Diastole Alpaca Farm

Diastole bids a fond farewell to two dear friends.

Sandy — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:53:04 +0000

Cass, our Anatolian Sheperd livestock guard dog, died a peaceful and swift death on Monday, March 12, 2012. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma about 3 weeks ago. It was in her front leg but had not metastasized to her lung, the organ most usually hit. She received pain medication and that was helpful but her leg would eventually break and we wanted to avoid that. The treatment options were harsh, amputation at the shoulder and then chemotherapy. That MIGHT have worked. Cass was a working dog, it didn’t seem right to “treat” her in that way. We spent a lot of fun time with her and her brother (and working partner, Elliott). We sat in the garden or in the barn and enjoyed our wine together. Cass developed a fondness for wine, especially red. Elliott figured if Cass liked it he should, too. I tried to get my share first because Tolies are terrific droolers.
Our dear friend, Dan Scott, a Renaissance man, also died on Monday. For those of you who knew Dan you understand how much we miss him.
On a lighter note I continue to work on the products page and hope to have it up in a couple days. We are going to have a March madness sale. Hopefully it will still be the month of March when we post that info.
Shearing is just around the corner, yikes!

Our Online Store is Ready For Business!

Jim — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:20:26 +0000

Check out our products as we list them. Store is live and secure. We are adding new items all the time. See the products available now.

Sandy — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:36:23 +0000

Here we are at Jim’s new hay rack.

Thanks to all for a Great Winter Outing

Jim — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:44:42 +0000

We estimate approximately 400 friends, new and old, came for the 2nd Annual Winter Outing at Diastole Alpaca Farm on January 28th. We would like to thank everyone that attended and a special thanks to our friends from Brandon Hills Vineyard, Pilot Mountain Llamas, Knit-Picky Yarns and LinCrest Angus. Ann Harbury was at the register and I don’t think she took a break all day – we couldn’t have made it without her. My sister, Les, cousins, Terry and Mike and old friend Rick Idol kept everything moving. Cuz’s (Terry’s) Sled Shed was a big hit – it just goes to show that there is no age limit to being a kid.

We have Patsy Idol’s (Patsarazzi) great photo collection available as soon as I can figure how to get it on the web site. It is located on our facebook page.

More to follow as I learn how to operate our updated web site -

Thanks Again – Jim and Sandy

Winter Outing this Saturday – 10:00 until 5:00

Jim — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:40:42 +0000

The weatherman is predicting a great day for our Second Annual Winter Outing here at the farm. Our friends are ready and we expect a great turn out again this year for all. Once again, Brandon Hills Vineyard will be here with their award winning wines for a wine tasting, Ann Potter of Pilot Mountain Llamas will be displaying her hand made yarns and products from their farm in Pilot Mountain. Many of you enjoyed watching her create her yarns last year as you sampled Pam and David’s great wines.

In addition, this year we are joined by our friend (and knitting instructor) Sammie Jo from Knit Picky Yarns with her wide selection of yarns and knitting supplies. Mike Linville of LinCrest Angus will be with us with tasters of their grass fed beef straight from Yadkin County. If you haven’t had grass fed beef and have only tried feed lot beef from the big box stores you have quite a treat in store.

Friends and family will again be available to assist you in parking and, generally, finding your way around. It isn’t a good time of year for full farm tours but we will have Maeve and some of the other alpacas up by the store to say hello. Of course the chickens will always come to anyone that brings them some scraps of bread – actually tortilla chips are their favorite.

Hope to see you Saturday – Jim and Sandy

Winter Outing 2012 Just Three Weeks Away, January 28th – 10:00 until 4:00

Jim — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:56:15 +0000

January 28th is fast approaching. I just hope the mild weather will be around for our 2012 Winter Outing. We were very fortunate last year for our Fleece and Wine Tasting Day to have great winter weather.

Diastole will be offering a selection of rovings from our alpacas for spinners that were processed by Zeilinger Wool – a name well known to spinners. We will have our usual selection of alpaca socks as well as other alpaca apparel.

