Hi All!

It’s been a little while…. Almost a year! YIKES! I wanted to update everyone what we have on the table for the next few months.

We have a new alpaca barn in the near future. It will be a 30’ wide x 50’ long x 10’ tall and will be significantly larger than our current barn. It has been a very wet Spring so far which could delay this.

We are working to get both our alpacas, Liza and Everest, weaned off of mom’s Liz Burton and Summit. We have 2 alpaca males coming to live on the farm later this summer from our friends at Rusty Stars Alpacas. In addition, we also have some alpaca crias (babies) due this summer. A busy pasture is coming for sure.

We are moving our chickens to the old alpaca barn…. Everyone is moving this summer! LOL

We also signed up and were accepted to the Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market. We were so excited to be able to open our farm up to a larger “fan base” and be able to show off what our alpacas and farm has to offer. Looking forward to our next steps!!!!

On the horizon, we are looking to Alpaca Farm Days at the end of September for an open house!!

Your friend at Rainbow Feathers Farm,

Ev

Hi All:

Wanted to give an update...  Last week, we had to make a difficult decision to put down our sweet, loving alpaca girl, Masquerade!  She had an issue with her intestines and we did not want her to suffer any further.  She is now watching over our farm and all her friends now...  Miss you so much, beautiful!

Also, earlier this week, we had the birth of our first 2 crias, Liza Minnelli-Burton and Everest (Ev)!! Please enjoy our first video showing them and all their cuteness.  :)

Talk to you soon,

Ev

Happy Spring everyone!  

We just got about 8-10 inches of heavy, wet snow yesterday and it was "good times" clearing all this out!

It's been a few months since Tim or I have posted...  A few updates over the last few months...  On Thursday, January 25th, 2018, our beautiful puppy girl, Annie, delivered 7 little ones (4 boys and 3 girls).  She started labor around midnight and all puppies were delivered by 9AM.  It was a long night!  Got to 'Our Puppies' page to see all of their photos.  This was my first journey with puppies and it has been an up and down one.  We had a cleft palate girl, Elfie, who had to be fed EVERY 2 hours for the first 3 weeks.  Not much sleep!  She is doing great now.  Everyone else is mostly weaned off mom and is eating and drinking on their own.  We have homes for everyone...  We are keeping one the brindle boys and have named him CHASE!!!  More photos of him to come for sure.  

On a completely different note, our chickens are producing anywhere from 12-18 eggs a day.  They are doing great!  We also just paid for our alpaca products from C & M Acres (Fiber Mill close to Des Moines, IA)...  Excited to see what our alpaca girls have created for us!!  Shearing time is coming up on Saturday, May 12th.  They will be ready!!!

We got our veggie gardens (before this ridiculous snow) ready to go.  When I mean ready to go I mean we tilled in our alpaca poop/chicken poop compost pile!  We will be having 12 inch tomatoes this year!  LOL

Hope to talk to you all soon!

Your Feather Farmer,

Ev

Good Day All!  

As we prepare Rainbow Feathers Farm for the upcoming winter, I am reminded of how thankful and lucky we are to be surrounded by nature and the beauty it holds.  Our animals are our life and we are theirs!  

Some recent news on the farm is our beautiful whippet, Annie, is hopefully pregnant!  Crossing our fingers as we go into an ultrasound in about a week and a half.  

Also, ALL of our alpaca girls are hopefully pregnant and some due in the late Spring (Liz Burton, Andora, Louise, and Summit) and some due in the late Summer (Masquerade and Sundance).

Tim and I are looking forward to celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary coming up on January 6th, 2018!!!  Hard to believe it's been 5 years since my dreams came true!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS From our family to yours,

Tim and Ev and all our fiber, finned, feathered, and furry children

So much beauty in nature and since living in the country, we have been discovering this each and everyday!  Wouldn't trade this for anything...

Until Next Time,

Ev

We're on day 366 of the cria waiting game and still counting.  Two P-Test's can't be wrong can they?  I keep seeing stories on Facebook about people that are having longer than usual gestation periods this year, so apparently we are not unusual in this respect.  

In the mean time, I've been working on some quilts.  The latest one I'm doing is the Bargello using a tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I finished the top last night and get to make my quilt sandwich today.

https://www.missouriquiltco.com/land/tutorials/bargello-quilt/index.html

Sundance was due on August 4th and here we are on the 17th and still no cria.  I find myself walking out and just watching her.  Watching for any movement, any sign that there is definitely a baby in that belly.   We did another P-Test and it once again showed that she is definitely pregnant.  She's showing other signs as well.  Hanging out by herself more and more, found some waxy plugs in her nipples but the bags themselves felt pretty deflated still.   For now we just sit and wait and wonder when is this baby going to be coming out of that little alpaca mommy.

It took several attempts, smelly sardines, foot traps and lots of patience, but our fox has been caught.  I can safely says that as of now our Chickens are once again safe to roam around the farm.

On top of that, Cloud, who we thought the fox had for a snack reappeared yesterday.  She was gone from Monday until Saturday and just reappeared out in the field with the Alpacas.  Not sure where she went or what sort of adventure she had, but she was very happy to be back home.  I've never seen such a thirsty chicken in my life before.

On Wednesday morning while our chickens were making their daily rounds on the farm we lost our sweet Buff Orpington Bertha to a fox.  She was a sweet, loving and kind chicken that always watched out for and protected her sisters. At the same time her sister Buffy was also attacked and severely injured and had to be rushed to the vet for a large rip down her side and several puncture wounds.   Buffy is slowly on the mend, but we still miss Bertha.

RIP Sweet Chicken Lady

My friends Dawn and Shawn are visiting from Texas.  What do you do when friends visit?  You take fake folk art pictures with their dog Jack.