Monday, January 21, 2008

Pictures!

We borrowed a camera to get some pictures on this blog. I want to share my babies :)


The first time we met Maddie she was trying to hide between the other alpacas. She had no idea she was black and they are white and she was not hidden at all :)


Here Maddie is eating a leave, the silly goof. Oak leaves can be toxic to alpacas but only in huge qualtities, this one leaf will not hurt her.


I love the markings on her face, shows off her eyes.



This is Remington. He's a 1/2 brother to Maddie, and I do think their faces look a lot alike. Remington is not yet at our farm, we need to finish a shelter for him first. This picture was taken when we visited him at Autumn Alpacas (he belonged to KaSar farms but was agisting at Autumn Alpacas). We are excited to get him here soon.



Sommerfield is 9 months old. She looks a little bit chunky, but that is all fiber! Having been born in the spring she was not shorn so she has a bit more growth than the others. Sommerfield's fiber is nice and thick and has good crimp. We are waiting to see how her top knot fills in, but we do see a lot of cheek wool. Sommerfield seems to like the dirt (like Snowstorm - why is it always the white ones who like the dirt!). So she is a bit dirty, but inside the fiber it's nice and clean and white. Sommerfield is in the middle of a growth spurt so her back legs are longer than her front legs. As she grows that will even out. Her mom, Sancha has a very straight flat back, which we expect Sommerfield will have when she's done growing.



What a cute face! You can really see the cheek wool here.



This is Sancha. She is the oldest alpaca that we have, and seems to be leader of the pack (though sometimes shares that job with Victoria). We are very excited that she's been bred to Avatar and will be delivering our first cria in mid-April. Since both dam and sire are white we are expecting a white cria, but you never know. I think she looks pregnant but some say you can't tell until about a month before they are due. I'm predicting a girl, she seems to be carrying high in her ribs (just a wild guess).


I love this picture of Snowstorm, it really shows off his "smile". Funny thing about him is that he's been the easiest for me to manage. When he first came here he was so big, and with only 3 alpacas, he often gave me trouble (stealing food from the others ect). But now that we added in most alpacas, Snowstorm is the best behaved. He herds where I want him to go. He waits his turn. He's awesome.


Our farm kitties, Fluffy and Thunder, hanging out in the hay.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

So I've lost count of how many alpacas you have now. Excuse my very limited knowledge here but do you shear them and sell the wool? How often do you get to do this? Yearly or more?

They sure are cute. I'm glad you got some pics up.

oak haven alpacas said...

Kathy,

We have 7 alpacas now, but Remington is not yet on our farm, so 6 on the farm at the moment. He'll come as soon as we can get a shelter (being a male he can't be in with the young girls). You can see our number if you click on our "Farm Page" they list all the ones we have.

We shear them once a year, in the spring so that they aren't too hot in the summer. The fiber is similar to wool but suppose to be warmer, yet not scatchy. It is very soft! We plan to have the fiber made into yarn so I can make things with it (baby layettes, scarves, hats etc). I will sell those items (the ones I can part with!). :)

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