Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Shearing Time

Well we are all ready to start the 2013 shearing season, BUT the weather just is not cooperating. April 20th we are scheduled to start shearing at a few farms north of our place. The high is suppose to be 39 or 40 degrees. Those poor Alpacas will be freezing. I think we will be putting them off and working longer days once the weather does brake.

Shearing for our farm is set for May 4, 2013. We will be shearing at a small farm in Morley in the morning and should be back for our Alpaca shearing by 1 o'clock in the afternoon. We are not having a big to do for shearing day this year but people are more then welcome to come help with the harvest. Please call or email if interested.  It's also a great time to get your hands on any of our Alpacas that you may be interested in purchasing or purchasing fleece right off the animal. We have a list of several good mills that you can send the fiber off to, to be processed into roving, yarn or made into socks, clothing, etc.

Maple Syrup: The weather may not be good for shearing but it's been a great year for making maple syrup
 Here are a few pictures of our evaporator. It takes about 38 to 40 gallons of sap from the maple trees to make up 1 gallon of syrup. It takes us a full day of boiling to make about 1 1/2 gallons of syrup. We like to refer to it as liquid gold. Unfortunately our day jobs don't allow for syrup making during the week. We hope to someday be able to make enough for more sales but right now we are just having fun making our own supply and a few extra for gifts and sales.












Gardening Season is also just around the corner: We love to garden and have grown our own veggies since marrying almost 31 yrs ago . We seem to expand our garden by a little every year and have also planted many fruit trees. We always have more then enough for ourselves, our family and a few outside veggie sales. We also hope to have enough for more sales in the future.
Since purchasing our 1st Alpacas 11 yrs ago this coming summer, we have ONLY used Alpaca dung to fertilize the garden. It is by far the best fertilizer we have ever used.
We bag and sell the Alpaca dung $8.00 a bag if we bag it. If you are interested in purchasing some and would like to bag it yourself or bring your pickup truck out to the field, we have reduced pricing.  Check out our blog from March 2012 for fiber analysis compared to other animals.

Stop by our store-The Alpaca Corner, located in This Old House Antiques. Downtown Newaygo and pick up some fiber for the birds.It's the fiber from Alpaca neck & legs. Not soft for clothing but it has great uses.  The birds love it for their nests. You can put some in a bird cake holder and watch the birds take it away. a small bag full free with any purchase.