A good day trip!

Well it seems that overall the family enjoyed our trip to Alpacafest last weekend. We had a long and full day related to all things alpaca. I was very happy to see a couple new faces in the judging pens on the male side. The shows was running behind and this caused us to miss a specific alpaca we were keeping our eye on.

We found some new things to price and try out. I know my wife got some new ideas on felting things that I'm sure she will be trying out at some point.

If you haven't noticed yet the web site is up and running though it is lacking some details still. Anyway, please stop over, take a stroll and I'd love to hear your feedback.

Time to prepare for a trip!

We are going to be packing up the family and heading out Saturday morning to attend Alpacafest in Columbus Ohio this Saturday. We are looking forward to the weekend and hope that everything turns out the way we have been planning.

We are looking forward to getting to learn some things, watch some great competition as well as possibly becoming co-owners of a boy that will be in the show this weekend. Hopefully more on that come Sunday or Monday.

A quick note that I think might help others out that are new or are thinking of coming in to the alpaca lifestyle. As I've read several places, you can never have to many gates. I agree for sure and think so more and more every day. Though I would keep minimal number of gates that are on the outside fence. Also, making internal fencing to split up pens, even smaller ones, can be a huge help when dealing with keeping grass alive, controlling access and catching alpacas when needed.

My husband rocks!!

If you haven't checked us out, you must go and see what my husband has done. He's made our website and he has done a FABULOUS job! Our address is www.shadysidealpacas.com and it just amazes me the things he can do with a computer.

He has all the pages put in and something on every page, now I realize that this seems like how a website should be, but that is what you pay a company to do, not what you do yourself at home! There are pictures of our girls with our alpacas and our mission statement as well as a farm history even! I love it and I can't wait til we get more visitors so that they can leave us messages to let us know what they think.

Alpacas are truly changing our lives. And only for the better.

Busy busy days

Well it was a busy weekend. The wife and I skirted a whole lot of fleece this past weekend. Though we are not sure that we are not being much pickier about our skirting process than others. We are also willing to admit that we are likely slower than people who have been through 100s of fleeces too. I would like to thank Anita over at Windswept Farms for allowing us to go through a couple of the fleeces they had sitting around.

While I'm on the note of fleece, Michelle attended a needle felting class at Windswept Farm this weekend and seemed to have a good time. She has been showing the process to the kids and I as well. We've had mixed success but it is a learning process. We would really like to get to go to a wet felting class as our first attempt at wet felting came out differently than we expected.

Lastly this weekend was finally our prep for winter weekend. I have put up some blockades using wood and straw to help block out some wind in an area of the barn for our boys. We also put down a nice amount of straw for them to lay on to keep cozy. I have plent of extra incase we want to add more. I was happy to find my neighbor had plent of straw and lives right accross the street from me. So it made life a bunch easier. Lastly we changed to the heated bucket and got that plugged in.

It's alive! ...kind of...

We have finally got a domain name for our farm. However, the one we had hoped for is taken. We were able to get www.shadysidealpacas.com however and it's a very fitting name. We both now have email addresses with shadysidealpacas.com on them so we are ready to roll.

The "kind of" is the part that is still needing some work. The domain is ours, but now I have to get the web site up and running. I'm hopefull I'll have something up simple tonight.

Please feel free to stop over there and check it out as we get things going. We have some items we already want to get in a store.

I haven't poked myself yet!

As my husband had mentioned previously, we purchased some materials to begin the felting process when we visited a larger farm during National Alpaca Days. Beverly (the lady who was spinning and felting at that farm) was nice enough to show me how the process works and what to expect...she also told me that I would, indeed, poke myself at least once with that sharp little needle.

I haven't done it yet...yea! And the kitten seems to think I know what I'm doing already.

I must be doing something right, because I've intrigued my 11 year old daughter enough for her to say, "That's cool! I want to learn how to do that!"

Hopefully, I can keep going with my felting without poking myself, but then again, maybe it would just be better to get it out of the way so I can stop thinking about it when I'm working. We'll see...

After this, I'm going to have to try my hand at wet felting.

A quick note on the past weekend!

Hopefully anyone that reads this spent a little time visiting alpaca farms over the past weekend. This is the largest event put on by AOBA that I know of and the best chance people can really have to learn about the alpaca lifestyle.

We did make if over to one larger farm in our area and learned a little about spinning and needle felting. We have been wanting to do some felting and purchased a needle felting kit from someone at the farm doing the demonstrations.

