A Recap of Time That Flew By

Time flies when you're having fun taking care of alpacas!  I realized I abandoned our blog, so I'm going to catch everyone up on what's been going on at the farm since my last post.  A lot has gone on since then!

SUMMER 2015

  The Cuckoo Maran girls, who grew to be beautiful hens, were enjoying the sunshine one day last summer.  They started laying eggs in July and in the photo on the left you can see how small their first eggs are compared to an adult hen's egg.  The pullet eggs start out so small!  Cuckoo Maran eggs are also known to be a very dark brown color and in the second egg photo you can see the difference in color and how the egg on the right is much darker than the Rhode Island Red egg on the left.

 

 

I love how these patriotic needle felted alpacas came out for the 4th of July!

 

The alpacas love to be cooled off with the hose on a hot summer day!

 

The sunflowers that made the sunflower fort grew to be so tall last summer.  They were a sight to see!

 

Sisters, Rose Petal and Mia, looking on.

 FALL 2015

Chance posed for some photos one day.  He's such a handsome guy!

 

This crazy Cuckoo Maran thought it would be a good idea to get into the bucket on top of the cabinet in the barn!  I think she was hoping to lay an egg in there in complete privacy.

 

Champ in the sunlight.  If you visit our farm, you'll find that he loves to greet people!

 

 For Halloween I carved a Lavender Hill Farm pumpkin and also dressed up

 our alpaca silhouettes for the holiday.

The year-round tree in the shop was dressed up in fall colors and leaves.  

 

WINTER 2015/2016

Kimmy came in for a close-up and below is Sabrina.

 The tree looked beautiful for the holiday season and the front of the shop was decorated as well.

 

 

The barn was also decorated with a stocking for each alpaca and a pine wreath.

We welcomed Ruby to Lavender Hill Farm in November and she and Chance were reunited once again!

These girls had frost on their backs one chilly January morning, but they keep really warm all winter with all their fiber.

A couple of the Cuckoo Marans were keeping an eye on me while I did chores.

Buddy on left and Mateo on right.

 February brought a decent snow storm to Voluntown.

Buster Brown has the curliest leg hair!

SPRING 2016

The first day of Spring brought us more snow!  Acura on left and Thor on right.

We got seven new chicks of mixed breeds!  There's two Golden Comets, a Buff Orpington, a Buff Brahma, an Amberlink, a White Plymouth Rock and a Columbian Rock Cross.  We chose different breeds with hopes that we'll be able to tell them all apart unlike with our Cuckoo Marans and Rhode Island Reds.

 Another snow storm came in April giving us a good coating of snow.

 

Mia loves to play with branches in her mouth as does her sister, Rose Petal.

In April we acquired a Glimakra Swedish loom.  This loom can make rugs up to eight feet wide and any length!  We look forward to weaving with alpaca on this loom.  We had a "loom raising" where many of our friends and family helped to put it all together due to it's large size.

 

 

This year shearing day was on May 13th and Rick and Jeremiah from Twist of Fate Spinnery were our shearers once again.  Their way of shearing is safe and efficient therefore the animals are less stressed in the process.  All are welcome to watch how shearing is done and I'll post the date for shearing day 2017 as soon as I know.  

The first six photos show how the blanket is sheared off the alpaca.  The blanket is where the best quality fiber is found and is referred to as firsts.  This is the fiber that we send to a mill to be made into yarn and roving.

 Here you can see the difference between Smokey who has not been sheared

 yet and his alpaca friends that have been sheared! 

Champ, on left, and Mellea are full brother and sister. 

 

The chicks moved out to the barn near the end of May when they were eight weeks old.  They grew so fast!

Beautiful Iris

 I put in a new garden along side the shop with a path that leads to the barn.

The girls love grazing on the grass.

SUMMER 2016

Chance

Beautiful blooms of summer.

The catnip loved the new spot I made it to grow in!  I filled a raised bed made of cinder blocks with some old alpaca manure and it loved it!  I even used some not so great alpaca fiber as mulch!

