Welcome Paulina Alpaca!

P&CW's Paulina

This afternoon our veteran female alpaca, Van, brought a new cria into the world. Little Paulina is a bright-eyed gentle gal, who is curious, friendly, and eager to learn her new surroundings. Since the alpaca herd has been "working" the front acres this summer, keeping the green growth mowed, Van was none-too-happy to be hauled up to a smaller enclosure attached to the barn a few nights ago; however, the weather had turned stormy and her body indicated that she was due to give birth on schedule, so we moved her to a spot of greater safety. At the time I put our littlest goat kid, Lorraine, in with her for a companion, but Paulina is the gal Van would rather spend her time with, so little Lorraine got returned to her herd today.

Crias are so much softer and meeker than kids. As a rule, alpacas are gentler than goats--except when they kick in self-defense. A strong kick from an angry alpaca beats being run down by a goat any day.

After suffering through her initial physical exam, and passing, little Paulina happily soaked up the mid-afternoon sun beside her dam and looked wide-eyed at her strange, new world. We left fresh water and feed for Van then did the new momma's bidding and left the pair alone.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Sweet potatoes, newly unearthed.

This afternoon I dug up our sweet potato bed by hand. Since I was too lazy to go get my gloves, I did get a bit of dirt under my fingernails, but not nearly as much as I had expected. This is because over the course of the summer, what had been tough, clay-like soil really responded to the organic inputs (added compost), the occasional red worm tossed onto the bed, and the periodic drinks of raw milk rinsed from recently-emptied buckets. The soil is now soft and earthy, for the most part, very easy to disturb with fingertips.

This is our first year with any sort of sweet potato bed and I had no idea of what to expect. I did not spread the initial transplants over hills of dirt when I planted them; I will do that next year. The potatoes immediately beneath the green runners tended to jumble upon one another, even to grow around one another. Hilling new transplants should help alleviate that problem.

The crop, freshly rinsed. Mmm, tasty.

All told, our little bed, with its too-shallow soil (the raised bed sides are only 8" tall) produced a respectable 14.5 pound crop of sweet potatoes this year. The fruit flesh is much a brighter shade of orange than those of the potatoes we have been able to get at farmers' markets recently, attesting to their nutritive value, and the flavor is delightful.

Next year we'll put in a larger crop.