Happy New Year!

Well it's a New Year and things are looking great!
I want to thank Dew Hills Coffee Shop in Marinette for selling our alpaca sweaters, gloves, hats and scarves. I also want to thank everyone who purchased our items there. Sales were very good, especially for Christmas! I will be dropping off more sweaters sometime this coming week.

We've been trying to streamline our chores at the farm. We've purchased large round bales of hay and placed them out in our two shelters for our alpaca boys and that helps save time. We're also in the process of rearranging things in the barn to make better use of stall space and the barn's "built-in" feed bunks to provide hay without having a lot of waste.

I (Elizabeth) will be getting married in the fall and my fiance' doesn't plan to do much farming so we are looking for more ways to minimize my time at the farm. Part of that plan includes selling off some of our alpacas so feel free to check out our new, lower prices on our AlpacaNation farmsite.

HPF around town...

I had hoped to discuss something different for this post, but I've been running in a lot of different directions lately so I haven't had time. I did want to mention where we'll be selling alpaca garments over the next couple of weeks.

Look for our Hidden Pond Farm alpaca sweaters, gloves, hats, scarves, etc, at these upcoming events:

• Saturday, November 14th at Best Western (corner of Hall Ave and Riverside in Marinette) from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  
• Saturday, November 21st at Little River Country Club, N2235 Shore Drive in Marinette, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  
• Holiday Beauty & Bazaar -- Sunday, November 22nd at Holy Family Parish Center, 2715 Taylor Street in Marinette from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This event will include a vendor fair with great gift ideas, a bake sale, and skin care information presented by local Mary Kay consultants. As a new Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant I invite you to stop in for a free facial/mini-makeover at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. Visit my Mary Kay webpage at www.marykay.com/ewoodky to view the latest products or to contact me to reserve a time for your facial! Walk-ins welcome. Bring in a non-perishable food item and enter your name into a drawing for a great prize! Food donations and proceeds from this event will benefit St. Vincent De Paul in Marinette.

Thanks for your support!

Our sweater sales went really well this first weekend at DewHill's Gifts and Greetings in Marinette! Thanks to everyone who stopped out and bought a sweater or gloves. We'll have our alpaca clothing items there throughout the winter so feel free to check in now and then for different colors as we restock our inventory.

Tis' the season for craft shows and vendor fairs and we're scheduled to be at two of them during the next two weekends. You'll find us this Saturday, November 14th at Best Western in downtown Marinette. Next we'll be at Little River Country Club on Shore Drive in Marinette on Saturday, November 21st.

Well, we trimmed toenails on our older boys on Sunday and a couple of them really needed it! It seems that some of our alpacas grow out their toenails a lot quicker than others. All is well on the farm, but we are watching the newspapers for hay ads. Our supply is running down and we need to stock up for the winter.

Alpacas and llamas need only grassy hay (similar to horses) rather than alfalfa hay. It's okay for them to have alfalfa but they really shouldn't be offered too much of it. We've found it much easier to get alfalfa hay than it is to get grassy hay and you can really see a difference in their fiber when they get too much alfalfa. I've heard it referred to as "fiber blowout" where the fiber (hair) is more dull and puffed out due to the extra protein in the alfalfa. Don't quote me on any of this because I'm writing this from memory and my memory isn't always that great. I'll read up on this topic and fill you in with the correct information on the next update.

If there are any blog readers who live in Marinette or close by, send me a note if you have grassy hay, preferrably small square bales, available for sale. We'd really appreciate hearing from you!

Looking for holiday gift ideas?

Victor (left) and Matthias have been really growing. Although they don't actually play together, they do spend time out in the pasture grazing. And when we bottle feed Victor, Matthias likes to come over and nibble on Victor's ears!

I mentioned yesterday that we'll have alpaca clothing items displayed at DewHill's Gifts (and Coffeehouse) this weekend. On Friday and Saturday (November 6-7th) they will have special operating hours of 6:30 am to 3:00 pm.

I'm happy to announce that you'll have plenty of opportunities to buy our alpaca sweaters, hats and gloves all winter long at DewHill's. We will have items available there for purchase for the whole season so feel free to stop out and buy some luxuriously soft alpaca gloves and more for everyone on your Christmas shopping list! DewHill's is located on the corner of Main and Wells streets in Marinette.

DewHill's regular store hours are:
Monday - Thursday 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Friday 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Feel the warmth of alpaca this holiday season! Stop out at DewHill's Gifts & Greetings (and coffeehouse) to check out our selection of great alpaca items!

Selling alpaca garments at DewHills - Nov. 6-7th

Warm up this fall with soft, luxurious alpaca clothing -- sweaters, hats and gloves! Where can you get them, you ask?

Dewhill's Gifts & Coffeehouse, located at 1609 Main Street in Marinette, WI, has invited us to display and sell our alpaca garments this coming weekend, November 6-7th. Stop in for a delicious gourmet coffee and browse through their store for cards, gifts and alpaca garments from Hidden Pond Farm.

