We are here! (Nationals!)

Just like the Indiana Show we attended earlier this year, this show is being held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

This is the entrance to the building at this show:



Today is the day before the show, when everyone gets here with their alpacas to set up your stall, check in the alpacas (color check), and there was an exhibitor meeting at 6:30 p.m. The showing starts tomorrow a.m. at 10:15 until noon, then they will break for the auction. They expect to only get through the black classes. Then on Saturday they will start early in the morning with brown class, then fawn, and through to white. Then on Sunday will be the grey, indefinite and multis.

Setting up the stall is actually more important than one would think. I look back to our first couple of shows and think about all we have learned. I posted earlier this spring about putting the bedding on top of the matt and how that keeps the poop off the animals. Another big issue is setting up the fans. It's very important that they blow on the animals. Hot, sweaty animals will not show well. It makes their fiber damp and the crimp can fall out and bundles won't look right. A fan can make a huge difference in how they place. We've had animals that placed well at many shows, then did not, only to find out that she was hot, and that made her fiber look terrible. It really is true that these animals have good fiber days and bad fiber days (even more so than a woman's good hair days). We've learned to put the fans at body level for the alpaca, and in a row so they have no choice but to be in the way of the fan. Our power row of fans:



We put the hay in such a place so that they stand in front of the fans when they nibble on hay. Here you can see the fan blowing on their fiber:



We did bring out kids with us to this show. We don't usually do this. Mostly because it's a great excuse to have a childless weekend, but also because they are active, busy kids, who wear me out. A show is busy enough, add on kids, and I might not make it. But we only have 3 alpacas at this show, and it's spread out over 4 days, so the show isn't as much work. We decided to make this into our family vacation for the year. Zack has been very excited about the hotel having a pool. After thinking on it, I don't think he's been in a hotel in 4 years (he's only 7, so 4 years is over half his life). I hope they have fun. We plan to visit the zoo and do some other fun family activities. There seems to be a lot to do nearby. Here they are playing their DS games while we are setting up (they did help set up some too, but at some point it's easier for me if they just sit and play their games and I don't have the constant chatter. If you know Zack, you know what I mean. He's a talker, non-stop. Unless he's playing his DS.)



We have 3 female alpacas with us, all in one pen:



We have Ashton Stones Jolie Rouge from Ashton Stones Alpacas with us. She is in the dark brown class. She should show first thing Saturday morning. We are very grateful to her owners, Noah and Jillian, who are watching our farm back home. Wonder if we had any babies born? Sancha and Maddie could deliver any time now (though I expect Sancha to deliver mid-week next week, I have no idea on Maddie).

And we took our own Kateri's Tehya. She is light fawn, which we expect will show on Saturday afternoon. This is Tehya's last show. Tehya is a Goldsmith daughter and has done us proud in the show ring. Whatever the outcome for this show, we have been blessed with her. We have a breeding date set up for her the second we get back to our farm next week. I can't wait to see her offspring!

Lastly, we have our own OHVNA Pocahontas. Po has been my dream come true. She is the color I have dreamed of (while she has shown as indefinite dark, the only difference between this and dark rose grey is how many grey fibers there are, genetically it is the same. And spun into yarn, while it will be more brown, it will still have heathered looked). From the time Po was born, we knew her fiber was incredible. I am excited to see how she does at such a big show like this.

We also put Sancha's White Lightning in the spin off. For a spin off, the animal does not actually come to the show. You mail in 2 oz of fiber, and they judge that ahead of time. I'll get pictures of his spin off yarn and ribbon tomorrow.