Alpacas and the Oldies
I was on vacation so I have been able to spend time with the alpacas then I have for a while. You know that quiet kind of time that an animal lover enjoys after a long hot day of work just hanging out with the animals they love. Each evening during my time off I would sit in the barn talking to the alpacas and before long I was belting out the songs of Rob Stewart’s album “The Great American Songs” Songs like “Time After Time”, “Someone to Watch over Me”, “Smile” and many more. I think the alpacas loved it because they were all staring...
Read MoreWhere has the time gone
I somehow lost track of the last year and haven’t even thought about blogging. Too much work and not enough play as the saying goes. So here we are its Summer 2012 and we have just had two beautiful little crias. Each cria came into our life in their own special way. Our first cria came after waiting for a full 371 days. If seemed like a lifetime to us and probably even longer to the mother Maya. She is our very special true black color champion who we bred to Black Jag from Avalon Alpaca Farm. We have been so excited waiting for this little one that as each day passed it became...
Read MoreBreeding Time
Saturday morning we loaded up the trailer with our Sienna Rose and her mother Sharona Rose and headed up to Crystal Lake Alpaca Farm to meet up with two of their herdsires. It was a year ago when we purchase these breedings and have waited for this time to come. Yesterday was it. We arrived at Crystal Lake Alpacas and Chris showed us all the new cria. What a fantastic looking bunch. It was clear to us from the moment we saw what he was producing that “Crystal Spartan” was exactly what we were looking for. “Sparty” as they call him was the 2010 Futurity Huacaya...
Read MoreThe End of The Day
At the end of the day there is nothing more comforting then to stop by the alpaca pen and have a moment of conversation. I start every conversation when my call out from my truck, “Where are my Paca’s”. Within seconds the heads start popping out as if to say, “What has been keeping you?” I could share with them all the details of the day that keep me away but none of it matters at that point. The only thing that counts is that Melody has her ears up and is staring at me (I know she is waiting for me to sing her song to her) and Marissa is wondering if she can...
Read MoreThe Secrets in the Sorting
In February I attended a Fiber Sorting class. I had no idea how that class would change the way I think about the alpaca business and fiber. It is so clear to me now that not sorting out the different grades of fiber in a fleece before putting it into production is much like saying as long as I am using wood it doesn’t matter how good the wood is the table I make will look the same. It won’t, some wood will look grainy and rough and not get you a good product. Fleece comes in different grades and in order to end up with a superior end product you have to sort. You only have...
Read MoreAgain and Again
It is cold outside and quite frankly I hate winter and cold. That being said I can put aside all that dislike for the weather once I get out in the barn and have one of these wonderful animals run up to me as if to say “What have you been up to. We have been waiting for you all day”. Now I know they are mostly interested to see me when I am going to get the kibble out for them so they can start their feed ritual but I still am thrilled with their apparent happiness at seeing me walk in the barn door. Marissa who leads the pack pushes to the front and puts her nose right up...
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