The Alpacas are Sheared!

Shearing day at our farm was May 12th this year.  We expected a bit of rain in the early morning hours, so the alpacas were penned in and kept under the roof of the barn for the night in order to keep them dry.  Rick and Jeremiah from Twist of Fate Spinnery in Portland, Connecticut were our shearers once again this year.  They also had the help of Rick's son which made them even more efficient than usual!  Overall, we were very lucky with the weather as the rain held off!  We had many visitors stop in to witness the transformation of the alpacas.  Now we have beautiful fiber that we can have processed into yarn and roving! 

Ryan Hargraves of EagleEye LLC created this video showing the entire shearing process from start to finish!  This video shows one of our girls, Mia, being sheared. Check it out! https://youtu.be/sAf7tX01iaI

 

Champ before and after shearing.  Such a cute face!

 

Smokey before and after shearing, pictured with his brother, Thor.

Jerry before and after shearing! Jerry has very dense fiber!

A sea of fiber that will soon be heading to the mill to be processed into yarn and roving!

Shearing 2018

Shearing day on an alpaca farm happens just once a year and this year it's Saturday, May 12th! This is the most important day on the farm where we harvest all the fiber the alpacas grew for the past year. They will be more comfortable for warmer weather that's on the way and we'll have plenty of fiber to turn into yarn or roving! If you'd like to see what the alpacas look like before and after and watch how shearing is done, stop by the farm! We will be very busy while shearing is taking place therefore the shop will not be open on this day, but we will be open 10 - 4 Sunday.

These photos of Buster Brown show how he looked before and after shearing!  What a difference! 

Alpacas in the Winter

The alpacas have plenty of fiber to keep them warm throughout the winter.  They don't mind to be out in the snow at all.  Here's some photos of the alpacas from this winter so far!

 Smokey 

 Mateo

 Rose Petal

 Peggy

 Acura

 Rose Petal and Acura

 Champ

 Thor

 Mateo

 Red

 Bella

 Chance

 Mikey

 Jerry

 Buster Brown

Buddy

It's the New Year!

And just like that we're onto 2018!  We had a very busy holiday season and have been able to keep our doors open on the weekends for all but two weekends where we had absolutely frigid temperatures.  We hope that those who received a gift of alpaca this holiday season are thoroughly enjoying the warmth and softness of them!  Here's some photos from the holiday season and this winter so far!

 We had two "Very Christmas Evening" events this year, one of which was on December 9th.

We got a beautiful show of snow that night!

Even the chicken coop was decorated for Christmas!