely change the rhythm - especially when it is a rhythm from without - but you can choose to sit out part of the dance.  You can choose to take a pause, sit a spell, rest, and then join back into the dance.  I think that all dances would be better, and all dancers would do better, if our rhythms had more breaks, more rests, built in.  Life is not a dance marathon (unless dance marathons are your thing), but a dance party.  Take time to sip some punch, eat some chips, and catch up with friends.

The beat goes on!

Some rhythms are just plain special in and of themselves....

Update July - September

Catchy title, right?  I know... I do what I can. So I haven't actually posted anything but five-minute Friday posts since July (!) so there is a lot of ground to cover!  So a summary will have to suffice.
July: Everyone in the big house was gone for Canadian Jamboree (big Scout to-do out West) and David and I ran the farm.  We dealt with a pneumonia outbreak among the crias and lived to tell about it!  Though the learning curve was steep for both of us.

This was one of our sick crias - he's healthy and rambunctious now!

August: David and I built a changing table for Bean. We also celebrated our first wedding anniversary and David left to return to school in Iowa for the year.

The unpainted finished change table

Celebrating our anniversary at the Lego store

Waving good-bye at the train station as David left to go back to school

September: Mom and I went to an alpaca seminar in Ohio and learned how to assist alpacas in difficult births.  Later in the month we went to a wedding in Iowa and got to visit David and other friends!

Alpaca course - learning to deliver difficult crias

Wedding in Iowa

David-Monkey waking up David-Human 

Sad good-byes (notice the growing belly!)

Visiting Summer

Visiting Chelsea Bell

Paying a surprise visit to Kathy

Visiting with Talia

And that's all for this post.  Hopefully I'll get October's update up soon...No promises though.   Facebook, of course, has more pictures!

Introducing Phantom

On May 26 our first cria of the year was born.

She was born at 9:30am on Sunday morning

She weighed 14.5 lbs

David carried her down to a sunnier paddock so she could dry off and warm up

By mid afternoon she was alert and running.  She's a beautiful black girl.

Smorgasbord Sunday...on Monday

You may (or may not) have noticed that no Smorgasbord Sunday post went up yesterday.   This is due to the fact that this past week has been absolutely ridiculous and I spent a lot of yesterday sleeping.
Last week our shed/barn collapsed from snow-load and we have spent many hours doing clean-up.  My primary job has been cooking for the volunteers that have been coming to help with the work.  In addition to dealing with that, our farm was hosting a fecal float seminar (looking at poop under microscopes to determine parasite load) this weekend.  So we had people here for that who needed food and drinks as well.  We were supposed to host the course in the shed, but that didn't happen.  Instead we hosted it in the garage.   All in all it was a busy weekend.
And we have a busy week ahead of us.  We have a number of appointments this week including a GI appointment and an allergist appointment, plus my regular physical therapy appointments.  Thankfully none of them are too terribly far away and the weather looks like it will be good this week.
Because this week deserves a dose of cute, here is a picture of a baby alpaca having his first try with barley fodder.

Photo Friday

This week's photo Friday features pictures from family fun day at Camp Shalom on Monday.  We were there with some alpacas as part of the petting zoo.

This little cutie got to "ride" one of the alpacas.  Riding alpacas is not recommended, but for really little children we sometimes make exceptions.

The crias spilled the grain we had brought along so Cailigh got a snack. 

David was super proud of his calf walking experience.  The calf wasn't so sure about it. 

