By Karen, on November 30th, 2012
 Two free kittens
We’re offering two kittens free to a good home. They are out of our calico mom, she is one of our barn cats. These two kittens are cuter and sweeter than the rest of our barn kittens. Both kittens would make great pets as well as keep your barn free of pests. Their moms taught them how to hunt so they are very good at catching mice and grasshoppers.
They’re so cute that I hate to give them away but we have plenty of barn cats right now. If I wasn’t allergic to cats I would bring them in the house and keep them as house cats.
The kitten on top is a female calico and the one on the bottom, in the picture, is grey and white. They are absolutely adorable so they probably won’t last long. Call or email me if you’re interested.
By Karen, on November 28th, 2012
 Rockefeller’s ribbons was Masterpiece Rockefeller’s time to shine. Rocky won the Blue Ribbon in the Huacaya Light Fawn Male 2 Years & Older class and Color Champion for the Huacaya Fawn Male Championship! Rocky is out of Carol, a beautiful black female, and sired by El Accoyo Rubio, a gorgeous full Accoyo male. Way to go Rocky!
 Our alpacas at the Ozark show
The Alpacas in the Ozarks is a wonderful show to go to! Dave brought 7 of our alpacas to the show this past weekend. It was held in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Arena. Once again I stayed home waiting on one of our girls to give birth and once again I’m still waiting. I find it very difficult to leave when I have a female that is close to her due date.
The Alpacas in the Ozarks is a level ll AOBA Regional Alpaca show with approximately 160 huacayas and 40 suris. The show was judged using the 60/40 comparative judging basis, that’s where more weight is given to the fleece vs conformation. David Barboza was the judge for halter, performance, and the handcrafter’s spin-off.  Farren at the show
Rocky wasn’t the only one to get a blue ribbon. Three more blue ribbons for first place went to Magic’s first cria, Farren Sonny, Magic’s full sister’s son, Walnut Creek Antonio, and BF Scarlett, out of BF Gaia and sired by Bisturi. A red ribbon for 2nd place went to BF Gran Torino in an extremely difficult white class. BF Gran Torino is out of BF Norina and sired by FDA Grand Slam. A white ribbon for 3rd place went to BF Cleopatra. Cleo is out of BF Tasia and sired by BF Riccardo.  Dave to the rescue
The lights went out… never a dull moment when you’re at an alpaca show! When I first saw the picture above I wondered who the crazy old guy was up on the ladder. I didn’t even recognize my husband… it was Dave, he was trying to open the big door in order to get some light into the building.
Everyone said the Saturday night banquet was great. Charlie Negen was the entertainment… bringing his “LET ME MAKE YOU A DEAL” program. Dave said he laughed so much that his face started to hurt. Sooo if you’ve never been to an alpaca show… what are you waiting for?
By Karen, on November 22nd, 2012
 Alpaca and horse share hay Walnut Creek is celebrating 12 years of raising horses and alpacas! Thanksgiving is the perfect time to share from our hearts… to say thank you and to give thanks for all of God’s blessings.
The picture for this Thanksgiving post was taken when Kilo accidentally got into the alpaca pen. We found him eating hay with the alpacas. The alpaca in front of him is Clover. She didn’t seem to mind sharing her hay with a horse. It was so funny because she didn’t move at all. When some alpacas get into a situation where they don’t know what to do they remind me of that saying “the lights are on but nobody’s home”… too cute!
Over the years our partners and customers have become part of the Walnut Creek family. We are so blessed by each and every one of you… thank you!
Our prayer this Thanksgiving to everyone is to keep your eyes on Jesus as we look forward to His return. We also pray for you and your families for much health and happiness. God bless and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Neh 8:10 “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
By Karen, on November 15th, 2012
 Rose grey alpaca cria Our girl Ruthie had a rose grey cria! Rose grey is one color you don’t see too much of in alpacas especially on our farm.
I’ve always been drawn to the grey alpacas. I just love their color but when we first started in alpacas most of the greys back then had coarser fleece than what I liked. Their fleece also didn’t have enough character to my liking. What can I say… I’m very picky when it comes to alpaca fleece.
Over the years we usually have at least one or two greys here. We breed them to different colored sires and it’s fun to see what color their crias will be. Unfortunately Dave keeps selling my grey alpacas so I’ve never had much of a grey line.
