Have you ever had a teacher tell you that you were unprepared?

I was the definition of unprepared the morning of a very important farm visit recently. In fact, I didn’t even know he was coming until about 15 minutes until I was supposed to leave to go and pick him up at the airport, thanks to my down email and his busy schedule.

Oh, I had been planning for weeks, months to meet my friend from the UK. We had been working on getting things looking nice on the farm the week before…but when I didn’t hear from him…and the kids kept telling me about holiday parties at school, basketball practices, piano recitals, etc. – I have to admit I thought he had cancelled his trip and forgot to tell me. It just went to the back of my mind.

Then email worked & I was surprised to hear from him. I was rushing around like a madwoman trying to get dressed in a tiny amount of time on an oddly frigid morning with our pipes frozen – unheard of in L.A. (lower Alabama).

As I drove to the airport, I fretted about being seen as unprofessional because the only paper left at my house was light blue. (My little artists go through reams of white paper like babies go through formula.) Could I really print sales info on that?

Luckily he didn’t mind stopping at Staples on the way back to the farm, and was a prince about the whole thing. I needn’t have worried. It was a laid back day, and Carman made it all worthwhile by presenting us with a Magnum cria (above).

Alpacas gathered around the new cria just after she was born just outside my office door.

The man came a long way to see Magnum and his kids. All the previously put together packets in the world are not as showy as what Carman did by dropping one on the ground for him to see!

Magnum himself did a great job too. Magnum is a very impressive animal because he is extremely intelligent. Upon seeing him, our visitor commented, “It’s not like seeing an alpaca, it’s more like looking at a human.” It is true. When you look at Magnum and talk with him, you feel more like he knows what you are saying to him. He is incredibly bright.

This little girl was tiny when she was born, only 9 lbs. This may be why her ears were inside out and curling up. They will get better if we curl them the right way with our fingers each time we catch her for a treatment or to dip her naval or weigh her, etc. If they do not, we will tape them for a short while and that should fix them right up.

Mitzi with her dam Carman, a Camilio daughter.

Thanks Carman for saving the day! While our visitor was enjoying the cria I was able to run to the house and gather some materials for him.

You gotta love it when your animals pitch in and help you out! After the year I’ve had, that really spoke to me on a basic level. That the alpacas and I are a team. We have been through a TOUGH year together and we are still here.

We are still working together, still producing cria, still producing fiber, and still a team. I can see it in their eyes every day when I go out there. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I love alpacas. I’m so lucky to love what I do every day.

Thanks again Carman.

I love that little Mitzi. Don’t you guys?