We sold our little ranch, downsized our material possessions and moved into a small apartment in Lakewood, Colorado, closer to our family and grandchildren in June of 2020.
All of the reasons make a longer story, but it was nothing difficult or traumatic driving the move. It's just a new chapter, unfolding at the perfect time. Jan continues to create yarn and knitted objects and is currently on a 'sweater' phase, perfecting the skill of sweater knitting. Our time and experiences at the little ranch are very precious memories now, and we have first-hand appreciation of what it means to be more self sufficient, raising livestock, gardening, bee-keeping and making clothing and such. p.s. The new owners are lovely people, and we are friends with them, they ADORE the chickens, and the chicks are still healthy and well (except for 1 that passed away). The alpacas were re-homed with a horsey-friend who hosts a 4H group, so they had a smooth transition as well.
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Yesterday, Mark and I learned yet another new thing. Every day requires learning new skills on a little ranch. This one was successful, but a tad difficult. The challenge is convincing a large animal to hold still while you try to help it. These are times I wish I had a GoPro camera clipped to my cap. It would have been an interesting event to film and post.
Beanie is the unfortunate animal in this story. Beanie is our black alpaca. She is about 14 years old…on the elderly side of the scale. She developed a cyst on her jaw. We noticed it in January, and Jan tied her up and squeezed it really good. It was small at the time, and the spot was firm and cool, so we decided to research about it, and watch it closely. It did not cause her any pain, or bother her eating or drinking. We called the vet to come and examine her when it enlarged in early May. She is still behaving normally, eating, drinking, etc. It had grown much larger, including a lump down under her jaw. He decided that he needed xrays in order to diagnose the problem properly, so we planned to take her to get the xray in a few days. Well, it so happened that 3 days later, we noticed the swelling was nearly gone. Either this timing is a total coincidence, OR, the vet's robust examination of the cyst caused it to burst or something. Jan spoke with another camelid owner, and left a message with the vet. In the meantime, Jan and Mark jumped into action. We got a bucket with very warm water, some Betadine, a large syringe and clean rags and wrangled dear Beanie. This is where the VidCam would have been fun. So, Mark held Beanie while Jan pulled off the string of drying pus under her jaw, and squirted diluted Betadine into the bean-sized hole where the pus was draining. Beanie held still for seven rounds of this flushing fun, till she had enough of it. Then she bucked and kicked. Yikes. Mark got her back in hand and then Jan squeezed the remaining (very small) lumpy area till some of it oozed back out of the hole. With the vet’s advice, we will continue this delightful regime for a few more days and it may be sufficient for her to recover fully. Maybe it’s too soon to do a happy dance, but we are hopeful, so I’ll do a happy dance anyhow. They come at night, under cover of darkness and chew the baby apple and plum trees like they are candy. Aaaaargh !!! 17 of the 18 beautiful little fruit trees we planted last spring made it through their first winter here. They are mostly 5 foot tall with baby branches and tender leaves. And now, the hungry deer have developed a tree-eating habit. And so it’s our challenge to change their minds. Right.
