Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

About where does your aunt live in Vermont?

 

[NH homesteader]

Strafford. Near Tunbridge. Where are you? Way up north?

 

[Bruce]

Yep, 20 miles from the Canadian border on the west side. Guess I can't hit your aunt up for fiber spinning lessons for DD1 I was just north of Strafford for a short time on Saturday picking up DD2. She got a ride from school back to VT with a girl that lives in Chelsea. It is 1.5 hours from here. Beautiful fall colors in that area last weekend!

 

[NH homesteader]

I'm not far from her on the NH side. I'm a half hour from White River Junction. It was beautiful, they're starting to fall pretty fast now! I've been up near Burke Mountain, we have friends there. And I've driven through to NY way up north. If there were more jobs up there we would love to be that far north!

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks for starting the journal Bruce. You have a great looking property and the boys look great! Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[Bruce]

Went out this morning expecting the usual routine. Say hi to the boys in the field, open the barn, toss kitchen scraps for the chickens after they rush out, go get BOSS for them and pellets for the alpacas, go back out, toss the BOSS, hand feed the alpacas at the gate.

But the boys had a different idea. All was as expected except the last part. When I got back outside, no more boys. I looked back into the barn and Teddy had come into the alley on their end. I guess they wanted to "dine in" so I took their pellets down that way. Laddie came in, then they both started to spook as I got closer so I rattled the pellets in the container and they stayed. Put some in each feeder and they each chose one.



Until Teddy decided he wanted what Laddie had and pushed him away. Laddie just switched feeders. Not sure if Teddy made out or not.



Then they went back to the field.

 

[sadieml]

For the past 5 or 6 years my DD and I have checked out pics of alpacas for sale locally. We would love to have a few, mostly as pets, but we would certainly sell the fiber. You could never leave an alpaca unshaven in SC all year long. The heat would make that a death sentence. Your boys are really beautiful. I hope your wife and daughter are inspired by the gorgeous fleece. BTW, around here darker fibers, especially true black, are sought after. They sell for a lot more than the more common lighter fibers, even though those can be dyed almost any color. There's just something about the naturally black and brown fiber, so your boys should be cash cows, er, alpacas...

 

[babsbag]

I am pretty sure that my friend pays way more than $35 to get her alpacas sheared. Yours are very pretty, love the white and brown one.

 

[Bruce]

Hmmm, I wonder how one knows "true black".

We got frost last night. The boys slept outside. Everyone sing along
"Frosty the alpaca ....."



Laddie looks less frosted in the picture than he did when I first saw them, the sun hadn't hit him yet so the frost wasn't washed out by the light. Also, the picture was taken through a window screen which can't help.

 

[Mike CHS]

I'm not ready for frost yet but we are due within the next 2 to 4 weeks.