Hidden Hilltop Alpaca Ranch - Holli

June 18th, babies have arrived!!

2008-06-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

Happy June and finally the start of summer vacation. We have been blessed to have the arrival of 5 new crias this spring! We had 2 boys and 3 girls so I can't complain. All births went great and babies are thriving and growing like weeds.

3 of the crias are from our white herdsire, Rohan, so we were especially interested in seeing the color and fleece quality that he would throw. The little boy is a light fawn(mom is light fawn) and the girls were brown(both out of brown moms). I just found out today, Rohan had another cria from a local farm. A boy who is light brown(white mom). The next round of Rohan babies will be this fall. Stay tuned.

I have now turned my focus on skirting all the fleece we sheared off our alpacas last April. I donated about 40 pounds to the New England Fiber Pool and am currently going through the rest of my fleece and sorting and skirting for processing:

FIBER TIP: When skirting(cleaning) your fiber for processing, spend the time upfront and get as much vegetable matter out of your fiber as you can. Don't be afraid to pull your blanket apart and get at those tiny pieces of straw or hay. The cleaner you send in your fiber, the cleaner your yarn or rovings will be.

I speak of this fiber tip from experience and want you to avoid this by learning from my mistakes.

Thats all for now, stay tuned as I will continue to give fiber tips in my blog!

Last week of May 2008!

2008-05-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

May has flown by and the summer months are just ahead. Time to reflect on how the past 5 months have gone with respect to our alpaca business and look ahead to the 2nd half of the year.
We traveled far this spring going to shows in North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and here in Ohio. Our alpacas showed well and we brought home many ribbons in the upper half of the competitive classes! We survived our ranch shearing day in April and actually it was the best shearing day we have had and we have done 4 seasons so far! I am now just sorting and deciding what fiber to use for what. All our show fleeces have been skirted and in fact just waiting for them to return home from Nationals out in Utah. One of my favorite reasons for raising alpacas is working with the gorgeous fleece and imaging a sweater, scarf, or shawl out of each blanket as I am skirting it!
BABY UPDATE: We had another baby this past weekend while we were in Michigan at a soccer tournament! It was our first cria out of our herd sire, Rohan, who by the way took 1st place and color champion in light fleece class at Nationals last week. The baby was a little boy but he sure does look nice. Textbook delivery and he is gaining daily and running around the pasture like he owns the place! We still have 3 more due in May and 1 in June so stay tuned and I will update as soon as they come and join the outside world!
Better go check the moms to be as I frequently do. I sometimes think they are conspiring and herdwide signal goes out "stop pushing, here she comes!"
Until next time, take time to relax and enjoy the warmer weather. I actually sat outside today and read the newest alpaca magazine!

Welcome to my first blog!!

2008-05-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about writing a blog and sharing my alpaca lifestyle with all you cyberspace addicts for awhile now and finally ready to go. As a former teacher, now full time alpaca rancher, it is instinctive of me to want to share knowledge! You learn knowledge through visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. Do you know your strongest learning type? Think about it and think back(way back) to when you were in school. What was the easiest subjects for you to learn and why?

I am a tactile and kinesthetic learner and that is why alpacas are a natural fit into my lifestyle! I look forward to going out and seeing them every morning and saying good night to them before I head in the house and into my PJs for the evening! I appreciate and enjoy working with the fleece. For all you "lost" fanatics, the fiber is my CONSTANT! The more I learn about alpaca fiber, the more I get excited about its potential and the possibilities of using it in a textile industry.

The kinesthetic is the day to day interaction I experience with my wonderful herd of alpacas. Right now I am watching them closely as I have 5 more crias(baby alpacas) due between now and mid June! We had one last week and he wants some friends to play with! Will keep you posted when they finally grace us with their presence!

Stay tuned as I will be updating weekly with new births, and projects (alpaca training, fiber, tours to our ranch, and everything else exciting going on with our alpaca lifestyle) Gotta go and check the herd in case there is a new surprise for me!