Old Alpaca Mom Brings New Life

findingcaciacriaMy little girl ran into the house to tell me that we had a new baby on the farm. This was the first thing I saw after I ran outside to see.

dryingcaciacriaWe dried her (yes, it’s a HER!) off. After our last imprinting incident I did my best to distract my little Doctor Doolittle here so that our alpaca dam and her cria could bond.

caciacriaIn 5 weeks, this momma alpaca, Cacia, will turn 17 years-old. It’s been awhile since Cacia had a cria so this was one chicken I wasn’t counting until it hatched. How wonderful that she gave birth to this cute little female! Cacia took the whole thing in stride, looking at me as if to say, “What? It’s not like I haven’t done this before!”

An alpaca’s lifespan is generally 15-20 years. Some females can continue to reproduce into their later years. Thanks Cacia. You rock, ole gal!

“Magical” Alpacas Video

Alpaca farm prepares for World Alpaca Conference

This is a great video about alpacas featuring Tripp Forstner of Magical Farms (with a cameo of dad and king of their alpaca farm, Jerry Forstner) Magical Farms is home to approximately 1600 alpacas! They do alpacas on a significantly larger scale than most of us. The majority of alpaca breeders have under 30 alpacas in their herds.

Tripp is well-known as the guy in the show ring with the red bowtie. He can often be found winning Championship banners with various alpacas from Magical Farms. Over the years we have bought several alpacas from their farm and have always been impressed that they were able to offer such great customer service for such a large operation. Read more about one of America’s largest alpaca farms. Enjoy the video!

Fiber Arts Friday

triangularloom

Last weekend Fiber Artist Sherry Watkins of Frostglen Alpacas came to visit our farm to teach a spinning class. While she was here she showed up the joys of weaving with a triangle loom. Sherry pointed out that once you have lovely handspun yarn, a shawl made on a triangular loom is a great showcase for it!

Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

  1. Add the permalink to a specific blog post that features something Fiber Art related, rather than your general blog address and not your Etsy store. (Please DO put a link in your blog post that takes us to your store though.)
  2. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
  3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!
  4. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.