Up in Arms

I don't get super frustrated very often. At least not at strangers.  (Little brothers are a other story!)  But these last few days have had me super frustrated...and this time at strangers.
*Rant beginning*
On Sunday morning mom got an e-mail from alpaca farmer in Wisconsin stating that their barn and house had burnt down and that the male owner had also recently lost his hand.  Our first instinct was suspicion as we didn't want to believe it was true...both a house and barn fire and the loss of a hand?  We hoped it wasn't true. We e-mailed the farm and confirmed that it had actually happened.
Being unable to actually take animals (we don't have quarantine facilities so we can't do cross border livestock purchasing) I did what I could to help.  I posted the e-mail and the confirmation that I had gotten from the farm on a couple of alpaca groups on facebook to alert people in the area to the tragedy and see if something could be done to help these folks out.
I was met with great skepticism.  People thought it was a scam. Apparently these alpaca owners had engaged in some less than scrupulous business practices in the past and people thought they were doing so again. Once I knew that I understood the skepticism.  By Monday morning a news story had been published by a local news site, confirming everything we already knew.  People still cried that it was a scam.  They criticized the owners for sending out e-mails asking for help when they should have been looking out for the welfare of their animals.  They criticized the owners for being gone from the farm(!) so soon after the male owner had lost his hand.  They criticized the owners for wanting to sell their animals instead of giving them away to good homes. They criticized the owners for having two tons of feed in their barn for a herd of 110 alpacas (we get a ton at at time for 60 animals...their farm is even more rural that ours.  Two tons for 110 doesn't seem that unreasonable to me).
It made me angry.  I put myself in their situation.  If, by some freak accident, we lost both our house and our outbuildings/barns, leaving us with now more than half our herd (this is the situation these owners found themselves in), we would want to sell what we had, not just give them away.  We would want to sell so that we had something to get us back on our feet rather than give away what little we had. Perhaps we would want temporary homes or at least shelters and food and water, but we would want to sell what we had left in order to get back on our feet.
People are still crying foul and want to see the alpacas given away and not sold so that these owners cannot get back into the business. Right now, I don't think that should be the main concern.  What happened to people having human compassion and wanting to help out other human beings?  Forget about whether or not they should get back into the business.  They've just lost everything.
I wish we lived in a world where people were honest and caring and provided for the needs of others without second guessing motives.  I wish was possible on this side of heaven.
Done rant.

Alpaca pictures

I'm the queen of the mountain!

Baby Charm

Baby Charm after she had a few days to perk up (she had some difficulties at first)

Baby Tiffany lounging in the straw

Alpaca Babies!

Atlas' First Dance (boy)

Cashew's Cantor (boy)

Atlas' Confetti with her mom Serafina (girl)

Daniel's Devotion (girl)

These babies were all born sometime in the last two weeks or so. So far they are all doing well.  Devotion and Cantor will need some extra watching. Cantor's mom only has a partially functioning udder, and Devotion's mom has an extra teat so she's at higher risk for mastitis.  The extra teat will also make it harder for Devotion to latch on, putting her at risk for not enough milk.

We have more moms ready to go any day now, so as long as the weather stays nice, we should have more soon. 

O Canada! part 1

I took a quick trip up to the farm last weekend to see the dentist and my family and run a swim meet.  As always, it was an adventure.
Part of going to the farm is the animals. Within the first day of being home I had to give a little guy and enema.  He was a slow nurser so he didn't get enough colostrum soon enough so he had retained part of his meconium (first poop), which isn't super bad but can lead to constipation.  This poor little guy was ready for his enema!

Between being born less than a week earlier and pooping, Kyrie was exhausted

Nigellus is a bit older than Kyrie and has already figured out how to stand pretty for pictures

This little one (I'm color-dim and can't tell you who it is...not Dulia, Ezekiel, Alleluia, Nigellus, Kyrie or Opulence) was investigated whatever was on the other side of the fence.

Ellie Mae was babysitting all the older cria

From the next pasture over Caasi wonders if I've brought any treats with me.  Unfortunately for her I hadn't.

Environmentally Friendly Lawn Mowers and other cuteness

The lawn needed mowed so we engaged our environmentally friendly lawnmowers.

Atarah is checking out the inside of the shop. Her buddy Duchess would not cooperate for the camera.

