HPF Alpaca Fiber - SOLD OUT!

Well we did it. We sold the rest of our alpaca fiber for the year! Now if we could only do that with all the llama fiber we've got stored up.

The American Alpaca Fiber Federation (AAFF) Mobile Alpaca Fiber Processing Trailer pulled in to Green Bay today to pick up fiber from member farms and we were one of those farms. Everyone was really nice. Thomas showed me samples of alpaca thread and denim. The denim samples had different percentages (up to 50%) of alpaca thread in them. The alpaca denim was very nice and looked just as durable as regular denim but had a softer feel to it in comparison to the non-alpaca denim. I'm not sure how much fiber will be used in the end product when they are able to produce the Paca Blues Jeans but I know that people will really love wearing them.

I'm not sure if you've seen the postcards and advertisements for the AAFF, but if you have, you've seen Thomas' daughter Emily with her alpaca. Emily is touring the country with the fiber processing trailer. I had to get a photo of her and her father at the back of the trailer where the ad is posted. I thought it was kind of cool to see the actual model from the ads going from farm to farm across the country picking up fiber for the jeans she'll be modeling some day.

It was a really good experience to meet them all and hear their enthusiasm for this project. They'll be attending a fashion show in Paris later this year to promote their alpaca denim product and hopefully generate more interest in the American alpaca fiber market. I'm really glad to be a part of this and hope to bring a little bit of alpaca into more homes across the United States. Just think, we could be wearing jeans made out of fiber from our very own alpacas! That's really cool.

What's up at the farm?

Here's Leroy and Callista enjoying the sunshine today. As you can see, Leroy is looking great and doing really well. He's finally gaining weight and is now over 23 pounds.

The fall color is really starting to burst on the trees around the farm. This is a great time for taking pictures of the animals because the background scenery is just beautiful.

We'll be busy this weekend, packing up our fiber to sell to the American Alpaca Fiber Federation. We'll be meeting them in Green Bay on Wednesday where they'll be picking up fiber from a couple of other farms besides us. I'll try to remember the camera so I can get a picture for the blog. I'm excited to see the AAFF fiber truck in person. I'm wondering how they can handle picking up so much fiber from farms across the country on each trip. I can't imagine where they store it all. That's what I want to see. Maybe they'll let me take a couple of pictures so you can see it too.

Learning about fleece preparation...

This weekend, Rene' and I went to a skirting bee at another alpaca farm. It was a really good experience for both of us. Since we don't show our alpacas as regularly as we should, I am determined to start entering their blanket fiber in fleece shows and spinoff competitions.

We took one huacaya fleece and one suri fleece with us to the skirting bee. The huacaya fleece is very fluffy and it's important to pick every little piece of VM (vegetable matter) out of it that you can, as well as second cuts (shorter cuts of hair from shearing) and coarse hairs that would deduct points in competition. Basically, you want the blanket fleece you show to be the best representation of the animal. The huacaya fleece we were working on was mainly white but had some small areas of black fiber since the alpaca has a couple of small black spots. We learned that we need to take out the black fiber and just stick with the main color. The judges look for consistency throughout the entire fleece (length, color, crimp, etc) We aren't going to be showing this particular fleece we worked on, but instead were using it to learn from. We plan on selling this fiber next week to the AAFF. (Read earlier posts for more info...)

The suri fleece is a little harder to work with since it doesn't stick together like the huacaya fiber. Suri fiber is long and silky and has more individual locks. Preparing it for competition is basically the same. Make sure all of the VM or as much as possible is removed. We were separating out locks of the same length to be sent in for a spinoff competition. We needed to gather up 2 oz of similar length fiber and put it in a gallon size ziplock bag.

What happens in the competition is that a handspinner takes the sample of your alpaca's fiber and spins it into yarn. As she works with it, she'll write her comments and score it. She'll also pick out any VM and guard hairs to show you why points were taken off for those different things. In the end, you'll hopefully get a ribbon for your alpaca's fiber, but at the very least you'll get some great feedback and a cool piece of yarn spun from your fiber.

I'm excited now and I can't wait to enter and see how we do. I'll let you know in the months ahead how things go with any entries I send out.

Leroy update.

I realize I haven’t updated the blog for a while and I promise to get some new pictures up this weekend.

As you know, our last cria born on the farm was Leroy. Unfortunately, Leroy’s mom is a first time mom who just doesn’t have a clue as to how to be a mom. We tried our best to get the two of them working together – at first she was resistant to him nursing from her, then he was resisted to trying to nurse from her. In the end, we’ve been bottle feeding Leroy for the past couple of weeks. I don’t recommend this for a male alpaca or llama but we had no choice. We couldn’t get any of our other moms to take him under their wing either. It was kind of touch and go for a while, but now it seems that Leroy is going to be fine. He’s only around 19 lbs or so but he is strong and perky and doing great.

Happy Birthday Leroy!

We had another birthday at Hidden Pond Farm on Saturday, September 6th. Our maiden suri Amy (aka Amazing Mist) gave birth to her first cria, a 16 pound male. He's very sweet but a little frail as his new mom is having trouble adjusting to her new responsibility.

We've been bottle feeding him for the past few days but we're going to have to get his mother to take over very very soon. Here are a couple of photos of Leroy.

Happy Birthday Rene'!

It's Rene's birthday today so we gave her the day off from farm work. (She actually doesn't come out on Fridays but we would have given her the day off if she did!)

Thanks Rene' for all the extra help at the farm this past year - we really appreciate it. We wish you a very happy birthday and a great year ahead!

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.