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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Mattie - before shearing 2012
We have been busy little bees around here! Between shearing, baseball (x2, including coaching both teams), track, and work, we are always on the go! One of the fun things we added into last week was an interview for a local newspaper and a video interview about shearing for the online newspaper! Here's a link to the online news video!
View Video Now!
Mattie - after shearing 2012
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Noah & Lady are friends!
This weekend we had double fun! Double, because the alpacas had two groups of visitors! For both groups, it was their first time seeing alpacas up close and personal. What fun! A little boy named Noah (nearly 2 yrs old) was the greatest! He followed the animals around and they followed him around, too! That is one of the best thing about alpacas - they are personable, gentle, and curious! We had such fun sharing about alpacas and the alpaca lifestyle. Hopefully all of the visitors will be back to see the crias this fall when we have our open house! We have 4 females due in September, just before our open house weekend!
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Saturday, March 03, 2012
As I think about our year ahead and make plans and goals, I wonder about auctions. I even asked Kevin if maybe we should look into selling an animal in an online auction. We haven't bought or sold an animal that way before so it is uncharted land for us. We are ready to start selling some animals, though, so we need to explore all of our options. We have two good-looking maidens that will make a great addition to anyone's herd. Have you checked out Josie and Genevieve?? With six crias coming this year, we'll have plenty of young ones around here to choose from! Now that the warmer weather is coming, we look forward to many farm visits! Just call and let's set a date! By the way, we can board your alpacas if needed!
On a different note, we want to share your thoughts and prayers with the Melton Family in Hancock County IN whose barn burnt down this past week, killing all 24 of their alpacas. Also, we have many alpaca friends in southern IN and other states who have been hit by severe storms and tornadoes recently. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all!
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Well, spring is just around the corner now! Boy, I sure am glad too! I'm not much of a fan of winter. Luckily, winter has been pretty mild here this year. Of course, now that I've said that, we'll probably have a blizzard next week!
On President's Day I didn't have school (but the kids did!). This gave me and Kevin some time to go out to the barn and spend some quality time working together! Isn't that what everyone does on their day off? It was such a beautiful day for doing herd health. Usually our oldest son is there to help. Without him being home, we were still able to get all of the alpacas weighed, body scored, toe nails trimmed, and dewormed. We were enjoying our barn time so much that we even borrowed a friend's Pregtone and preg checked all six of our bred females.
Kevin was getting the hang of it after a while, so we are pretty sure that all six are still bred! That's always good news!! Mattie, our MSG girl who was Champion at the 2011 Indiana Alpaca Invitational is due in mid-May! Boy, I can't hardly wait for that cria to arrive! I just know it will be a gorgeous cria! Several of our bred girls are going to be first time mommas. Luckily, we have some experienced mommas, too, to model good mothering skills.
Now it's time to be thinking about pastures... We are going to overseed the pastures soon. We replanted all but one of them in the last two years, so now we just want to thicken them up so the grass will be lush this summer! They're calling for rain nearly every day this week, so maybe this will be a job for next week. But we can't keep the animals out on the pastures too much longer, otherwise they'll be mud balls! Oh, spring, we are ready for you at the Crick farm!
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
We are going to try something new here. We are going to breed for fall crias. We will be breeding five females soon. I have to say, I actually enjoy the search for the right male for each of our girls. Since our up and coming herdsire had to be put down this summer, I had a few extras to plan for, too. We will be looking forward to fall crias since it's a slower time of the year for us. No baseball, no shearing, no end of the school year activities. Cross your fingers that they all take easily! Two of them are maidens...
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011
This has been a tough time for us! Back on July 29th, our son noticed that our male, Urlacher, wasn't acting like himself. Right away I went to see for myself and checked him over. I took him to the vet that day. While we treated him with antibiotics, his temp would not go down. We continually consulted our vet and tried different meds over a period of about 10 days. We finally took him to the Purdue University Large Animal Vet Hospital on Monday. By this time he had dropped from 130 lbs to 117 lbs. While they found a staple in his stomach, that did not concern them because it was lodged into the lining and wasn't an issue. They continued examining and testing him. Monday night they finally found debris made up of wax and puss in his left ear and started him on a new antibiotic in his IV. Tuesday the vet called and asked to do a CT scan to see the depth of the infection. This morning they did the CT scan and found that the infection had gotten into the inner ear and bone. There was nerve damage and the left side of his face wasn't responding now. The vets believe that the problem must have started quite some time ago and that they do not know the cause, other than moisture could have been a contributing factor. They offered us the option of surgery, but stated that it may not be successful. Kevin and our good friend, Gary, drove back to Purdue to review everything. In the end, we decided to euthanize. We do not feel like the surgery would have been successful. Much of the bone was gone already.
This was our toughest day so far as alpaca owners. I sat with our 3 sons (ages 11, 8, & 5) and explained that Urlacher could not get better and would die due to this infection. Our oldest son took it very hard and had a ton of questions. He even offered to give us all of his money to help pay for the surgery. I helped him understand something that my Grandpa Riecke always says at a time like this, "Better in the barn than in the house". So true!
We would like to thank our many friends who have helped us these past few weeks! Thank you to Gary and Rita Moessinger, Jack and Anita Greider, and Tracie Manth! We could not have made it through all of this without you all! We would also like to thank our vet, Dr. Seth McDivitt and the Purdue vet, Dr. Taylor.
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Sunday, June 26, 2011
This weekend my husband tackled a new building project. It's something we've been wanting to do for a very long time. He built a chute that our scales fit in to. Now we'll be able to easily walk the alpaca (and 4-H lambs) onto the scales and weigh them without them side stepping off! We are so excited! Plus, it will help keep the scales calibrated and ready to use. It was always such a hassle to weight the animals before. So far we've only used it for the sheep, but it was great! Now we just have to decide on it's final 'resting place'. Kevin used scrap wood from around here for some of it so we only have less than $100 in it! He still is going to add doors and support bracing on the ends. I'll add photos soon, so check back in a few days!
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Today I started a Crick's Alpaca Farm Facebook page! Please look us up and click LIKE! My hope is to figure out how to link this blog to the Facebook page so my blog info will also be posted on our Facebook page! We'll see if I ever figure it out! Please LIKE us on Facebook and suggest Crick's Alpaca Farm to others, too!
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Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tomorrow Kevin and I begin our shearing season. We shear for many farms in our area. Since two of our three boys play baseball, we spend every day after work either at the park playing baseball or in a barn shearing alpacas. This is probably the most tiring 8 weeks of the year for us! I hope we have smooth sailing through the season!
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Sunday, April 10, 2011
Mattie - Champion Gray 2011
The Indiana Alpaca Invitational 2011 was a great weekend for us. We let our son, Cameron, show in his first halter class. And, wouldn't you know, he got 1st place with Mattie, our MSG yearling female! Then Mattie and Cameron went on to be named Champion Gray!!! There's nothing as special as seeing your 11-year-old son's smile while he shakes hands with the Judge (Barboza)! We were so fortunate to have my parents and many of our alpaca friends there to share in this moment too! I love that now Cameron is beginning to see another fun aspect of alpacas. Since our boys are all "barn workers" and do their fair share of the poop cleaning and chores, it makes the weekend feel even better. One of the main reasons we are raising alpacas is for our children. We want this to be a family activity where we are able to work and have fun together!
Now Mattie is preparing to leave for breeding. We will miss her while she is gone, but we are certainly looking forward to a cria from her and Snowmass RRoyal Fox!
Proud Family
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