Holidays Are Approaching!

The holidays are approaching quick!  When you visit our farm you can head straight to the barn to visit our friendly alpacas or head into our gift shop where you'll find many unique items.  Here's a preview of what we have to offer!

Our year-round tree is decorated for the fall with beautiful warm colors.

 

We carry delicious local honey from Tuckerbees of Voluntown.  In addition to honey in many sizes, there are different body balms and chap sticks which use the bees wax from the hive.

 

These needle felted alpaca ornaments are handmade by us with fiber from our animals and come in many different colors and patterns!  They are a great way to remember your trip to our farm or would make a great stocking stuffer for the alpaca lover in your life!

 We also have local maple syrup from Sweet's Farm available!

If there's an alpaca you fall in love with during your visit,

 you can enjoy a photo of them with one of these magnets!

 

The apparel in our shop is made in Peru where alpacas originate, such as this sweater and hat.  You will also find the warmest socks, hats, gloves, mittens, glittens, scarves, shawls, and throws!  There are many one of a kind freestyle weavings throughout our shop handmade by us like this pretty pastel shawl.

We have a variety of roving available from our alpacas!

 

We also have a variety of yarn from our animals in their natural colors.

 

We have catnip grown right on the farm for the cat lover on your list!  You'll find these fuzzy bears along with alpacas and chickens all made with super soft alpaca too!

 

We have rag rugs and alpaca rugs available, all made at our farm.

 

This is just some of what we have to offer!  Stop by to see what unique gifts you may find for those on your shopping list!  Definitely stop in at the barn to meet our 21 alpacas and take some photos of your experience feeding them hay!

Lavender Hill Farm is open on weekends from 10:00 to 4:00 each day or by appointment.  

You can contact us for more info at lavenderalpacas@gmail.com or call or text Paulette at (860)917-5154.

National Alpaca Farm Days 2017

Visit Lavender Hill Farm during the last weekend of September while we participate in National Alpaca Farm Days! 

Saturday, September 23rd and Sunday, September 24th

10:00 - 4:00 PM

Touring the farm is FREE and fun for the whole family. Visitors of all ages enjoy feeding the alpacas hay while learning all about them. In addition to our 21 alpacas, you'll also see two horses and many chickens. There will be fiber demonstrations and you can browse our shop where you'll find alpaca products and unique handmade crafts. You'll also be able to feel just how soft an alpaca fleece really is!

Needle Felting Classes

Needle Felting Classes Offered

Lori Neumann of Menagerie will be at Lavender Hill Farm during National Alpaca Farm Days to teach classes on how to needle felt!  Each day she will hold a different beginner class where you will learn felting techniques and be able to take a finished piece home with you.  These beginner friendly classes will each be limited to six people ages 12 and up. 

Materials will include a felting pad, two felting needles and wool for the project.

Suggested materials to bring include a small sharp pair of pointed scissors, small tweezers, glasses for close up work if needed, and band-aids for the occasional accident.

Register by contacting Rose at lavenderalpacas@gmail.com with the name of the class you'd like to take!  Cash or check can be accepted on the day of class.

Painting with Wool - Snail
Saturday, September 23, 2017

12:00 - 2:00 PM

$30.00 Class Fee  $12.00 Materials Fee

​

Abstract Flower Globe Sunday, September 24, 2017

12:00 - 2:00 PM

$30.00 Class Fee  $12.00 Materials Fee

 

 

Shearing Day

We were very lucky to have such great weather for shearing day!  Rick and Jeremiah from Twist of Fate Spinnery were our professional shearers once again this year.  They are so efficient at what they do, making shearing as pleasant an experience as they can for the alpacas.  Each animal takes less than ten minutes to complete and this includes toenail and teeth trimming if necessary.  Our job during shearing is to keep our fingers away from the sharp clipper blades while we gather up the fiber as it's being sheared off the animal.  Alpacas are only sheared once a year, so this is a very important day on the farm.  It's so cool to see the fiber coming off the animal and to see how different they look once it's all removed!  Visitors are always welcome to come watch shearing and this year we had quite a few stop in to see this unique process.  We even had a Girl Scout group come to watch!  Now the alpacas are more comfortable for the summer weather that is upon us.  Here are some before and after photos!

MATEO

BUDDY

ACURA AND ROSE PETAL

BUSTER BROWN

EMBER

 CHAMP

ADONIS

Shearing Day 2017

Shearing Day, the most important day on our farm, is almost here!  This year shearing will take place on May 13th from 9:00 - 12:00.  All are welcome to watch as the alpacas transform from fluffy fiber-full alpacas to "naked" ones!  Alpacas are shorn just once a year to allow for maximum length of the fiber which makes it easier to process into yarn and roving.  Each year we hire professional shearers, Rick and Jeremiah from Twist of Fate Spinnery of Portland, Connecticut, to shear our animals.  They are very efficient and shear the animals is an almost choreographed manner, taking under just ten minutes per animal!  Our shop will be closed on this day as we will be very busy with the task at hand, but we will be open on Sunday from 10:00 - 4:00 as usual.  We will be at our farm until around noon and then will be heading to another alpaca farm to help with their shearing as they helped us with ours.  Come on out to the farm if you'd like to see how we "harvest" the fiber from our animals!

We're Open Again!

Beginning April 8th-9th, we will be open on weekends from 10-4. 

 

A loved one of ours recently found themselves in the hospital and we have been unable to open for the past few weekends.  Now that they are recuperating in a rehabilitation center and we've found our new normal, we're happy to say that we can now continue to be open on weekends!  We're looking forward to seeing old friends again and meeting new visitors.  The alpacas are very close to having their full fleece on as shearing is just a little more than a month away!  Come out to see them and browse our shop.  It also looks like the weather will be great to be outdoors!  Thank you to everyone for their understanding during this time.

 

Tuckerbees Honey and Body Butter

We now have local honey, made right in Voluntown, for sale in our shop!  Ellis Tucker of Tuckerbees has been beekeeping for eight years and has 18 hives that he collects the honey from.  The honey is available in three sizes and comes in a beautiful glass jar with a cork top.  Not only do we have honey from Tuckerbees, but we also now have body butter which has bees wax in it!  They are available in Natural, Lemon Grass and Lavender and come in four or eight ounces jars.

Happy New Year!

We'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  Lavender Hill Farm and our alpacas have been and are a blessing to us, and the best part is sharing it with everyone who visits, and spending time with friends, old and new. We had a great holiday season in 2016 and are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead in 2017.  Here are some photos from the holiday season.

We finally received some snow which added to the holiday feel one weekend.

 

The shop and barn were decorated with cheerful lights.

 

We had homemade hot cocoa, a variety of homemade cookies, and pumpkin bread for visitors to enjoy while browsing the shop.

 

Champ

Our rooster is a Black Australorp and is one handsome guy and loves to crow!

 

Mateo enjoying the sunshine.

 

From left: Champ, Buddy, and Smokey. 

Mateo is keeping watch over the chickens.

 

The girls are all inside keeping dry.  Hi girls! 

Acura

Thor taking a nap and using a rock as a pillow!

We have many new photos available in the shop!  These are just a few of them.

~Rose