We wondered why we didn’t see deer around our property for the first 2 years. Now we know why…we had not planted Deer Candy yet ! (e.g.: baby fruit trees) Last fall, and now into the spring, the deer are swarming. White tail deer. Momma deer, baby deer, daddy deer. They have a sleeping place out behind the far workshop. Fat and happy deer. I like deer well enough, but I am not happy about this. We invested a good amount of money to buy the trees, transport them here, dig the holes, plant and care for them, wrap their trunks nice and snug for winter to protect from sunscald, and now the big tree-rats are eating the leaves and tender branches. If we don’t stop them, our orchard is doomed. What to do….we could invest a bucket of money to build an 8 foot fence around the orchard (not our favorite idea). Or, we could try some of the creative ideas posted by other gardeners on the internet. We are going with the creative ideas first. We have tried 2 so far. The first idea was to string fishing line around the orchard, up onto fence posts, so the line is about waist height. The idea is for it to spook the deer when they feel it, since they can’t see it in the dark. Well, this didn’t work. On to Plan B – add some trip lines of fishing line, attached to noisy cans placed on top of upturned buckets. The idea here is to scare the crap out of them, when the cans are tripped, as they fall off the buckets. And, the same time, I used the Smelly Soap idea. I bought some Irish Spring Smelly Soap, cut it into pieces, stuffed it into old socks and pinned the socks onto the trees. Not attractive, I'll admit. Since we applied Plan B two weeks ago, we have not seen any signs of the deer in the orchard. So, I’m not sure if the Smelly Soap is keeping them away, or the cans, or maybe the aesthetics?? I’m just relieved that they’ve stopped munching. And a final, but sad note – we did not see any apple or plum blossoms on the trees this spring. We had a few very cold nights, and they came at exactly the wrong time. So, the trees are healthy and leafing out now, but no blossoms. Maybe next year. Gardening requires so much patience. Not an easy quality for me, but I will keep trying. We hope to have delicious apples and plums next year. :-D !! It was another normal day at sageflower. Every day has a twist of surprise somewhere, somehow totally new and unexpected. I never know what it will be, or when. But it always happens. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried very hard.
Last year, the original flock of seven hens happily shared the same large pen space with our three alpacas, Beanie, Bubbles and Brownie. They coexisted rather peacefully, no fusses that I could tell. I think this was mostly due to having them start mingling while the hens were little four month old baby pullets. I think they accepted the big ‘pacas as part of their flock. When summer came, after Mark finished building the pasture fence out back, we moved the alpacas to the larger north pasture for the summer and fall. That left the hens with full run of the southern pens. We don’t have electricity out at the north pen, to keep the water from freezing, so when winter weather made its way into place, we moved the ‘pacas back to the south pen for the winter where the little barn is, with power so we can keep the water bucket plugged in to prevent freezing. I kind of like them up here, near the house, because I enjoy watching them during the day. It’s been two and a half years now, and when I see them moving about, stretching their long necks, or when they lower slowly to the ground for a rest I get all still and peaceful inside and that grace just fills me up. And it’s also true that it’s only 30 short steps from my front door to the little barn to feed them twice a day, compared to the 120 steps out to the north pen…so that is another big plus to have them near the house. We have five more younger hens now plus Elvis, the rooster, from last springs hatch, and they have never enjoyed the pleasure of co-mingling with the ‘pacas till now (teeheehee – evil laughter). This week, I’ve been opening the gate, after egg-laying is done, and letting them all mingle again. Now and then I hear a big squawking cackle fuss, but it usually quiets down pretty quick. Today however it was different. I could hear Elvis squawking really loud, doing an egg-lay type of call, not a rooster crow. He does that sometimes. I think it is so weird. And he was persistent, so after a minute I went outside to see what the fuss was all about. I saw Beanie, Bubbles and Brownie standing together over the knocked over chicken water bucket with guilty looks on their faces. Brownie was trying to kick at the bucket again as I ran over there telling them to cut it out. Okay, I was yelling. Not loud, but you know…like you yell at a dog to drop the goose poop it picks up in the road sometimes. You may be wondering what Elvis and his hens were doing, well they were standing about three feet away or so, watching the ‘pacas and strutting a little and acting huffy about their water bucket getting knocked over. Brownie just LOVES water. Any way that she can get it. Especially if it is in a puddle in the dirt, she will just lay right down and roll in it like a dog. And Bubbles and Beanie stand back because Brownie is fierce about her puddle. She won’t let them come near until