More details to come!

Winter preparation

We've started having snow flurries here in Marinette over the last few days. Not any "real snow" but just a few little snowflakes to let us know that winter is on it's way.

All of our alpaca and llama girls are in the barn so there's no big change for the winter except for spreading straw bedding around to keep them warmer on the barn's cement floor. The boys, however, are a different story. We have two pastures and shelters for our alpaca boys and the shelters need to be "winterized".

Winterizing the boys' shelters is not a very big deal. The older boys have wall panels that need to be put up. In the spring, we remove a couple panels on either side of the shelter to allow better air flow. Now it's time to put the panels back up to keep it cozy and warm inside.

The younger boys' shelter is a little different. We have an overhang that provides shade in the summer. In the winter, we hang tarps on two sides of the overhang to provide extra protection from the strong winter winds and all of the snow. This also creates an extra "room" for the shelter so the boys won't feel too crowded inside when it's cold and nobody will get left outside.

Fortunately, the alpacas are growing nice thick fiber to keep themselves warm in addition to the extra straw bedding and winter preparations that we do at the farm.

Mixing of the machos

We're starting to prepare for winter at the farm. One of the most difficult things about winter at our farm is keeping water from freezing and caring for animals in several pastures. Now that Leroy and Lucas are both over one year old, we decided to move them into a pasture with several older boys. This usually causes my motherly instincts to kick in and I worry about the safety of the little boys as they are introduced to the older boys' pasture. If you own alpacas, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Male alpacas (called "machos") have to establish the pecking order in their pasture whenever a new male is introduced. We've seen over and over how the dominant males will clash and fight and the whole herd will chase the "new guy" around the pen. There is usually a lot of noise, including squealing and grunting, from several of the males involved in the chaos.

Fortunately, there was none of that at all this weekend. Leroy and Lucas have been living in the pasture adjoining the older boys' pasture for several months and they've all grown used to each other through the fence. As a matter of fact, Iggy, Rico and Nuno all stood together at one end of the pasture while Leroy and Lucas explored their new home. Later in the day, it started raining and all five boys laid down together inside their shelter and waited for dinner.

At feeding time, I was somewhat surprised to see that the youngest boys in the group took the first dinner dishes I put down while the oldest two boys waited patiently for me to set down the last two dishes for them to eat. This was the easiest transition we've ever had putting young males in with older males.

Prior to putting the males together on Sunday, we gave them all ivermectin shots. Although the weather is getting cooler, we'll still need to keep up our worming program to protect our alpacas and llamas from meningeal worm and other parasites. We'll complete our ivermectin shots on the rest of the herd next weekend.

In the meantime, we've been bundling up outside. Lots of rain and wind today! I miss the warmth of our short summer...

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.

It's cold!

I've added a new gadget to the blog. I wanted to add just a simple gadget that would tell you the temperature here in Marinette, but then I saw the Doppler Radar gadget and thought that would be really cool. Well, I've got a dial-up connection so all I see is a blur. I may change it in another day or two if it doesn't work.

It was warm on Sunday, in the 30's and raining all afternoon. Then it got really windy during the evening and temperatures were in the single digits and negatives during the night so it all froze. Windchills are in the negatives...I admit I haven't listened very closely to the weather because I don't want to know the windchill! I saw earlier tonight the temperature was a nippy 5 degrees F. I hear the wind howling outside my window every now and then and I'll bet it's even colder than 5 degrees now. Burr!

Everybody in the barn got extra straw to lay on because otherwise the concrete is way too cold. The boys in the shelters outside have a lot of hay - that they waste - to lay on so they will be fine. Of course they've also got all that warm fiber to keep them warm too. Their shelters actually stay pretty cozy and keep them protected from the wind. They all seem to be handling this weather fine but we keep an eye on them to make sure they are comfortable and have water to drink and hay to nibble on during the day.

Great news...Misty has been confirmed pregnant. Now we just have to figure out when to make the trip to pick her up. Hopefully we'll have good weather and no snow on the day we make the drive.

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.

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...

My first blog post!

We've been raising alpacas since 2001 and it's been both fun and frustrating at times. We started with four alpacas and now have grown our herd to 14! Prior to raising alpacas, we had been raising llamas for a few years. We have 7 llamas now and don't plan to breed any more since they are so much larger and a little more difficult for us to handle when shearing, toenail trimming or providing other care. Our alpacas are much easier to handle.

My goal for this blog is to educate and maybe entertain a little. Since we all have full-time jobs, farming is done after work and on weekends. As our herd size grows, so does the work load but it is also very rewarding to see all the smiling faces in the barn every day and hear them greet us with their cute humming sounds! I hope to post at least one blog each week and maybe several a week depending on how much time I have or if we have any news at the farm. We are expecting 4 crias (baby alpacas) this summer so I'll share the news here. Keep checking in because we are on cria watch with one of our girls expecting within the next week or two...