If you did not get out to other farms and are still looking to learn about alpacas do not give up. Most of the farms are more than willing to meet with you and talk with you. There is also a large online community. One of those gathering places is Alpaca Nation where there is lots of information, especially in the forum area. There are many other places to get information though so if you need more information or can't find what you are looking for do a little hunting and you should find what you wanted to know.

A good fiber day to all!

Well it has been an exciting week for sure. We almost stepped out and purchased two more fiber boys but considering many financial factors we have decided to wait though it would have been a good step toward increasing our fiber output.

I have been involved in many discussions about alpacas and fiber farming as a viable alternative to breeding programs. I think it is sad to see when farms with great animals are so focused on breeding for money that they likely many times let fiber go to waste and destroy less than premium fiber. BTW, let me know if you have 1sts, 2nds and 3rds that you do not want as I may be willing to pay to have them shipped to my farm.

Anyway, I look forward to working with and networking with many other smaller and fiber farms while we all try to make a business out of the true reason for us to keep alpacas as a livestock. If alpacas are not kept for fiber, then they sure are an expensive pet! I read something like that posted elsewhere but I think it is very fitting.

Contact Me if you would like to share links to blogs or other web pages. I am mainly looking for others working toward building good fiber farms though. A good blog is being kept by at http://alpacasprings.blogspot.com.

The great choking alpaca!

Well we've found that alpacas are grain eating maniacs for sure. They act as though they have never had anything to eat when we get it out. They are very funny and it is the easiest time to get them close enough to you to do other things.

However, it is good to always take caution when feeding grain to them. Make sure someone is there watching them until it is completely gone and they are finished chewing and swallowing it. My wife had to deal with this for 30-60 minutes just last evening and there is only one thing I can think of worse than being remote and worried on how things are going and that is dealing with it! My wife had a real work out and got several kicks and stomps while trying to help.

In the end she did a great job. The alpaca seems no worse considering the whole ordeal. If anyone reads this and has ideas on how to keep from having grain get stuck I would appreciate the feedback. We have thought maybe we need to keep grain up off the ground but with our current set up this is where we feed them.

Oh and on a fun note, I made a temporary extension of the pen last night so the boys have a small area of new grass to mow. They really seemed to appreciate it but didn't think there was enough room or grass for them all to be there.

Alpaca life style is more than just a phrase.

From working on things this past weekend I have found that the term "Alpaca Life Style" is truely something that is more just just a catchy saying. It has to do with the hours it will take to do everything related to alpacas. We are a small farm with only 3 animals at this time. As we keep churning along with working and learning it is easy to see how people with dozens of alpacas end up with a real life changing investment. Feeding, cleaning up, caring for and processing each have requirements that need to be met.

Anyway, a quick bit on last weekends skirting proces... It was a good weekend as we were able to skirt 2 show blankets as well as all our second cuts. The thirds still need skirted but we will have to take some time to do that as well as cleaning it. Cleaning it ourselves will be another new part of the process. We plan on making felt items.

As far as yarn creation or other processing. Our seconds alone are not enough to ship off for processing so we will package them up for next year. We'll be able to combine the new blankets, the show blankets from this year as well as next years seconds for processing. At that point we'll get to learn about that part of things.

Before and after...

Well, looking at an alpaca can be intersting for sure. What I find that is so funny about them is they are usually looking right back at you and I'm almost sure we are both trying to figure the other one out. One thing that most people will notice about an alpaca is the fleece and how "puffy" the animals look. This is the part of the animal that everyone ends up most intersted in for sure. However, when you look at an alpaca even a couple months after it is sheared it looks much bigger than it is. This something only some pictures can help with.

The next 3 pictures are my girls each with thier alpaca on a cold shearing day. Ashley/Alexander, Alli/Odyssey and Haleigh/Coronado then all 3 after shearing.








As you can see, they are much smaller than they first appear. All of our boys were just under 1 year old in these pictures. Like people they will have various hieghts and weights but the normal male will be about 5'6" at the head and weigh about 165-190lbs. Our largest male was about 95lbs.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and are learning something along with us.

I've been asked...

I have been asked to upload pictures by my wife, which I've finally done. As we blog we'll add those pictures for everyone to see.

I've also been asked by many people who do not know much about alpacas what they are used for. I think many people consider them to be an odd/exotic pet. While they are very friendly animals, they do serve a purpose and nothing can explain that as well as a picture...


