Day 8 with alpacas: not spit on!

Have made it through 5 days in a row of alpaca 'chores'. Raking poop, filling water, raking old hay, etc. Friday it was rainy and grey. I actually like that better than scorching sun and humidity! Forgot, though, that rain makes MUD and mud/wet poo is MUCH heavier than dry earth/poo.

My goal of using my non-dominant left arm to carry a full shovel was thwarted. Perhaps at the end of three months, and with less weight from moisture.

Odd things I've learned this week:

1. There are crayfish in the fields!

I have not seen one yet, but they burrow in the mud. There are many mounds of mud where they live. I had no idea!!! Will try to catch one with the camera.

Here's a land crayfish from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burrowing_Crayfish_in_his_burrow.jpg

2. Worms move poop.

Now, I should know this, but I forget things at 8:00 a.m. while raking alpaca poo. Alpacas tend to make a dung pile, and all go in the same areas. In gender integrated herds this allows the male to tell which of his ladies is open to breeding.

I wondered why certain piles were spread out all over. "The worms do that" was the answer. So all night, these worms work and work to get the alpaca poo closer to their holes. Every morning we come by and rake it all up. Sometimes the worm reaches up to try and keep its prize and get whacked with a rake. Oops. But all alpacas do is eat and poop, so there will be more for the worms soon.

3. Alpaca 'spit' is nasty

Alpacas communicate their displeasure with their herdmates by squealing and spitting. If one alpaca is crowding another, the offended one bares its teeth, arches its neck back and scold it. Then it does a 'fake' spitting, which is really just blowing air and sounding pissy. If the offender still does not go away, there is spitting. Basically the alpaca pulls up a little grass and digestive juices and spits it on the other. N-A-S-T-Y!!! You can tell who has been fighting because they have globs of partially digested grass on them, and smell like vomit. I really hope to NOT get caught in the crossfire, but I hear it's only a matter of time.

4. Your face will freeze like that!!

When alpacas get angry with each other and/or spit, their facial muscles freeze up for 5-10 minutes. This is the other way you can tell who has been fighting: their jaw is locked, lips pulled back, sometimes drooling, can't open their jaw to eat. Just how it is. Our mothers warned us about this!! Their faces really do freeze like that.

I think that's enough for now.