she is good and satisfied with her roll. So Brownie wasn’t going to budge as I push my way into their little guilty huddle. Beanie and Bubbles backed away as usual, but I leaned over into Brownie with my weight and she just stood there and took it. It was her puddle, and she wasn’t giving up easily. I laughed and decided to take advantage of her and see if she was ticklish. I gave her inner thigh a scratch and tickle and then she finally moved off with a little proud shake of her head. Normally she won’t let me touch her unless I have her haltered up and tied. Oh, Brownie. So what about the chicken wrestling? When I shut the coop for bedtime tonight, I walked down the roost and gave a gentle pat to every other hen, and when I came to little blackie, she was on the very end. Her feathers were kind of mussed up, so I looked closer and saw that she had some broken feathers, a thin spot and a bruise on her shoulder. Our Elvis isn’t the most graceful rooster. Last fall, his favorite three hens had to wear denim “aprons” that I made for them for a while, so the feathers could grow back. They finally all grew back and those hens are all pretty and feathered out nicely now. Dear readers who are not familiar with rooster/hen behavior, this feather damage is not unusual. The rooster mates with the hens oftentimes during the day by standing on their backs, and if he has a few favorites, and if he is clumsy or rough with his feet on her back, he can break feathers or even do more damage. So, I sewed up a few little denim jackets or aprons for the little hens. They stay on by elastic that snugs up under each wing. If you look in the photo gallery you will see a photo of some chickens wearing their custom-made denim apron jackets. So later tonight, I went back out to the coop to put an apron on little blackie. She was not happy to be lifted off her roost and she struggled pretty hard. Okay, this whole scene would have made an excellent funny video for sure. I should get one of those GoPro video cameras and wear it all day. After a pretty difficult wrestle I got the right wing through the armhole, and went to the left side. She decided to throw a valiant fit at that point and flapped her way out of my arms. Chicken dust filled the air. Oh joy. I grabbed her feet just in time and pulled her back into my lap and tried to calm her back down. She wasn’t cooperating but after a few more wrestling moves, I got the left wing through the armhole. Whew, this chicken dressing match was the toughest one I’ve done so far, the little stinker. She has spunk. And then I was smoothing it down to make sure it was straight but something was wrong. The damn elastic was twisted around her right wing. Oh crap. Well, I could take it off and give up till tomorrow night, but then the poor hen would probably suffer even more damage from her lover Elvis tomorrow and then it would take longer to heal. So, I went in for round three, I undressed her and put it back on without a twist. Smoothed it down and happily set her down gently. She calmly walked over to the roost and hopped right back up. Spunky, sassy little hen. At least she didn’t poop on me. We are thankful for little things here at sageflower. Today I posted the yarn photos and story about the sageflower Colorado Birds custom colorway. It is nested under the Store tab. The first yarn samples have been made with handprocessed, handspun alpaca fiber from our own white alpaca, Bubbles.
It was a fun and satisfying experience to connect with the birds in this way, to read about them, draw pictures, and then finally dye the fiber and spin the yarn. I find myself watching for them at the feeders in a special way, now that I have created these custom colorways inspired by their beautiful feathers and personalities. I am planning to use squishy-soft merino wool for the next round, and will create at least 4 skeins of each colorway. Please read the story in the Colorado birds tab, and let me know if you are interested in purchasing some of this unique and inspiring custom crafted yarn. I am still in the process of posting photos and prices, and hope to have this mostly completed by the end of January. I would love to hear from you, so please post comments here on the blog, or contact me via phone or email: [email protected]. Our website is LIVE !
It is January 2017, and I have pondered and dreamed and hoped for this moment for years. I retired from a corporate, high-pressured job in November of 2014. What followed was a delighted spree of exploring and learning and adventures that are only beginning. One product of these adventures is beautiful, lovingly created handspun yarns made with alpaca and sheep fibers. Some are natural colors, some are custom dyed. I look forward to posting more here about my explorations and adventures in the near future. Welcome to sageflower. Welcome to this window into my life and adventures. Blessings and joy to any who read this page. |
Author: Jan DeSantiI am a lifelong learner excited about sharing my love of nature and creating beautiful handspun yarns from my three beautiful alpaca mascots, Beanie, Bubbles and Brownie. I love to collaborate with others on custom colorways, or making beautiful items using natural fibers such as custom designed rugs for the home. Archives
September 2022
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