While looking at this picture you'll see just how thick the fleece is on an alpaca and how long the staple is. The alpaca pictured is our oldest, Alexander, who was about 1 year old and had about 10 months of growth on him. One of the easiest ways to tell how dense they are is by looking at the longer fleece still on them for where the dirt line stops.

There are as many uses for this product as for silk and/or wool. The product is much stronger than silk, carries a similiar luster and feel. It is also much softer and less itchy when compared to wool products. We have recently learned how to work more with our fleece, as noted in a prior post and hope to process it into a final product at some point this year.

What a community...

I wanted to thank all the people in the Alpaca community that have helped us so far in determining many many things. They range from who we bought from, boarded with, shearing and advice on fencing, scales, meds, flies, care, skirting and more.

A big thanks to Windswept Farms Alpacas for a good couple Saturdays where we got our hands on several animals, learned/practiced herd health, got advice and learned a lot about skirting and processing our fleece.

I also want to send my thanks out Willow Ridge for the continued help with supplies and information as we try to get up to speed.

Summer time fun!

Well since everything is new to us and since only have 3 alpacas things that may be considered a chore on some farms is still fun for us. We have recently taken the time to give the boys water bath/showers on warmer days or even when we were watering our grass seed. It is fun to watch how they each react. Two have taken to it quickly while Coronado is a bit worried about the whole ordeal.

The issue with Coronado is funny though as Alex is horrified of the fly spray while the other 2 are fine as long as it's grain time. We have had a heck of a time with flys though and think we might finally have a spray that works and is all natural.

This blog profitingwithalpacas has a nice little write up on the proper method to do the showers so that there are no fleece or overheating issues.

Supplies are the word of the day.

Who would have thought you'd need so many new things with the addition of 3 animals. We have bought and added several new things to what we own already and that is just a start.

Some of the supplies are odd too, or at least to non-livestock owners. I had to get flat back buckets and rubber feeding bowls. I have never needed anything like either before in my life. Oh and do not get me started on needles and meds for the alpacas! I never knew that you had to determine so many different things such as the needle gauge and length and if the syringe should be locking or slip!

Anyway, fun things for sure. We should be getting close to having one side of the barn really done any time now. Now it's on to phase 2 of the temporary site. With any luck, ground breaking for a new barn, built with our alpacas in mind starts next spring!

...and so it begins...

As of today we now have the boys at our farm full time. It has taken much longer to get put together than originally thought. As we went along though we realized some things we had not originally worked into the plan. The biggest issue being grass that could cause health issues with the alpacas.

It was an interesting trip yesterday as for the second time we had to load and unload alpacas from the truck. It was really interesting to watch them as they really took time checking out the new area we had for them. It's not that large but appears to be plenty for 3, especially once our grass gets growing a bit better. They did well though in getting adjusted, meeting new people and getting used to an area with more traffic than they may have been used to.

Today is a day of getting a bit more of the things we need to have such as grain. It will also be a day to make sure that the adjustment is going ok. It was nice to see that they had moved to the barn overnight since yesterday they didn't appear to want to go in there at all.

I want send my thanks out to Bret and Erica at Willow Ridge for taking care of our boys and helping us out with learning how to care for them, set up many things at our area and being there to help us when needed.

I think my husband forgot to mention...

This weekend was certainly one of the most exciting, interesting, and educating weekends we, as a family, have ever had, but I think my husband forgot to mention that in everything we had learned up to the show that we were never made aware of the fact that you can indeed give an alpaca the "heimlich maneuver"...and we did have to.

The morning of showing our boys, Alexander decides (as usual) to go crazy eating the grain. Apparently, he ate too much too fast and choked on it...literally. As we were sitting there beside the stall, Ashley lets us know that Alexander is foaming, so we look over our shoulders at him and see a little white foam starting to come out of his mouth and we are just assuming that he might be a little stressed. It happens sometimes. Before you know it, the foam is turning brown...never seen this before.

We are just looking at each other and back to Alexander, and luckily, the gentleman in the stall across from us, says "You know he's choking, right?" Immediate action begins now as the dumbfounded look on our faces tell him that, no we didn't know, and nor do we know how to rectify the situation. He jumps up and comes running into our stall and between him and Mike, they manage to work the grain out of Alexander's throat onto Oddyssey's head and back. Then he lets us know that we should give him a shot so that he calms down, he was generous enough to give us the medication and reassure us that our alpaca that was falling down drunk now would only be doing that for short period of time (he was right, but us noobies freak out at everything).

