Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[chickencrazymamahen]

It is incredibly hard to beat the taste of bluegill....3 lbs of fillets....wow, I would bake that boy a cake!!!!

 

[Opa]

He also brings us walleye fillets on a regular basis. Since he has no family in the area we invite him over for dinner quite often. He claims he feels that I am his adopted father. We also make sure he never spends a holiday alone.

 

[Slywoody]

Love bluegills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Opa]

Quote:
Lightly dust fillets in Zatarain's Crispy Southern Fry mix, drop in boiling oil, when they float to the top pull them out. Like eating fish candy.

 

[Matthew3590]

Quote:
I fish to keep and my friends always think I am the weird one for not throwing back the bluegill. Obviously they have never tried it.

 

[vanalpaca]

This is Boots with her first baby a couple of years ago. One day old, of course. Sadly this one died of pneumonia when they went out to another farm for breeding. Total negligence on the farms part, no recourse, typical of the alpaca industry. BUT the photo is here as a first one because it is ALREADY UPLOADED.

I will go find you some cute cria photos to gander at!

We sheared again today, 15 alpacas. One unexpectedly turned out to be a BOY! The owner was very surprised as last summer she had felt it was a GIRL! Very funny!! Today was really pleasant and unstressful. We had about 85 degree weather, we were outside on the grass and there was a light breeze and we really didn't get overheated. Got them done in 4.5 hours. So it was a nice day.

I take the bags of fleece home, open them up, and let them air out and DRY. Often fleece is sweaty and has some moisture in it and if left tight in the bag would rot the fleece.

I have a chicken wire 3x7 panel that I put across a couple tables/or chair backs, throw a fleece out on it and pick out all the junk, short bits, separate different colors. I actually know how to sort through it and grade it into 6 grades of fineness. It is all about uniformity. The more uniform the fleece, the nicer the finished yarn would feel.

I wash it, dry it, hand separate it "fluffing' , then card it into a batt and handspin it on my spinning wheel into a ply. Then it has to be plyed with another like it and taken off the bobbin into a skein, tied in several places, wet, hung out to dry and weighted to set the twist. Then it is considered YARN!!

I knit small simple stuff and crochet a bit. I also dye the white fleeces different colors and blend them into different stages of the yarn process. Also do some needle felting.

Mostly I am just fiber crazed and love having my hands in the fleece and the processes through making it into the yarn.

I have LOTS of alpaca pictures posted at www.hobbyfarms.com under the community tab and my ranch name of Imaginary Alpaca Ranch!!

Now about those Welsummers....Put the first group born about a month ago into a 'run' in the basement about 2 feet wide and 7 feet long. They are on pine shavings and don't know what to do not being in a box! The brooder chicks have moved down to a cardboard box in the basement. The TSC pullets and roo have moved out to the pit greenhouse with the 4 laying hens and that group is still figuring things out and not REALLY happy with the situation.

Dad gets out of the hospital tomorrow and out of CCU today. Tough old bird! He was in a train accident at 18 yrs old and woke up the next morning and read his obituary in the paper the nurse gave him! Had pancreas burst at 50 yrs and doc gave him a 50% chance of living through the operation. Now this at 85. Thankful he is still around to call and talk to. Don't want my daddy to leave the world quite yet!

Hubby is really feeling bad with the chemo reactions, but made it into radiation again today and will again tomorrow. Coping. Slept most of the day. That's about it for now.

Take care all and I've got a couple pages to read yet here and photos to pick out for y'all!
Bonnie

 

[Matthew3590]

Alpacas are cute looking. Do they do good in hot temps? I know they are common south of the border but I think it is more tropical where they are native. Would they do good in heat close to 100 in summer then temp anyway from -10f to 40f in the winter?

 

[vanalpaca]

Ok folks, you asked, here are alpaca photos!! Yep, mine for now.

 

[vanalpaca]

Alpacas are now found in most of the 48 states. In South America they live at an altitude of about 10,000 feet at a high plains semi arid region. It is called the altiplano. There they may not shear them every year and crias don't always make it through the winters. Don't know why except they are run in large herds on coarse grass and farmed by peasant families. They started out in the lowlands, but the conquistadors tried to kill them off as the natives had a culture around them and it was part of the conquering the new world thing. Brought in the sheep and cattle for the lowlands and the natives saved the alpaca by taking them to the high mountain plain.

We shear in early spring, just once a year. They grow about 1/2 inch of fleece a month. When temps plus humidity together get up to 165, they CAN heat stress and need to be provided shade, fans, ground water to keep cool in. We hose down their bellies but not the tops as that would hold the heat in.

Some of my girls will climb into the water trough and sit down in it. Not good for drinking water, but they cool off.

They are in Georgia, Florida, Texas, California, everywhere in the states, now.

They need at least a 3 sided shelter with a roof and a fence to keep OUT predators AND the neighbors dogs. (more alpacas have had their leg tendons shredded by dogs and had to be put down than have been killed by any other predator).

Now back to chickens?

 

[Ec_Prokta]

They're so cute!