Saturday, October 23, 2010

When Westies Come to the Rescue!

So this morning, we had a VERY surprising development.  Just as we opened our front door to walk the dogs, Jack--our small West Highland White Terrier--immediately tore down the walk and ran to the back yard.  And when we caught up to him.....we found all the girls and cria were loose, grazing in the yard by our house!

One of them had pushed through some temporary fencing and the rest of the girl alpacas quickly followed.  Fortunately, Jack did all the work for us!  This little guy--easily 150 lb lighter than all the alpacas--chased the girls back into the fencing.  All.  By.  Himself!

Way to go Jack!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Farm Update: Back from the Show!

The trailer is unloaded, the animals shuffled back into the herd, and the time for some post-show rest is here!

Last weekend, Oct. 16th and 17th, Summer Brook Valley Farm attended the Green Mountain Spectacular in Essex Junction, Vermont.  Just east of Burlington and tucked amongst the beautiful Vermont mountains, the show featured over 20 new alpaca farms!  It also marks the first of our show series for the Fall '10/Spring '11 period.  It was a wonderful time!

Even more wonderful was seeing one our yearlings, Summer Brook Estella, take home a blue ribbon in her halter class AND Reserve Champion for the browns!  She is a dark-brown offspring of Astarte and Molokai. Though at first a bit nervous, Estella quickly got into the show routine and really strutted her stuff in front of the judges.



We are very proud of her!

Estella and the other two animals we took, Matteo and Estevan, will quickly get another show opportunity, as we'll be packing up the truck and loading the trailer in about a month for the Maryland Classic.