What a beautiful weekend around these parts!  Tomorrow it is supposed to be 62 degrees!  Can't beat it.  We've been putting up the lights on our Christmas tree, decorating with lights outside, and Saturday we washed windows.  Not bad work, though I'm a little slow at it.  Wrapping presents also is time-consuming, but it is fun to make packages into works of art.  We got one of these little 8-1/2" screen ASUS computers to track time reporting at Coltrin, and all the software is now loaded on.  Tomorrow: its debut.  Looks to be a real workhorse.  Thursday I get to drive to Virginia to collect Wilson from the university, and will spend a day with the alpacas, as well.  It doesn't get much better than this!

We got our Oklahoma cameras up and functioning today!  What a thrill -- and the end of  a very long saga.  Internet speeds in Oklahoma being what they are, it was tricky to get it set up so we could watch the alpacas.  But with some expertise from Josh at Digess, and a wonderful PTZ camera (that's "pan/tilt/zoom" to you and me) -- it's like being right at the farm.

The Diamond Digest is going to press this afternoon, so watch for your issue in the mail before Christmas (with a little luck).  We have a lot of fun with this newsletter, and this month feature Snuggler's Accoyo Brioni -- our newest, full Accoyo herdsire.  He is a true-to-type Accoyo like the ones imported by Don Julio:  density par excellence, strong white genetics, and a large macho conformation.  Watch for his offspring!  They will definitely impact the future of tomorrow's alpacas.

We are having a great "Just Desserts" season with our new cria.  Featured in our Winter issue of the Diamond Digest are:  

Diamond Lemon Meringue (10/5/08)

GLA Peruvian Sensation x Diamond EasterEgg

Diamond Peanut Butter Fudge Parfait (10/11/08)

Terilynn's Peruvian Houdini  x  Diamond Peruvian Forever Summer

Diamond Apple Cinnamon Streusel (10/19/08)

Sunset Hills' Andean Gold x Diamond Butter Cream

Diamond Iced Pumpkin Bread (10/27/08)

Enchantment's Monjeau x Straightfork's Peruvian Promise

Watch for pictures of these lovelies, and we will be updating this weekend on several other new births at the ranch.  Meanwhile, if you haven't already seen it, there was  a fabulous clip from the CBS Evening News on Monday, 1 Dec 2008 where Katie Couric spoke about alternative investment options -- notable among them:  Invest in ALPACAS!   If you'd like to watch this segment, click on this link: