Looking forward!!

I am looking forward to the New Year. 

I have been very sick these last couple weeks and just have not gotten the work done in the mill that I had promised myself that I would.   Oh well I guess that is just part of the life cycle.

I still have a couple of fairly good sized orders to complete and then I am going to get busy on my own rovings.  I have been promising myself (and others) that I will get some alpaca/silk rovings done and also some alpaca/bamboo and alpaca/seacell.   I am very determined to do this in January. 

LOL  Does it sound like a pep talk to myself??  Well it may be.

I have actually had some time to sit at the loom in the house because of being under the weather and the other day made a nice simple scarf from a darker camel coloured 100% alpaca that I had spun.
I am looking forward to getting it washed and blocked. 

I have many big plans for the new year.  This is the time of year where we do not go out and do any shows.

Our first show for the 2011 season will be the Didsbury trade show in the early spring.  Then we have a couple weeks off and then we are off to the Strathmore Mother's Day Market. 

I am also going to try and get myself to keep the blog and the website more up to date this next year then I have in the past.  I am terrible for not keeping things current.  LOL  Oh well, for those that know me, they would expect nothing else.

Well everyone,  have a HAPPY NEW YEAR and may you all have a blessed and prosperous 2011

Busy Busy Busy LOL So what else is new

I am afraid I will just never be very good at keeping this blog current. I seem to be busy all the time doing something. Today I am making candles for the sale this weekend at Red Deer. It is the Christmas sale at the Westerner. This year they have decided to make it a 2 day sale.

We did the Strathmore sale this past Saturday and it was sooooooo busy. That is why I am busy making candles. We sold so many that I need to make more for this weekend. LOL Not a bad thing for sure.

I also have to get out to the mill and weigh out some 1 lb and some 4 oz bags of roving. We totally sold out of it this past weekend.

Next on the todo list today is to finish wrapping the bars of soap that is ready for the sale.

All in all the mill work is going well. We have just about completed the order for BC and then it is on to one for Mayerthorpe.

I am still aiming to get some more of my own fiber processed before the new year hits as well.

I really would like to have some alpaca/silk blend to spin over the holidays.

Oh I took some pictures of the trees outside with all the beautiful snow on them today at noon when I was heading out to do the deliveries in the truck.

I am having a really trying time with gmail right now. I received notice that canada.com was shutting down their email service and that we needed to move all of our emails to another server.
they suggested gmail and I went ahead. Now when I sign in to my emails, the page completely freezes up. Needless to say, I can't read or answer my mail. GRRR

Pics of the new Llamas

I went out and got pics of the new llamas.

This is Anika. She is a silky llama. I will definately have to give her a haircut come spring. Her fiber is very nice and fine and I am not seeing any quard hairs. Lovely brown and grey colour should come up a lovely heathered gray when spun.

This is Keilana. She is a lovely Suri Llama who as you can see has had a hair this summer.


Don't know a lot about her breeding right yet, but will know more when her papers come.











This is Peachy Keen, She is a female Suri Llama.


Her fleece is beautiful. I am looking forward to shearing her next spring and getting some of that lovelyness to work with.

This is Ice. He is a beautiful speciman of a Suri Llama.

I understand he has been shown quite extensively. I will know more and be able to research more once the papers for him come.

Beautiful fibre and just a wonderful temperment to work with.

The new suri llamas and the newest additions of the alpaca herd are now home. They are all out running around in the fields and looking like they are very happy to be able to pronk and carry on.

I may try getting a couple pics later today. Depends if it stops raining.

New fiber animals

Well I have gone and done it now. Another new fiber animal to work with in the mix at our farm

We went out today to buy a couple of white alpaca females and came home with 4. 2 whites, 1 black and 1 fawn. They are in need of some TLC for sure. I will have to try and trim up their fiber for the winter. They have at least 3 years of growth on them. I will have to try and trim that back so they don't get weighed down too much carrying all that through the wet and snow.
Can't shear them now as it is going to get COLD any time now.

Then to add to the mix here, we came home with 4 absolutely gorgeous suri llamas. 1 really bred male and 3 well bred females. Their fiber is so fine and has such great luster. We just had to have them. LOL
More feed, more work, more fiber. LOL OH well

Well when we get them home I will try and get some pics of them and post them for all to see.

Another market season has come to a close

Well the market is done for this year. We had an absolutely fabulous day today weather wise.
Thanksgiving weekend in Alberta and the temperatures were around the 20 C mark.

The market was a very busy place today. It seems like everyone was out for that final day.

Now we start getting ready for the Christmas markets. LOL That is only about 3 weeks away.

