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Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Alpaca Dreams farm is participating in the National Alpaca Farm Days again this year. This is a Free, Unique, Fun Outing for people of all ages. Our alpaca farm will be open to the public from 10am to 4pm on both Saturday, 9/24 and Sunday, 9/25/16. Come and meet our 13 alpacas and 2 guard llamas. They are all amazing, gentle, inquisitive creatures who, even while being timid, are curious about visitors. Come and learn about alpacas and llamas; how they are different and alike; how their fiber is processed into yarn, and how every bit of their fiber can be made into alpaca products.
After visiting our animals, browse through our Gift Shop. It is loaded with alpaca and alpaca related items…..socks, scarves, hats, gloves, purses, throws, pillow covers, stuffed animals, books and many other things. Many of the items are handcrafted and some of the items are made here at Alpaca Dreams from our own animals' fiber. Each of these items come with picture(s) of the animals whose fiber went into the item. Credit cards are accepted.
If it rains we will still be open. We can bring some of our animals into the barn; our displays are setup in the barn; and our Gift shop is accessible from inside the barn. Oh....and we Love pets but please let them have a quiet afternoon at home. Our alpacas are super curious and love visitors but will keep their distance if there are dogs or other 'scary animals' nearby.
And remember, Alpaca Dreams is open for visits all during the year. All you have to do to visit is call or email us to setup a date/time so we are sure to be home. The weekend of September 24, 25 is special because of National Alpaca Farm Days.
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Thursday, August 18, 2016
Alpaca Dreams will be part of the Eastern Triangle Farm Tour this year from 1 - 5pm each day.
There will be 25 farms open for touring. The cost is $30 per car pass in advance.
The website where you can learn more and buy their tickets is www.carolinafarmstewards.org/etft
Event hashtag - #ETFarmTour
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Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Come out to Alpaca Dreams for a Free, Unique, Fun Outing. Our alpaca farm will be open to the public from 10am to 4pm on both Saturday, 9/26 and Sunday, 9/27/15, rain or shine. Meet our 14 alpacas, including Ollie who was born this March, and our 3 guard llamas. Learn about alpacas and llamas; how they a different and alike; how their fiber is processed and how every bit of their fiber can be made into alpaca products.
While visiting our animals, you can take home a souvenir and/or start your Holiday Shopping at our Gift Shop. We have items made here at Alpaca Dreams from our own animals' fiber. Each of these items come with picture(s) of the animals whose fiber went into the item. We also have many other items made from alpaca fiber. Even if you have visited before, come on out....Ollie is new :-) and so are many of the items in the gift shop.
Oh....and we Love pets but please let them have a quiet afternoon at home. Our alpacas are super curious and love visitors but will keep their distance if there are dogs or other 'scary animals' near by.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Shearing day went great this year! It was a beautiful sunny day in the 60s, we had visitors who watched, great helpers (Barb Page, Stephanie Ellis-Wise, and Byrd Wilkins) and the best professional shearer, Sam Murphy from NZ.
Here's what happens when each animal is sheared: Sam and his helper shear each animal and, when needed, clip toenails, grind the bottom front teeth to even out them out so they can graze better, and clip fighting teeth. One of the wonderful things about alpacas and llamas is that every bit of fiber can be put to use. Sam first shears off the best fiber (the blanket area) and that is bagged in a separate bag. The same is done for the 2nds and 3rds so the shearing of each animal results in 3 bags of fiber with a sign in each identifying the animal by name, grade of fiber (1st, 2nd or 3rd) and the shearing date. Barb and Stephanie had to move fast to have the bags ready and fill them with the appropriate grade of fiber as Mike quickly pulled the freshly trimmed fiber away from the animal. Byrd kept track of what was done with each animal so we would know how to calculate our payment and so I would have the information to add to each animal's record.
This is probably the least favorite day for our animals but it contributes the most to their health. Sam and his helper get each animal done in about 5 minutes so they don't have to be stressed very long. None of them like being tied down but some lie quietly while others vocalize and spit their way through the 5 minutes! But....after shearing is over....when you look outside you see sunbathing animals in all the pastures! They have rolled in the dust and are lying on their sides soaking up the sun, which they have not felt for quite a few months!
We had 15 alpacas and 3 llamas sheared in 2.5 hours. If we had room for 2 shearing stations that time would have been cut in half. All in all, we had animals sheared that ranged from our 5 week old Ollie to our gentle giant Geronimo (our 425 lb guard llama). This is the 3rd year we have had Sam shear and we will continue to hire him as long as he comes to the US during shearing season! A big thanks to Heidi Kittrell of Celestine Ridge Alpacas for organizing the shearing schedule for the southeastern states!
