Big Rock Alpaca Farm

One of the products that we have found very popular from our stand at Ashcombe’s has been the alpaca ski hat.  They sell for $16 and are very soft and warm.  The alpaca ski hats are also very colorful.  I don’t know that I’ve seen two of the alpaca ski hats that are the same.  Keep in mind that alpaca is 5-7 times warmer and wool and not scratchy like wool so these alpaca ski hats are much more comfortable than a comparable wool hat.

We have several of these in stock right now but they are sure to go fast at the open house.

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Today was a beautiful fall day.  Hopefully next week will be as nice for our open house.  We did take the opportunity to do some work outside around the farm. We also visited another alpaca farms open house at Eastland Alpacas.

The final version of the post card has finally hit the mail on Friday so hopefully you will be receiving your card in the mail shortly.  If you don’t have one, feel free to print out the card here to receive the 10% discount off the purchase of one store item.

The dates to remember are November 8, 9 & 15, 16, 2008 from 12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM.  We look forward to see you.

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  We finally got our second cutting of orchard grass hay made for the alpacas.  Rick from Rick’s Custom Baling went all out again to get it down for us, and he did an excellent job.  There are some weeds in the hay bales but the alpacas will just eat around them for the nice soft orchard grass hay.  The downside is that I’ll need to be cleaning the hay feeder of the stuff they wont eat.

  We did get about 100 bales more than we need of second cutting orchard grass hay so if you are interested in some nice alpaca hay let us know, it would also be good for other livestock.  Through November 2008 the price per bale will be $5, as the winter progresses the price will most likely increase.  Unfortunately we can’t deliver it so you will need to pick it up at the farm.  We can help load a truck if necessary.

We will be having it available at our upcoming open house, so if you’re interested you may want to get your hay before then.

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  We’ve just completed our second Saturday at Ashcombe’s this weekend.  It’s been wonderful.  We’ve gotten to meet lots of nice people.  And the kids really love seeing the alpacas.

We will be there for one more weekend, weather permitting.  After that we’ll have a weekend off before our open house at the farm.   If you miss us at Ashcombe’s be sure to come visit us during our open house.

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  With all the turmoil in the stock markets people are looking for alternative locations for their money, and alpacas are making the cut.  The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article relating the investment potential of alpacas to investing in gold.  There are some similarities in respect to investment potential, but there is one significant thing that alpacas can do that gold can’t do.  That is ‘multiply’!

Suppose you have $20,000 to invest.  That will get you apx  20 gold eagles or two female alpacas (assuming $1,000/oz of gold and $10,000/female).  Suppose you want to hold the investment for 5 years:

So at the end of five years you’ll have 5 females, several crias and some extra males, assuming you’ve held everything.  Ignoring the extra males and even the crias the 5 females could easily be worth $50,000.  This is probably going to be much more valuable than the 20 gold eagles which didn’t do anything during the 5 years but look pretty.  There are also numerous tax advantages to alpaca investment that may not exist for an investment in gold.  John Petersam from Criative Acres has a nice write up on some of these aspects.

Want to diversify your portfolio?  Get a huacaya and a suri!  Actually I’m just kidding, that wouldn’t be the best way to start off.

You should consult your various advisers, tax and investment, research all aspects of any investment, including alpacas and gold.

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  Well it was a long day and we weren’t sure how it was going to go, but it turned out to be a pretty good day.  Friday, yesterday, was quite rainy so we didn’t setup Friday evening.  This morning the boys and I went in around 6:30 to set everything up.  Thank full it had quit raining sometime during the night.

  It did get a little hot during the afternoon, but thankful not like Sunday is supposed to be.  They predicting that tomorrow, 9/14/08 is to be close to a record high at 92 degrees and it will probably be about 90% humidity.

  We got to meet and talk to many great people.  If we you did stop by and see us thank you.  For those of you that didn’t make it you’ll still have plenty of opportunities to see us on National Alpaca Farm Day at Criative Acres, several Saturdays in October at Ashcombes and of course our open house in November.

We look forward to seeing you.

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One of the things we’ve been working on in preperations for East Berlin Colonial Day is our open house flyer.  We’d like to be able to give these outs to all the great people we’ll be seeing at Colonial Day.  We’ll also be mail them out to our mailing list in mid to late October so watch your mailbox.  It might not look exactly like this, but it will be something close.

We’re also working on getting our products ready to display at Colonial Day.  We have several new sweater designs available and new lower pricing on some of our more popular items like the alpaca reversible socks.

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  We sure are glad Colonial Day wasn’t today.  Tropical storm Hanna has been dumping rain on the farm for most of the day, which would make for nasty weather had we been setup at Colonial Day.

  We did put Snowfox & Rose with their crias into a new pasture last evening before the rains came.  We want to give the pasture close to the barn an opportunity to regrow a little before winter sets in.

Gaston is enjoying having another cria around to play with, but the new cria isn’t too sure yet.

He is getting a little more confident, but Gaston still out weighs him by 30 pounds.

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Rose finally had her cria.  A nice little boy.  He was actually larger than Gaston at birth.  He looks to be about a medium brown. 

Now we need to come up with another cria name.

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Come out to see us at one of the many events we will be attending this fall:

Sept 13, 2008 - East Berlin Colonial Day, we will again be on the grass near the post office and food vendors.  Come pick up some alpaca socks for winter.  Sorry, no alpaca will be in attendence.

Sept 27 & 28, 2008 - National Alpaca Farm Day, the farm will actually be closed.  We will be doing our product stand at Criative Acres Alpacas in Jarretsville, MD where you will be more than welcome to stop by and see us.  John & Renee will have some wonderful alpacas there for everyone to see and visit with.

Oct 4, 18 & 25, 2008 - Ashcombe Fall Festival, come out to a wonderful time.  In years past we’ve had loads of fun at this event.  There’s usually a corn maze, straw pit, pumkin picking and lots of other fall events.  We always look forward to the homemade apple butter.  If you haven’t gotten your alpaca sweater yet, this would be a good opportunity as there is usually getting to be a nip on the air by October.

Nov 8,9,15 & 16, 2008 - Big Rock Alpaca Farm Open House, our annual open house will be the 2nd and 3rd weekends in November.  Come out and see the widest selection of alpaca products that we have available.  Do your Christmas shopping in a quiet rural setting.  There will be alpacas available to see and feel!

We look forward to seeing you!

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