I would say the worst part of this, other than Alexander choking of course, was that he had to do it about 45 minutes before he went into the ring. I have always said he eats like a pig!

Did anyone order an alpaca flip?

Well it's all over but the crying. We came, we saw but we failed to place. Our boys are all white, which is a very very tough class to be in. We had over 60 alpacas in that class alone. Though we didn't win anything our spirits are not broken but we do have to decide how to move forward from here.

There are the pending questions of shows, processing fleece for shows, or processing fleece for product/money. The more distant future will have us doing more shows for sure as we feel all of our animals should improve over the next year or we are hoping so. If we had fleece issues I think we'd be a bit less hopeful but as luck would have it we have certain issue areas with each that can improve over the next year of growth. Our oldest boy is a bit off in conformation and though he got a 2nd look but the judge, when she viewed his profile again, she then moved on. Our middle boy has a great blanket, but he is very undersized for his age. Both of these issues may be fixed as the boys age and grow. The youngest boy, who also got a great comment from the judge on the softness of his fleece, is lacking density. This is the least likely one to be fixed over time but I have heard of changes over age and after shearing so we are hopeful on him as well.

My wife and I will be sitting down to decide on our short term direction and then working to implement that plan. I think she prefers to show them at nationals, but I'm more of the opinion of shearing them and trying to show the blankets. The later one is great because you get back hard numbers on the qualities of the alpaca’s fur.

Oh and before I forget, my title is not without substance... We have 3 very well behaved boys. They are normally very easy to walk to get to stand and just about anything else. I do want to say that Alexander and Ashley were a dream out there. He was very well behaved and we could not have asked for much more out of him as far as how he handled the show. Ashley seemed to be able to do what was needed without any issues. The other 2 boys, well that is an alpaca of a different color. Both Odyssey and Coronado were a bit harder to handle once they were split up from each other. Neither of the younger 2 alpacas seemed to handle being around other alpacas very well. Odyssey is very small and always seems a bit off when around alpacas he does not know and it showed. Alli struggled with him a lot though it was nothing she was doing. In the end, she did a good job of getting him up at the right time and showing the teeth as she was to do. She handled it very well and will do well in shows in the future. Coronado was the most interesting though I guess we probably should have seen this coming. He has always been the follower. Though he loves Haleigh, once split from the other two his normally cooperative self changed into the little alpaca that couldn't. Though it was very hard on Haleigh, she kept things together enough to let the judge get a good look at him and did what she needed to do. As noted by the title our show ended on an odd note as Coronado did a forward roll almost out of the ring. It was funny but a frustrating end for both Haleigh and our farm. Luckily for us, we have learned many thing we need to work on and will strive to have a better showing our next opportunity.

The day is finally here!

Well we had another long day yesterday. Though we did not show a single animal, we spent lots of time watching our friends in various events. We also went to all the shops and stalls to meet people and learn more about the industry. It's obvious that there is lots we just do not know.

The alpacas are odd in that we had to spend some time yesterday cleaning them up just a bit. Mainly just removing droppings that are not supposed to be on them. They keep laying right in the stuff they put on the floor making us do that over and over again. I'd think they would quit doing that since they hate getting cleaned off.

Well we are all a bit tired, but ready for today. Wish us luck in our first showing! Oh, we did catch a huge break, none of our boys are in the same groupings so they do not have to immediately compete against eachother. In the even that we get any 1st or 2nds then we have a chance they could meet up in the color champion round.

Off to the show!

When is a vacation day not a vacation?

Well the day has finally arrived. We are now officially checked in to the Fort Wayne Alapaca show for this weekend. We learned much about what you get, need to take and so on. It was a very long day but well worth it and overall a good experience.

We have purchased fans, which I still do not quit understand why only the huacaya need it but we have them now. Just a heads up to any other Noobs out there, you should make sure you have an extention cord. My 12 foot actually worked out just fine though I had several other size I could have taken. You may want various additional parts like the ability to split the power 3 ways.

After much review all of our boys did come back in the white class... ...I'm not sure if this is good or bad really. On the bad side we have 3 males, all juvi males, so they could all end up against each other. We had some people give us opinions of the boys and really in the end I am very happy with the outcome of that. I have always been a bit worried about Coronado due to not having a lot of noticable crimp as well as lacking bundling, but I was told that we will not know for sure until after his first cut. Of the 3, he was said to have the finest hair. Odyssey has been given many thumbs up because he has crimp like no ones business and he has lots of luster on his fur. He is fairly dense, but pails in comparison to Alexander. In the end Alexander and Oddysey have a better chance of placing this time around based on the opinions we have got but all 3 boys look to have a fair enough future in front of them.

