{"id":408,"date":"2018-06-15T00:13:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T07:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?p=408"},"modified":"2018-06-15T00:13:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T07:13:49","slug":"alpaca-preparations-are-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"Alpaca Preparations Are Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

I may have mentioned a time or two that I am a little tiny bit obsessed with alpacas.\u00a0 I love watching them do their thing.\u00a0 They are so cute and personable and fun.<\/p>\n

Last year, we went to the Festival of Family Farms – an event in our area where farms open up and let people see what they do.\u00a0 We didn’t go to all of the farms, but we chose an alpaca farm and a cheese farm.\u00a0 I got to be up close to the alpacas and it was amazing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"I stood, making eye contact with a few of them, and it was so cool – they seem so wise and intuitive.\u00a0 The alpaca farm, they had a whole set up for processing the fiber, too – from washing it to spinning it into yarn.\u00a0 There was a whole group of women demonstrating every part.\u00a0 I knew this was something I wanted to learn more about.<\/p>\n

I posted something on Facebook about loving alpacas and my aunt, who now lives in California, wrote to me and said that her very good friends have an alpaca farm in the city just north of us and she wondered if I’d like her to connect me to them.\u00a0 Um… yes Please!<\/p>\n

Shirley and Sherry are amazing.\u00a0 I told them that I love alpacas and want to learn all I can, and I said I homeschool my kids and I’d love to make that part of it.\u00a0 I had no plans at that time to have alpacas of my own… I didn’t think our yard was conducive to that and I honestly wasn’t ready for another animal… I think our chickens were babies at that time and we were still adjusting to our bigger country land and garden and house.\u00a0 But I really wanted to be near them and learn all I could.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shirley told us about an event that was coming up called FiberFusion, where people bring the fiber from their animals to sell, and there would be all kinds of vendors for fiber products, and alpacas, too!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

Shaleigh and I went and I think I was in heaven.\u00a0 It’s amazing all of the things you can make with fiber… the most interesting thing I saw that day was a bar of soap covered in alpaca fleece (cleaned and processed, of course) and it’s kind of like a washcloth and soap combo – in one.\u00a0 We also saw someone MAKING yarn with a drop spindle… and I got to try a spinning wheel, and I pretty much felt like I was meditating.\u00a0 I’m a sucker for yarn… it’s a big part of stress relief for me, especially when my mind is going crazy with worry and thinking too much, doing something with yarn in my hands (crocheting, knitting, making yarn balls) calms my mind… it doesn’t turn it off, it just focuses it.\u00a0 Anyway, the spinning wheel did that, too!\u00a0 I was hooked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I started dreaming of having my own alpaca herd then and there… there was a lot of\u00a0 “what about…?” and “but…” and “how are we gonna…?” to cover first.\u00a0 Did we have the space they’d need? What about predators like cougars and coyotes?\u00a0 Do we still have an area to run the dogs in the yard?\u00a0 Do we have the money needed to take care of them?\u00a0 And a million more.<\/p>\n

As time went on, I felt reassured by Shirley that we can provide them a good home.\u00a0 We’ve had several visits with the alpacas and Shirley and Sherry, and every single time we’ve gotten together, at their farm or ours – the weather is perfect – warmer than expected and sunny! This was our first visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since then, I’ve taken each kid one at a time and together a couple of times, too.\u00a0 The kids did chores on their individual visits – Braden even got three alpaca kisses… I think they loved his red hair and his head is right at the perfect level to lean in and smooch.\u00a0 They love the kids… they are a little nervous about me (rightly so, probably!), but they will follow the kids all over.\u00a0 Shaleigh is a little more timid around the alpacas – she got spit on the first time we went so I get it – but it turns out that she loves to clean up the poop… something about the poop scoop that they have was fun for her and she has claimed that as her chore!\u00a0 Twist my arm!\u00a0 (We’ve offered her the chicken poop and dog poop – to get some practice, but she says no!\u00a0 Apparently alpaca poop doesn’t stink, “it smells earthy”!\u00a0 She’s not wrong, but she IS funny!)<\/p>\n

Shirley has been an amazing mentor and friend and I am grateful every day that my aunt connected us.\u00a0 \u00a0She\u00a0has three alpacas that she thinks would be perfect for us – Zoe, Phoebe and Midori.\u00a0 \u00a0Zoe and Phoebe are white, and Midori is brown with a little white spot on her nose (and she’s also the one who spit on Shaleigh!).<\/p>\n

