A Harrowing Experience

Instead of my coffee this morning to help wake me up, I had a harrowing experience that really got my heart pumping.

My morning didn’t start out so well from the get go. My soon-to-be 11 year old stepdaughter has had a serious chip on her shoulder for a couple days and we butted heads first thing. She didn’t go to school with us on good terms.

I called my hubby to vent. He reminded me to get a bid done that was due first thing this morning so I hopped onto the computer and quickly got it done. Then I went out to feed the alpacas. My mind was on my stepdaughter, and how we didn’t part on good terms. I fed them grain and hay and then I went to the outside gate to get into their pen so I could open up the gate to their newly built pen with fresh green grass. I must not have latched the gate well enough. While I was busy working on getting the gate to the new pasture open and the chain latched to keep the gate open, the alpacas went over to the other gate I had just entered the pen from. They pushed their way through and out they went, out into the wide open spaces and to freedom and to my despair! When I turned around I could have just fainted from fright! I was all alone with only my two young girls and I had five alpacas on the loose with a busy, busy highway only yards away. I was out of my mind with fright. Alpacas are fast as deer when they want to run. And did they ever run!

I spent the next two hours chasing five alpacas around our 40 acres, across the road, back again, across the road, back again, across the road, back again, around and around our forty acres all the while screaming for help as people drove by. I soon found out how few good Samaritans are left in this world. How few people really care when someone is in distress and how they sure know how to rubber neck and look to see what all the commotions is about, but won’t bother to even stop and offer to call for help. At this point I was beyond exhaustions. I was praying for help, screaming for help. Screaming to God to make someone stop and help me herd these animals back into the pen. The alpacas were on the road several times and cars just flew by. Then things got a whole lot worse. My two year old daughter came out of the house and walked right onto the road while I was trying to hold the animals in position next to our bank of trees.

I was done. I was out of my mind with fright and was breathing very heavy from running and screaming. I had to rescue my daughter first. I watched as my alpacas up into the field again and over the hill as I ran to rescue my daughter. Then I saw a truck coming with flashing lights and orange on the back. It was a road crew truck. I started waving my hands and screaming to please help me. They pulled over.

Three men stepped out and asked me what the trouble was. I told them my animals were all out and I was by myself trying to herd them. I told them I had to rescue my daughter and the alpacas went running. The men told me to get my daughter and they would help. I thanked God and I thanked them. I was so grateful for the help. My three angels appeared in orange safety jackets!

It took the men some time to get them rounded up and close to the barn. I ran to get grain to try and lure them to the pen. When I came out of the barn with the grain I saw that the alpacas were at the farthest end of our land running like mad. I didn’t think there was any hope. The men were able to get them to come back toward the barn. We managed to get them funneled between our shed and the fence. I opened the gate and stood in the space between the shed and the gate to prevent them from getting around it. We were able to herd them into the gate. Praise the Lord, they were in!

I profusely thanked the men. I asked them what their names were. I told them I would buy them lunch or something. They shook their heads and said they didn’t need anything, they said they were just doing their job. They told me that the next time I drive by men working on the road, to go by slowly and don’t laugh when they are resting on a shovel because they are just tired from working so long and hard. Thank you Stearns County anonymous road crew, whoever you were! You were angels to me today!

Only four left

We lost another kitten. Our cat Beauty was really packed into the cathouse she had her kittens in and she must have layed on top of one of the orange kittens and sufficated the poor thing. Oh, I am so bummed out we lost one of the orange kittens! I wanted orange cats so bad and was so happy to have gotten two and now we are down to just one. I hope we don't lose anymore.

The shearing of the alpacas was quite the adventure. We really have a lot to learn. We also realized that our barn is not nearly set up right to do a shearing of this magnetude. Since we are planning on having a large herd eventually, we need to do some more planning and will need to pour some cement in our existing barn so we have an area to shear in. I am glad we participated in this process since now we have a better idea of what we need to do.

I am getting the dishcloth loom now. I was stuggling there. I think I have everything backwards though since I have only made dishcloths on needles thus far. My design is recessed rather than raised. My outside rows are recess also. I am thinking I will get some curling. I'll finish this cloth though since it is a learning process. I resorted to doing my knit and purl like Isela demonstrates rather than the ewrap and/or flat knit stitch. It was the only way to prevent my stitches from getting too tight.

Gurneys catalog, dishcloths, and fences...

Aaaah! It must be Spring... when thoughts turn to fresh fruit, fragrant flowers, fresh vegetables, cotton cloths, and fences...

Our Gurneys catalog is becoming tattered and torn since my husband and I have been busy leafing back and forth through the pages trying to decide what we want to buy, anxious to get our hands deep in the dirt with thoughts of fresh, sweet fruit and fresh vegetables making our mouths water. My husband keeps pointing out these beautiful, full-grown trees pictured in the catalog too. He has visions of trees lining our driveway (mind you, the trees would only be a couple inches tall when we get them in the mail!)

I have been working on designing cotton dishcloths and needle knitting them. Once I get my pattern needle knit, I can then turn my attention to converting it to my loom. I am anxiously awaiting my loom order I placed with Decor Accents (fine gauge) which will work wonderfully to replicate my needle knit design. My design features a dragonfly and is turning out very well. Once I figured out how to do it, I started designing lots of dishcloths in my head.

And finally, our thoughts turn to fences since our alpacas can come home once we can get those fences done! Yeah! My brother-in-law is helping us tear down the old so the new can go up. He got all of the barbed wire off today and the old fence post taken down. Now we need to clear out the weeds and we are ready for our new fence posts and fencing.

My husband asked me to take his picture of him and the girls with his new "do", enjoy: