We purchased 5 alpacas in 2015 from EasyGo Farm in Hillsboro, Oregon. These particular alpacas were chosen for their fiber and their personalities.
This first alpaca is Sunny (EG Summer Sun). She was born on September 4th, 2005, which makes her the oldest of the bunch but she is friendly and cute. I purchased her as a non-breeder.
Here is Taiga, she is my favorite, personality-wise. She is the most curious and dingy of all the girls. She always has to have a front row seat for any action and she usually has a piece of hay sticking out of her mouth. She is a big fan of nose-booping and she will nip at your collar or hair at any chance. She was also purchased as a non-breeder. Her birthday is July 23, 2006.
Next up is KaMatee KaOra. She was born November 1, 2007. Linda, from EasyGo Farm, told me the story of her interesting name…
“Her mother Madrigal was due. I went out at 6 am, November 1st (the Day of the Dead) to check on her.
She wasn’t in the barn so I went outside. It was 30 degrees, pitch black, and I first I couldn’t see anything. Then I spotted something shiny – the placenta. Then I saw Madrigal a few feet away. So… where’s the rest of what should be a trio?
Kept looking and finally found a cria: ice cold and lifeless. Stood there saying OH SHOOT for a few minutes. Touched her eyeball and got no reaction. A few more minutes of OH SHOOT, then I picked her up and carried her into the barn – and she moved her head a few inches!
Whoa – I went into panic mode – get a towel, get a hair dryer, get Barry! After a bit, we decided she was “too dead” and that we’d better take her to the vet.
We loaded Madrigal into the van, wrapped up the baby, called the vet and said we’re on our way. We turned the heater way up, and I kept closing her eyes since she still wasn’t blinking or reacting.
The vets gave her a warm plasma transfusion, tubed her with warm colostrum, and worked on her for about 45 minutes before they took her temperature – it was still under 90, didn’t register on the thermometer.
But they got her going, and Madrigal accepted her – the real miracle, considering she was a first time mother. They stayed at the vet’s for 2 days. The photo shows her taking a run as soon as we got home and set her down.
So then we started thinking of names. There was a newspaper story about the Forest Grove football team which had several Samoans on it. For solidarity, at each game the whole team lined up for kickoff and did a Samoan war chant, crossing their arms, stomping their feet (although every game they got penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.)
Part of the chant was “Ka mate, ka ora” which was the chieftan’s cry of “I die, I live.” Seemed perfect. So that’s how she got her odd name.”
She is very shy but she is a beautiful true black and I think she is going to make beautiful babies! She was bred to National Patriot of Alpacas of Oregon on May 17.
Here we have Flirt. She is the youngest girl in the group with her birthday being September 5, 2008. Flirt is another shy girl but she has an adorable face with dark “makeup” around her eyes. She was bred to National Patriot on Mother’s Day (May 10th). It was her first time so it was a little tricky but we think she may be pregnant.
And, lastly, we have Tiara. She was not part of the original plan but we thought that Flirt was going to be too small to breed so we started looking at alternatives. Tiara was suggested as a “loaner” but I thought it would be weird to “borrow” an alpaca so we decided that we would just buy her outright. But then we determined that National Patriot was a smaller guy and the rest is history. Tiara was also bred to National Patriot on May 26th. Patriot got a lot of action is the past few weeks, good for him! Tiara’s birthday is August 20, 2007.
I purchased some of KaMaTee gorgeous triple ply yarn at the Eugene Chicken festival. Is there any more available? I’d like to make a hat to match my beautiful scarf!