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.