It’s birthing season here at Snowshoe Farm. Alpacas have a fairly wide window for birthing; gestation, in our experience, can be as short as 10-1/2 months or can go over a year. So we do a lot of watching and waiting. Rosita is up next; her 11 month date is … Read More
Last night’s storm was one of the worst I’ve seen. Hours and hours of thunder, lightning, rain, wind and hail. We lost power at some point and it just came back on at 9am. Our farm is located at a fork in the road; there are three roads to get … Read More
We’re starting off on the right step this year – our firstborn cria is a girl! The first cria of the season was born on Friday, May 6. Her dam is our beautiful Nishio daughter, Isabellita, and her sire is our own champion white male, Snowshoe Aristides. This is the … Read More
The last alpaca we sheared last week was our beautiful rose gray female, Esther Rose. Here are some photos of the process:
We’re scheduled to shear our alpacas this week and the forecast is for chance of showers every day. This is not good. The alpacas need to be dry – or mostly dry – for shearing. And damp fiber is more work for us as it will need to be aired … Read More
Yes, it’s officially spring, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel like spring. Up here we have a transitional season we call “mud season” and it is aptly named. It can take some time for the weather to melt all the snow, drive the frost out of the ground … Read More
Our schedule usually includes a string of alpaca shows each spring and fall. Both are very busy times of year even without the added stress of shows. But now that Ron is so busy shearing, we don’t do all the spring shows that we used to do. Ron took four … Read More
The last few days prior to a show, especially the first show of the season, find us hauling out our “show box” – dirty from a winter in the barn – and scrambling around for all the show essentials: banners, tables, fans, water buckets, halters and leads, tool kit, cable … Read More
We had several lovely warm, sunny days last week…and we’re paying for it. Our road is the worst we’ve seen in years. The path down to our compost pile – where we haul manure every day – is almost impassable. We still have at least a couple feet of snow … Read More
OK, so we’re coming up on mid-March here and it still looks like mid-winter. Nevertheless, spring show season starts in 3 weeks with the North American Alpaca Show. We’re showing 5 of our males – one adult, one yearling and three juveniles. Only one of the five is currently lead … Read More