Exciting times with a local alpaca herd

Little did I know that my visit to Marcia’s alpaca farm (Orchard Hill Farms) yesterday evening was going to be as exciting as it turned out to be.  I just wanted to treat myself to more alpaca fiber and I loved that I had met her alpacas when I “helped” (read that as tried to not to get in the way) on shearing day a month or so ago.  I called her up and she was happy to sell me some fiber so I drove on up to her house in the country.   It is such a beautiful drive.  I just love getting out of town although it makes me rather homesick.  After greeting the little dogs in the house we weighed out some beautiful fiber and talked about our beginning spindling and spinning skills.  She had white and black roving from last year’s shearing so of course I bought both.

After chatting a bit and talking about the alpacas she asked if I wanted to watch a mating (at least she didn’t say I’d have to help) since she was thinking about doing it anyway.  What could I say, but “Sure!”  So out we went to watch alpacas make babies.  It was a surprising turn of events, but not one I was about to turn down, and indeed, it turned out to be quite educational.  So Marcia, her husband Joel, and I hung out with the alpacas and the dogs and then she decided to split up the babies from their momma’s since they needed to be weened.  So the little ones, Norman, Lisa, and (ohh, I forgot his name) had to go in a separate corral from their moms and it was a split they weren’t very happy about.  At least Joel’s shirt wasn’t new!  And I was in charge of the gate.  I can do that.  =)  Now I want to go “help” again!