National Alpaca Farms Days – September 25 and 26

On September 25 and 26, alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will invite the public to come to their farm or ranch to meet their alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals. Diastole Alpaca Farm will be participating in NAFDs again this year. We will be open to the public on Saturday from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM and on Sunday from noon until 4:00 PM. The web site has directions and our phone number on the home page – we are only 15 minutes from Winston-Salem.

All 23 alpacas, two dozen chickens and our livestock guardian dogs will be ready to welcome you to the farm. We will have demonstrations of their fleece and several of the steps involved in preparing it for finished garments. Yarn, rugs, and fiber from the herd will be available as well as alpaca socks, garments and baby alpaca throws (5 ft X 6 ft blankets). The throws are great for Christmas presents – after you have one for yourself.

We will have a large selection of 6″ felted hand made alpaca figures available for sale. These are made by groups of women in Peru who call themselves “Grupo de Madres” (mothers club): a group of very talented and industrious women who make hand made items from their homes. Being able to work from their home enables them to care for their households while they create products – practicing techniques handed down from generation to generation. There are currently eight different groups with about 24 women in each group. We are very proud to be able to present their work here at our farm.

We hope you will be able to visit the farm and meet the alpacas. If you have any questions please give us a call at 336 775 7303.

For more information on participating farms go to:

Carolina Alpaca Breeders Organization at www.carolinaalpacafarms.org or
Alpaca Owners and Breeders Organization at www.alpacainfo.com

Jim and Sandy Morris

Just happened to go to the barn around 6 pm on June 29 and found Blossom standing over her very still baby. Taking very deep breaths I opened the gate and grabbed my precip. kit. I toweled him off and he responded but he was obviously a premature baby with some problems. After checking him over we had to hold him to suck and he did, hooray. Mom was very patient and full of milk so that a big hurdle passed. Just so happened our wonderful vet was coming in the morning for another matter (routine shots / check up) so that was lucky, too. Jim found that our cria had atresia ani (no opening in his butt). Our vet was able to surgically correct this on our farm and to determine that the rest of his GI tract appeared to be normal. All of 6/30 was pretty much spent doing neonatal ICU nursing. It took 3 days for confirmation of poop and that was cause for a champagne toast. It is amazing to me what is cause for celebration with life on the farm. Used to be we only drank champagne in France and after France we only drank it for big events like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Now we drink it to salute a bowel movement in a newborn alpaca! How times have changed. We have discovered that it is the little things as much as any big thing and that we need to celebrate every day just for the joy of it.

During the week that the cria was born we were dog sitting our dear friends Chesapeake Bay retriever while they were on a cruise. He was pretty happy here but not too impressed with our house dogs. He is an only child and we were not surprised that he wanted his own space. We have known and loved him since he was a pup and there was some jealousy involved from different corners – mostly from our baby – Luke. All that worked out fine but on the day before our friends were due to return this dog got sick. Worry and watch for 24 hr and hoping it would pass. No such luck. Off we go to emerg vet. hosp. on 7/3 and the poor dog had pancreatitis. I thought, “Oh no, not again.” That is what our Owen died from last month. However, the Chessie was treated agressively and is fully recovered for which we are grateful, very grateful.

What else is new? Hmmm. (I know that is an alpaca sound but no pun is intended.) I know! We are ready to post pictures of our yarn and rugs made from the fleece from our alpacas. That is big news and I am anxious to get it posted and see the response. Hope all of you are as excited about this as we are!

Our chickens are fine but egg production has slowed a bit. They were one year old in April so we have passed the peak for number of eggs per day. They are still affectionate and all the children love to touch them. The books say it is time for stew but that won’t happen. They can get older along with the rest of us.

There is a chance that we may host a CAMELIDynamics workshop with Marty Mcgee Bennett. It is still all talk for now but I will keep you posted. Let me know if you are interested in attending, won’t you, please. She is terrific and her seminars are too.
Let your heart rest.

So much has happened since the last farm update. I will begin with the hay, it has been cut, baled and it is beautiful and we have alot of it. That is very good.
Not sure if three of our girls are pregnant but they have been bred.
A very sad event on May 15. Our 12 yr old husky mix, Owen, died. He had pancreatitis. He got kind of sick on Wed., went to the vet. Thur., brought him home and he had a small rally on Fri. Sat was overall quite dreadful. He was euthanized at sunset. We are still having trouble breathing. The heaviness of our hearts is almost overwhelming. I know this will pass but I miss him so much. I see him everywhere, I smell him, I reach to touch him and it is not him.
Just after he died I went to the barn. I was crying, you know, gasping, heaving, eyes swollen shut, tons of snot and all that. I went into the barn and the Achbash, Katie, became disturbed and then concilatory. She is a very serious dog, no nonsense with her, but she stayed by my side and gave me a lick or two. The alpacas, all female, stood near by and gave me all of their attention, just standing there and looking. It looked like they were wondering, “what is wrong with her?” Whatever it is must hurt a lot. We can feel her grief. Several came up and gave me a breath, they put their nose to mine and we breathe each others breath. I think you have to physically experience this to understand the comforting power and generosity of it. This is, to me, just another expression of the natural decency of animals. I appreciate these animals so very much.
On a lighter note, we are getting ready for the “Got to be NC Agricultural Festival” this coming weekend at the Raleigh State Fairgrounds. We have a booth in the Holshouser Building as part of the Fiber Fair. Hope you can visit us there. Mention this site and receive a 5% discount on your purchases. Admission and parking are free. Go to the fair site to see all the great agricultural events they are supporting. www.ncagfest.com

