At Last!! Alpaca Baby!!

For the last 4 years, Salinda has always been two weeks early. This year she was three weeks LATE! Mom was certain that the alpaca wasn't really pregnant, but lo and behold, the stork visited today!

Would you believe that I completely missed the birth! I checked on her at 1:30, she was fine, she didn't even look like she was thinking about having her baby. At 2:30 Emily came running inside shouting, "Caity! Sayla just had her baby!!"

We got there and found a wee brown bundle, still wrapped in the placenta, and a proud Salinda beaming from ear to ear.

IT'S A BOY!!

After about 20 minutes he wobbled to his feet... I love the little white patch he has on his front leg!

Alpaca babies average 15 to 20 lbs. This guy is a whopping 28 lbs!

Alas, I still don't have a name for him!! Had he been a girl, his name would have been Rhiannon; but I can't think up any good boy names! :-/

His mother's name is 'Salinda' (in case you didn't already know [wink]) And his dad's name is 'Nahjran's Pride', so it's been challenging thinking up a name nice enough to go with his ancestry. ;) Any suggestions out there? Right now the only thought we have is the name 'Coinin'....Oh yeah, Legolas was thrown out there too. ;)

~Caitlyn

Thing #1 and Thing #2

I love my little brothers....

I also love black and white pictures.... ;)

~Caitlyn

Thoughtful...

I'm not really sure what to write about....

Today has just been a slow, thoughtful day....

Looking at the picture I put up, makes me want to visit the coast again. Right now.

The Lord has placed some things on my heart that have been rather weighty to bear... At least for me. I know that if I would just yield... Just surrender all those words: "I", "me", "my", etc., life would be so easy. He only wants what's best for me, but being the sinful person that I am, I fail to see the bigger picture that he sees. I cling to what I see at my level, what is familiar, what is comfortable. Like a loving shepherd, He has waited patiently on me. I stumble... I falter... I ask why... I don't trust... I stray. Why is this so hard! Yet, each time He has picked me up, and lovingly set me straight again. I don't deserve His mercy.... Yet is staggers me everytime I think about how He died on the cross for ME. Wow. He died for me even though He knew my faults. He knew I would stumble, He knew I would falter, He knew I would stray! But He loves me so much that He ignored it all and took my punishment.

I deserved that punishment. I am not a patient person. Ask my siblings. I do not show mercy enough. Ask my siblings. I do not act like Jesus, like I should! Ask -- my -- siblings.

Thinking about the fact that he died for me, makes me so guilty. HE DIED FOR ME. And yet I still struggle with my waywardness! I still have a hard time completely trusting Him! Grrrrr!

What do I say now? This has been a stretch, writing this down. I don't even know how this all poured out. I sat down thinking I was going to blog about my alpacas.... But somehow those words wouldn't come. Instead these ones came....

~Caitlyn

Bliss...

It's been a good day....

I spun on my wheel for three hours outside in the warm sunshine while listening to music (Joshua Messick, of course). I've almost finished one skein out of, I think, fifteen, that someone custom ordered. But fifteen skeins isn't too bad to spin when the fiber is deliciously soft baby Suri alpaca. Mmmmm.....

Later, I went "Window shopping" via the internet. ;) I found a couple of really neat websites that had some utterly amazing spindles, and I have been in a state of pure bliss looking at them...

I found three spindles in particular that caught me eye... One is made of Wooly Mammoth tusk (Yes! Real wooly mammoth!!), the second is made of Moose antler, and the third is walnut that has been set with silver.

This is a peek at the walnut/silver spindle...

Here's another spindle that I liked. It's called 'Lothlorien Leaf' (From the LOTR Mallorn tree)

Alas, I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the mammoth tusk or the Moose antler but you can see them here.

I love spindle window shopping... ;D

~Caitlyn

We Came, We Saw, We Conquered!

My dad had the brilliant (or crazy, take your pick) idea that my family plus some friends should all hike up Saddle Mountain. I had no idea what said Saddle mountain was so I agreed to go.

Saddle Mountain: A super fun hike that is about 2 -1/2 miles up and at a 1630 ft. incline. The view is utterly spectacular, if you go during good weather. Wear good boots, bring a walking stick, and a handful of friends. ;)

So armed with all that, my family (minus mom and babies), and two other families made our way to our destination....

Brilliant idea #2, instead of taking two vehicles, let's carpool in our friend's school bus, that they have. I liked that part. ;) Our group started out small, here's a pic of me, a friend, and Megan (left to right).

Enter more friends. ;D

Oh yes, Here's a pic that actually has Emily in it. We had a lot of fun singing on our two hour drive up.

Our bus driver...

Now this picture has a comical story attached to it. This is one of those couches that converts to a bed, and it was in the back of the bus. What we six girls didn't know, was that the road up to the mountain was extremely rough, and the bus didn't handle bumps very well. At a huge bump, all six of us, plus the couch flew into the air (no seatbelts here!)! We landed in a bruised jumble, and this picture shows what happened to the poor couch. I guess we aren't very furniture friendly. ;D


We arrived at the foot of the mountain, finding it heavily cloaked in a seemingly impenetrable fog.



Undaunted, we forged ahead, facing high winds (I'm talking about HIGH winds!), steep slopes, slick rocks, and mud.

I personally had a blast; I've always wanted to be in the very midst of a thick fog. :)

When we got to the very top, guess what we saw! FOG! Alas, you couldn't see a thing, so we shall just have to go again in the summer and hope for better weather.

We came, we saw, we conquered!

~Caity