Alpacas....the trick is keeping them cool...

Keep them cool, but they're livestock! Is what you are thinking after reading the title.  Too true, they are livestock, but not in the traditional sense.  These creatures are pretty new the United States, having been brought over from Peru during the late 80s until 1998. 

Alpacas naturally dwell in the cool Andean mountains.  They are not accustomed to the Nebraska heat-fest that is July.

So how do you keep them cool?  Amy has been opening her bag of tricks (the internet and books) and has devised two neat-o methods of cooling:

-Using 175 feet of hose she tied a garden rod to the fence post and set it on 'mist'.  The Alpacas can mist during the times of the day.  We are trying to keep their fiber nice so we can't dunk them in water, thus a nice mist gives them a break from the heat.

-Running over 100 feet of extension chord from the barn she connected a fan into the enclosure.  We found some old carpet remnant upstairs, soaked it, and combine that with the fan the alpacas have somewhere nice and cool to lay for a while.  I don't think they have figured it out yet, but this option is fairly new.

Other updates: the boys are starting to lower their guard and will get pretty close to us.  When food is brought they almost let us touch them!  In the corner of our fence that we share with the neighbors they have befriended some miniature cows.  The four of them are always "talking over the fence"...I wonder what they are talking about...?

More later!

Phantom Obstacle #2 - - The Barn

Sure, we have a nice 121 year old barn.  But, as you have read in spelunking posts #1 and #2, you know that this barn is not quite ready for animals just yet, especially alpacas.  A lot has to be done.

The north section of the barn is devoted to the alpacas, the central portion will be for the future chickens.  Sometime over the past 121 years this was likely a popular place to house horses.  There is a nice trough in the back of the area and plenty of room for the bigger animals.  Alpacas are much smaller than horses and should live in this space without problem.

The next obstacle is to connect the fenced in pasture area, but we have a plan!

See the gate on the left and the door on the right?  Now imagine a fence connecting the two.

This is the plan.

We have until Thursday!

Barn Spelunking #2

On June 21, Amy and I rummaged through our 121 year old barn and found lots of excellent (and several non-so-excellent) goodies.  I promised there would be more, so here we are with a second addition of Spelunking.  There is so much stuff in this barn I would not be surprised if this has multiple entries following this one.  Above you can see an old milking cow pail.  The level of rust and breakdown suggest this pail is old and has not been recently used.

 

Another tool to add to my collection.  Here is a hammer, Amy is pretty sure it was used by farriers (those who put horseshoes on).  This is definitely "primitive" and was built here on this piece of property.  

 A dairy cow's bell?

Here I am holding the last strange object we will post about.  It looks similar to that of a small trident but with only two prongs.  So, it is a du-dent.  This dudent is what evil people or satanic creatures use while they are still in training...but it's probably something else.  Amy's guess is it belonged to a tractor at one point.  She's pretty smart so I'll go with that.

Not pictured:  two trash bags FULL of rusty nails, wires and other old metals as well as many bottles of unmarked glass containers and coffee cans.

1889 Fun Facts

Honoring the barn's birth year here are some 1889 Fun Facts for Friday.

Jan. 1     The year starts on a Tuesday
Jan. 15   Coca-Cola is incorporated in Atlanta, GA
Feb. 22  Four states added to Union: both Dakotas, Washington and Montana
Apr 16  American actor Charlie Chapman is born
Apr 20  German dictator Adolf Hitler is born
Mar 4    Benjamin Harrison becomes 23rd president of United States
May 6   Eiffel Tower opens in Paris
June 8  Wall Street Journal is established
Oct 8    Moulin Rouge opens in Paris
Nov 21 Gustav Mahler's first symphony, "The Titan" is premiered.
Dec 6   Jefferson Davis dies

Nothing interesting to note in Nebraska history that I can find in 1889.  The marching band at the University was founded in 1879 and the football program was founded in 1890.  Our barn is older than our state's most important commodity!

Barn Spelunking #1

It has been rainy here the last couple of days and we were cooped up inside.  During Ayla's naptime the rain let up and Amy had the idea of 'exploring the barn'.  We have only gone through the barn, in it's entirety, about twice and it was not a very thorough venture.  In a month and a half of living here, you'd think we'd know more about our barn.  Armed with flashlights we went searching for the unknown.

The barn was built in 1889.  A lot of people have been in and out of those doors and they have left behind a lot of junk.  Some of that junk has turned old with age but with a little scrubbing we found some old stuff that could have some type of collectible value too it.  I feel like I could run a small antique store with the goods that we are finding in the barn.  Here are the noteworthy finds of today's spelunk (there is undoubtedly more to find).

This barn clearly held livestock in it in for many of the past 122 years: cows, horses, pigs and likely goats.  We found a snaffle bit, one fancy curb bit, work harnesses and sinches.  For horses we found one very large leather harness and a leather bug net.  Other tools we found included the hay bale hook, an excellent old pitchfork and a ladder.  Then it got interesting.