We had a Cuckoo Maran that became broody in the early summer, so we got her some fertilized eggs for her sit on and three weeks later she hatched four chicks!  They're Black Australorps.

 It was fun raising chicks where the hen takes care of them.  They're so cute!  

She was a good mom and was so proud of her little chicks.

 As the chicks grew we found that we have one rooster and three hens.

 

Chance and Ruby 

 

Thor's silhouette

Buffy the Buff Brahma, on left, all grown up!  The Black Australorps grew up fast!
The rooster is on the right.

 Kimmy on top and Bella below.

Ruby is a chestnut colored horse and has a beautiful summer coat.

 Mateo

Acura

Buster Brown

Ember 

Thor is enjoying a nap in the sun.

The girls love being out on grass.

Morning Glory

FALL 2016

We kicked off fall with National Alpaca Farm Days on September 24th and 25th.

 One day Mateo let me rake all around him!

Ruby

 

Mateo on left and Buster on right.

Acura on left and Mia on right and Acura is Mia's dam. 

Phew!  That gets us up to date!  The shop is open on weekends from 10-4 if you'd like to stop in!  Visiting the alpacas is always free and is fun for the whole family. ~Rose

The Shop at Lavender Hill Farm is Open on Weekends!

The shop will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 - 4:00.  Stop in to browse alpaca apparel made in Peru (where they originate) such as hats, gloves, scarves, socks, sweaters, throws and bears.  We have roving and yarn that was made from our alpaca's fiber.  We also offer hand made soaps, felted ornaments, stained glass sun-catchers, rag rugs and catnip.

 

 
The shop is a post and beam buidling, built by Mystic Timber Framers in 2010.

Be sure to visit the barn where our 21 Huacaya alpacas, 12 hens and horse reside.

 

Welcome to the barn!

 

 

The alpacas are curious, gentle natured animals that love to have visitors come to see them!  You can get really close to these unique animals and even feed them hay.

 

~Rose

Shearing 2015

We were so lucky to have the most perfect day for shearing this year.  Shearing was on Friday, May 8th and as usual was done by Rick and Jeremiah from Twist of Fate Spinnery of Portland, Connecticut.  This year the Connecticut television show, Better Connecticut, was at the farm to film shearing and to interview Paulette and myself!  To check out our farm on Better Connecticut, click this link http://www.wfsb.com/story/29091065/alpaca-sheering-at-a-local-farm

It was great having Melissa Cole and the camera man, Eric, at the farm for shearing day!  They had a great time watching shearing and seeing the alpacas afterwards.  They even interviewed a couple visitors that were at the farm to watch shearing also!

 Jerry is almost finished being shorn and is about to have his teeth trimmed.  Some of the alpacas had their toenails trimmed also while they were restrained for shearing.

 Rick (man standing on left) is referred to as the head holder and is an essential part of the shearing team.  He maneuvers the alpaca while Jeremiah (shearing on right) shears the alpaca.  They are a great team that works very efficiently together.  They make shearing less stressful on the animal by getting them done in less than 10 minutes an alpaca.  Kevin and Pam are seen collecting the fiber as it comes off the animal.

 

These three girls are ready to be sheared.  Acura (on left) is mother to Rose Petal (center) and Mia (on right).  They will feel much more comfortable for the summer weather once their fiber is off them. 

Here's a close-up of an alpaca being sheared.  The fiber is beautiful!

 

Our new row of tulips, we just put in last fall, turned out great!  They bloomed beautifully, just in time for shearing day!

  
The alpacas have all been sheared for the year.  Now they can enjoy the summer in comfort!

These are all the blankets off of each alpaca!  The blanket is comprised of the sides and back of the alpaca and is the best fiber for processing.  Look at all that fiber!

  You can stop by to see the alpacas on weekends from 10 - 4 each day!

~ Rose

Shearing Day Is Coming!

