A new Cria at Split Rock Ranch!

On Saturday, June 4th, Split Rock Winona Wildfire gave birth to a beautiful 30 pound male cria (baby llama). I suspected that Winona was in labor that morning but we already had plans to go to Colorado Springs to celebrate my birthday and my Dad's birthday. We always celebrate our birthdays together and this was a milestone birthday for Dad - his 75th! He proudly announced that he made it three-quarters of a century. Since Winona has had three other crias and wasn't a first time Mom, we felt comfortable leaving for the day. When we got back home a little before 5 PM we noticed that one of our studs was pacing the fencing in his run and we didn't see any of the females when we drove up so we knew something was going on. I left my purse and everything else in the car and headed out to the pasture to see what was going on. As soon as I got to the end of the privacy fence around our back yard, I saw that all the girls were gathered together under one of the big pine trees in their pasture. I knew that meant that either there was a brand new baby just born or she was still in the process of giving birth. I hollered to DH that we had a baby and he ran into the house to get clean towels and the birthing bag. I saw that the baby was partially out; his front legs and his head were out but his shoulders were stuck. DH came back out with towels and birthing bag and he grasped the front legs of the cria and gently pulled to loosen the shoulders. The rest of him quickly slid out into my waiting arms. We toweled him off an pulled the birth sac off him while all the females, including momma llama, sniffed and hummed to the new arrival. I sprayed the umbilical cord with iodone and DH carried the cria to an area where we normally put newborns and their Moms so they can bond without all the other llamas intruding. I gave Winona some grain to eat while her cria started trying to stand.

I went back to the car and got my purse, etc. and changed into my work clothes, grabbed my camera and went back out to feed the horses and our two elderly llamas who are not in large pastures where we have bales of hay so the llamas can free feed. By the time I got back to check on the new cria, he was up and toddling about.

Here is a photo of him when he was first on his feet.

And here is the other side

I haven't used the video feature on my digital camera until recently and I was surprised at how easy it is to use and download the videos! Here is a short video I did of the cria as he was toddling about trying to figure out where he was supposed to nurse from.

When he finally got his sea legs and had nursed, we opened the gates and let them go back in with the rest of the female llamas so everyone could say hello to the newest member of their herd.

Here he is with his momma, Winona, before we let them back in with the rest of the girls.

The dam's name is Split Rock Winona Wildfire; she was born at the height of the Hayman Fire in June of 2002. The sire's name is Midnight's Kemui Yama, which is Japanese for Smoky Mountain; he was born during a wildfire across the road from us in June of 2006. This is his first cria and we are thrilled with him. This cria was born during the wildfires raging in Arizona and the air here has been filled with smoke for days now.

Here is Kemui Yama

We knew that we wanted a name with "fire" in it or something that gave the sense of fire. We also wanted to include Midnight in the name in honor of his paternal grandsire, Midnight Hour who passed away from cancer this past January. Somebody suggested Firestar, which we liked. But Midnight Starfire rolled off the tongue easier so we were considering those names. But then someone who read the story about his background suggested the name Phoenix - to represent rising from the ashes of fires, which is perfect! So, we are going to name him Split Rock Midnight Phoenix. He already answers to the name Phoenix so we think it is perfect for him.

Here he is the next day when he was about 20 hours old. He was all dried out and fluffy so he looks totally different than he did in the first photos when he was still damp.

 

We expect Midnight Phoenix to be our next halter show llama! He will be eligible for shows as of November 4, 2011 so he'll miss this year's show season but he'll be ready to go for the 2012 show season! We're hoping he'll follow in his sire and grandsire's footsteps.

Congratulations Kemui Yama! Grand Champion x TWO!

This past weekend we attended the LOCC (Llamas of Central Colorado) Fall Classic Llama Show and the Rocky Mountain Regional Llama Show held together at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock, Colorado.  Because we were volunteering to help at the show we only took one llama since we knew we wouldn't have time for grooming or preparation once we got to the show. We decided to take Midnight Hour's Kemui Yama. You've seen him before here on the blog - last summer I did a before and after segment on shearing llamas and Kemui was our model.

We entered Kemui in the Adult Medium Wool Male classes at the two shows and he placed first in both classes and then took Grand Champion Medium Wool Male! We're so very proud of Kemui, especially since he is a product of our breeding program.

