Fall Fun on the Farm

The past month has been filled with volunteering at the World Equestrian Games, a trip to Michigan for a felting class, home schooling, trail riding, cria births, crafting, international travel for Paul, the Kentucky Classic Show, and.... isn't that enough????!
We ended the month with a llama trek on a gorgeous fall afternoon. Pat and her little friends Austin and Alyssa loved strolling on our leaf-covered trails with a llama at each side.
The kids enjoyed helping with bottle-feeding our sweet cria, Cherry Bomb.
Any fears that surfaced early in the visit were definitely gone by the end after several llama kisses were dispensed by Phoenix, and our trekkers discovered how sweet and manageable the llamas are!

Adapting to the Seasons

It's that time of year again that I love (officially starting tomorrow!), the transitional season of fall. I love the fall wildflowers, the hint of color on the trees, the bucks in velvet (the young one above should be quite majestic in the next year or two), and the cool nights.

One of my favorite activities in autumn is the Midway Fall Festival. As always, we'll be there with alpacas, fiber, yarn, and finished products including hand-felted shalwls and scarves, socks, etc! Many of the recent projects I've highlighted on my blogs will be available. Hope you can make it out! (Check out the website for hours, activities, and directions).

It's always fun to follow tradition, and the seasons bring out that feeling of comfortable repetition. BUT, as these current times remind us, we all need to ADAPT! (That's my word of the year, in fact, and it has been extremely timely in many ways!). With that spirit in mind, here's a past and current project I'd like to share.
This is a purse that I knitted and felted from alpaca and wool a few years ago. I was making a lot of these then, and they were literally flying off the shelves. It finally hit me that the colors in this one were just a bit much for most people (including me!) I decided to challenge myself to re-dyeing it, and was pretty pleased when this is what came out of the dyepot!!!! (I soaked it in water, then overdyed it with a greyish and orange mixture). It will be fun to see whether or not it sells this fall!

Virginia Alpaca Expo and Blob on the Blog

We had a great weekend at the VAOBA Alpaca Show in Lexington, Virginia, and especially enjoyed the gorgeous fall leaves while driving through the mountains. (It continues to be very dry here, thus not a lot of fall color). We were greeted at the Virginia Horse Center by a 4-H group that helped us unload, a nice touch! The check-in process was especially cumbersome and long, but the rest of the show was run very smoothly. It was pretty funny watching Mary Beth and I walking 13 alpacas to the check-in all by ourselves- we had to stop and de-tangle leads many times!
Two things really stood out- first, there was wonderful youth involvement at this show, something that other shows need to better emulate. There were some particularly adorable costume participants!

The other thing that really impressed me was VAOBA's store for alpaca items produced by the members. There was great participation and a nicer variety of quality yarns and handmade products than I have seen at any show other than that of the SEAA's Southern Select, which is also excellent.

I can't brag about blue ribbons and championships like last time, but was satisfied overall with how our animals did in this extremely tough competition in which we ended up near the top in several huge classes. The highlights were Decadent Cafe- 2nd (her last show, she's being retired now for breeding), Accoyo Optimist- 3rd of 15, Accoyo Michael- 4th of 15, and Michelangelo-3rd of 8 in Get of Sire. It was so nice to see other breeders I hadn't seen in a long time, and being at a show always takes my mind off of politics and the country's problems, if only for a while.

I needed an extra handler for Get of Sire and desperately asked a group of kids if any of them would be willing to show. One boy eagerly volunteered. He asked the name of the animals he was to show, and I told him, "Michael." Then I asked his name, "Michael!" It was too funny. I learned that he lives on a naval base, has moved 13 times in 13 years, and that his Dad has 2 months to go deploying bombs in Afghanistan... reality set back in for a while, and I told him I'll pray for his Dad to come home safely very soon. Anyway, he was such a nice young man and reminded me of my son, Robert. I only hope that Robert presents himself as well with strangers like us.

Another new cria has arrived... bummer, the wrong sex again! This is 5 males in a row now. Okay, I AM happy for each and every healthy, trouble-free cria and they are all very nice- we are truly blessed and I do mean that. But... a girl would be nice very soon.

Now for the blob on the blog. The 5th person to comment and correctly answer what this rather gross-looking thing is will win one of my hand-felted soaps (check them out on my Etsy site).