Alpaca Care and Maintenance

The girls at dinner. L to R Diamond, Penny, Missy, Betsy, Flo and Joy up front

OKAY! Taxco is healing up great. $705 and some change worth of healing. Ouch!

Fortunately as I said he's healing up. That's the most important thing. And actually the money spent wasn't just for vet bills and medicine. We did end up with some new tools for the farm. Stuff we would have eventually purchased on the "as we can afford it" basis. We bought some commercial clippers and a special set of blades to trim the hair around the wound. Then we discovered that Taxco wasn't going to stand still to have his hair clipped even if it was just a small patch. So we bought an Alpaca Restraint system. It works like a charm and made trimming the hair so much easier. Hopefully we can re-coup the cost on the shears and the restraint system by learning how to do our own shearing. At $25 a head we should have recovered the majority of the cost for the equipment next spring.

So about caring and maintenance of Alpacas. It all starts with feed. We buy our alpaca hay from a local hay farmer. Since alpacas are modified ruminant animals it's important to buy hay that has been raised for cows. True ruminants have four stomachs while an alpaca only has three. Ruminant animals by definition are any even-toed hoofed animal of the suborder Ruminantia, being comprised of cloven-hoofed, cud-chewing quadrupeds, and including, besides domestic cattle, bison, buffalo, deer, antelope, giraffe, chevrotains (mouse deer) and camels (Thanks Dictionary.com). Alpacas are a sub order of the camel family. Horse hay has higher recommended nutrients than an alpaca needs. Since alpacas originated in the mountains of Peru, Chile and Bolivia they utilize their food more efficiently than other ruminants. They will eat leaves off trees and other forage that have lower protein levels and are able to survive when other ruminant animals wouldn't. Our hay farmer provides us with second cut orchard grass in bales weighing about 50 to 70 pounds. If you can afford it and have a large barn for storage it's best to order your hay early in the cutting season which usually begins in early May here in central Virginia. Since we have limited storage space we buy a dozen bales at a time and pray that there are farmers with left over hay at the end of the season so we can make it through the winter. Otherwise it's feed store time and that hay is real expensive.

Alpacas also graze so if you have a large pasture area you will save some money on your hay bill. Alpacas also need grain to supplement their feed. We grain our alpacas with Blue Seal Brand grain pellets formulated for alpacas and llamas. An Alpaca will eat between 1-1/2% to 2% of their body weight per day. So our herd sire Braveheart at 160 pounds will eat somewhere between 2-1/2 and 3-1/4 pounds of feed per day. Each of our alpacas gets just under two cups of grain per day which weighs about 6 to 8 ounces. The balance of their feed is hay. In addition to hay and grain it's important that you provide them with mineral supplements designed for alpacas. These are similar to salt blocks for cattle and horses. The hay runs us around $8 a bale delivered, the grain is around $15 for a 50 pound bag and the minerals run between $2.50 and $4.00 a pound in 10 pound, 25 pound and 50 pound boxes.

One thing I want to mention about supplements is something that we began using as soon as we got our animals moved to our farm. We started them on a daily dose of food grade diatomaceous earth. Each animal gets a teaspoon of DE with their grain everyday. We use the DE to control internal parasitic worms such as the tape worm, barber pole worm and others. To date we have had fecal samples processed for four of our alpacas due to other issues and have had consistently low worm counts. The DE is non-toxic and the worms do not develop an immunity to the DE as they do with other forms of worm control. Every alpaca will have some worms in their stomachs. The important thing is to keep them at the lowest levels possible so they don't become a health problem. The DE seems to be the best solution that we have found. It keeps the worm count extremely low, it's non-toxic to the alpacas, the parasite doesn't develop an immunity to the treatment and it's easily administered with no traumatizing the alpaca with an oral dose of gunk that probably taste awful.

The second most important part of caring for alpacas is to be sure they have plenty of fresh, clean water. An alpaca can consume between 1/2 gallon to 1-1/4 gallons of water per day. It's important to make sure your water buckets are kept filled if you do not have automatic water systems. Especially in the summer months. Our six girls can empty a five gallon bucket and a third of the second bucket between them in about 1/2 a day when the heat and humidity are high.

Well that's it for this post. More on caring and maintaining those cute little animals later.

