Quarantine Haircuts

Eight+ weeks into the quarantine has so many of us feeling a little bit too fluffy on top, so you can't help but feel a little bit jealous of the alpacas who have their barbers make a home visit on a Saturday morning!

They were highly grateful to be able to see again! It also happened to be 80* on that day, a weather pattern that quickly changed back to freezing a few days later.

It's nice to relax in the sunshine after a thorough grazing!

Our shearing team was adamant about social distancing, so we took the opportunity to rent a box truck and also replenish the hay supply that day. We took a picture of this road sign for our nephew, who is attending Purdue next Fall! We stop in Russiaville for the hay, but are looking forward to many trips to Purdue to visit and spoil him!

Our hay guy had a new "toy" to help load the hay into the truck with a few big lifts. What a relief it was to not need to move all the hay into the truck by hand. It saved so much time!

Finally, I joked with my colleagues that it wouldn't be ISSMA Qualifications day without me interacting with a UHaul! I really missed the students and the event, but it was good to be distracted by getting some work done.

Here's hoping you are enjoying a safe springtime. Till next time!

Hauling the Hay, Gentleman Farmer Style

When we were visiting my brother's farm last weekend, the topic of hay storage came up, which reminded me that I have been meaning to blog about how we do it here at Shady Grove Alpacas. By November, our constantly "starving" animals had eaten their way through 96 bales of hay since last winter so it was time to reload the stores.

Hungry, Hungry 'Pacas

 Upon arriving at the hay farm and waiting for the farmer to reappear out of some remote field, we were greeted by the most enormous hog either of us had ever seen.

Anyone want to wager a guess how many pounds this pig weighs?

The Farmer in awe (and supplied for scale) of hog.

 We begin the day by, you guessed it, renting a UHaul truck! One of these days we will upgrade our "farm" vehicles, but at this point in our small operation renting is still more economical. We backed the truck right into the hay farmer's barn to easily throw all those bales into the back. The Farmer was thrilled to learn that this hay was of the finest quality and a third cutting - ideal nutrition for the alpacas.

We fit around 75 bales in the back. There was probably a way to get a few more in, but why force the matter. We'll need to come back for more in late Spring and a few bales won't make that big a difference.

At home, there was the arduous task of unloading all those bales into the garage... Yup, our garage has extra room at the front so that we can have a car and all of the hay in one bay. Pretty convenient to not have to build another structure for storage. This revelation brought a look of incredulity to my brother's face, but...

5 rows deep, 3 rows wide, stacked 5 high...

Whatever works, right?