Day 2 with alpacas: not spit on!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Walked the 5 minutes across campus to report to work at 8:00. Morning consisted of raking poop, putting out new food and clean water. All poop and old hay goes to compost!

There is an awesome little utility vehicle called a "Kubota" which is wonderful! The bosses drives it and zip all over the place. It backs right up to the compost pile and has a dump feature that raises the bed up and dumps out all compost items (image from Kubota.com). I must have one of these. Not sure where I will keep it, since I have no land, but it is my new favorite thing. Needs more drink holders, though. Current drink holder is used for medicine and syringes.

There are 60 alpacas total. They are kept apart by gender, so no random breeding happens. Kinda like schools should be. 2 pens of females and 3 pens of males. That's a lot of hay and a lot of poop. Good for veggies in garden, though.

Afternoon was spent raking winter hay out of animal sheds. I am so out of shape!! (and round is NOT the shape I want to be)

Temperatures in the 80's did not help, and I was exhausted at the end of the first day.

Got to help with giving medicine to two alpacas (hold the head while PB--Sister Paul Bernadette--shoots liquid down their throats, and learned how to harness, lead on leash, and unharness when moving to different pasture.

Most important thing learned: alpacas are like cats. They are curious, but skittish. If you try to approach them they freak. You must wait for them to approach you. I understand cats, so this works out well.