Hope your days are filled with sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas.

Dave

More Vet Bills

Went out to feed the alpacas last Thursday and found Taxco had several puncture wounds to his right hip, thigh and on his back. The one wound was a nasty gash about two and a half inches long and maybe an inch deep. He had been bleeding pretty profusely so initially it looked like his whole right rear leg was bleeding.

I discovered it when he stuck his head into his feeding pail as I came through the gate. He's always pushy about getting a bite from the bucket before I can set it down. As his head came up he turned to walk towards the feeding area and I have to say I thought my heart was going to stop when I saw his leg.

I got him into the catch pen and fed him there while I examined the wound. It was then that I noticed the several smaller punctures on his back and thigh. A quick examination determined that he hadn't cut any tendons or ligaments but he did have a very deep flesh wound on his thigh and another smaller wound on the underside of his belly close to his leg. I knew that this was way beyond what I could repair and needed a veterinarian's expertise. So after making sure he was comfortable and had food and water in the catch pen the next job was to call the vet. Of course by now it was after five and this would be an after hours call but in an instance like this you don't wait for a less expensive time. This was an emergency.

The vet was out on a farm visit but called me back about an hour later. She said she would be on her way soon but asked me to send her a picture of the wound so she could get an idea of what she might need. Smart phone to the rescue. I snapped a couple of pictures and sent them to her. She called me back to say that she didn't think it looked too bad but she was just leaving and would be there soon. By now I was beginning to wonder if we would have enough day light left for a good examination. As it turned out she made it to the farm before it got too dark. So another day in the life of an alpaca farmer.

Today we still haven't been able to figure out how Taxco got hurt. We suspect that he and Braveheart got to playing around and somehow Taxco got pushed into an old dead tree that is lying in the pasture. We checked for signs of a struggle like bits of fleece caught on branches, or

freshly broken branches, or blood and couldn't find a thing. But none the less that tree is trimmed back so there are no sharp limbs or branches left.

Taxco is recovering and we are washing the wound out twice each day with a saline solution (basically salt and water mixed together), hydrogen peroxide and Betadine (iodine solution). He got an antibiotic, a tetanus and a pain medication while the vet was here. He has such a sweet disposition (he's kissing Andy above); he never even flinched when he got three shots that day. He's been pretty good about letting us wash his wound too. The first day he put up a pretty good fuss but ever since then he seems to know that all we're doing is trying to help him get better.

Braveheart has been by his side ever since the accident. The vet said to keep Taxco penned up for a while until the wound starts to heal over and Braveheart cushes by Taxco's pen every night. Haven't got the vet bill yet but I suspect it's going to be a pretty big one. However, I just thank my lucky stars that it happened on June 30th and not July 4th. That's a bill I really wouldn't want to see.

I'll keep you posted on Taxco's recovery. Until then...

Hope your days are filled with sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave

Coccidia Phase Two or Being With Your Alpacas

We took another fecal from Diamond and left it with the veterinarian last week. Unfortunately it came back showing she was still infected. The vet prescribed another dose of medicines and asked for another fecal in thirteen days. Keep your fingers crossed!

One thing I want to emphasis in this post today is the importance of being "with" your alpacas. Alpacas aren't like your typical domesticated dog or cat. They don't jump up on your lap for a good ear scratch or tummy rub. They don't curl around your legs asking for more cat crunch. They don't get regular baths where you can be close enough to easily detect problems such as bad teeth or suspicious lumps. In actuality alpacas are pretty stoic animals and if you aren't "with" them on a daily basis you can easily miss some clues regarding their health and welfare.

We get among our alpacas every day. We actually take time out to sit in the pasture and watch how they interact. Each alpaca has their own personality and a good alpaca farmer needs to know their alpacas temperament to help detect if their are any issues or problems the animal may be having.

In addition to observing the alpacas it's good to get up close with them. Once your herd has become acclimated to their new surroundings (this usually takes four to six months) and to you it will become fairly easy to diagnose a possible problem. When we feed we try and touch each animal so they become used to our presence. We've been here on the farm eight months now and our herd is feeling very comfortable with their shelters, the pasture, the woods and our other furry four-legged creatures, the cats and dogs. Some of them are still a bit shy about being touched but they are getting used to it and we see improvements every day. In fact our little male Taxco comes right up to us now and expects to get his neck and ears rubbed.

Taxco looking for dinner

By being among them and getting to know each animal you can easily detect when something might be amiss. You might notice that one of the herd has begun to isolate themselves by staying away from the group. This may be something as minor as them just wanting to have some "time to myself". But if it persists it may mean a problem. Right now our girl Floracita or Flo, has a weepy right eye. Looking at her you would think that there might be a problem. Possibly something in the eye or maybe an infection. However, having observed her for almost four years now we know that she gets allergies at this time of year just like people do. Her weepy eye is a result of her allergies. We do keep an eye on it in case the allergy worsens or her eye becomes even more inflamed. But normally it passes as the pollen levels decrease. Our Diamond hasn't showed any other sickness indications with her coccidia other than the loose stools. But we knew that persistent loose stools were a sign that something was amiss. She still eats heartily and is drinking normally. She was even in the mineral bucket the other day ( the mineral bucket is like a salt lick for cattle). While alpacas get some minerals from the grain, hay and pasture they still need a supplement mineral source. Missing out on key minerals can also create health issues.

Our two boys began to fight a few weeks back and at one point we thought we might have to build a cross fence to keep them separated. We took to penning one of them up in the catch pen on alternate evenings for about a week. Things seemed to settle down and then one day Braveheart began harassing Taxco again. Braveheart has about sixty pounds on poor little Taxco but that day Taxco had had enough. He latched on to one of Bravehearts ears with his mouth and as hard as he tried Braveheart couldn't lose him.  Alpaca squeals could be heard for miles. When the tussle finally ended both Braveheart and Taxco were out of breath and had great big green spots all over each other from the spitting contest they had. But ever since then Braveheart hasn't really bothered Taxco. He'll occasionally play roughhouse with him but nothing like he did in the beginning. He learned his lesson that Taxco recognizes that Braveheart is the Alpha male but you can only push Taxco so much.

So the take away in this post is about being among your herd. Get to know your animals. Each one has their own distinct personality. Touch them, watch how they interact, see them eating, watering, grazing and just playing. As I said earlier we enjoy just sitting down in our lawn chairs in the pasture and watching them. We've got to remember to keep our camera handy though because we have missed some Alpaca antics that I'm sure would go viral on You Tube!

Hope your days are full of sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave

Coccidia...a word for the National Spelling Bee

Diamond at about six months

Coccidia is an internal parasite that can damage the animals stomach lining and intestinal tract. Left untreated it can be a lethal protozoa. A ball stool rather than pellets is often the first sign. Week before last we noticed that there were several ball stools in the  girls pasture while cleaning up the alpaca pellets. We began to try and observe who might be having a problem however, short of camping out 24/7, it's sometimes a little difficult to immediately see who may be ill. The following week the ball stools became softer and eventually became diarrhea. We decided to weigh each animal and check their membrane under their eyes. Everyone had nice pink membranes and nobody had lost a lot of weight so now what do we do? Well, we were fortunate enough to have almost all the girls relieve themselves one afternoon while we were feeding and watering. Our two year old Black Diamond seemed to be the one. Her stools were very loose so we decided to take her temperature and get a stool sample to take to our vet Dr. Leslie at Louisa Veterinary Services.

We first corralled all the girls in their catch pen at feeding time by putting their grain buckets down in the pen. Never ones to turn down a square meal they all filed into the pen as pretty as you please. Once they had eaten we let each of them out except for Diamond. Now catching an alpaca even in a small catch pen can be an exciting proposition. They don't like to be handled a lot but if you have worked with them enough they will generally cooperate. But always be alert for that unexpected kick, like the one I got from Missy while trying to halter her to get her weighed. I have a nice alpaca hoof print bruise on my thigh to show for it.

Once I had Diamond under control Andrea took her temperature and then got a fecal sample. Taking a fecal sample involves a pair of rubber gloves and the alpacas anus and that's already TMI. Anyway, her temperature was in the normal range between 99 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit. We took the fecal sample and dropped it off with our vet. Dr. Leslie called after she had examined the sample and reported that while she had a very low dose of strongles (worms) she did have a moderate coccidia load. She prescribed Ponazuril which should kill the coccidia. We corralled Diamond this evening and she was as good as gold for us. I held her still and steadied her head while Andy fed the 15cc of Ponazuril through a syringe to Diamond. I'm sure it tasted awful because once the syringe was empty and we let her go she shook her head and gave us a look that seemed to say, "What was that stuff? Yuck!".

So in thirteen days we will take another fecal sample and trot it over to the vet to make sure all the nasty coccidia is gone. On a side note the vet asked if we were on any deworming program or schedule. Andy told her that the only worm precaution we take is a teaspoon of food grade diatomaceous earth sprinkled over their grain each evening. We've been on the regimen for the past seven months and have had three animals that needed a fecal and none of them have showed any worm loads. DE is a much more natural way of controlling worms and doesn't involve any toxic chemicals and the worms do not become immune to the chemicals. They just get cut up and die.

I'll let you know how Diamond is doing in my next post. Hope your days are full of sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave

Shearing Day 2016

Waiting in the catch pen

For the past three years we were part of a large shearing process that involved three to four farms. The shearer would show up around eight in the morning and off to the races we would go. It was a major project involving as many as twenty-three to twenty-eight animals and required a host of people to wrangle alpacas and get them to the shearer, people to bag the fleece after it had been sheared, people to correctly label the bags for the owners with the alpacas name and whether it was a first or blanket cut, second cut or third cut, people to keep the shearing area clean of the previous animals fiber, people to help the shearer with securing the animals and people to return the shorn alpacas back to the pasture. The shearer would generally take a break around ten AM and the whole process was usually finished by lunch time. Then we would all sit down to potluck and have lunch. The farm that hosted the shearing would advertise the shearing day and open the farm to the public to watch the shearing. Sometimes the farmers would set up spinning wheels and looms to show the people what became of the fleece once it was sheared. It was kind of a country fair atmosphere and while tiring it was a lot of fun.

This year with our alpacas on our own farm it was a much smaller operation. The whole process began in the middle of December last year. Jane Christie with Thistledown Alpacas is the shearing organizer and in mid December she sent out an email to all the area farms asking that we indicate whether we would be participating and if so providing her with some information so she could begin to work up the schedule. We had a new shearer this year by the name of Luke Loffhagen. Luke learned to shear growing up on his fathers sheep ranch. The shearer establishes a few ground rules and the one we thought might impact us was the requirement for ten alpacas before he would consider putting you on the schedule for an individual shearing visit. With only nine animals we weren't sure we would qualify. And without any way to transport them to another site it would have become expensive to rent a truck and horse trailer. It all worked out as Luke agreed to a nine animal stop because we were close to the freeway. Never thought living close to the freeway was a plus but in this instance it turned out to be.

The shearing was scheduled for mid April so I began to talk with friends about coming out to the farm to help shear. I probably talked with five or six folks who all agreed that they would love to come and help out. I didn't think we would need that many people but you never know how many will actually show up. As it was we had one helper that morning but it turned out that was all we needed. We had the boys and girls rounded up in the catch pens and were ready for Luke when he showed up a bit early at 7:45 AM. He and his helper unloaded their equipment while Andy and I spread out a tarp for them to work on. I took charge of catching delivering and returning the alpacas to the pens while Andrea and our good friend and the world's greatest mechanic John Needham from Needham Enterprises took care of bagging and cleaning. The new baby cria Joy wasn't sure about the whole process but took her shearing as quiet as a mouse while the older girls Missy and Flo, who have been sheared at least ten times, both bawled like a banshee on Halloween.

Batter up and one on deck

Luke charged $25 per alpaca to shear and $5 to trim teeth or feet. Our total for eight alpacas ran $235 and was well worth it. Luke did an excellent job shearing and when he trimmed the feet he didn't draw blood which has happened to us before. By ten AM he was packed up and headed down the drive way to his next stop.

We collected the blanket (first cut) and second cuts this year and left the third cuts for waste. The blanket is the best fiber and comes off the back and sides of the alpaca. The second cuts are typically the flanks, neck and upper legs. The balance is trim from the face and lower legs.

Preparing the take down

Taking the blanket

The blanket is the best fleece and is used for fine garments like shawls, scarves, hats and other clothing items. The seconds are generally used for items like mittens, socks, batting and they can be made into yarn. If you keep your thirds you can use them for felting to make items like soap balls, shoe insoles, and other felting products. One alpaca farm is trying to turn their thirds into felt fine enough to use on regular hats. They have actually been working with the design folks at Stetson to develop a felt fine enough to be molded into bowlers, derbies and cowboy hats. There are several mills round the country that accept alpaca fiber and then there is always the AFCNA or Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America. This is a fiber cooperative exclusively for alpaca farmers. They can process your fleece and also, as a member, you are eligible to purchase finished product at wholesale prices to sell at your farm store or at events you attend such as farmers markets and fairs.

Well that's all for this post. Hope your days are full of sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave

Setting Up Our Farm

The best way to set up your farm is to have everything in place before you purchase those first Alpacas. Unfortunately we couldn't afford that luxury. The best laid plans of mice and men... Anyway, we did manage to get our fence built before the alpacas showed up. We did have water buckets in place and filled. For our climate here in the western Piedmont area of Virginia we decided to use heated buckets ($30 to $70 each) to eliminate the need to go out in the cold and break up the ice so the animals could drink. We decided to use old tires as their feeding troughs. One of the reasons we did this was because we read that when alpacas graze in the wild they do not feed out of an elevated hay holder. Their normal posture when grazing is to eat with their heads lowered to the ground. The other reason we used old tires was the expense of a hay feeder. Manufactured hay feeders can run anywhere from $150 to $600 a piece. There are several farms that show you how to build a hay feeder on their websites but the expense for lumber, nails and accessories can still hit you for $50 to $65. You can pick up used tires from your local mechanic for $5 or less. We got ours from our local mechanic for free. Even though he's allowed to charge up to $2 per tire for disposal it costs him a lot more than that to handle them, store them and then, if he's lucky, sell them to a tire re-cycle outlet. He was more than glad for us to take ten tires off his hands. Another advantage of using feeders on the ground is the elimination of the potential for choking. We noticed that our alpacas have had minimal choking problems since they switched from the elevated feeders to ground feeders.

The next largest expense you will incur after your fence is shelter. In our case we started with a wood frame shelter but the winter rain came earlier than expected. We elected to purchase two 10'x10'x8' Shed-In-A-Box from ShelterLogic. We set them both up in under two days. They run under $250 a piece. To compare, the materials for the wood framed shelter cost about $500 and took about five days to erect. The alpacas do use them occasionally. But we had some pretty good snow falls this winter and it was normal to find the alpacas standing out in the snow with two to three inches of snow on their backs. One alpaca farmer said that there really was no need to build alpacas a shed or barn as they are completely content to stand out in the elements without the slightest concern for shelter.

Another expense is medical/veterinary supplies. You should, at the minimum, have a thermometer, a stethoscope and a scale. Of the three the scale will be the biggest expense. A new sale can run as high as $700. In addition you should keep on hand some basic first aid items such as cotton cloth for bandages, scissors, medical tape, isopropanol alcohol, Pepto-Bismol, topical antiseptics, rubber gloves, activated charcoal, Fleet Enema and iodine. And last but not least you should find a veterinarian that is familiar with alpacas/llamas. We've already had the vet out twice. That is an expensive proposition but the last time she came out she complimented us on being aware that our animal was ill and not waiting to see if "things get better". She said that most of her calls are made after the farmer has tried some home remedies or has just waited to long. That's when her bill gets real expensive. Don't be afraid to ask your vet questions. They can be a wealth of information and will gladly share their knowledge and information on the care and feeding of your herd. We asked her if she thought the hay we were buying was okay and she looked it over and said it was fine. We also asked her about using DE as a parasite control. DE is diotomaceous earth. There are two types and you want to purchase the Food Grade type. What the DE does is help control internal parasite problems such as worms. It is completely non-toxic and the worms don't build up an immunity to it. Instead of using a toxin to eliminate the worm the DE actually slices the worm to pieces. DE is almost entirely made up of silica. The silica crystals cut the worms and then acts as a drying agent. Presto...worm problem solved. She said that she wasn't entirely familiar with DE but several of her clients have been using it and report good results. We've gave fecal tests to two of our alpacas and both came back with negligible worm counts. Talking with your vet, asking questions and listening to them can keep your vet bills to a minimum.