We will once again have our friends, Pam and David from Brandon Hills Vineyard (http://brandonhillsvineyard.com) with their award winning wines.

Ann Potter from Pilot Mountain Llamas (http://pilotmountainllamas.com) will again be joining us with her spinning demos and her own yarns and hand knit garments.

We have added Knit Picky Yarns (http://knitpickyyarns.com) where Sandy and I took knitting lessons under Sammie Jo Thomas’s most patient instruction. Jo has a large selection of wonderful yarns and knitting supplies.

Pam and David’s neighbors and good friends, Jo and Mike Linville, are joining us this year. They are the owners of LinCrest Farms (http://lincrestangus.com). LinCrest specializes in grass fed angus beef. We have enjoyed it at Brandon Hill’s outings in the past and are very pleased to have them joining us for 2012. They will have tastings available and be taking orders for their delicious, healthy beef.

Check out the web sites for our partners, these are all excellent organizations that pride themselves in providing top quality goods.

We look forward to having you join us. We will have a couple of the alpacas by the store to say hello – winter is their kind of weather. Nothing like a great alpaca fleece wrap to keep you warm in the middle of winter.

Jim

Christmas Gifts!

Jim — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:49:43 +0000

We are receiving frequent shipments from our good friends at LaNart of beautiful Peruvian alpaca scarves, throws, hats, gloves and the ever popular alpaca socks. Their new line of socks for this year, Pioneer, have been a very big seller.

Give us a call as we are still trying to figure out selling via the Internet.

Coming soon – Jim

2012 Fleece and Wine Tasting Has Expanded

Jim — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:58:38 +0000

Our 2011 Fleece and Wine Tasting Day was a big success as so many of our friends and customers, old and new, had a great day at the farm. We were very lucky with the weather this past January. Everyone left with a smile on their face and assured us they would return. January 28 is the date for our 2012 event, it will run from 10:00 until 4:00 on what we hope is a beautiful Saturday.

We will have two of the same partners from last year – our great friends from Brandon Hills Vineyard and Pilot Mountain Llamas, as well as two new friends – Knit Picky Yarns and LinCrest Farms.

Sandy and I met Sammie Jo Thomas of Knit Picky Yarns through several classes we have taken under her tutelage. A great friend and an expert knitter, spinner and general fiber guru. Jo and Ann Potter of Pilot Mountain Llamas are long time friends and will have their yarns and garments available as well as presenting spinning demonstrations. They have been our “go to” people as we learn more and more about the wonders of fleece.

David and Pam Blackwell will return for wine tastings with their award winning wines from Brandon Hills Vineyard. Through our friendship with Dave and Pam we have been fortunate to make the acquaintance with Mike and Jo Linville of LinCrest Farm. Mike and Jo raise grass fed beef on their 300 acre farm in Yadkin County. The have catered events for Brandon Hills Vineyard and we have throughly enjoyed their beef. It is truly beef as it was intended to be.

We will have more on the event, relabeled, Diastole Alpaca Farm’s Second Annual Winter Outing on the website as well as on facebook – as I learn how to use it.

We can only hope for the weather to cooperate as it did for 2011. Rain or sun, sleet or snow, we will be here. We hope you can join us.

Jim Morris – fresh off a wonderful day at Whimsical Women – thank you, Luli, for letting us destribute our flyers again this year at your marvelous event.

Winston Salem Journal article about Diastole

Sandy — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:34:56 +0000

In case you missed it last Sunday the paper wrote a very nice article about our lovely protege, Erica, and her senior project, our alpaca farm.
She did an excellent job of presenting the farm to her classmates and teachers. Maeve, our party girl alpaca, put on a fun show by nosing into everything, nibbling hair and hats and providing many photo ops.
The article is available on Facebook under the farm name.
We thank you all for your very responses and kind words.

Blue ribbons today for our fleeces at SAFF!

Sandy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:38:45 +0000

What good news! We entered 7 fleeces at SAFF, the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. It is an annual event held in Asheville, NC dedicated to the promotion of the fiber arts, fiber animals and products. We won four first places, two seconds and one third. Hooray!
I will update with the names of our furry winners.