Falling in love with Alpacas
Oh was it falling in love today , our grandkids and even my dh thought theses little guys were cute. I have been doing some homework on raising Alpacas. I think this is the animal for us . Small and gentle enough for the grandkids to raise and take part in 4H.
The kids took to these little guys right off the bat and loved feeding them. The owner let the kids get right in there along with her being in there showing them how to feed and pet these cuties. I was so surprised how gentle the Alpacas were. The owner was so nice , says this is what she loves to do is share about Alpacas to the little guys. Met several other Alpaca breeders today at the fair grounds who were oh so nice and helpful. Along with seeing fibers , fibers and more fibers.
I'm interested in starting with Fiber Boys, they tend to be in a price range that is doable for us. A couple of breeders will even board the ones that we buy free for six months until we get our homestead ready for the alpacas.
The brown alpaca is for sell for $8500. and others there sold for $13,000. Ok that's way over my price range for being newbies. The fiber boys go from 500 to under 1000 and on up too, but you need at least two, b/c they are a herd animal and need others of their kind to fair well.
I knew that Alpacas were expensive, but didn't know that we can start small and grow our herd with the lesser expense, "Fiber Boys" first, just for the fiber and pets. They are a good investment and some just buy them for that and have them boarded out , just for the investment, gosh I want to have my Alpaca around the farm, oh are they cute and not very big either.
Theres many reasons why I would like to start raising Alpacas, its just not the money part although not to shabby either. The fiber is wonderful. And I would like to get that started. Many things can come from the fibers alone. You can sell it raw, or cleaned and card. Spin it up and sell , create beautiful finished products and other things that once you get involved it opens doors to many other things.
They say the cost of upkeep on an alpaca a year is about $130, that's less then the family pooch.
All was excited about getting into this type of homestead animal. Doesn't take to much to set up, fence and small shelter. This looks like it will be a next month and winter project and by spring will be able to get a couple of fiber boys and then take steps in a bigger investment and buy a breeding stock and start raising those little cuties. .
They had Angora goats as well at the fiber fair, and I could not resist getting some goat soap and lip balm. What great gifts these would make for the holidays, but I'm keeping these. I even love the packaging of handmade soaps , so pretty. And these had such a good smell. My sister had thirty goats one time and those bucks do get a little strong.
When we got home the grand girls tried out my hand cards. I have a bag of raw wool so they had a hand at carding and what its like to get wool ready for spinning.
The girls are studying the Appalachian Mountains, how people lived in the old days. The ways of making their own clothes , tools,gardening, cooking and music. I pulled out the dulcimer and they plucked on that for awhile.
I don't know but when I was in kindergarten , I don't remember studying fibers and spinning . I just remember , being quite , taking a nap and having a cookie. DD is homeschooling so this is just awesome to have the kids doing things like this at such a young age. Our little 5 yr old grand daughter when she got out of the van this morning at the fair grounds spotted a dead moth, she picked it up and put in a plastic baggie , said it was for her studies :O, wow!!!!!!
Everything is a learning experience and as far as their social life, my little grand girls have had more social in their little finger then I have had in my whole life, lol. From their 4th year of dancing to karate , to Sunday school activities to homeschooled group meetings that have class each week. Boy they need a calendar to pencil in grandmas visits, lol. I think theres a change being made and seeing that homeschooling has many opportunities. I support both homeschool and public schooling, as well as private schooling. I support education , and that every kid deserves the best .
We ended our day with another fair that was going on in town, It wasn't to big, but the one booth that I like was the being prepared one, My eyes got big when I seen their BOB, "bug out bag" or better yet the 72 hour bag. Ready to grab incase of emergencies.
They also had a booth on candles, these where made from soy beans. Now paraffin is not good to burn, not good at all. Bees wax is very good, burns clean , they were saying soy was even better then bees wax. I will do some research on this. Its really hard to beat anything made from honey bees.
Suppose to rain tomorrow, hope so. Its been warm here and its hard to believe this autumn when we got summer like weather. But next week may change. Now I got some blogs to read and nice comments to get back to . My pc has been kicking off lately and I was in town yesterday and pooped time I got back home. So got to catch up. Thanks for stopping by and have a great tomorrow.
Blessings
linda
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