So… preparations have begun!<\/p>\n

I’ve studied up – reading books and blogs, joining groups on Facebook, following alpaca farms on Instagram… researched fencing and equipment, looking into vets.\u00a0 I’ve attended a couple of shearings to see what that’s all about – it’s not pretty, but it’s necessary and they feel so good after they’re sheared, which helps (and the fiber is amazing – so thick and so clean underneath!)\u00a0 I’m taking an Alpaca and Llama Information Workshop in a couple of weeks where I will learn so many things related to the animals about handling and care and nutrition and maintenance.\u00a0 And they have demonstrations and classes about processing fiber and even spinning.\u00a0 It’s going to be a wonderful day for me.<\/p>\n

And preparations have begun at the homestead, too.\u00a0 We purchased some fencing and have spent hours digging, putting wood posts in the ground and string-lining the area where they’ll be, and measuring, and planning.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Side Note:\u00a0 My favorite band is The Paperboys, and they have a song called “Country Life”, about spending a weekend in the country and how you can’t see the stars at home, but here you can… it’s a dream about moving to the country and the chorus goes, “I don’t know how… to build a fence.\u00a0 But I can learn, I can learn… in this country life”. Carson and I met online, but when we met in person, it was at a Paperboys show and he’s been to a couple more with me since then.\u00a0 I have always loved this song, and never dreamed it would be my life.\u00a0 I am humming the song constantly these days as we learn how to build a fence in our country life.\u00a0 \u00a0I love stuff like that!!<\/em><\/p>\n

We are so lucky to have neighbors who know about all of this stuff.\u00a0 When Jim got home from work tonight, he came over and helped us with a few things we kept getting stuck on.\u00a0 Luckily, the answer was that we were overthinking it and it’s going to work out once we get the fencing installed… Phew!!\u00a0 He had some ideas about gates and stuff that we hadn’t thought of – more using what we have, which I am loving right now!<\/p>\n

