Alpaca Farm Girl » Alpaca Ice Capades

Alpaca Ice Capades

Ice

I was so thrilled when my husband, the Artist, offered to take our herdsires, SCA Peruvian Magnum and Brutus’ Firecracker, to Colorado. Sending them to Colorado for August through November works for us because it’s too hot here to breed during that time, and breeders out west can take advantage of these boys’ breeding services. Magnum and Firecracker love the arrangement. They get to “Summer” in lovely Colorado and get to “work” too!

The Artist checked the weather and saw that he was going to have to drive the boys through some 100+ degree temperatures. The had him a bit cautious because they are really precious cargo, but we have an air conditioner and generator so we thought it would be okay.

The first day was fine. The generator and air conditioner ran great and everyone stayed cool. Day two started out fine with cooler temps. They left the air conditioner off for the first few hours. When they stopped for gas, the generator wouldn’t start. At all. The Artist gave me a call. I mentioned that if he got some ice and lined the back of the trailer with it, that could help keep the boys cool.

Things were going well, but between 4 and 6pm the temperature went from 93 to 98. It was climbing and they were in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. The Artist started to worry.

After driving for hours without seeing anything, he finally saw a Walmart in the distance. He went into the store and brought an empty shopping cart up to the cash register.

“I’d like 20 large bags of ice please,” he told the cashier.

“You want 200 lbs. of ice?” the cashier asked. The Artist nodded.

“I don’t EVEN want to know where the bodies are,” the cashier said, taking a step back and raising his hands in the air.

All that ice overflowed the grocery cart, and kept the alpacas cool. They felt like they were in hog heaven. Thank goodness for ice and resourceful husbands!