Heartlandfarm's Weblog

A New Year! 2012!

heartlandfarm — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:31:37 +0000

As you can see, WordPress added the first insert to my blog since Feb. 2011. I have very much catching up to do! I will probably do most of it by pictures. Hope you enjoy these pictures from Heartland Farm Events during 2011!

Campers in June with alpacas

The first week of June, 2011 was exciting, with 9 boys and girls coming every week day for day camp. they quickly took to the alpacas..and the alpacas to them!

oldy locks enjoying a hug!

She even let one youngster take a nap on her softly-fleeced shoulder!

A fun activity during camp: swimming in the pond, and harvesting the pond grass growing there: Here is a Grass Monster!

There are also goldfish in the pond – and here one got caught! But the fish was quickly set free after the photograph!

The grey alpaca with the white face was born in May, 2011, and named “Heri” which, in Swahili means happy. When the children came for camp and we told them his name was Heri, they quickly said: “Harry Potter” and that has been his name since then! The brown alpaca behind him is Dinah, his mother, and behind her, is Trissie, his grandmother!

In September, a female alpaca baby was born. With Harry Potter being just four months old, it seemed logical to name her Hermione!

Hand spun alpaca yarn was dyed with jello, in the solar oven,(see jars) and then hung on the line to dry by Sr. Jane and Lila, her friend from Austin.

2011 in review

heartlandfarm — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:02:36 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Gabriela’s Visit

heartlandfarm — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:02:33 +0000

Gabriela Seewar from Switzerland was our first year-long international volunteer, 13 years ago. Since her time with us, we have had 14 volunteers from 12 countries spend a year as volunteers here, through the auspices of the Mennonite Central Committee’s ” International Visitors’ Experience Program”.

Gabriela is now married to Samur Chelli in Biel, Switzerland, and came in February with their three year old daughter TinHinan to visit us here at the Farm. Some days were very lovely, and some days were very cold…and we had snow, so Gabriela, TinHinan and others built a February snowman!

On a lovely day, she went bike riding with Larry, strapping TinHinan in her carrier on her back. TinHinan soon fell asleep!

And then, the snowman! In the three weeks they were here visiting the weather vacillated from spring-like to definitely winter!

This picture was taken on Feb. 11th, the day we left for Wichita, to take them to the plane to go home.

Tin Hinan has her purse and is ready to travel back to her home and her daddy! Sr. Terry is ready to drive them to Wichita to board their plane.

January, 2011

heartlandfarm — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:46:23 +0000

Time flies when we are having fun! One day in January Neil Von Feldt, who frequently purchases alfalfa hay from us for his horses, one llama, and a few calves, came with his son and grandchildren to pick up the last of 2010 alfalfa bales. The pictures tell the story!Neil and the kids in the hay barn at Heartland Farm

Neil’s son directing his children in loading the hay.

On Her Own!

She wants to do one on her own, just like her dad!

She really wants to do this!

Well, my brothers can help!

And the hay is nearly loaded! A good way to start off the new year!

Thanks, Neil! We really like having you and your family, and animals, for customers! Have a happy New Year!

Ben helps with securing alpacas

heartlandfarm — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:40:55 +0000

Ben Reser was visiting Heartland Farm and helped with the alpaca pedicures – especially with securing the alpacas on the sling. Sr. Annette helps him with Sweet William. The sling made by Bernie Siebert of Maintenance at the Convent in Great Bend really works very well!

heartlandfarm — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:35:55 +0000

We had a new type of sling made with which we could hold the alpacas while we trimmed toenails. We can use this instead of a chute. We tried it recently, and it really works very well – the alpacas do not get so spooked, as they are in a familiar area of their pen. Jane is ready to trim Feli’s toenails, while Annette keeps her calm!

Happy Thanksgiving!

heartlandfarm — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:28:31 +0000

Hope everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving. We did here at Heartland Farm. It has been very long since we have posted – no excuses! We had a lovely volunteer for a month, a photographer – and enclose here some of her photos, as well as a group picture of our current farm community.

Silo rainbow!

Alfalfa bales next door

Two alpaca crias were born in Sept. and the three young ones love to play together. Soon we will post pictures of Geo (born in June) Gnome and Goldylocks playing.

Catching Up!

heartlandfarm — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:47:51 +0000

Summer has slipped past, and we have not updated this blog for almost two months!
Many thanks to Matt Krehbel and his crew who came for a week-end in August to help cut out unwanted locust trees (with thorns!)growing wild in the pasture, and also helped with many other chores! God bless you!

Sr. Margarita Cortez, our new volunteer…

heartlandfarm — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:55:57 +0000

We have a Dominican Sister from Mexico, who works in Juarez, Mexico, here for a month of volunteer work. Sr. Margarita Cortez is a happy, fun-filled, hard working woman! She loves to help with the alpacas, but also weeds in the front garden, cooks, and helps clean house, We have many laughs when we Sisters play cards or Farkle in the evenings, too! Here are a few pictures of her working with the alpacas:Making friends with “tan boy”.

Sr. Margarita posing with Marshfellow, who is white, but has just come out of the muddy pond where he was cooling off!

Putting brome hay in the feeder for the girls.

The alpacas have come to know and love her. And she doesn’t mind at all doing the daily chores, such as scooping poop!

The water “fountain” in the pasture

heartlandfarm — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:29:16 +0000

When the alpacas go to the pasture, the boys can go into the small pond by the windmill, but the girls are fenced off in a separate area of the pasture, so we ran a water line to their area, and feed water from the windmill into a tub for drinking, and to make a small water area for them to cool their bellies, where the temperature regulator of their body is.

Earlyne likes to drink right from the “fountain” as the water is cold, coming out of the hose to the tub:

The water overflows from the tub and eventually fills up the rocky area so that all nine female alpacas can get into it when they need to cool off.