Here's Kemui - photo taken last night after we got home from the shows. The wind was blowing, the light wasn't great at the end of the day and we were all dead beat, but here he is!

Kemui is a Midnight Hour son out of Nuance, a female that our daughter bought with her own money. Midnight Hour is our first show llama that we fell in love with when he was born in July 1997. We started showing him in January 2008 at the National Western Stock Show.

Here is Kemui's sire, Stage Stop Midnight Hour

And here is Kemui with his mother, Nuance, when he was just a little cria.

We hope everyone had a safe, relaxing and fun Labor Day weekend!

Fun website - MagMyPic

I stumbled across this website while blog hopping this morning. I made this cool fake magazine cover using a photo taken of Kemui Yama after he won Reserve Best in Show at the 2009 Fall Classic Llama Show.


Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


If you want to try it out go to MagMyPic.com - have fun!

Playing with Picasa

Last night I played more with the Picasa photo software and created a couple of collages of our llama photos. Above is Tempis Fugit and his offspring at various stages of their life. After doing this collage I looked at the two top middle photos of Tempis (left) and Belle (right) and realized that they look so similar in their stature and their markings. While Tempis is gray/silver/cream and Belle is chocolate brown/black, their white markings are very similar!

Then I did a photo collage of our most recent Grand Champion, Kemui Yama, and put in photos of him as a cria, a weanling and an adult. That collage is shown above.

I'm thinking of doing one of these for each of our studs and each of our females with their photo in the center and their offspring surrounding them. Then I'll post these collages on our ranch website on the animal's individual pages. I have individual photos posted on each page but I think the collage where you can view all of them at once shows the similarities so clearly.

Oh yeah, I can see me spending a lot more time working with Picasa, my new favorite computer toy!

Had a great time at the llama show!

Midnight Hour's Kemui Yama
LOCC Fall Classic Llama Show Grand Champion Medium Wool Male
Handler: Jim Vance

Midnight Hour's Kemui Yama
LOCC Fall Classic Llama Show - Supreme Reserve Grand Champion

Split Rock Decorus Domina (aka Baby Dee)
LOCC Fall Classic Llama Show Reserve Grand Champion Medium Wool Female

Split Rock Tina Fey
LOCC Fall Classic Llama Show - 3rd Place Medium Wool Yearling Female

We had a great time this weekend at the llama show. Yesterday was performance classes and we just volunteered all day. Today was the halter classes. We showed Tina Fey in the Yearling Medium Wool Female class and she placed 3rd in a class of 6; Decorus Domina was in the Adult Medium Wool Female class and she placed 1st in a class of 3 then took Reserve Grand Champion Medium Wool Female; Kemui Yama was in the Adult Medium Wool Male class and he placed 1st in a class of 3 then took Grand Champion Medium Wool Male and went on to take Supreme Reserve Grand Champion which means that out of all the llamas in the show he placed 2nd overall (this is basically Best in Show)! We were so pleased with how well behaved all the llamas were. I will download and tweak photos tonight and upload them to this post tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day tomorrow! Stay safe and have fun.

More Llamas Sheared

It was nice and cool here this morning and we didn't have any plans for today so after doing our chores we sheared Kemui Yama (the appy) and Belles Era (the black llama). We plan to show Kemui at the LOCC Fall Classic Llama Show on Labor Day weekend so we wanted to shear him to shorten the grooming time and to make him look taller and more proportional. See how much better he looks compared to the pre-shearing photo?



And we wanted to shear Belle because she is our wooliest female and she looks soooo hot and she has been acting like she is pregnant. After getting all that wool off her we're fairly certain that she is pregnant (her tummy is hard and sounds like a ripe watermelon when you pat her) so she is due the end of September or early October. The gestation period for llamas is approximately 340 days but we have had them go 375 days. So she could deliver a normal healthy cria any time from the end of September to the end of October. This will be her first cria and the first grand-cria for her sire Tempis Fugit (our Halter Champion). She is bred to Rising Starr and it will be his first cria, too, so we are very anxious to see what this little one looks like. A lot of firsts wrapped up in one little cria!



At any rate, both llamas are enjoying their new hairdo's and loving how nice and cool they are now!

So I think that is 11 or 12 llamas that we have sheared this summer! We still have more to shear and we may try to get several more done before the end of July. Nice cool mornings are best but a cool evening works well, too.