Big Rock Alpaca Farm

The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar

The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar day on June 13, 2009 was a wonderful day.  The weather cooperated and didn’t rain, but on top of that it wasn’t terribly hot nor was it too cold.  When we arrived we found that we were placed under a nice shade tree across the road near the creek.  Across the open green space there were groups of people spinning and weaving.

It took Cimarron and Silver Ray a little to settle in to the routine of being handled and petted, but they did splendidly.  And Josh, but especially Jake, did a great job of handling them and telling the people about the alpacas.  We had several people comment to us about them and we really appreciated those comments.

We spoke to many people, some were familar with alpaca fiber and the difference between suri and huacaya fiber, but we were able to show many people the differences.  We also had several different stages of processed fiber for people to see, including roving, yarn and sheets of felt.  For those of you that were interested in purchasing some of the fiber, by all means, give us a call or drop us an email so we can make arrangements to get you some of the finest natural fiber in the world.  You can call 1(888)544-SURI (7874) or send an email to ‘info @ bigrockalpacafarm.com’ [without the spaces around the '@' sign].

All in all is was a great day and we got to meet so many nice people.  If any of you would like to visit the farm, please feel free to contact us to schedule a visit, there’s no need to wait for the open house.

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I know in my previous post I had said Gaston would still be in full fleece, but as we’re not sure when we would have gotten to shearing him we had it done at the AOBA Nationals Show.  He’s currently not feeling real well after his big weekend so we might not bring him to The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar.

We are hoping for a break in the rainy weather for Saturday June 13 and it looks like it’s going to cooperate.

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On June 13, 2009 Big Rock Alpaca Farm will be showing off some of our alpacas at The Mannings Annual Spinning Seminar.  The two that we’ll most likely have there will be Gaston and Silver Ray.

Silver Ray has already been shorn, but since Gaston will be getting back from Nationals earlier in the week we’re planning to still have him in full fleece and to hand shear him on Sunday.

The day makes for a great family outing.  There is no admission fee or pre-registration required and lunch can be purchased there in support of a local church.  There will be lots of different demonstrations going on for everyone to experience and learn from.

Kelly showing Frankie

We’ll have a couple of our alpacas there and will also have some of the their raw fiber and fiber in various stages of being processed.

We look forward to seeing all of you there!

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I’ve been meaning to post this introduction since soon after MAPACA as that’s when we purchased him.  Currently we’re only breeding suris but there are some huacayas that you just love to look at, and Silver Ray is one of them.  He actually took fouth in a class of ten at MAPACA so others think he’s a nice boy too.  His personality seems to lend itself more to the obstacles than Gaston’s does, so we’re planning to have the boys work with him and they can do the obstacles with him next show season.

Hillside's Silver Ray

His fiber is so soft and fluffy that Kelly is really looking forward to getting to spin with it.  And of course his grey color is a great benefit.  Who knows, if he does good at the shows next year maybe we’ll have to get some huacaya females to use for breeding.

Tags: Alpaca Male, Cria // 1 Comment »

This year’s shearing day has come and gone.  It was May 13, 2009, and we sheared 52 alpacas at Paso Ligero Alpacas.  We had all ten of our alpacas there, but only nine were shorn since Gaston is going to Nationals.

The shearer did an excellent job.  I wasn’t paying real close attentetion but I don’t think he even knick one of the alpacas.  There were some alpacas though that were not particularly happy about the process, some screaming and spitting was going on.

Shearing a suri alpaca

We completed the shearing around 3:30 in the afternoon, after getting started at 7:30 in the morning.  The guy that did the shearing took the early end of the day as an opportunity to sharpen a bunch of his blades.

Sharping blades at the end of the day

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Gaston takes 2nd in class at 2009 PAOBA

Sir Gaston ROX recieved a second place in his class at the 2009 PAOBA Breeder’s Showcase in York, PA.  He was placed in the medium fawn class at this show.  The class had six other nice suri alpacas in it for a total of seven in the class.  The judge liked his fineness, density and consistency of lock over the third place.  In fact that only thing that placed the first place alpaca above Gaston was the bone structure.  The first place alpaca was a little more heavily boned.

After the cl;ass a much more experienced suri breeder stopped us with the first place alpaca and felt that Gaston had more density than the first place alpaca.  His comments confirmed a lot of what we think about Gaston.

His last and final show of the season will be the 2009 National Show in Cleveland, Ohio.  He’ll be remaining in full fleece until then and we’re planning to hand shear him soon after he returns home.

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The 2009 MAPACA Jubilee is finally underway at the Farm Show complex in Harrisburg, PA.  If you are interested in learning more about alpacas this is one of the best opportunities to come out and visit with lots of different farms and see lots of great alpacas.

Judging a class

I don’t know what the official numbers are, but there are LOTS of alpacas to see.  Some of the best alpacas in the country are represented by the many farms, both suri alpacas and huacaya alpacas.

Much of the suri alpaca juding will take place on Saturday, April 24, 2009.  We will be showing Gaston in the light fawn class, probably late in the day on Saturday or possibly Sunday morning.

Admission is free this year so come out and see us!

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Isn’t it nice to finally be getting to SPRING!  And with the end of the deep freeze of winter come the spring alpaca shows.

Here are the spring shows that we’ll be show Gaston at:

2009 Maryland Alpaca Show and Sale, April 18-19, 2009  Westminster, MD

2009 MAPACA Jubilee, April 23-26, 2009   Harrisburg, PA

2009 PAOBA Breeders Showcase, May 8-10, 2009  York, PA

We’ll be sharing a stall with Criative Acres at these shows so be sure to look us up and say hi.

Allen

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We will have two of our alpacas on display at the Live Nativity at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, in Hanover, PA on December 14th, 2008.  There will be two showings of the live nativity, one at 6:00 PM and one at 7:30 PM.  The alpacas wont actually be in the live nativity, there weren’t any alpacas at Jesus’ birth, although alpacas are related to camels and there were probably camels present at the original nativity.

Visitors will be able to both see and touch the alpacas.  We will also be available to answer any questions people may have about alpacas.

We hope to see you there!

Merry Christmas

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Cimarron and Rose

We’ve finally made a decision on the name for the cria.  The suggestion came from J.R. of East Berlin for ‘Cimarron’.  The full registered name that we will be using will most likely be ‘Rose’s Cimarron ROX’.  Some other favorites were ‘Sir Tobias’ and ‘Sabre’.

We would like to thank everyone that participated with their suggestions for the cria name, as well as everyone that came to visit during our open house, some people braved some really lousy weather.

Here is a list of all of the suggestions:

• Cimarron
• Sabre
• Sir Tobias
• Turbo
• Chinoby
• Zephyr
• Chocolate Tasker
• Eary
• Thistle Son of Rose
• Rupert (twice)
• Ben
• Steve
• Jordan
• Gismo
• Lightning
• Thunder
• Burlap
• Chocolate Chip
• Moca
• Brownie (three times)
• Tootsie Roll (twice)
• Chris
• Peanut Butter Cup
• Hershey
• Chocolate Hershey
• Ralphael
• Dr. Mud (twice)
• Barack
• Joe Pye
• Goldenrod
• Cinnamon (twice)
• Buttercup
• Cromwell
• Sallie
• Rufus
• Dufus
• Lucky
• Howey
• Geppetto

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