All I can say is “WOW” what an experience! Our big day was finally here and we were all so full of joy and anticipation as we waited for the transport to pull in. Since we live in West Texas it is very flat and you can see for miles. We spotted the transport rig coming down the street and everyone was whooping and hollering and so excited to finally have all of our babies home with us. We had five boys already here and this transport was bringing the rest, 6 alpaca girls (4 pregnant), 5 alpaca males, 3 Llama girls (2 pregnant) and 1 Llama male.

Once the transport was backed up to the gate, which of course, felt like an eternity even though it was a matter of minutes, we were ready to begin unloading our babies. Everyone was standing up and they looked as excited as we were.

Our transporter started haltering the girls up first and the unloading began. The first three girls came out and into their pen and started to graze right away. It was such a wonderful sight to see. Needless to say I started tearing up because I was so happy after all of the hard work we had put into our ranch the moment had finally arrived. The transporter had the next three girls haltered and ready to unload so we were off again to bring them in. All of them unloaded so great and walked right along with us. As we unhooked the leads they walked out to join the other girls and then the worse thing happened!

Susy Creamcheese started walking like she was drunk! We all stopped dead in our tracks to watch her for a minute. We thought that maybe she had been cushed the whole ride and just had to work it out. She is one of our pregnant females. As we watched her go across the pasture it started to look a little better and then suddenly she just went down. We all ran out to her and she was shaking. Our first thought was to call the vet which we did before anything else. We then were able to get her up long enough to get her in the barn. We put fans on her right away even though we doubted heat stress because the transport was air conditioned and also had fans.

We are so grateful to Mitch Ramsey of Camelid Express and to Susan Frank of Dusty Creeks Ranch for walking us through a very terrifying moment. We gave her a dose of probios and Mitch suggested that our vet bring out some Thiamine. Once our vet arrived, in short order, he started an IV, gave a Thiamine shot and a small sedative so she could relax. By later that evening our Susy was much better. We have done a three day regime of Thiamine and probios and she is up and out in the pasture eating, drinking and all bodily functions are in great working order. She has access to a pen inside of the barn any time she needs it and she loves to come in to visit when we are in there.

So, to make this long story wind down we had a very exciting, scary and humbling experience on our first full day having all of our babies home. Susy had a Thiamine Deficiency. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

Well we finally got our Ranch Sign up. Here are pictures of Charlie, Cindy, Richard and Kim next to the sign and also of Tiffany next to it. We have one more to put up this weekend at the end of the street. Let us know what you think.

All I can say is WOW! Ric & Rosemary cam to visit us on Saturday from Clovis, NM. It is about 1 1/2 hours away. I have to say that their experience, willingness to teach and help us with some unanswered questions was amazing.

We all went out to look the ranch over and meet the new boys first. I then asked if they would mind helping me with my evaluation of the boys that we had done the day before just to be sure that I was correct in my thinking. They immediately said of course. We then went into the house had a little lunch and talked alpaca for awhile.

When we all went back outside Ric & Rosemary even helped us put on a little show so that we will know what to expect when actually going to a show. We will be attending the show in NM in October and now feel much more confident in our abilities because of the kindness and patience.

They are so gracious and excellent teachers. We are looking forward to visiting their ranch in the VERY near future as well as forming a life-long friendship with them.

Ric & Rosemary, my whole family sends their thanks to you for all of your help, kindness and patience. We all look forward to seeing you again very soon. The only regret we have is that the visit could not have been longer!

We are so excited to share our first arrivals with all of you. We purchased 5 beautiful boys from Dusty Creeks Ranch in Crane, Tx a while back and we picked them up on Wednesday from Susan and Gary Frank, who by the way are really wonderful people and great friends.

We brought home Casbah, Goodbar, Maverick, Ro~Ja and Gunslinger. Susan and Gary are so great to their animals that it didn’t take even 24-hours for the boys to be giving us kisses at the gate when we visit them.

Tiffany is so happy to have them here that she wants to sleep in the pens. LOL

Susan & Gary, we want to thank you for everything and let you know how loved your boys are and how happy you have made our family. Thank both of you very much and we look forward to seeing you September 6th for our Grand Opening Celebration!

Here are some update photos of the Ranch in it’s final stages. We are only missing 4 shelters and 2 Carports (1 for Hay and 1 for training/obstacle area for our Cria Pre-School Academy.

We are leaving to go to Dripping Springs, TX tomorrow for our first 2-day training class. I have read everything I can find on the CamelidDynamics and am very eager to get started. I will keep everyone updated as I progress in my training.

I have a few photo’s of our house that are actually in color now. Thought I would share them with you.

And here is a picture of our mess we are making while under construction

We managed to complete 2-Full 1-acre pens so I took a snapshot looking down the lane. You will see the shelter is still under construction.

As promised, here are some pictures I took this morning of the progress on the fencing and pens. We hope you enjoy them.

We hope to have the barn complete by mid-week next week. That is if I don’t strangle the contractor first. LOL! I hope you enjoy these new pictures of our progress.