New life on the farm & more fun

 September ended with a new batch of Chickens. Yes they are in my bathtub and yes I have went a little should we say country/redneck?! Oh but the fun of it all.... It works out pretty good actually. We have a spare bathroom that is never used. The chickens stay in there, nice and warm for the first week and then outside they go and the tub can be cleaned.
Our barn cat, barney, likes to keep an eye on the chickens so they won't be harmed.

 25 chic's in all. Most will be meat but some will live on to be egg layers.

Did you know baby chicks like to cuddle:-)

Next we had a great field trip with 17 preschoolers, teachers & moms.

 All the kids got to take an alpaca for a walk & give them some grain

 They also felt different types of Alpaca fiber & sheep wool. That's about all the kids are interested in.

 Soon after the field trip and around the time of the full blood moon, the first of 2 fall cria's (baby alpacas) were born




This is a picture of Bella starting to deliver her little one

I think she's trying to figure out whats going on back there. We call this spin dry baby because mom keeps spinning around in a circle to check out what is happening.

And Elliot is born. He was very tiny and we were a bit worried at first

I probably should not be interfering but I just helped a little by drying him off

I think mom and anti were alright with that. The head it cut off in this pictures but our girl Bibb's played nurse maid with this one. While preparing for and delivering, there always seems to be 1 Alpaca that stays within a few feet of the soon to be mom throughout the delivery. Once baby is delivered they all come huddle around to meet the newest member of the family

Here's 2 more Aunts checking out the new guy. The lt. brown girl on the left, Grayce, was thought to be pregnant and due around the same time. Turns out she's just been eating really well!

The next day, I was pretty sure that Raine y was in labor with her first cria. I checked her for the last time at 11:30 at night and she was laying down so I thought maybe false labor. The next morning I went to the barn upon waking to find this pretty little girl had just been born. It was a cold morning and they were in the field, so I brought them into the barn and made sure they rested on fresh hay.

Here's a few pictures of the baby a short time later up, waling nursing. Big sigh of relief. 2 new baby's in 3 days both healthy & strong

We are still trying to come up with a name for this pretty girl born to Martini's Rain. Any ideas? More pictures to come soon

Fall 2014

There is a lot of excitement in the air around the farm this fall.

We have moved our store "The Alpaca Corner" in with Elizabeth Halsey, A unique Boutique, located on 48 Justice Street downtown Newaygo. (right behind the city buildings & Library)

Its a beautiful old brick Mansion. 

Next we are on baby watch. 3 of our females are due in the next week or so. Amazing how much time I can spend just watching for movement in their bellies.:-)

Also coming this fall is a new herd sire. He is a beautiful Suri. Pictures & more info on him to come soon. Hopefully we will be picking him up the beginning of October. 2014

Farm Markets
As we do every fall, we will be bringing a few of our Alpacas, along with clothing, roving, yarn & more to 3 farm markets in the next 2 weeks. You can look on our events page for dates, times & locations.

Fu Manchu extenders! Just 1 more thing you can do with the dread locks from Suri Alpacas

Did you know we also do Alpaca dentistry? We could help this boy look as sexy as he feels!

spring

Well it's been a great & busy week.

We planted 20 sweet cherry trees during the week. When I say we, I mean mostly Paul, planted 20 sweet cherry trees during the week. I did help once the holes were dug and the fertilizer (alpaca poop) was mixed in :-) Can't wait until they look like the picture and we are enjoying them.

Next we-I cleaned the barn. A few more hours and it will be complete. Well as complete as a barn with 14 Alpacas pooping daily, too many chickens to count & 1 friendly turkey can be. It was good enough for shearing.

We had a great day shearing all the Alpacas and had some great helpers! Thanks to our neighbor Kelly and our new found alpaca friends Eric & Lisa for all your help. I think they actually enjoyed the day. Usually we don't get repeat help

The picture is of a little guy named speedy. Wish we would have taken an after picture. He is adorable and is going to his new home with 1 of our other alpacas this week. I will miss seeing the little guys go they are so much fun to watch playing in the field.


So now we are on to a crazy schedule of  shearing Llamas & Alpacas around the state. Every weekend and some weekdays for the next 6 weeks.

