Cosmo Is Here With His Floppy Ears!

Well, I'm an Aunt once again. This time it's a baby boy - a baby boy alpaca that is! His name is COSMO and he is just adorable.

He decided at 11:30 P.M. on Saturday that he was ready to enter this world and so he did.

He is the first alpaca baby for my sister's alpaca Sunflower. And, given that it was her first - well, she was a little shy about nursing him with people watching. She wanted a little privacy. Can you blame her?  So, it took awhile for everyone to determine that she was nursing him okay.

It seems COSMO is going to be a little different. At least for now.  He has floppy ears which I think make him adorable looking.

According to my sister at Rock Garden Alpacas some alpacas are born with floppy ears, but they eventually change to the upright alpaca ears. As far as I'm concerned I LOVE his floppy ears. They just make him too cute for words.

Congratulations, Sunflower on the birth of your first child.  Cosmo is here with his adorable floppy ears.

A Baby Alpaca Named Zinnia

I'm a proud Aunt!!!! My sister had a baby at Rock Garden Alpacas.  Well, let me clarify that.  She didn't have a baby.  Her alpaca Ivy had a baby yesterday and it was the first alpaca born for my sister and her husband.  

So, I just had to show you the first pictures of baby "Zinnia." 

Her mother is Ivy and she is one of the two alpacas that my sister and her husband recently purchased. This Spring they decided to go into Alpaca farming and purchased two alpacas back in April.  One is named Ivy and the other one is named Sunflower. Both were pregnant and due to give birth in July. Ivy gave birth yesterday and Sunflower is due to give birth in two weeks.

In the picture above Zinnia is two hours old and already adorable. When my sister first saw her she fell in love with her.  How could you not?  She's absolutely adorable.  I know my sister will have a hard time when it comes to selling her. But, that won't be for another three years or so.

Here's Mom and baby bonding in the field.

And, here she is standing just a few hours after her birth. When you look at the pictures above she's tiny. However, when you look at her standing next to her mother she looks huge. Poor Ivy!!! Where did she put her?

Zinnia was Ivy's first birth and according to my sister she will be bred again with another alpaca in a couple of weeks, Poor Ivy! 

She just gave birth and already she's set to breed again.  Talk about no rest for the females! Poor Ivy!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

The Big Blue Hydrangea - Who Knew About The Nails!

All of a sudden there has been an explosion of beautiful blue hydrangea bushes in our area. I don't know if it was all the snow this winter or all the rain we've been having. Whatever it is it has caused my hydrangea bushes and those of my neighbors to bloom more than they ever have. For the 20 years we've had ours this is by far the most they have ever bloomed.

For the first few years we didn't get any blossoms. Then we got a couple. The blossoms were small and the color was a pale blue. Several years ago we started to get more of the blossoms. That was when I decided not to cut them back in the Fall.

When I was a child my grandparents had hydrangea bushes and they were always in magnificent bloom in the summer. They always cut their bushes back to within 6" of the ground each and every Fall.

Well, I just loved them and wanted to have some of my own so I planted two bushes in my yard some 20 years ago. I diligently cut them back every Fall, but was disappointed the first few years as they didn't produce the beautiful blue flowers I love.

So, I decided to stop cutting them and they started to bloom. Well, this year they exploded.

In talking to my brother about them I told him my colors were deep blue, light blue, some pink, and some lilac.

He said, "You need to use nails."

I responded, "What? What are you talking about?"

He said, "You need to drive 5 or 6 nails into the ground around the bushes. Regular nails. Not galvanized. The hydrangea's love them and will bloom with deep blue blossoms every year. That's what I do and my hydrangea's are beautiful every year."

Nails in the ground to get beautiful blue hydrangea's!. Now that's a new one for me. But, I'm gonna try it. I'll let you know next year how they turn out. For now I'm just enjoying the beautiful blue colors.

Maybe my grandparents used nails? Hmmmm......