Dutch Hollow Acres » Farm Life AlpacaBytes : Profit from breeding quality alpaca fiber.

Hey Mr. Weatherman

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:19:04 +0000

The town I live in is south of Lake Ontario and East of Lake Erie. These 2 Great Lakes often give us what is called lake effect snow. In short, the lakes are warm, cold air passes over them picking up moisture and then impolitely dumps it on those of us downwind from the lake.

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Barn Fire Planning and Prevention

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:00:38 +0000

We’ve all seen it in the news or even know someone who had their barn burn down. Thankfully many times without loss of life to human or livestock but sometimes with disastrous consequences. So what should you do to help prevent fires and how to prep should one happen to you?

Planning:

- Fire Department [...]

Creating a Pasture or Paddock Paradise

admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:24:38 +0000

The concept of a Paddock Paradise is the brain child of Jaime Jackson who wrote a wonderful book on it. (buy book here). The general idea of a paddock paradise is to create an environment for your horse that as closely mimics their natural habitat allowing them to travel distance and obstacles throughout the day [...]

Stocking Stuffer Ideas for the Alpaca Farmer

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:32:17 +0000

Head Lamp – Perfect hands fee light when you need to illuminate your way around on dark winter nights. Yaktraks – Slip right on over muck boots to give a secure grip on even the most icy surfaces. No more falls! Carabineers or Safety Snaps – I can never have enough [...]

Big Bale Buddy Review – Year 2

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:58:58 +0000

Hello again everyone! Well this is year 2 of using my Big Bale Buddy. Yes it’s still in one piece with no rips or tears (that I didn’t purposely put there). Click Here for Year 1 Review

This year I have a new hay supplier and the bales I’m feeding are smaller than the 4×5’s [...]

Farm Weekend

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:24:48 +0000

I thought I’d share some photos from our weekend. The greatest find was a baby snapping turtle who was trying to get out of the trench M. dug for our utilities. It was a bit of a surprise since the turtles seemed to have laid all their legs in my garden on the other side [...]

Fiber Arts Friday – New Fiber

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:47:18 +0000

Welcome Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday Folks.

I haven’t been overly fibery this week because of some big projects and unexpected surprises.

Let me start off with what I did manage to do. I got 2 skeins spun up of my alpaca/merino. Nice bulky 2 ply ready for a hat or thick scarf. If [...]

Labor Day 2010 – Too much work

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:37:58 +0000

Here we are at another labor day on the farm and another year of projects too big for the weekend.

Project 1 was planned. One of our alpacas constantly got through the strand fencing and went on walk-about. So, I decided to rip out all the old fence and install field fencing. Sounds simple. Yeah [...]

New Alpaca Run-In Shed/Barn

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:34:29 +0000

The sight was cleared in time with just 2 days to spare. I got a call last night that our new shed was on it’s way up from PA and scheduled to be delivered at 8am Tuesday morning. Here is is 8:29am and I’m already writing to say I have my shed! It still needs [...]

Alpaca Boys New Home

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:56:12 +0000

This weekend has been spent working on the alpaca boys new home. Right now I have temporary fence and a redneck shelter for them to use.

M. has been working on leveling the new area where the amish will put the new run-in shed. Since there isn’t so much as 1 area on the property [...]

Just Another Day

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:02:22 +0000

One in a million shot?

In what can only be described as a calamity, one of the most unlikely things happened this morning. I was planning on taking one of the young horses for a walk and was getting her ready. The flies have been nasty with all this warm wet weather we’ve been having [...]

Shredded Straw Bedding

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:28:44 +0000

Recently we purchased a Wallenstein BXM Chipper Shredder to help with chipping all the trees and scrub brush we took down in our soon to be new orchard area. When considering buying a chipper we thought about going all out and getting the shredder to see if we could make our own livestock bedding.

If [...]

Wordless Wednesday

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:04:45 +0000

Comments... What are the alpacas thinking?

Wordless Wednesday

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:31:56 +0000

Snuggling with Cotton

2nd Generation Moriesian Filly

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:32:08 +0000

It’s a Girl!

Our Easter Sunday gift was the birth of a healthy filly!

Time of Birth: 2:15am 4/4/10 Weight: 100lbs Sex: Female Color/Markings: Black – few wight hairs in worl and small white kiss on upper lip For Sale: $6,500 firm Stud: Ivan-Reno Dam: Aurora LaBella Luna Email: Lindsay@lklik.com

What a great little [...]

Dealing With Spring Thaw & Snow Melt

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:07:39 +0000

Ah yes its March. What a beautiful time of year, days are getting warmer, birds are singing and the snow is melting into rivers and lakes flooding the interior of my barn. *sigh*

We purchased a 30+ year old farm and barn which was made as quickly and as cheaply as possible. In other words [...]

How to make a Recycled Baling Twine Rug

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:36:19 +0000

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recycle the twine that comes off my hay bales. I really try not to cut the twine when freeing a bale and if I have to I make a conscious effort to cut it next to the knot. This way I have a length of twine that [...]

Things To Do With Baling Twine

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:11:36 +0000

Does your barn look like mine? You have an old feed bag or muck bucket that just collects baling twine each time you feed hay? If you really are like me, you pay close attention to how you take off the twine. I ultimately try to remove the twine without cutting it but if I [...]

How to Build Alpaca Creep Feeder

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:04:31 +0000

With cria comes the need to find away to let them get away from the adults and have their own private little space to rest or get some extra grain or hay. Hence the invention of the creep feeder.

A creep feeder is a simple concept of a space wide enough for a cria to [...]

Coyote Alarm Call

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:57:53 +0000

Finally the weekend! I was so excited about being able to sleep in to 7am on Saturday morning. The week was busy with long days and short nights and all I wanted was to catch up on some sleep.

All that hope turned to panic with M. jabbing me in the side at 5:15am Saturday [...]