The Year in Review Among the Alpacas

What we grew, wrote, read, and failed at in 2024

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! Tomorrow, we will be eating Hungarian Mushroom Soup, exchanging books, and getting ready for Santa to visit. Today, we are doing chores, making an airport run, baking sugar cookies for Santa, and checking in around the barnyard so everyone has what they need to celebrate the holiday.

When planning this post, I looked for holiday folklore about farm animals, but I did not have time to sift through what I am sure would have been too many variations on the Christmas donkey story. So, instead, I am imagining what it would be like if there had been alpacas at the Nativity.

Picture it: a very nosy group of alpaca auties hum with curiosity, looking from Mary to the manger, wondering why she put her cria in there with the hay. Gently, they tap the sweet baby Jesus with their soft noses, giving his face a sniff before pulling a little bit of hay out from around him. They cush, taking over the night watch from the shepherds looking at a star. Of course, the shepherds don’t know the alpacas have taken over the watch but, necks crossed, the alpacas peacefully chew to the rhythm of Silent Night, warming the barn as they digest. And, scene. Merry Christmas!

Now, in place of my December Update, here’s a review of 2024 Among the Alpacas.

Alpacas

The alpaca girls are a continual source of joy, but every part of raising them and producing yarn has gotten more expensive. Except for my labor, which remains happy, but uncompensated. (That said, if you want luxury alpaca yarn, we got it!)

After the holidays, I am going to start halter training Nell and give Clementine a remedial course while I do so. We are behind on getting Nell trained, but I think she will do so well. I would love to be able to take her and her mother, Theodora, to a show or a market sometime. I think Nell has some of Theo’s star quality. I adore Clementine, but just weighing her is a struggle because she is so bad on a halter. I hope we never have a medical emergency with her, but just in case, I need to get her comfortable being on a lead without pulling obstinately in the opposite direction. So, more on those adventures in the new year.

Chickens

We are down to three chickens, our Schuyler Sisters: Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy (work work). We lost Antiope and Persephone, my two favorite hens, to a fox this spring and then our new hens, Black Bean and Chickpea, succumbed to the first cold snap. The old gals are now almost four years old. They stopped laying when they started molting for the winter, but if past patterns hold, they will start again soon, as we are now past the solstice. Eliza’s new feathers are gorgeous and fluffy, so I take that as a good sign.

In January, we had a brutally cold weekend and I was worried about Angelica. She ended up being just fine, but I did some research about how long backyard chickens live. I found that the answer is unclear because 1) everything wants to eat chickens and 2) many people cull their flocks when the girls stop laying. So, many chickens meet violent, untimely ends, which likely draws down the average life expectancy. Our three hens are starting to look old, but are still plucky. We have no plans to kill them. I guess we will find out how old they get, unless another fox drops by.

Bees

As of now, I have two hives: The Bee & Bee and Nevermore Academy. The Bee & Bee is my original hive and it has been pretty robust. But, it has been pestered by yellowjackets disturbingly long into the year. That may not be a problem, but it makes me nervous. Nevermore Academy has been weaker overall. So, this may be the year for my first deadout, but I am crossing my fingers that at least one hive makes it through so I still have bees come spring. Last week, it lingered in the mid-50s, so I took the chance to open the lids just a bit. I offered sugar syrup so they don’t blow through their honey while it’s warm, but they did not take much. So, here’s hoping anyway.

Canine Elder Care

After her annual checkup, everything for Rory looks pretty good for a 14.5 year-old dog. We moved her onto a kidney support diet because her kidney levels were a tiny bit off and she has been on Rimadyl for arthritis for three years. Now she acts like an absolute monster, woofing at me and getting underfoot, from 4:30 pm until I cave and feed her. Other than that, we dote on her and she is doing well.

Plants

My garden did not do well this year, which I have fretted over at every opportunity. I also had a terrible round of soil gnats in my houseplants, which I cured with Sacred Soil Tonic. Before that worked, however, I took down the hydroponic garden because I thought that might be part of the problem.

Looking forward to next year, I am really laying down alpaca manure on the garden beds, looking at seed catalogs, and planning to restart the hydroponic plants. My daughter and I are also going to start a kitchen garden cart with herbs, micro greens, and experiments regrowing things from scraps. Currently, we have the bottom of a bunch of Bok Choy in water to see what happens. With the coming uncertainty over food prices and regulations, we would like to grow more of our own food and that means I need to be a much better gardener. If you have tips, please comment below.

I accidentally made a houseplant blend, which I am calling a “Wicked Plant,” by propagating a Monstera and an Arrowhead plant together and not noticing that their roots were growing in a knot. The result was gorgeous— “Pink goes good with green!”—so I am working on making more of those for the Leaf Stitch brand on the Sol Homestead Etsy. We are also planning to do a couple of markets next year, too (shipping houseplants is complicated). I sold the original plant to a sweet woman who comes to our open farm days and has purchased a few of my plants. I hope it is thriving for her and bringing her as much delight as it brought me.

Notebooks

Ta-da! I am wrapping up year six of keeping a monthly notebook.

What I Wrote

I hit my goal of 100 rejections this year! There were so many I stopped counting. I also had a personal goal of twelve publications in literary magazines. I had eleven come out this year, but two more were accepted and are coming out next year. For 2025, my focus is more on pitching freelance work and finishing/revising my book.

Of these publications, my personal favorites are “On a Swan’s Wing,” “Contraband Marginalia,” “The Essential Guide to Types of People at a Funeral,” and “Things We Lost When Dad Died.” I was so honored that Split Lip Magazine nominated “Contraband Marginalia” for the Pushcart Prize and delighted that Longreads, LitHub, and The Audacity Roundup boosted it. I could have fainted each time.

• “Crossing the Stream.” Adanna Literary Journal

• “On the Vine.” Write or Die Magazine

• “Contraband Marginalia.” Split Lip Magazine

• “Things We Lost When Dad Died.” Great Lakes Review

• “Born to Run.” Five on the Fifth

• “On a Swan’s Wing.” Pithead Chapel

• “Flame by Flame.” Geez Magazine

• “The Essential Guide to Types of People at a Funeral.” Superstition Review

• “Herding Chickens.” COOP: chickens of our poetry: “Duck Duck Goose.”

• “Intuitive Navigation.” Archetype: A Literary Journal

• “Phototropism.” Passengers

What I Read

I may not meet my annual reading goal of 75 books in the next week. If so, it will be the first time I have missed that goal. I think I’ve reached acceptance of that failure, but I did come close, reading more than 60 books, and I read some great stuff this year (in addition to heaps of Substack posts and a lot of long-form journalism online). Links are Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Currently, I am enjoying Christmas horror such as Spirits of Christmas and Hark! The Herald Angels Scream. If I get all my chores done, I might also read a cozy mystery, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year. Reading spooky Christmas books is a new-to-me tradition—a little gift to myself—and has become something I look forward to.

I listened to the audiobooks Patriot by Alexei Navalny and The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop back-to-back while working on some embroidery projects. They were such different stories, but both were compelling in their own ways. Navalny’s story was so moving and, although he is an imperfect narrator, I valued his perspective and was moved by his self-aware reflections on his development as a political thinker and resistance leader. Kelly Bishop’s memoir was everything I hoped it would be and hearing it in her deep, beautiful voice was excellent.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazino focuses on a woman who is unmarried at the start of the book but somehow comes home to a husband one day. She sends him up to the attic for something and he disappears, only to be replaced by a new husband. The story is pretty silly, but Holly Gramazino includes so many funny details to differentiate all the husbands from each other. I really enjoyed the writing and the saga of Lauren trying to find the perfect husband. While staying lighthearted, I think Gramazino also effectively depicts how vulnerable domestic relationships can make us and how much they shape our lives.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was very moving—a mystery of a lost son and a friendship forged between an octopus and the elderly woman who cleans the aquarium each night. I would have liked more from the octopus because his perspective was so wry and emotional.

I read The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith after Julio and I watched Ripley on Netflix. That series is still one of my favorite things I’ve watched this year. I wanted to read the book to see if the series or the Matt Damon movie were closer to the novel. Ripley is much more faithful and the novel was riveting, even though I already knew most of the plot.

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline has kind of a bonkers magical realism plot, using lore of a werewolf-like creature to reflect on colonialism, white supremacy, and loyalty. The characters, particularly the narrator, Joan, and the maternal figures around her, are enchanting and I loved spending time with them as they tried to rescue Joan’s husband and their land.

Trust by Hernan Diaz, the story of the rise and fall of an uber-wealthy investor and his brilliant wife, has a creative plot structure that zooms in and out, taking the narrative on from different perspectives. It was unclear to me at first how the pieces of the novel worked together, but once it clicked, I thought the result was brilliant—a bit of a literary magic trick.

Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McCayla Coyle made me feel like I found my people and my people are goblins. I’m not kidding. This was a potentially life-changing read that I picked up on a whim at the library earlier this month. But more on that in the new year. I have plans.

What did you read this year? What was your 2024 personal highlight? Do you have goals for 2025? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. The flooring project is finished! We are so happy!

Finally back in my workspace after three disorganized, hectic weeks.