This is an old Lysol glass bottle.  The Lysol logo is imprinted on the glass.  I do not know how old the bottle is, there is no label and no date.  The cap is plastic, which tells me it is probably not terribly old.

Upon researching Lysol, the company was founded in 1918 to help fight polio infestation.  Obviously this time frame works with our barn's, but I unfortunately don't know the exactness.

Fleming's No. 10 Blister for us as a local stimulant and counter-irritant producing a blistering effect helpful in treating atrophy or wasting away of shoulder or hip muscles of horses.

This is still in the box and from what I can tell was never used.  Although I couldn't find any information of this online, I did find that a farming journal spoke about the company in a 1908 publication.  On eBay a 1910 bottle can be purchased.  I do not know the date of this bottle, but it is cool nonetheless.

An old fashioned oil can straight out of the Wizard of Oz.  There is only a partial, difficult to read label left on the container.  It reads "Spring Prevents Collapse of Oiler Bottom".

The next part reads 'patented 1915'.

That doesn't mean this can is from 1915 or around that date, but it certainly gives it a general time period.  There are several oil cans such as these back where I imagine the pigs to have been.  I don't think the two are related :)







Even farmers have their vices:

This product and brand still exists.  In fact Phillips is the maker of your favorite Bacardi products.

I was unable to find how old the brandy is but this bottle and label suggests it goes back some time.

This is a Velvet cigarette tin.  My guess is that it predates the days when cigarettes were sold in paper packaging.  At the bottom of the tin it says that it is distributed by Liggett & Myers Company.  This company is still around and has been since the middle of the 1800's.

The tin also says "Is made from the finest Kentucky Burley Leaf Tobacco ripened in natures sunshine and cured in nature's way".  Mild & Mellow.  The Velvet brand, as far as I can tell, no longer exists.

Cool old pail.

Cool old lock

Rob climbing cool old ladder

Something tells me we have just scratched the surface with old memorabilia in that barn.  I am hoping we can share more in the future!

Top 5 Tuesday

Every Tuesday we will post a Top 5 list .  The content of these lists may or may not relate to the typical blog content.  The list won't necessarily adhere to the Top 5 in order of "best to worst".  We hope this will become a mainstay here on the blog and that people enjoy it!

Inaugural Top 5 List

What are the biggest changes between urban living and living on the Edge?

1. Distance.  This is an obvious difference.  Our old house at Sumner was located in the middle of Lincoln and we were no more than 5-10 minutes away from anything we wanted or needed.  Now the trip to get a simple gallon of milk can take a minimum of 30 minutes round trip.  You really have to condense trips, plan ahead and take care of as much as possible in one venture.  This also affects babysitting/babysitters.  Grandma and Grandpa are always willing to watch Ayla, but it takes 20-25 minutes to get there.  Grade the change: C.  We knew what we were getting into moving 9 miles outside of city limits, so there were no surprises, but that doesn't take away the fact that it sucks (for lack of a better term) at times.

2.  Quiet.  Again, this is obvious.  Living out here you can count on the fact that at night the loudest sound you will hear is the eerie sound of frogs in the distance and lots of birds.  Always birds.  Relating that to the noise of the busy street of Sumner (which many treated the 25 mph sign as a joke!)  it is much more peaceful here.  One of my favorite things to do is sit on the deck or patio and read a book, or blog, or blog about a book I am reading.  Grade the change: B+.  The only thing you miss is the constancy that others exist, but TV and internet remind you of that pretty quick.  Also, the absence of barking dogs in a crowded neighbor at all hours of the day and night are more than worth it.

3.  Mowing the lawn.  Our old house sat on a .16 acre plot of land and with my push mower I could finish mowing the entire lawn, front and back, in around 45 minutes.  Now I own a riding lawn mower (as highlighted in the Week 1-2 post) and it takes me almost 3 hours to mow my 2.26 acres of yard.  I will admit, the fun factor is increased when riding a lawn mower but the amount of time is a hindrance.  Again, something we knew about heading into this adventure, but still a headache.  Grade the change: B.  I don't mind a little more work for a nice lawn, but it is time consuming.

4.  Bubble Factor.  Living on the busyness of Sumner rendered our front yard useless for playtime.  As cars flew by, we were increasingly more cautious to let Ayla run around in the front yard, even with our strict supervision.  Too many cars, to much opportunity for poor circumstance.  The back yard was mud and weeds due to the dogs, my lack of caring for the lawn, and we purchased it while snow was on the ground....thus, she couldn't play back there so she was always inside.  Now she can burst that "bubble" and play a little further away from us and we are essentially positive that she is safe.  The stress is almost non-existent and it is a nice feeling.  Grade the change: A.  I much prefer all the space and running around safely that she can now enjoy to the constrained bubble we used to have to live in.

The Barn.  Built 1889.

5.  Barn.  We didn't have a barn before and we have one now.  I think that is a pretty significant change!  Grade of Change: I don't think this can be graded.  Let me know what you think :).