There is a lot of work left to do and I’m sure we’ll be reworking things right up until the last minute, but I am so excited, I’m actually giddy!\u00a0 I am so grateful that this is my life!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more fencing, alpaca preparations and hopefully for alpaca news in the next month!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may have mentioned a time or two that I am a little tiny bit obsessed with alpacas.\u00a0 I love watching them do their thing.\u00a0 They are so cute and personable and fun. Last year, we went to the Festival of Family Farms – an event in our area where farms open up and let people see what they do.\u00a0 We didn’t go to all of the farms, but we chose an alpaca farm and a cheese farm.\u00a0 I got to be up close to the alpacas and it was amazing.   \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0   I stood, making eye contact with a few of them, and it was so cool – they seem so wise and intuitive.\u00a0 The alpaca farm, they had a whole set up for processing the fiber, too – from washing it to spinning it into yarn.\u00a0 There was a whole group of women demonstrating every part.\u00a0 I knew this was something I wanted to learn more about. I posted something on Facebook about loving alpacas and my aunt, who now lives in California, wrote to me and said that her very good friends have an alpaca farm in the city just north of us and she wondered if I’d like her to connect me to them.\u00a0 Um… yes Please! Shirley and Sherry are amazing.\u00a0 I told them that I love alpacas and want to learn all I can, and I said I homeschool my kids and I’d love to make that part of it.\u00a0 I had no plans at that time to have alpacas of my own… I didn’t think our yard was conducive to that and I honestly wasn’t ready for another animal… I think our chickens were babies at that time and we were still adjusting to our bigger country land and garden and house.\u00a0 But I really wanted to be near them and learn all I could.   Shirley told us about an event that was coming up called FiberFusion, where people bring the fiber from their animals to sell, and there would be all kinds of vendors for fiber products, and alpacas, too! \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Shaleigh and I went and I think I was in heaven.\u00a0 It’s amazing all of the things you can make with fiber… the most interesting thing I saw that day was a bar of soap covered in alpaca fleece (cleaned and processed, of course) and it’s kind of like a washcloth and soap combo – in one.\u00a0 We also saw someone MAKING yarn with a drop spindle… and I got to try a spinning wheel, and I pretty much felt like I was meditating.\u00a0 I’m a sucker for yarn… it’s a big part of stress relief for me, especially when my mind is going crazy with worry and thinking too much, doing something with yarn in my hands (crocheting, knitting, making yarn balls) calms my mind… it doesn’t turn it off, it just focuses it.\u00a0 Anyway, the spinning wheel did that, too!\u00a0 I was hooked.   I started dreaming of having my own alpaca herd then and there… there was a lot of\u00a0 “what about…?” and “but…” and “how are we gonna…?” to cover first.\u00a0 Did we have the space they’d need? What about predators like cougars and coyotes?\u00a0 Do we still have an area to run the dogs in the yard?\u00a0 Do we have the money needed to take care of them?\u00a0 And a million more. As time went on, I felt reassured by Shirley that we can provide them a good home.\u00a0 We’ve had several visits with the alpacas and Shirley and Sherry, and every single time we’ve gotten together, at their farm or ours – the weather is perfect – warmer than expected and sunny! This was our first visit. Since then, I’ve taken each kid one at a time and together a couple of times, too.\u00a0 The kids did chores on their individual visits – Braden even got three alpaca kisses… I think they loved his red hair and his head is right at the perfect level to lean in and smooch.\u00a0 They love the kids… they are a little nervous about me (rightly so, probably!), but they will follow the kids all over.\u00a0 Shaleigh is a little more timid around the alpacas – she got spit on the first time we went so I get it – but it turns out that she loves to clean up the poop… something about the poop scoop that they have was fun for her and she has claimed that as her chore!\u00a0 Twist my arm!\u00a0 (We’ve offered her the chicken poop and dog poop – to get some practice, but she says no!\u00a0 Apparently alpaca poop doesn’t stink, “it smells earthy”!\u00a0 She’s not wrong, but she IS funny!) Shirley has been an amazing mentor and friend and I am grateful every day that my aunt connected us.\u00a0 \u00a0She\u00a0has three alpacas that she thinks would be perfect for us – Zoe, Phoebe and Midori.\u00a0 \u00a0Zoe and Phoebe are white, and Midori is brown with a little white spot on her nose (and she’s also the one who spit on Shaleigh!). So… preparations have begun! I’ve studied up – reading books and blogs, joining groups on Facebook, following alpaca farms on Instagram… researched fencing and equipment, looking into vets.\u00a0 I’ve attended a couple of shearings to see what that’s all about – it’s not pretty, but it’s necessary and they feel so good after they’re sheared, which helps (and the fiber is amazing – so thick and so clean underneath!)\u00a0 I’m taking an Alpaca and Llama Information Workshop in a couple of weeks where I will learn so many things related to the animals about handling and care and nutrition and maintenance.\u00a0 And they have demonstrations and classes about processing fiber and even spinning.\u00a0 It’s going to be a wonderful day for me. And preparations have begun at the homestead, too.\u00a0 We purchased some fencing and have spent hours digging, putting wood posts in the ground and string-lining the area where they’ll be, and measuring, and planning.   Side Note:\u00a0 My favorite band is The Paperboys, and they have a song called “Country Life”, about spending a weekend in the country and how you can’t see the stars at home, but here you can… it’s a dream about moving to the country and the chorus goes, “I don’t know how… to build a fence.\u00a0 But I can learn, I can learn… in this country life”. Carson and I met online, but when we met in person, it was at a Paperboys show and he’s been to a couple more with me since then.\u00a0 I have always loved this song, and never dreamed it would be my life.\u00a0 I am humming the song constantly these days as we learn how to build a fence in our country life.\u00a0 \u00a0I love stuff like that!! We are so lucky to have neighbors who know about all of this stuff.\u00a0 When Jim got home from work tonight, he came over and helped us with a few things we kept getting stuck on.\u00a0 Luckily, the answer was that we were overthinking it and it’s going to work out once we get the fencing installed… Phew!!\u00a0 He had some ideas about gates and stuff that we hadn’t thought of – more using what we have, which I am loving right now! There is a lot of work left to do and I’m sure we’ll be reworking things right up until the last minute, but I am so excited, I’m actually giddy!\u00a0 I am so grateful that this is my life! Stay tuned for more fencing, alpaca preparations and hopefully for alpaca news in the next month!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[55,8,25,43],"tags":[61,118,120,231],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/20171110_154133-Copy-scaled.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevenshomestead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}