Fall has arrived!

Fall officially started last week and the cool temperatures have definitely come with it! It's time to bring out your alpaca sweaters, gloves and hats. Rene' has a nice inventory of all of the above and has sold them at craft shows and also at our own open house. We've talked about setting up an online store and I'll be looking into this more closely.

If and when we do set up our online store, you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, take care and stay warm!

Weekend Wrap Up

So did you visit an alpaca farm this weekend? We met some really nice people and had a fun time answering their questions about alpacas and llamas. Plus, the alpacas really enjoyed all the attention they received from our visitors! (Moe sends a special thank you for the carrots from a new friend he met on Saturday!)

The weather wasn't the most cooperative this weekend...rain on Saturday morning and gusty winds on Sunday that brought our tent down and sent alpaca gloves flying off the table! But at least the brief showers this afternoon held off until after our event ended. Overall though, it was a great experience for our first farm open house.

If you live nearby and you missed the open house, feel free to contact me and set up a time for a farm tour. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit and thanks also to Rene' for the cool HPF logo shirts for us to wear!

National Alpaca Farm Days This Weekend!

Our new - and still unnamed - cria relaxed in the sun this week while we prepared for our Open House event.

We're as ready as we'll ever be for the open house at Hidden Pond Farm running from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Rene' has plenty of alpaca clothing items to display and sell. We'll also have a fiber display table set up on our actual shearing table and we'll show you what we feed our alpacas and llamas. Of course there will be plenty of alpacas around for you to see and feel their luxurious fiber!

We're expecting rain on Saturday, but hopefully it will hold off during our 3-hour event. Sunday should be a great day with nicer weather, but we'll be happy to see our visitors no matter what the weather forecast!

Have a great weekend!

Oh Boy!

Misty's new cria arrived this morning...and it's another boy! We now have over 50% male alpacas at our farm. I don't know why we are having so few female crias over the last few years...

Anyway, back to our new baby boy...he's a beautiful fawn colored suri and he's very healthy. This little guy was standing and trying to nurse from his mom within 20-30 minutes after he hit the ground!

As you see in the photo above, the new cria has the pink jacket on that Victor has been wearing for the past few weeks when it's cool outside. Our next larger size cria coat is green so Victor will get that one if he needs it. We washed the pink jacket this morning and then I rubbed the outside of the jacket all over the new cria before putting it on him. I wanted to make sure his mom was comfortable with the smell of the jacket before I put it on her new cria.

Both mom and cria are comfortably relaxing in their own private stall. It's cool and rainy outside today so I'll wait a day or so before letting Misty and her cria outside with the other alpacas.

One week until the Open House...

Hmmm...still no new cria in the barn, but it's still morning. Misty still appears to be very pregnant and showing signs of the cria's impending arrival. She also has a great appetite so I'm not worried yet. Last year, Misty mysteriously miscarried her cria with only a couple weeks left of her pregnancy so I'm keeping a close watch on her for any changes in her appetite and personality. So far so good!

After a few years of off and on work on our barn siding, we've finally completed the project. The entire exterior of the barn is now sided...the old green shingled siding has been replaced with green (steel?) panels. It looks great and it's nice to have that project off our list!

We had some rain last night and it's pretty dreary looking outside today. The weather forecast shows a possibility of rain this weekend for our National Alpaca Farm Days Open House...hopefully it will only rain at night!

Have a happy Monday everyone!

National Alpaca Farm Days - September 26-27th

Preparations are still underway for our open house next weekend. Details are posted on our website at www.hiddenpondfarmalpacas.com.

Since this is our first year participating in NAFD, I've kept things kind of low key with minimal advertising. I'll be happy with a dozen alpaca enthusiasts coming out to the farm. We'll be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days.

Misty hasn't given birth to her cria yet so maybe she'll wait until next weekend.

If you live close to Marinette, feel free to stop out and say hello, otherwise visit www.nationalalpacafarmdays.com to locate a participating alpaca farm near you.

Sunbathing beauties!

So while I've been (impatiently) awaiting the arrival of Misty's next cria, she and the other ladies have been relaxing and sunbathing without a care in the world! Misty is the white alpaca in the photo above. As the old saying goes, "a watched pot never boils." I guess a watched alpaca never seems to have her cria when you expect it either.

After some chillier weather last month, we've had a nice warm up this past week with temps in the 70's and even into the 80's. It's been great! I'm thinking I should be spending time out there sunbathing with the alpacas before the end of the summer, too!

National Alpaca Farm Days is coming up September 26-27th! This will be our first year participating so if you live near Marinette, stop on out and say hello! We're just planning a very informal event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for this first year - nothing fancy. Check out the details at our farm website.

Fruits of our labor

Happy Labor Day!

Check out the plums on our plum tree at the farm! We had lots of plums and lots of apples in our "mini orchard" this year. As I type this, my mom has a home made apple pie baking in the oven and it smells deee-licious!!

I realize that for many people Labor Day weekend is a time to relax, but I don't know that we've ever done that at the farm. For us, it's an extra weekend day to get more projects done. I got some work done at home, thanks to my boyfriend. We put up a rain gutter on my house and dug up and "reset" my patio blocks which have been moved over the years by tunnelling chipmunks. It was a lot of work so I was very disappointed to see a small hole next to the patio this afternoon with a pile of gravel next to it. Nasty little rodent!

Once I finished with my home projects yesterday, I headed back to the farm just in time to put three loads of hay up in the loft. After putting the hay up, we fed the animals and I was about to collapse by dinner time around 5:30!

I was hoping Labor Day would produce an extra cria at the farm, but Misty is still holding out. She's looking good, has a great appetite, and seems in no hurry to "criate" the newest addition to our alpaca family.

Victor is looking good, too. I can see he's getting taller. I'm sure he will be very excited to have a new playmate. As usual, I'll keep you posted...