Things are clearly changing on the farm, for the better we hope. Our weekends, while still filled with our own chores as well as what we do up at SuperSuris to help them out, are less hectic and more varied – especially so as the store at SuperSuris will now be ‘by appointment.’ There just aren’t enough shoppers to keep the store open through the whole year. Not yet, anyway.
Most of the other farms in Green Bluff are doing something similar – most having shut down until next fall. Now is the time for recovery before the inevitable rush of prepping the fields and sowing the next crop. The wheat fields are all covered in a blanket of snow, a condition that will likely continue through April at least, probably later. The orchards are bare, the canes free of both berries and leaves, and everything sleeps under its frozen coverlet, waiting for the sun to be warm again and for the wind to stop blowing.
And yet, life for the alpacas continues. Babies must be halter trained (as comedic as that can be on snow and ice), health needs must be seen to, and the endless shoveling in of hay and out of droppings must continue. In one thing the care of the animals is a bit easier. Because the ground is well covered by snow, and because alpacas are notably shy about slippery surfaces, they largely stay in the barns, limiting the piles of droppings from the widely spread piles of fall to only a few spots in the barn. This makes cleaning easier but simultaneously smellier, as the stench is concentrated. Still, it takes less time to clean up and feed as it did during the fall.
Only two babies still have blankets tied securely to their backs. The rest are fleeced out and happily munching hay alongside their compatriots. The weanlings are starting to get used to the idea that they no long have access to “mom” and her seemingly endless supply of milk. Things are definitely settling down into a routine.
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