When we acquired Ruth I was so looking forward to her future colorful crias. Ruth is a medium silver grey girl out of Masterpiece Melissa Rose, a medium rose grey dam, a beautiful girl from Masterpiece Alpacas. Ruth’s sire is Legend’s Challenger of KPR, a medium silver grey sire that’s producing outstanding offspring.  Rossi I knew I had to breed Ruth to a grey or fawn (vicuna) sire because that would give us the best chance for a grey cria. Since we didn’t have a grey sire our next best choice, not only for color but to improve fleece quality, is to breed her to one of our fawn sires. I bred Ruth last year to BF Giacomo, a beautiful fawn (vicuna) colored male. The vicuna colored alpacas tend to throw the color of the alpaca their bred to. Well it worked because we have a gorgeous rose grey boy from the breeding and his fleece is awesome!
Ruth’s boy will be named Walnut Creek Rossi. I’m so looking forward to showing him. His fleece is so outstanding that I can’t wait to shear him. I’m going to set his fleece aside for a very special project. This year I bred Ruth to Magic… I know he’s neither grey or fawn but Magic is so special that I know whatever color they produce their cria will be spectacular!
By Karen, on November 9th, 2012
 Magic's female cria out of Jennivere... soooo cute! Well I’m overdue on my alpaca cria update… so far we’ve had 20 babies here at Walnut Creek and one more cria on the way for our fall alpaca breeding season. Our crias this year are stunning… we have babies sired by Classic Peruvian Magic, BF Toscanini, BF Riccardo, BF Giacomo, and more.
We breed our females up to the end of December. Actually I try to get all of our alpaca breeding done before the end of November. Although every year we have a few girls that don’t get pregnant right away so we try to get those girls bred before the end of the year. When we breed too late in the season we run the risk of losing a newborn cria to the cold. It happens when one of our bred females have their cria either during the night or when we are away. It seems like we always loose at least one cria to the cold every year.
I’m keeping a close eye on, Olivia, our last female due this year. Olivia’s due date is December 1st, Her due date is based on a 340 day gestaton. If you need help calculating when your female is due visit our alpaca cria calculator to calculate your baby’s due date. I’m hoping Olivia will have her cria during the day when I’m right there so the cold won’t be an issue. Actually the culprit is when the cold is combined with the wind and rain… burrrr.
I’ve had several emails from people asking to see our alpaca babies! I promise I’ll post cria pictures very soon. In the mean time I posted a cute photo of Jennivere’s cria… she was sired by Classic Peruvian Magic and wow is she gorgeous! 
By Karen, on September 26th, 2012
 Magic alpaca cria By early September I thought we were done with the 100 degree heat. Unfortunately we got hit with another week of 100′s the first week in September. Our female alpacas did great all summer until the 100 degree heat decided to hit one more time before fall. I guess the extra heat at the wrong time was too much for them. Some of our girls aborted and others had their babies way too soon. This month has been rough on our alpacas.
When premature crias are under 30 days early they have a greater chance of surviving. Unfortunately the crias that are born more than 30 days early usually don’t live. Their lungs are usually too underdeveloped and their survival rate drops drastically.
For the first half of the month we were very busy with all of the premature crias. We had two beautiful girls and they were both more than two weeks premature. Both crias needed our help to nurse so they took up quite a bit of our time.  Gorgeous girls I thought this photo of the two girls together came out adorable. On the left is Magic’s first girl and she is stunning. She’s out of AJ’s Peruvian Lace. The girl on the right is Marcello’s first girl and she is also a beauty. She is out of AJ’s Peruvian Miracle. We had Peruvian Miracle on our sales list for a short time but we’ve decided she’s just too nice to let go so she is now part of our foundation herd.
We’ve also had several boys as well. I’ll update our blog about the boys very soon.
By Karen, on August 29th, 2012
 Premature alpaca cria Our fall alpaca cria season started early this year. Last week Anya, one of our maidens, had a 30 day premature cria. This little guy was definitely not ready to be born. Initially he was so weak… he looked like a little rag doll. Alpaca crias usually weigh between 15 and 20 pounds and our little cria weighed less than 10 pounds when he was born. Since he is unable to stand or hold his head up we have to help him get under mom to nurse.
We named him Andrew. He’s been very sick this past week with a high fever. In the pictures you can see his skin is very red and he feels very hot to the touch. He’s been on penicillan and Excede this past week to help him fight infection. I’m also giving him psyllium and chia seed in water to help keep him hydrated and to keep his bowels moving.  sick cria Alpaca crias are pretty resilient and Andrew is no exception. He’s slowly getting stronger every day. He can now stand and hold his head up for short periods of time. Since his head is so heavy he still needs me to help hold his head up when he nurses. I bottle feed him 4 times per day. In between and before his bottle feedings I put him under his mom and hold his head up and let him nurse as much as he can. His mom, Anya, is turning out to be a wonderful mother. I had my doubts about her at first but she is bonding to him more and more with each passing day.