As I said earlier it's best if you can have everything ready before you go out and buy your first alpacas. But if something occurs that prevents that from happening you will work through it just like we have. As Walt Disney said "Whatever you dream, you can achieve."

Next week is shearing week. I'll let you know how it goes in my next post.

Where Have I Been?

Stuff happens. Between trying to make ends meet on only one income, the extra expense of the farm, some medical issues, well I could go on and on but who would listen.

Anyway, I am back and have a lot of news to catch up on. As I have mentioned there are a lot of expenses involved in alpaca farming. One major expense is the agistment. That's right, agistment. Agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the King's forest in Jolly Olde England. Today it is the fee an alpaca farmer charges to an alpaca owner for care, board and feed. The agistment or gist covers normal care and husbandry, grain, water and hay or pasture if there is any, basically it's room and board for alpacas that don't have a farm to live on yet. You can avoid this expense completely by making sure your farm is ready for your alpacas before you buy any. Typical agistment fees run between $2.50 to $3.50 per day per animal. You can calculate how expensive that can get each month, especially with more than a few animals!

In our situation we had a verbal arrangement for the agistment that had been working quite well. Unfortunately things change and without going into a lot of detail the farm where we were keeping our animals asked for more money. We had originally planned that Andrea's income would be the funding for our farm but that had been cut short when she was laid off. So here we were with nine alpacas being boarded or agisted, no funds to compete fencing and shelters on our farm, and now the farm was asking for more money.

Here is where things got dicey. It's worked out OK for us but only by the skin of our teeth. In for a penny in for a pound I always say. We took out a loan to cover the costs of fencing, fence installation, and shelters. Please, I beg of you do not do it this way. We were forced into the situation when Andrea lost her job but this is a lesson well learned and something you should be vary cautious about. Make sure you have adequate funding to build your farm, purchase your animals and have an emergency stash for EMERGENCIES! When Andrea lost her job we had already invested about $5,000 so as I said, in for a penny in for a pound. We soldiered on but again THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT!

But we did. We got our neighbor to come help bush hog the area we wanted to clear for pasture, found a great contractor to build our fence, bought a couple of Shelter Logic buildings for the alpacas and set them up, spent some money on some panels to construct a catch pen, bought some business cards with the picture below as the background, packed up our herd and brought them to our farm in Louisa. They moved in on October 25, 2015.

Alpaca Kisses 4 U

They have been here five months next week and are the happiest bunch of alpacas I have ever known. They have had snow almost two feet deep, rain coming down in buckets and do you think they will use the shelters. Not on a bet. As one alpaca farmer said, "Building a shelter for your alpacas is a big waste of money". For Pete's sake they come from the Peruvian Andes mountains. The Peruvian farmers build a small rock corral to pen them up in at night. During the day they roam the mountain tops.

We did have one disappointment. Our old guy Paladin passed away about four weeks ago. He had been ill since last September but wasn't exhibiting any major symptoms. He had an increased respiration and had been losing weight but other than that nothing was abnormal. After we moved him to the farm he actually seemed to improve and put some weight back on. Then one day he started foaming at the mouth after he ate his grain. We called the vet and she came right out. Took some blood and a fecal and checked him over. She diagnosed his illness as a tick borne disease and prescribed some medication. And commended us for not waiting to call her. She said that the majority of her calls come after it's really to late to do anything for the animal. Paladin continued to improve and then one Saturday he seemed kind of off. He ate some grain and started foaming at the mouth again. We kept an eye on him and that evening he seemed better. Got up on Sunday and he had passed away very shortly before we found him.

We also had a little Joy added to our herd. Joy is Betsy's new cria (they are in the picture above). She was born last May and has been weened naturally. Some alpaca farmers insist on weening at six months but we believe Mother Nature will take care of things. We had an experience several years ago where a small cria weened at "the appropriate time" simply died of a broken heart. She would press her little face up against the paddock where her mom was and just stand there for hours wanting her Momma. Our cria's will always be weened the natural way. Momma's know best and will spit the cria off when they have had enough.

So this has run a little long but I had a lot of catching up to do. I'll continue the rest of this saga in my next blog.