Little visitors...

Joyce and the children from Gran Gran's Daycare came out for a visit today to meet the alpacas and llamas. Check out Heide laying down next to the gate so the kids could get up close and personal with her!

There were about eight children and two adults in the group and they all seemed to have a good time petting and visiting with the animals. We even penned up a couple of my brother's fainting goats who were very friendly with the children.

Rene' and her daughter Beth helped with setting up for the group this morning and Rene' brought a sample of alpaca apparel to show how the fiber is used. She also brought a supply of finger puppets made from alpaca yarn and those were a big hit with the kids! Each child got to pick out a finger puppet to take home as a souvenir of their visit.

We all enjoyed their visit today and hope they had a good time, too.

Getting it all done.

I don’t know how we’ve done it, but we’ve been getting a lot accomplished around here.

Two weekends ago, we squeezed in the task of roofing my house thanks to my boyfriend Marc and my brother Rick. Add to that, baling hay and regular chores, plus our full time jobs during the week. Marc completed the roof this past week. On Sunday, we loaded more hay up into the hayloft and put up fence and a new gate so that we could put two more alpaca boys in a pasture outside. Last night, Rick and I completed siding the front of our barn and it looks great. We have half of one side of the barn to do and we’ll have completed this siding project we started a few years ago.

In addition to baling hay now and then, we’ve also bought a couple of loads from our friends John and Cindy. John was kind enough to drive both loads to our farm from their home about 35-40 minutes away. If you’ve ever pulled a wagonload of hay behind your truck before you know that this isn’t an easy – or quick – task. In fact, John even experienced a flat tire on the wagon with the first load of 200 bales. Our hayloft is looking very well stocked at this point but we will still need more to carry us through to next spring. We estimate that we’ll need a total of about 600 bales since we use almost 2 bales a day for our herd of 16 alpacas and 7 llamas.

Tonight we will put up a small fence to provide an enclosure for Frances and Lucas on one side and a couple goats on the other side. We have a group of visitors coming on Friday from a local daycare. The short 36” high fenced stalls will give the kids a chance to get up close to the animals while I talk about the farm, fiber and the difference between llamas and alpacas.

Well, my lunch break is over so that’s all I can write for now. I’ll try to post more pictures over the long holiday weekend.

What to do with all that fiber!

We've joined the American Alpaca Fiber Federation (AAFF) and I'm excited to see how this investment works out. As members, we'll have the opportunity to sell our fiber every year to AAFF, a guaranteed place to sell it. The best part for us is that they do not require us to skirt, sort or scour it. We also have the option to not sell our fiber if we have other uses/buyers for it and that's what I really like.

The AAFF will travel to major farms, cities and alpaca events across the country with their tricked out fiber truck. Member farms can bring their fiber to these drop off points and get a receipt for their fiber. The special equipment in the fiber truck will allow them to weigh, cut and bale the fiber to get it ready for processing.

Eventually, our alpaca fiber will be made into denim and marketed as Paca Blues jeans. How cool is that? Hopefully, our investment, along with that of all the other AAFF members, will pay off and demand for American alpaca fiber will increase. We took the leap of faith to join the AAFF and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this has been a good move on our part. I'll give a little report now and then as we progress with this new organization.

Time flies...

Over the last couple of weeks since I updated this blog, we've baled hay two or three times. Here's a picture of Rick with the haybine, cutting one hay field back in July.

He and our brother Terry were both baling on Saturday morning until it started raining. What a downpour! Rene' was out in the field picking up hay with her truck until Terry got back out in the field with the hay wagon. The rain didn't last long, just long enough to soak all of us. Rick brought in his wagon load and we put up what we could for the day, spreading it out up in the hayloft to help it air dry over night.

Today they picked up where they left off and we put up another small load. I think we've got about 600 bales so far but we'll need a lot more than that to cover our herd of alpacas and llamas, plus Terry's cows, yaks and goats.

There is always lots of work to do at the farm. I plan to make more time for the blog though. I've been asked to do a farm tour for a small group from a daycare before school starts. I have a lot of preparation to do before their visit...