In the end, I'm overall excited for the weekend no matter the outcome. We will be learning and positioning for the future. I hope we can walk away with a few notches under the belt on understanding shows, alpacas, judging, competition, etc... Wish us luck and more importantly, fun!

1 Week!

Well we have 1 week left before the Fort Wayne show. It is going to be interesting. I sure hope we have 1 that places in something! I'm really interested to see if they stay in the color selections we sent them in as because to me they all look white. We did the forms based on the ARI color.

All of our boys are ready to go for the show. Well, considering we did not attempt the skilled/showmanship events. We are really hoping to show for the quality of the animals, not really try the tricks, jumping and other things like that.

We had a last minute scare with paperwork on one of the boys and I want to think Roxanne, owner of Lands End for helping us try to get the information we needed together. I also want to thank Bret and Erica at WRF for the care they have given our animals and making sure we have what we need for the upcoming show.

Wish us luck!

We are official!

Lots of things occurred this past weekend.

First, we are an official AOBA member farm now. "Shadyside Alpaca Farm" is the official name of our farm. The farm name comes from the name the farm has had since it was started by my wifes family over 120 years ago. Well without the alpaca part anyway. We are happy to be continuing in the tradition of keeping live stock as well as using the farms name.

Secondly, the boys are officially registered into the Fort Wayne show next month. This was a joy, not really, but it had to be done. A special note for those of you who might be new or do not pay attention, you can save a little money by getting in early! Anway, we have all the paper work done and the money sent for the show. Now only time will tell how things will go.

Last night was just another night of training but it was a good one. I took the 3 girls up and we are now constantly taking time to walk the alpacas, put them in lines, stand them side by side, showing teeth and playing judge each time we go. It really is amazing just how smart they are.

A special note to Roxanne, the boys are all doing GREAT! Coronado is probably the second best at dealing with everything now. Alexander is still the best but actually does not take the "judging" things as well as Coronado. Oddyssey is hit or miss and decides what he wants to do and how easily he wants to do it. However, considering that they are not supposed to be "pets" they are all pretty easy to deal with as things could be going.

Well, I have to get the new pics up on here, but that is for another time.

Learning to Lead

We have gotten our routine down to a pattern now of when we can go to visit our precious little boys so that the training can really get underway. We go every weekend and twice during the week. As Mike had said earlier, the training for Alexander is pretty non-required, it is more for getting Ashley used to what will be required of her in the show ring and how she needs to control the animal rather than vice versa. That is something that all three of the girls are working on right now...learning how to take the lead.

Oddyssey is a lot like Alexander in that Alli can walk up to him and put his halter on by herself and start working with him, leading him, trying to get him to take her directions, but every now and then you just see the ornery in his eye and he decides to take her for a run...we can't help but laugh.

Coronado, for never having been away from his momma until we brought him home with us is proving to be a wonderful spirit. Haleigh still needs help with getting him haltered but once we have the gear on him, she can lead him where she wants him to go.

The girls and boys are making a fantastic effort at learning something new. It is really fun to watch and help. I think we would all agree that the most rewarding part is that all three of the boys now trust us enough to come up and eat grain directly out of our hands.

And they are now here!

Well this posting is a little delayed but we do now have the boys local. Infact, we drove to get them last Sunday. We had some issues with the trailer and almost did not get them but we later found that we could use my covered truck bed to transport them. We have a great picture of the 3 boys when we arrived.

The boys are all in what seems to be great health. They also all have very good personalities. Our halter training is almost non-required on Alexander and Oddysey but there is some work to be done on Coronado. Though they have all been through a lot. I did want to thank Roxanne of Lands End and the owners of Alpha Omega Alpaca Farm for the care they have given the boys.

To continue on with our learning process, Michelle has actually already become a shot giving pro. I am a bit worried about doing it. I have never worked in fields like that and so I am worried I'll do it wrong and hurt one of them. I'll have to get over it some day though.

As it stands today, we will most likely visit them a couple times over the weekend and will continue to work on our halter training. Which is for us as much or more than the alpacas. We will try to help out with some of the chores at the farm. We get to introduce them to Michelle's parents this weekend too!

The boys will be seperate from the other alpacas for another week or a little longer while they adjust and we watch them for any issues.