BUT... We also have gardening on the mind

We always have a garden that's almost to big to handle and definitely more then we can eat so we have decided to have a community garden.
3 lovely lady friends of ours will be helping with the garden this year. We have lots of land and lots of fertilizer (alpaca, chicken, pig poop & we know where to get horse & cow poop if necessary)
Together we have great plans for the future & others that would like to join in. Sharing a garden for the 1st time we are going to start with just a small group and see how things go.

We did buy a new toy for the garden (Paul loves new toys) It's a 5 ft. rototiller for the back of our 1951 john deer tractor. We are hoping but not completely sure that the tractor will be strong enough for the tiller. We'll find out this week. Wish us luck

Spring 2014. Ahhh happy words

Finally the longest coldest, snowiest winter that I can remember has said good by and spring has sprung:-)
We have spent the past few months dreaming and planning and now it's time to get busy.

Alpaca & Llama Shearing Season starts this Saturday April 26, 2014 We are starting with our own Alpaca herd. If your interested in coming out to watch & help out with shearing and harvesting the fiber, please give us a call or email. We will have fiber for sale right off the animal and we also  have roving for sale.

Then we will be in full swing going throughout Michigan shearing at Alpaca & Llama farms with as few as 2 animals and as large as 60 plus Alpacas & 40 plus Llamas.  So excited to see all of our Alpaca & Llama friends and get our hands on that wonderful fiber.

Holiday Fair in Fremont MI.

The Alpaca Corner will be set up at the Holiday Fair in Fremont MI. tomorrow. November 9, 2013 from 9am to 3pm. It's located in the old Fremont High School. It's a huge event with about 150 exhibitors. Hope to see you there.

Some new members of the White Cloud Alpaca family that you'll meet at our Open House

Our 8th Annual Open house will be here before you know it. In case you forgot, the date is set for Oct. 12, 2013 from 10 to 4pm
Here are a few new faces you'll see on our farm this year

2 little pigs- we have not named them and they are still a little shy

Our 2 Turkeys Tommy & Gretta- very curious & friendly Almost 4 months old they have gotten very big.

This little guy is just over a week old. Maybe you can help us name him. He's doing great!

Our old gal Maggy is not so new. She's the oldest member of our farm

Here's another new guy. Just born in this picture, he's not quite a week old. We also need help naming him

This is Little Ms. Patriot. She was born Nov. 7, 2012 (election day)

Fall Events & Open House

Just a quick post to let everyone know about some upcoming events for the farm.
Next week we will be at 3 different farm markets with our Alpacas. We'll also have some Alpaca clothing, books, fiber, etc. with us. Just in time for the cold weather.

Market dates:
Sept 18th     We'll be at the Sparta Farmers Market  2-7pm
Sept 20th     Big Rapids Farm Market  8am-2pm
Sept 21st      Howard City Farm Market   9am-2pm

Also, Please Save the date for our 8th Annual White Cloud Alpaca Open House

October 12, 2013 From 10am to 4pm
As always we hope to see old friends and meet new ones.

I'll be posting soon with more info on our Open House and to fill you in on our wonderful summer full of new animals-turkeys & pigs and our daughters wedding.

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.

Winter Clothing Sale

   The Alpaca Corner located in This Old House Antiques, downtown Newaygo is offering 20% Off all capes, wraps, shawls and sweaters through the end of February.


Also, watch for new merchandise coming in. The Alpaca Wool blend blankets are sure to keep you warm and cozy throughout the winter months!

Thanks Giving

I started to write this blog at Thanks Giving. Yikes, where does the time go! Well to catch you up on what's been happening on the farm-

We took Cole to the nursing home for a visit in November. His curious nature and gentle demeanor is always loved by the people there. I usually take a few Alpacas but this time we were in a bit of a hurry and didn't want to run late. I also took my mini van instead of the cargo van they usually travel in and I didn't want the boys to start arguing on the way there and leave spit behind! They usually never spit but under close conditions they can be like kids fighting in the back seat over who has more room.

Several people at the nursing home asked where the other Alpaca was. I'll make sure to bring 2 Alpacas on the next visit.
On our way out we met a couple in their 90's. They were great, very sharp minded and young in heart. They commented that they had never seen an Alpaca before that day and are still learning new things. Wow, how inspirational!