Here is the news from the farm. The pastures have been fertilized and are looking very tasty. We have engaged the services of a handsome herdsire for three of our girls. Our biggest accomplishment has been to skirt (clean of obvious debris) every bag of fleece. Skirting is not fun and there is not enough wine in the world to make it so. Lucky for us to have llama friends who loaned us their barrel skirter. Made it all go faster!
The fleece is at mills in GA and TX being made into yarn and rugs. These items plus finished goods, e.g. socks, throws, etc., will be for sale at our booth at the Got to be NC Festival, May 21-23, at the fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC. The fiber fair will be in the Holshouser Building. We hope you will visit us there. Mention this site and receive a 5% discount on your purchase.
This year’s yarn will include 20% merino wool to improve the memory of the alpaca fiber. I could use a little less wool in my memory but that remark is off the topic, sorry. In addition to the wool we are also adding COLOR. For example, Garnet, our russet beauty will be blended with Cheyenne, a shimmering light fawn. Mix in 20% nutmeg merino to produce a beautiful heather hue just asking to be made into a sweater or scarf or whatever you decide. We are mixing color into every fleece except Newt, his will remain snowy white fingering. We are very excited about the yarn and these very unique colors. If you are interested, too, we hope to see you at the fair. We are also available for farm visits by appointment.
Let your heart rest.

This information is brought to you by the dogs and chickens here on the  farm. We have something we want to share with you about why we can make entries and the alpacas can not. It is all about the feet. Chickens have feet, dogs have paws, even the cat has paws. Alpacas have TOES. And only two of them! They can’ type!

Have you ever watched them walk? Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses have hooves-but not llamas or alpacas They have a padded covering on the bottom of the foot with a toenail at the end. This is unique among the ruminating species and it is the reason that foot care and toenail trimming are so important for herd health.

Camelids and ruminants belong to the order Tylopoda-which is Latin for padded foot. The padded foot minimizes damage to the terrain. The splayed toes increase stability and sure-footedness. The surface that touches the ground is a soft, cornified layer of epithelium called the sole or slipper. There is a separate slipper for each digit and these are joined at the heel. The camelid stance is called a modified digitigrade, similar to dogs and cats, with locomotion on the digits. True ruminants and horses are unguligrade, walking on the tips of their toes (only the last toe contacts the ground). When an alpaca paces the limbs touching the ground at the same time are on the same side of the body.

If you find this interesting there is a lot more info in the Alpacas Magazine, spring 2009, in an article written by Sue Alt DMV and David E Anderson, DVM.

We will continue to bring you updates. Best wishes from the farm and try to let your heart rest.

Hi

I am Buffy, an Orpington chicken, bringing you farm news. We are so sick of snow and freezing temps. This past weekend was a life saver. Those chill factors reduced our egg laying and that white stuff was terrible to walk on.

Well the Carolina Alpaca Celebration was last weekend in Concord, NC. Our farm had 3 entries in the spin off and each one took a second place ribbon. Seven, our herdsire to be, lost first place by one half of a point. What is really nice is that those 3 entries represented 3 generations of alpaca here. Seven’s sire is the farm’s resident herdsire, Red Cloud, and his mother is  Cheyenne, one of our original Peruvian girls. There are 20 points of judging in a spin off and the 3 entries were very consistent in quality of fiber.

The show was seriously impacted by winter weather in the southeast and many farms could not make the trip. Erica went with our farm. She is our student. She is a high school sophomore working on her senior project, alpaca farming. She is a very hard worker and a lovely young woman. Our farm really enjoys having her around. We chicks seriously wonder why she is not studying us instead of the alpacas. We are a lot more interesting and fun. Incidentally, have any of you wondered why there are no alpaca entries on this site. Well, I think I can explain that. I have a theory I will share with you in a future update. Bye for now and try to let your heart rest.

Dog dialogue from Diastole alpaca farm.

Hey, how ya doing? I am Lukey Mouse Mouth and I am a house dog on this farm. However, me and my BFD, Belle the BC (Border Collie) have barn privileges. We can only go into the barn front NOT with the alpacas and DEFINITELY not with the live stock guard dogs. We get the best part of the barn because we get to hunt MICE! My pal, Belle the BC, sucks those critters up like a Hoover. My technique is to marinate the rodent in my mouth for hours. This is so very delicious! My humans have some issues with this, especially when I come into the house with that tell tale body part, the mouse tail, hanging out of my mouth. Then we play tag and they usually win. Not fair, not fair at all. After all I caught it and I supplied the marinade, both labor intensive activities. So my mouse is just about perfect when they pry it from my jaws. The ultimate insult is when they flush it down my water bowl!  That is all for now. I will be checking in occasionally to update the barn and mice scene for you. Bon appetite, Luke.

The chicks have not liked the recent snow. We finally had enough Sun to open up some spots in the pasture for bug hunting but they still are not impressed with Old Man Winter.