Wow where did the summer go!  As you can see from my extensive amount of posts since shearing day back in the spring we’ve been busy all summer.  Well, we were busy, but it wasn’t all alpaca stuff.

We are going to be at East Berlin Colonial Day on September 11, 2010.  We’ll be in our usual location behind the East Berlin post office and food vendors.

We hope to see you there.

Big Rock Alpaca Farm Stand at East Berlin Colonial days

East Berlin Colonial Days

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Right on the tail of PAOBA Breeder’s Showcase 2010 we had shearing day.  We again went to Paso Ligero for shearing.  Kim from Paso Ligero is wonderful.  Since we don’t have a trailer she again this year came and got all of our animals and transported them to her place for shearing.  We couldn’t ask for a better neighbor.

It was a long day.  We started shortly after 7:00 AM since we had almost 50 alpacas to shear and the guys doing the shearing were going to another neighboring farm to shear after we were done.  Ian from Big Mount Alpacas had enough animals at his farm this year to have them coming there, instead of him bringing all his alpacas to Kim’s place.

We got lots of great fiber off some wonderful animals.  The shearers did a good job again this year.  I don’t think I’ve seen him yet knick an animal.  I can’t say that for myself, I hit some blood on a couple toenails, but not many.

We now have 12 more blankets and 12 more seconds bags of wonderful alpaca fiber here to work with.  If you are interested we could still use some more hand spinners for spinning the fiber.

All of our short cuts, leg fiber and other waste is being sent to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf.  Isn’t alpaca fiber wonderful!

Alpaca shearing

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Well PAOBA Breeder’s Showcase 2010 is over.  It was a great weekend.  We got to meet lots of people at our farm stall.  If you stopped by, it was great talking to you.

We had ‘The Sock Lady’ from from Appalachian Sock Company there demonstrating her antique sock knitting machine.  Many people were very fascinated by it (including me).  She cranked out some wristies and a cowl with some of our 100% suri yarn.  She did knit in some nylon for the wristies to give them some more stretch.

Kelly did some spinning of alpaca fiber when she wasn’t running around trying to make sure I had the animals where I was supposed to.  The results weren’t as good as we had hoped for, but when are they ever.  It was a new experience showing in some of the production classes, Best Bred and Owned Yearly Male and Produce of Dam.  the product of dam class was especially neat because Josh handled Gaston for the judges examination.

Snowfox produce of dam

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We are only planning to do one alpaca show this spring and that show is the PAOBA Breeder’s Showcase in York, PA.  It is being held May 8th & 9th 2010 in the Toyota Arena at the York Fairgrounds.  We chose this show because it is close to our farm and we can meet more local people interested in alpacas.

We are planning to take Gaston and Belle, and with them being from the same dam we entered Snowfox in the Produce of Dam class.  We missed an opportunity a couple years ago to enter a Product of Dam class because we thought it took three offspring, like the Get of Sire class, but it only takes two.  As I’m writing this I’m thinking I could have entered Gaston in the Bred and owned yearly class.  I’ll have to see if I can get him in the class.

If you come to the PAOBA Breeder’s Showcase be sure to stop by our stall and talk to us.

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Information on the hand spinning offer has been moved to its own page.

Are you a hand spinner that loves trying different things? Hand spinning with different blends of fiber? Maybe hand spinning some hand dyed fiber to see how it turns out?

Hand spinning wheel

We would like to see how our alpaca fiber blends with other fibers and how it dyes. We just don’t have the time to do the hand spinning to use up our fiber. We could send it out to get processed, as we’ve done in the past, but we’d like to see some more variety.  Even getting it processed at a mini mill means we’d get 4+ pounds of the same thing.  We’d like to get 3 or 4 skeins of something unique.  We may either sell it in our shop, online or in person, or use it in a craft.

What we would like to do is find a couple hand spinners willing to spin up the fiber into yarn for half of the fiber. How it would work is we’ll wash, card and blend the fiber into bats on our Howard Brush Drum Carder.  We’ll send you half of the fiber blend to spin for us and after you send it back we’ll send you the other half with which you can do whatever you like.

This is something new, for us, that we’re trying so we’re open to working with your ideas if your willing to the work with us and give us suggestions.

If this is something you think you would be interested in please let us know:

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With all this great alpaca fiber that we have around we decided to become a Howard Brush Drum Carder distributor.  We have been using The David Drum Carder, which has three drums, making processing the alpaca fiber faster than a normal two drum drum carder.  We got the fine toothed drum carder @ 90/120 TPI.

David Drum Carder

David Drum Carder

The fiber we dyed with Kool-Aid was carded with the David Drum Carder.  It makes wonderful batts for dying or felting, as well as hand spinning.

Click on the post header for the option to purchase this wonderful drum carder.

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Online store now open!

As a grand opening special we’re offering these alpaca skier hats for $18.00 each, normally they sell for $22.00 each.? This great price on this great hat is available for a limited time.

Colorful lined alpaca skier hat Colorful lined alpaca skier hat

These fleece lined alpaca skier hats are lined with super soft fleece covered with 100% alpaca in colorful patterns.? The brim is a traditional roll up.? Hit the slopes this winter with this great hat keeping your head toasty warm.? Adult sizes in two different color themes, blue or green.

Click on the title line of the post or here for the opportunity to order.

[Note:  12/21/09,  Special over, price changed back to $22.00]

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We had a good turnout for the open house.? We hope everyone had a good time.? We enjoyed meeting everyone, and sharing the alpacas with them.? Everyone, including us, had a good time talking to and seeing the demo of the The Sock Lady.

The bourbon red turkeys were also a big hit.

Bourbon Red Tom Turkey, a heritage breed turkey

Bourbon Red Tom Turkey, a heritage breed turkey

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I just received word today that we will also have someone here on the 7th and the 15th to demonstrate spinning alpaca fiber on a spinning wheel and a drop spindle. I’ll post more information as I get more.

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Open House

November 7, 8 & 14, 15 2009

12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM

The first weekend of our open house is rapidly approaching. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate nicely. Hope you’re able to come! Call if you have any questions about the open house.

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