                                                                                                                               That same day, in the morning, our 3 little piggies went bye bye. Oh so sad but we knew the day would come and we prepared knowing that they had the best and most normal life a pig in captivity could have. Being heritage pigs (mule foot) just a few short years ago they were on the extinction list. Very popular 100 yrs ago for being disease resistant and VERY flavorful and easy to raise. Now a days pigs are mostly raised indoors in small singular quarters and pumped with antibiotics so they don't have to worry about disease, they are also raising a different type of pig these days. Less fatty, (the other white meat). Many great Chefs say we gave up flavor and taste, I just know that by raising these pigs for meat it helps to keep the breed alive. If there is no one to purchase the meat, breeders will quite raising them. I also like knowing that the pork I'm eating is natural and doesn't have antibiotics in them. I recently read an article that up to 70% of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are used needlessly for the animals that we eat. Scary if you ask me.OK enough ranting about that.

Next

We  spent some time cleaning up and getting ready for winter. We put the Alpaca pools away, changed the water buckets to our winter heated buckets. We also partially close of the openings that the Alpacas freely enter and exit the barn into the pasture. We have most off the winter supply of hay stored at our neighbors barn but we fill up all extra space in our barn with hay to keep it warmer.

Then came the day in November that I walked out to the barn to see a new Cria! A beautiful little girl and what a surprise she was. Born Nov. 7th (election day), she has been named Little Ms. Patriot.

After 10 yrs of breeding Alpacas you would think I we would know and be watching for an impending birth. Well we just attempted breeding Maria once late in the year. We checked her a few times after that and she showed no signs of being pregnant. When spring came, we decided to hold off on breeding for a year. With Maria's fiber growing in for the winter, it's not as easy to see a cria moving within. Especially if your not watching. I even did a body score on her about a week before and thought to myself, she's getting that older lady frame at a young age. Good thing I keep good records. Now I just have to remember to look at them more often.

December was a quieter month at the farm. The Alpacas stayed warm and comfy with plenty of hay & straw. The snow held off for the most part and they were able to graze in the pasture for most of the month. We sold 4 of our chickens and had a few farm visits.

The Alpaca Corner continues to do great. We had a record breaking season and are purchasing new items all the time. We also have some nice locally made Alpaca/ Wool items for sale.  We were playing with the idea of expanding again. We just don't seem to have the time to keep up with everything know and I'm often wishing that there were more hours in the day so we are holding off at least until summer. However I am researching more sources to purchase from. Mostly local.

I'll blog soon about upcoming events and the happenings of January & February

Our Open House Last weekend-Oct.6, 2012

 Thanks to everyone that braved the cold & rain to come out to our Open House last weekend. We had a great time dispite the cold

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This was the 1st year that we teamed up with the Old Farm Girl & Friends Fiber Event and I think it was a big hit. The joining of wonderful fibers and Animals was a great thing.

 The kids enjoyed walking Llama Red around. Our grandson James at the ripe old age of 2 yrs old, enjoys showing other kids how to walk Red & the Alpacas and makes sure they do it right:)

 The food was great and the Hot Chocolate, Chili & Gumbo helped to keep people warm.

 Thanks Also to Evelyn, "The Old Farm Girl" and the other Fiber Arts ladies for making the day great. I know that people were loving all the different fibers and Evelyn sold 1 of her beautiful spinning wheels. 

 What great colors

The heating lamp helped keep the inside of the tent warm so the ladies could spin.

and such a great face

Norm, as always, was a big hit. He is just so friendly & curious

These are pictures of Dolli Llama and his goat friend. We took them in a week before our Open House and are happy to say they have been re-homed!  They went to their new home the day of the Open House. We are so happy for all

a few of our chickens. The one on the left is our little bani hen and the other is one of our meat birds that got away. 

Jelly Bean farm was nice enough to bring along a few of their Angora Bunnies for all to enjoy

Wow these ladies have talent

Our pigs were just laying back watching all the excitement

Venus and Jasmin were great helps at the Open House. They would make great farm hands if I could only convince them that poop patrol really isn't that bad

Some pictures of our temporary clothing & more store. " The Alpaca Corner"
Everything that didn't sell has been put back at our store in This Old House Antiques & Resale, Newaygo.

We have more clothing on the way. Some great new items will be in just in time for Christmas and the extra cold weather.

 White Cloud Alpacas had a drawing for a $30. gift certificate. Congratulations Wendy Muir, this years winner.


Don't feel like you need to wait for our next open house to come visit. Just give us a call. Now that fall is hear, things have slowed down a bit and we have time to enjoy the animals and they are much more active now that it's not 90 plus degrees out

We will be updating our events page soon so please check back for future events. Thanks