Summer Project Week

Most every year, we spend the last week of June at the farm for “Project Week”.  We hire a few extra bodies and get a lot done.  Most every year includes some amount of fence building, painting, general clean up, and at least one bonfire to get rid of branches from around the farm.  This year included all of the above.  We built a one acre “annex” pasture for the girls below the dam for our upper pond.  It’s got good grass but its construction was debated long and hard because it borders on the “nature” area.  However, since the sign at the end of the driveway says “alpacas” not “nature” the girls won some new space.  We had to rig a gate system to still allow a Gator path down to the lower pond, but the girls (and cria) love their new digs. 

We don’t do things small at Tiskilwa – so when we needed to take down a dead tree in a fence row, we decided to start at the top to avoid damaging the existing fence.  Hence the need for a high lift and a talented chain saw operator.  The lift also came in handy to paint the girls barn, the machine shed and the house during the week.  By Friday everyone was exhausted, some college kid’s bank accounts were a bit fuller, and the farm looked great!

           

Midwest Select Alpaca Auction

We were happy to be consigners at the first annual Midwest Select Alpaca Auction in Wisconsin.  In my earlier post I told you about Cessna’s Citation and her write up that she was “Ready for Takeoff”.  Well to make the story complete, she needed proper support on the “runway”.  After several cocktails one night, Chad and I joked that he needed to be her “pilot”.  Well isn’t Google great???  With the help of an online costume website, Chad did become a pilot of a Cessna at least for a little while in May. 

We were there to sell Citation – (thank you Don and Connie Payne of Oaklawn Alpacas) – but we have trouble sitting and watching at auctions.  While we sold one, we came home with seven new girls – each ready for either Knight Rider or Right of Way.  So much for cleaning out the barn…??????

Yes, it's been a while since I last posted

I'll fill you in on the shows soon - I haven't told you about GMAF, I-80 or Nationals, nor have I told you about the Midwest Select Auction - funny thing happens at the end of May - It's SAILING season and the blog gets forgotten!! But what you really want to know:

THE KNIGHT RIDER KIDS ARE AMAZING!!!!

Here's just a few:

We're thrilled with how they look!! Watch out in show ring......

I promise to post again soon.... after all it's almost fall show season!

Tax Season is over - now it's time to focus on the farm

A big sigh of relief and time to change focus. We were going to head to the farm today, but the weather was not cooperative and it was kind of nice to take care of some of the office side of the farm without a rush. The next several weeks are busy:


April 30 - Great Midwest Alpaca Festival - Madison, WI

May 7 - Interstate 80 Alpacafest - Princeton, IL and a whole lot of work since we are the founders!

May 14 - Midwest Select Alpaca Auction, Watertown, WI

May 16 - Shearing at Tiskilwa Farms

May 19 - AOBA Nationals - Denver, Colorado

All at the same time we have 8 babies due still before May 31. Knight Rider is currently in residence working with some of our girls - Right of Way will get busy as soon as the shows are over. Maybe tax season wasn't so busy afterall???

Midwest Select Alpaca Auction

We have entered our TFA Peruvian Cessna's Citation in the Midwest Select Alpaca Auction to be held May 14 at Longview Grange Alpacas in Watertown, WI.


TFA Peruvian Cessna's Citation is JET BLACK and ready for take off! She is a gorgeous young girl sired by our rose grey MFI Peruvian Maddock, but she pulls in her black from her dam's side. Her pedigree includes some of the biggest names out of Magical Farms' black breeding program including Black Mequite, Obsydian, Dom Timbo, and of course Maddock's sire, Silvino. Are your seatbelts fastened? Because Citation is bred to 15 time BLACK CHAMPION - Irish Meadows Peruvian KNIGHT RIDER (yeah, you remember his head from the shows last year!) We are certain Knight Rider will add density and fineness to the cria. Cessna's Citation is a perfect example of why we added him to the "Chiefs of Tiskilwa". It is very difficult to part with her, but we wanted to give someone the opportunity to have a truly outstanding BLACK dam with a cria due next spring. Coffee, Tea, or Cessna's Citation???

There are some outstanding animals consigned to this auction - we'll see you there!!

Our first trip up to the Minnesota Alpaca Expo

And Minnesota makes SIX for Right of Way

But the coolest thing was his Cactus Jack half brother was also the Reserve Champion!! We'd say that says something for the Cactus Jack line.

One of the reasons we signed up for Minnesota was the judge. Peter Kennedy is from Victoria Australia and his Canchones Ranch focuses exclusively on Black Alpacas. We first met him in Peru a few years ago on the Vicuna Chacu roundup and he has earned our respect as a judge here the in U.S.

Other highlights of the weekend were a FIRST PLACE for our TFA Peruvian Sharon in the Beige juvenile females - she is a lovely daughter of Highlander. Our two medium brown juvenile boys - Tiskilwa Eagle Feather and TFA Darnell were 4th and 5th of 11. As the youngest two in the class all of Peter's comments were on size. These guys are growing and will be back to impress next year!

We got Babies hitting the ground which will make it difficult to decide on a show string for next fall.

Spring Bling added some bling for TFA

The first show of the season is always a little nerve racking - was I being barn blind? are the crias ready to show what they've got? has the competition surpassed us? Amanda is the judge - will she respect us????? We walked in to Spring Bling without any expectations but a lot of hopes - and boy were they answered!!!

Peruvian Right of Way - Brown Huacaya Male Color Champion!

Amanda loved him - and so do we!

In show order, immediately after Brown male huacayas come out of the ring the fawn female suris go in - and it was debut time for TFA Aimed and Ready (Ari) our daughter of Armed and Dangerous. Before she went in, A&D's owner reminded me that Ari was the cross she always wanted to do, but was never able to - a Cantano's Blazing Son daughter (our Golden Sunlight) bred to A&D. Well I guess the cross was good enough because Ari was the Fawn Suri Female Reserve Champion!As a huacaya guy I thought that was kind of neat, but the suri people quickly told me we had beaten some very well respected farms. We quickly made the decision to ship her to the Futurity Show with Andean Vista to see if A&D can again be recognized.

While those two were our highlights, we certainly had others represent us very well:

TFA Cahokia - 1st place brown male huacaya

Tiskilwa Urubamba - 2nd place brown female huacaya

Tiskilwa Northstarr - 2nd place medium fawn male huacaya

Tiskilwa Peace Pipe - 3rd place rose grey male huacaya

Accoyo Kama Sutra - 2nd place to the Reserve Champ white female huacaya

Peruvian Elynora - 3rd place to Kama Sutra white female huacaya

So we can hold our heads high for a few days - but the game starts all over at the next show in Minnesota in a few weeks.

Show season is always amazing - it seems that all of the farms have better animals every year. It is amazing to think back to our "Good" animals from 5-7 years ago and know they couldn't compete today.

Show season is also a great time to catch up with all of our alpaca friends and hear what they've been up to both on and off the farm. We hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as we did.