SHEARING DAY 2015

Friday, May 8th   9:00 - 12:00

Shearing day is one of the most important days on an alpaca farm.  Shearing happens just once a year enabling the alpacas fiber to grow as long as possible.  Alpaca fiber is similar to sheep's wool, but is warmer, not prickly and contains no lanolin, so it is considered hypoallergenic.  The fiber is collected during shearing and is then sent to a fiber mill to be processed into roving or yarn.  Rick and Jeremiah from

Twist of Fate Spinnery of Portland, CT shear our alpacas each year.  

The photos below show the shearing of the blanket (both sides and the back).  

The blanket will come off in one piece and is also the 

fiber most used for yarn and roving.

If you would like to experience such a unique event, visit our farm from

 9-12 on Friday, May 8th, 2015!

Snow, snow and more snow!

We've been dealing with snow on a regular basis since the first snow of the season fell in January.  Even though we snow blow trails for the alpacas to have more space outside, they seem to have a little cabin fever, just like we do!  They'll be glad for warmer days to be here to melt all this snow and give them their paddock space back!

The girls were hanging out in the stall one day when I caught Ambrosia with a back full of snow!  She must have been outside in the snow for awhile.  Their fiber is about two to three inches long and the snow just sits on top of it.  I don't think they even feel it!

This was a really cold morning while doing chores.  Champ is seen behind me with his usual smile on his face.

Acura, in the middle is mother to Rose Petal, on left and Mia, on right.  

These three can usually be found close to one another.

Buster Brown must have been eating snow!

The barn looks very different this time of year, with huge mounds of snow on either

 side of the front gate.  There's not much more room to put any more snow!

 

The snow is almost as high as the fence!  Mateo is looking out from the barn.

This is the area between the paddocks that leads to the manure pile out back.

Champ and Smokey just hanging out after breakfast one morning.  

These two were born the same year on our farm and are good buddies.

Buddy was the cause of a traffic jam on the path that runs along the side of the barn.  

He was busy eating snow and wasn't about to move so Champ could go by.  

Champ finally turned around and went another way.

This was the view of the field out back, from the manure pile, while the snow was coming down.

 

Mellea is in the forefront while her girlfriends eat at the hay box.

Mellea is our largest alpaca on the farm and just fits into the hay box! 
She loves to lay in it!

The alpacas don't mind eating their breakfast in the snow.

Chance wears a blanket to keep warm and stay protected from the snow. 
He too, would rather be outside even when it's snowing.

~ Rose

Looking Forward to Spring!

While we're in the grips of winter I thought it might be nice to look forward to spring!  In the fall of 2014, we got a rototiller that we have a lot of plans for.  We'd like to make our existing vegetable garden larger, add more lavender to the farm, and break ground with it to add new gardens all over the property.  The rototiller's first job was to break ground at the top of the bank in front of the shop for a long row of tulips.  We carefully placed tulip bulbs that will bloom to be an array of pinks, white and purples.  We added alpaca manure on top of the bulbs before covering them up with dirt.  Alpaca manure is great compost for a vegetable garden and it was recommended to add compost to the bulbs, so alpaca manure it was!  We can't wait to see them bloom in the spring!

 This rototiller will have plenty of work to do on the farm!  

It was easy to use and did a great job on the tulip bed.

 

Chickens are kind of a rototiller of their own!  They love to use their feet to scratch up

 the dirt and find bugs to eat.  This hen was not afraid of the tiller and spent

 a long time walking the row of freshly tilled dirt.

The tulips span from the left of the stairs leading up to the shop all the way to the

 old manure spreader that's on the other side of the shop!

The bulbs were placed and covered with a fine layer of alpaca manure.  

You can see how much darker and rich in nutrients the manure

 is compared to the dirt that was tilled.

Buddy, our Boston Terrier, enjoyed the sunshine

 while we worked on the tulip bed.

 To finish the tulip bed we covered the bulbs with dirt and gave it a good watering.  They're all tucked in for the winter and now all we have to do is wait.  It'll be so exciting to see the bulbs starting to come up in the spring and even more so once they bloom!  Only 43 days until spring!

~Rose