Here are a few before and after pictures from shearing day but be sure to see our photo album labeled Shearing Day 2015 that has alot more pictures.
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Monday, February 2, 2015
Our granddaughter Anna spent the weekend with us. She has a new app and made a couple of really cute pics while she was here. One is a cat's selfie with our llama Rockette, and the other is one photo that contains all 3 generations - Grandma Analena (who was imported from Peru) on the left, her daughter Rosie (bottom right) and Rosie's daughter Maddie (upper right) who is now 9 months old. Maddie is such a fluff ball....we imagine she is going to look ALOT smaller after she's sheared in April.
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Monday, September 1, 2014
Come out to Alpaca Dreams for a Free, Unique, Fun outing. Our alpaca farm will be open to the public from 10am to 4pm on both Saturday, 9/27 and Sunday, 9/28/14. Meet our 13 alpacas, including Maddie who was born 4/29/14, and our 3 guard llamas. Learn about alpacas and llamas; how they a different and alike; how the fiber is processed and how every bit of their fiber can be made into alpaca products.
While visiting our animals, you can start your Holiday Shopping at our recently opened Alpaca Dreams Gift Shop. We have items made here at Alpaca Dreams from our own animal's fiber as well as many other items made from alpaca fiber. Even if you have visited before, come on out....Maddie is new :-) and so is the gift shop.
We'll be open rain or shine since we can bring the animals inside the barn for you to see 'up close and personal'.
Oh....and we Love pets but please let them have a quiet afternoon at home. Our alpacas are super curious and love visitors but will keep their distance if there are dogs or other 'scary animals' near by.
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Friday, June 20, 2014
Have you ever wondered how wonderful it must feel after shearing for an alpaca to feel the breeze again? Look at these pictures of Miaya...waiting for her turn to be sheared.....and then absolutely ecstatic after being sheared and feeling the breeze!! Is that pure bliss or what!!! :-)
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Thursday, October 3, 2013
Hi Everyone! We had lots of people visit our farm this past weekend for National Alpaca Open Farm Days. Everyone seemed to enjoy meeting our alpacas and llamas...and they certainly enjoyed meeting everyone. We have more pictures posted on Facebook. Hope you enjoy!
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Monday, May 6, 2013
This was our first shearing day on our own farm. We hired 2 professional shearers to shear our herd. They were not only prompt....they arrived an hour and a half early....at 12:30 instead of 2:00pm. The problem was our helpers were not arriving until 1:30! The shearers said they would help with the animals so we jumped in. And thankfully our helpers, Barb and Byrd, arrived early and pitched right in!
We wanted to keep things as calm for all the animals as we could. We brought in the girls first. The shearers were fast so the animals were only tied out for about 5 minutes. To determine how much fiber was sheared off we first weighed each animal; then they were sheared; and then we re-weighed. The 'winner' was our herdsire Journey with a total of 8.9 lbs of fiber! See the pictures....they show Journey before shearing; while being sheared; and after shearing. It's amazing how small the animals are once all their fiber is has been sheared!
When the girls were done we brought in the boys. The problem is we forgot to do one 'little thing' first..... close the overhead doors so the boys could not see the girls! Our 2 herdsires, Journey & Accelerator, immediately started spitting at each other since they both wanted to go after the girls. The door came down FAST after we realized what was happening!
The boys are stronger than the girls....their necks are unbelievably strong.....but between the shearers, Mike and Byrd, they were each tied out and sheared just as quickly as the girls. Shearing is stressful for the animals but it's a necessary step in herd health....the heat in NC would destroy them in the summer if they were not sheared. Picture yourself in 100+ degrees with really high humidity and wearing a heavy coat that is warmer than wool!!
THEN we brought in Harry the Llama. He was not happy at all about this....spent most of the time he was tied out spitting out the grossest stuff imaginable!! The shearers really like llamas so they asked if they could give Harry a mullet haircut and we agreed. See how proud he looks in his picture!! :-) After Harry was re-haltered, Sarah picked up the lead to take Harry back to the shelter......only to discover that the lead had been sitting in the 'spit pool' Harry had created while showing how deeply offended he was by the whole process. Oh well.....not much you can do once the green goo gets on you....so off Sarah and Harry went to the shelter.
So by 3:00 all animals were sheared.....only Sarah had spit stink on her.....and the animals were ready for the hot summer. All in all we think our first farm shearing day went well.
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