July 20 and we’re putting the year’s first load of second cut hay in the hay mow! This is a little early for us, but the weather in our area has cooperated this year and given farmers’ several stretches of good drying weather. Most managed to get first cut off their fields in plenty of…
Done! Shearing is THE big spring chore at Snowshoe Farm and it feels so good to have finished. We shear early – usually the end of April – and, being spring in the NEK, the weather rarely cooperates. Generally, the alpacas have to endure a period of chilly temps before warmer spring weather arrives and…
This is the kind of winter’s day we live for…sorta. It’s mild and sunny and the snow is perfect. But we know what comes next. Tonight’s forecast is for snow, then freezing rain, then rain. Things are gonna get ugly. So we take pics while things are lookin’ good.
No alpacas in the pastures this morning! Up until now, they’ve been spending their days grazing on what little green was left in the fields and seemed to be very comfortable with the mostly dry, but cold weather we’ve been having. But this morning, we woke to 6 degrees, snow and high winds. Not entirely…
Ain’t that the truth! We woke to the sound of mowing in neighboring fields this morning. After a week of hot, humid and showery weather (not good for drying hay!), today is cooler, clear and dry. And the forecast is for more of the same. Three consecutive days of dry weather is going to make…
For some reason, it seems like spring has been very slow to reach to the NEK this year. Even nice sunny days have had a cold wind. But we’re finally seeing the birds return and the pastures turn green. The alpacas love this weather. They’re in full fleece and the days are mild, but on…
The girls are cautiously making their way outside via the newly opened path through yesterday’s snowfall. At least the sun is trying to come out and the temps are fairly mild. It sure doesn’t feel like the first day of spring, but that’s not unusual here in northern Vermont. By the end of the week,…
While much of southern New England continues to dig out from the feet of snow dumped by the storm some have dubbed “Nemo”, it wasn’t a remarkable snow event up here. We received about a foot of very light snow and that gives us a total of only about a foot of snow on the…
No sooner are the holidays over and, instead of enjoying the relative quiet of winter on the farm, we are already faced with making decisions about and getting registered for spring alpaca shows. We have to decide which alpacas we will be taking to which shows so we reserve the appropriate number of pens. We’ll…
We almost never fail to have a warm spell in January. And I don’t mean just a day with temps above freezing; I mean 50’s and rain. This week we are experiencing the thaw. Today’s temps were easily in the 50’s, the sun was shining and there was no wind. We still have pretty good…