This past week has been rough. There’s no extra time to do anything else except take care of our little premie Andrew. He needs me for everything right now so I can’t get too far away from him. My biggest fear is that he might fall asleep in the sun and get dehydrated so I have to keep a close eye on him. Hopefully he will get strong quickly so there will only be a few more days of babysitting this little cria.
By Karen, on August 17th, 2012
 Big alpaca smile for you! Walnut Creek Alpacas business days have changed. We are now open Sunday thru Friday 9 am – 5 pm. We are closed on Saturday for the Sabbath.
If you have questions about why we changed our business days or why Saturday is the Sabbath or if you just want to chat about alpacas please feel free to call or email us.
We have visitors that visit our website from all over the world. The internet is truly amazing… people are visiting us from as many as 108 different countries. I realize that some of you may not have the opportunity that we have here in the United States to learn about the real truth about Jesus.
If you would like to learn more about true Christianity and how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ visit Amazing Bible Truths and where it says select your free book, highlight “Steps to Christ”. It is a wonderful book to start learning about Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation and it’s free too!
By Karen, on August 8th, 2012
It has been very hot here in Oklahoma this summer. That’s two summers in a row of over 100 degrees of scorching heat. This year our alpacas seem to be tolerating the heat a little bit better than last year. So far only one female aborted and no deaths… thank God!
Our alpacas spend the hottest part of the day in the barn in front of a large chicken house fan to keep cool. It looks funny because all of the alpacas are packed in there like sardines.
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Alpaca barn packed
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Standing by the fan
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Packed in like sardines
Last summer I blogged about how to deal with heat stress in alpacas. There are some helpful ideas on how you can help your alpacas keep cool through the hot summer at Alpacas and heat stress
I’m so happy they are all doing better this year. Prayer goes a long way… I’ve prayed that our alpacas would acclimate to the extreme heat so they would be able to bear much more than last year. Answered prayers are always such a wonderful blessing!
By Karen, on July 31st, 2012
 Lightning strike tree We’re back… we have internet once again. This week I’m hoping to get back on track quickly and start updating regularly.
We found out why our internet went out… a tree next to our house was struck by lightning. The lightning hit our satellite dish as well as the modem. The lightning even affected the area where the modem connects to my computer. We had to replace everything!
I took some pictures of the tree that was hit by the lightning. It’s very odd looking… the lightning peeled the bark off the tree. The other evening it was covered in bugs for some odd reason. However when I took these pictures today I didn’t see any grasshoppers or katydids on it.  tree bark peeled back It’s very frustrating and time consuming trying to get everything up and working again. I’d rather be out taking pictures of our alpacas or out taking an early morning walk with our Anatolian Shepherd, Lacey. I am so looking forward to fall when it will be cooler and I can spend more time outdoors doing the things I like to do.
We are so blessed… I’m so thankful that God watches over us. That lightning could have easily hit our house or us. A computer is much easier to replace than a house or our lives!
By Karen, on July 17th, 2012
Our alpacas are without the internet! We connect to the internet with Hughes net via satellite. Our internet has been out since Saturday July 14th. We are able to connect at times but our internet speed is below 5 kb per second. Most of the time we are not able to connect at all. I’m having internet withdrawals!
Sorry no alpaca pictures with this post. It’s taking me over an hour without pictures just to post this blog message but I felt it was necessary just in case someone is trying to reach us via email. If you need to contact us about alpacas or rock or just want to say hi… don’t email but call us at our home number at 918-563-4245.
By Karen, on July 3rd, 2012
 Tomatoes from our garden
The temperature here has been over 100 degrees for days now and the grasshoppers are back. Needless to say I think our garden is done. I was amazed we were able to save some of our tomatoes from the grasshoppers and the heat.
I canned my very first tomatoes… 8 pints yesterday and I’m hoping to get at least 8 more!
 Canned fresh tomatoes The grasshoppers are eating our corn so fast it’s ridiculous. Dave picked a few ears that weren’t fully done growing because he wanted to at least taste the corn this year. Oh and it was delicious… so sweet and tender that it makes my mouth water when I think about it… there just wasn’t much of it.
We read somewhere that if you spray your garden with a combination of soap, oil, and garlic that it would make a natural insecticide. Dave’s out there now spraying the mixture on our garden. We’re hoping it will kill those pesky grasshoppers.
I just hope and pray that we don’t have another hot summer like last year. Our poor alpacas are tired of the extreme heat and so are we!
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