This is what happens when you are late for dinner. It was Mommy's idea.  For real.  (except maybe the booger)

Shearing Days

Once a year we shear the alpacas.  It's kinda sorta a really big deal.  Lots of work, lots of people, lots of food.  Usually my job is in the kitchen, but the first two times we shore this year (Tuesday night and Friday) we were super short handed so I was out on the shearing floor.  Due to an unfortunate event on Friday I spent most of Saturday on the shearing floor too.  But everyone still got to eat.  The food wasn't amazing this year, but no one starved.  Since I was on the shearing floor all three times, I got to take "pre-shear" or "full-fleece" pictures of all our animals.  (they were supposed to be done the week before, but due to non-stop rain, they hadn't been)
Here's some pictures from our shearing days:

Duchess doesn't quite understand the concept of holding still for her picture.  Actually, Duchess doesn't quite understand the concept of holding still for anything.

Caasi stands nice for her picture.  She's a bit older and knows the drill.  Caasi was the very first alpaca born on our farm.

Isaac snuck into the shearing line up.

If it's in the lineup, it goes on the table and gets shorn...that's just how it works.

Idaho is a little frisky.  She's another one that doesn't like to stand still.

Annie got herself stuck under the hay feeder while waiting her turn to be shorn.

This one gets cuddles and chin scratches

While they are on the table they get a pedicure and a smile job as well.

In the first three days of shearing (all on our farm) we did approximately 43 animals. 

Walt the Pocket Kangaroo goes to the Fibre Festival

After Walt the Pocket Kangaroo got home from seminary, he went to a fibre festival at the Ancaster Fairgrounds to help out there.  It was the first  year for this fibre festival, so business was a little slow, but that gave Walt a little more time to walk around and see people, and even learn some new tricks.  The fibre festival will still be happening Sunday, so if you missed Friday and today, you can still check it out Sunday.  Anacster Fairgrounds, on Trinity Road (not on the road they used to be on back in 2003. There's houses there now).  And, if you want yarn goodies (or goodles, as some might say) and can't make it to the festival, talk to me and I can point you in the right direction. I know people who know people and all that good stuff.

Walt the Pocket Kangaroo spent most of his time at the Abstract Alpaca Consortium booth (since that was where he was supposed to be helping).  You can click on the picture to enlarge it.  From left to right, top to bottom: Walt snuggled with an alpaca teddy, investigate the yarn, looked at socks (and was sad because there were none his size), looked at pretty rovings for hand spinning, admired the felted banner, played in a swing made out of yarn, enjoyed standing on the luxurious crocheted alpaca rug made from rovings, and enjoyed the feel of raw alpaca fleece.

When Walt the Pocket Kangaroo wasn't at the Abstract Alpaca Consortium (AAC) booth he was hanging out with the awesome guys from the Crochet Crowd at their booth, right next door.  Mikey and Dave were super awesome and super helpful.  They let people try out their knitting looms and showed us how to make socks on a sock loom.  On the top left, Walt the Pocket Kangaroo is posing with the baby socks made on the sock loom.  They are still a bit too big for him.  On the right, Walt picked out some sock yarn from the AAC and then bought a sock loom to take home.  He is working on a pair of socks for his human.  On the lower left, Walt is checking out a new infinity loom from DA looms.  It's an amazing knitting loom that lets you make a 5 foot wide afghan, quite easily.  He is sitting on the very first afghan made with the new loom. He wanted to take one home with him, but his human couldn't afford it, especially not after getting the sock loom. Click on the picture to enlarge

Walt the Pocket Kangaroo got to try his hand at spinning with a drop spindle.  They even had a Walt sized spindle for him to use.  Thank you for being there and letting Walt try things out Gemini Fibres!

All this Fibre Festival stuff is hungry work! Walt the Pocket Kangaroo got to have his favorite snack: Watermelon!

Walt the Pocket Kangaroo voted for his favorite entries in three categories: Fashion, Art and Utility.  It was really neat to see what people had done with natural fibres!

Walt the Pocket Kangaroo went out to the barn to see a camel.

He also saw a 3 week old llama baby.  Walt isn't particularly fond of llamas, but this baby was kinda cute.  The baby was a preemie, otherwise he would have been bigger.  He also seemed to have some brain damage, but that might have been just because he was a llama.

Saffron the house alpaca came in to the vendor fair and met Walt the Pocket Kangaroo close up.  She even gave him kisses, but his human didn't catch any on camera.  Saffron won first place in the full fleece show.