Before and After and Sabrina Working Hard

May 22, 2009

Construction is finally starting to wind down. It has been a long and trying year and a half, during which time we’ve gone from this:

to this:

And from this:

to this:

There is still much work to be done -to the fields, the pastures, the fence lines, the gates, and other structures. There is a lot of construction debris to be cleaned up, landscaping to finish, grass, hay and other fields to plant. And in between all that the alpacas and llamas need constant care. Slowly and surely we are getting there. Someday soon we hope to be able to enjoy our evenings, sitting on the deck with a glass of wine and simply watch our critters in the fields.

Fortunately we have Sabrina, one of our most loyal farm hands. She is always ready to keep watch over the construction and lend a paw as needed.

Handmade Alpaca and Other Jewelry

May 18, 2009

We recently had an inquiry from someone who had met Becky and Jaime at a show asking where they had purchased the lovely necklaces they were wearing. The answer was that they hadn’t!

No they hadn’t stolen them. Both Becky and Jaime have been making jewelry (mostly necklaces and bracelets) for years now. They scour gem shows and antique shops to find their materials, and then make up the objects as the spirit guides them. When they lived in South Carolina they would offer their work for sale at various craftsmen shows and fairs. They have an extensive collection of necklaces. And they are all one of a kind, individual pieces.

Here are some examples of their work:

Since moving back to Ohio and working hard at constructing and establishing the new farm they’ve not had much time to indulge their creativity. But hopefully as the construction winds down and the routine work on the farm settles down they’ll begin creating again. Ultimately some of their creations will be offered for sale in the farm shop and online. (They claim they won’t sell the illustrated pieces -but then everyone and everything ultimate has a price!!) Until then, if any reader has an interest in any of their pieces, or would like to commission a special piece, please go ahead and contact us. We’ll have one of them call or write you according to your preference.

West Coast Alpacas and The Great Debate

May 11, 2009

Becky and Al visited southern California last week. We decided that it might be worthwhile to consider adding some West Coast alpacas to our herd in order to expand and diversify our gene pool. While studying the pedigrees of our own (mostly Midwest) animals we noticed that East Coast animals, Mid West animals, and West Coast animals always tend to be bred with animals in their own regions. Thus the gene pools become localized with little opportunity for nature to select out the best genes. We’ve already acquired some East Coast animals (Belle and Electra). Now we are looking at the West Coast.

We visited several farms (The Alpacas at Windy Hill, Dry Creek Alpacas ) from San Diego to North of Los Angeles. There are some very nice animals there, particularly Monteggio of PVA at Dry Creek Alpacas. It struck me that the alpacas of Southern California live under some rather hash circumstances -dry, hot, brown, sandy, generally flat, and very little grass if any. Thus I would think that nature would have weeded out the weaker, less adaptable animals and what is left there must be strong, environmentally adaptable animals who would do well on our verdant, hilly farm with a variable climate more similar to what their ancestors were used to in South America.

While in California we were introduced to the controversy among Alpaca owners concerning the elitists who think only a Peruvian animal is top quality and Bolivian or Chilean animals are something less. I was not aware of this difference of opinion. And I don’t quite understand why it should be so. After all it only depends on “what side of the mountain” the animals lived. I don’t suppose the wild animals (before the Peruvians started their ranches) respected the various countries’ borders and only mated with alpacas on their side of the border! Furthermore, as I understand it, there was an active smuggling enterprise taking animals from Peru to Bolivia and Chile for sale during the period when Peru stopped exporting animals.

If any readers can educate me on the arguments from either side I would certainly appreciate hearing from them.

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