Red Deer Market: Last one for the year this Saturday. Thanksgiving weekend

The market is coming to a close for the year this weekend.

We have a new shipment of hats, mitts, gloves and a couple of blankets in from Peru this week and I will take them to the market this weekend for anyone looking for some lovely alpaca products.

Well the season has drawn to a close.

The season for having cria is done here about a month ago.
We had 18 cria in total this year. This was the year of brown babies for sure for us this year.

In that mix was 2 llampacas. one female and one male. The female is absolutely gorgeous. She has a main body colour of white with a beautiful fawn saddle. She has big black eyelashes that is is quite good at batting at everyone.

I will try and get out and get pics of her and the brown male very soon to post.

Well the season has drawn to a close.

Candles

I am going to try and get busy and post some pics of the different soy candles that I make along with the extensive scent list.
Please bear with me, I am not all the speedy about getting things posted on here.

#9 Cria,

#9 is a Fawn female, born July 9, 2010 to Gina.

LOL She is still trying to get her legs to co-operate here.

#8 Cria, born July 6, 2010

#8 hit the ground this week, It is a girl, big strong and healthy. AND of course another brown.

2010 Babies

Well as of Sunday we are at 7 cria for this year so far.



6 are browns, 1 is fawn. 4 are boys and 3 girls.



I am waiting for the white females to start having their cria. Hopefully we are going to see some white babies.

And here are a couple of little bunnies that are just coming out of the barn for the first bit.

They will soon join all the others in the field here I am sure.

And here is todays offering. Cria is a female, Born June 26/10. She is a fawn, just like her daddy.
This little girls fleece is amazing for a new born. She is so thick and crimpy. I will certainly be watching this one as she grows to see how this fleece develops.

This is #4, she is a little brown female, born June 25/10 to one of our brown females.

Both Mom and baby are doing great.

Newest baby pics

This is our cria born June 21/10, Boy, he is about an hour old here.

Mom and babes are doing great.

Newest cria arrived June 21, 2010 in the afternoon. We have another beautiful brown girl. This ones fibre is a lighter colour than the last 2. She is a big girl and all legs.
Pictures to follow. I got a couple of her about 2 hours after she was born

Here are a few pics of our products for sale at one of the Trade Shows in 2010

Here are a few pics of our products for sale at one of the Trade Shows in 2010

Bob just discovered she is a girl and now he is a happy man!!!

Here is our boy meeting his dad for the first time.

This is our first born cria for 2010, He is a good strong boy born to Scottie and from our wonderful cream male.

Birth date is June 14, 2010

Burgandy's female cria born June 16,2010

YESSS!!! Shearing is done for another year

Well we had a great shearing this year. We sheared 37 animals and I am very pleased with the fleece quality this year. We have some totally amazing cria fleece.

Now, comes the major amount of work. I am going to start tumbling, washing and carding the fleece to roving.

We have a wonderful selection of colour at this time.If there is a specific colour anyone is looking for, please contact me and I will get it in the line up quickly as I can.

2010 Fleece

We are in the process of shearing the alpaca. The fleece is looking wonderful.
We will have both raw fleece and roving for sale.

In the very near future we will have some alpaca/silk roving.

Please stay tuned and I will post when it is ready.

busy with making soaps for the summer markets

Well as always, I seem to have a thousand things to get done and never enough time to do half of them. LOL
I have been busy lately trying to get all the handmade soaps ready for the markets this summer.
We have our first trade fair coming up in April.
I will be attending the Didsbury Trade Fair April 10-11 for the first time this year. Hopefully I will be able to show the local population some of what we do here on the farm.

I am hoping to have a complete line of my soaps and bath salts and bombs ready for then as well as having a nice display of the alpaca roving and yarns produced right here on the farm from our own alpaca.

After that we are prepping for the Mother's Day market in Strathmore Ab.

We will once again be selling at the Red Deer Market on Saturday mornings from May long weekend through to Thanksgiving weekend.

White alpaca roving

I have just processed one of my young males white fibre. WOW

He is fantastic. I am so impressed.

Mill is working

Well it certainly has been a bit since I wrote anything on my blog. I am bad....

Anyway, I have been busy working at getting the mill operating a bit.
I have a neighbour who works with this type of equipment and he came and we took the carder completely apart and sharpened all the rollers. We also made sure that all the speeds were correct and that the timing were correct.
I think he is going to replace the clothing on the fancy for me as well.

We are still working on figuring out what is wrong with the pin drafter. Hopefully it will be working soon.

I have been getting a lot of enquiries for processing wool to roving for people for the spring. I am thinking I may be fairly busy. *S* That is a good thing