Happy 12-12-12

I know I have neglected the blog. I am so sorry. Life just seems to get in the way and something has to give, which ends up being the poor blog.  I do try to post pics on both the ranch's Facebook page and on the Twitter feed. So if you follow us there, at least you get to see some cute pics. 

To get everyone caught up of what we have been doing... well we had a few more visitors this fall.

Melissa Fleis, finalist on this season's Project Runway.  For those of you who do not watch this show, it is about designers competing to win a lot of money, equipment, and publicity to start their own clothing lines. The 3 finalist of the show, get to show a collection at fashion week in N.Y.C. Meilissa Fleis is from Rogers City, MI. She resides in San Francisco.  She came "home" after the show and was honored by her hometown.  We invited her to meet us and the alpacas here at the ranch. Her and her family came out for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed their visit.

Melissa meeting Thing 2

We also had some fun with the Girl Scouts from Rogers City. The troop came out to the ranch to meet and learn all about Alpacas.

Girl Scouts feeding grain to Abby

Then a couple of weeks later I attended one of their troop meetings at the Rogers City High School. We did a fun project of felting soap with the alpaca fiber. After they were done with felting the soap, they even created Alpaca Soap commercials and performed them for me. What a "hoot".  Well done girls!  I really enjoyed it.

Girls Scouts hard at work felting their soap

I have been busy with all aspects of the fiber side of the business. I belong to spinning and weaving guilds. So I clean and card fleece for them to spin,  I also am filling orders for fleece, yarns, and finished projects. I am working on knitting an alpaca jacket, that I hope to get done soon as it is a Xmas present.  I have towels on on of my looms that I need to finish.  I did finish my alpaca felted slippers. I did a post about this project when my spinning guild visited the ranch. Here is a picture of my slippers.

Felted Slippers

Now we are finishing up anything that needs to be done outside, since our winter is starting here in Northern Michigan. It seems we are never fully prepared, but we do try.  I surely cannot end this post without a picture of some of our alpacas. Everyone take care and I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season.

Good Bye

Fall is a busy time at the ranch.

I haven't posted much as I have been very busy.  I have been processing our Alpaca fiber (washing, carding and spinning).  I also have done 2 arts & craft shows this fall.  I am now busy trying to restock inventory.

Green tomatoes

We also have been putting the garden to rest. I had to bring in green tomatoes as we had an early frost that killed the plants.  I ripened them in a container in our house and of course this weekend they were ready to be processed. I canned them and also made tomato juice with my juicer. We still have some left that are ripening every day for us to eat. Even though we had a very dry summer and our garden relies on Mother Nature to provide the water, we were able to harvest lettuce, cucumbers, corn, potatoes, onions, zucchini, green peppers, tomatoes and our first attempt for growing mushrooms, we had wine caps. They were delicious.  Most of our beans, peas, and other squash were eaten by the deer.  Next year we will have to put back up the electric fence we once had around the garden. (We used it for the goats this season). We also have our meat chickens and turkeys in the freezer.

Wine Cap Mushrooms

 We have to now work on getting the animals ready for winter. We need to do a herd health check when it is not raining outside. It has rained now for the last 3 days. We have about 5 inches so far. Well, I guess that is better than the "white stuff".  I really am not ready for that.

Rain is coming

This year's crias are growing.  They are adorable.  What have you been doing this fall?

Smile for the camera.

A fun day of spinning at the ranch

Yesterday at the ranch was a day filled with sunshine, warm weather, alpaca fiber, good food, and best of all, spinning alpaca yarn with my good friends from the Sunrise Spinning Guild.

Mary Lou

Kathy & Delta

Gail & Donna

Our guild had planned this event last year. I prepared the batts of Alpaca on my carding machine and drum carder. Each person that attended was given 8 ozs. of the Alpaca batts to spin into yarn.We spread out blankets and rugs to set our spinning wheels on at the barnyard. We watched the Alpacas, goats and chickens while spinning. We plan on knitting slippers to felt with the alpaca yarn that we spun up.  I will have to do a follow up post of every ones slippers when they are completed. Our guild also does a pot luck for our monthly "spin-ins"  The hostess provides the main dish and everyone else brings something to pass, such as salads, breads, desserts. My husband made a beef stew for our main dish. The others brought all kinds of good food to eat. It was delicious. A good time was had by all. Thank you ladies for traveling to spin at the ranch. I know some of you traveled many miles to attend. I had a really fun time with everyone.

Eating lunch under the shade from the carport

Where did the month of May go?

I can't believe how fast May went by.  I have been busy here at the ranch, planting plants in our new raised beds that Gary has been building.  We have a couple of new kid goats. No crias yet as they are not due until July.  I also have been busy, spinning, weaving and knitting some new Alpaca items for my first show of the season.  If you can stop by the show, it is a wonderful setting, along the shores of Lake Huron.  You can also tour the lighthouse and see a shipwreck on shore.  It is Memorial Day Weekend - Sat. & Sunday from 10:00 - 4:00.  I hope to see you there.

Leap Day Snow & Ice Storm

I know we have had a mild winter here in North East Michigan, but I think Mother Nature is now trying to play "catch up".  We had snow and freezing rain here yesterday. We now have to "dig out" the alpaca pens so they will be able to walk  and pronk. We have some hard pack snow drifts as you can see in this picture by one of the chicken coops.

Snow Drift

The alpacas do not mind snow, they just don't like deep snow as it is hard for them to walk in.

A few of the girls

 Guys

As you can see they will cush in the snow and chew their cud. These guys are very content.

Our Maremma guard dogs fair very well in the snow. Meadow loves to sit on top of the snow piles to better watch the barnyard during the day. We have to tie her up in the daytime, as she will not let the mail person drive down our private road to deliver our mail. She will actually sit in the middle of the road and bark at the cars to stop them. We have tried and tried to get her to stop doing this, but she thinks it's part of her job to protect the alpacas, goats and our property.

Meadow

Pan doesn't mind the snow either. Here is a picture of him being the "gate guardian".

Pan

I'm not complaining though as my heart goes out to all of those people who live in the south, where they had those terrible tornadoes yesterday.

Mother nature can paint a beautiful picture.

Well the good news about all of this, is that we should not have another leap year storm for at least 4 more years!  :)

Is there a rehab for an Alpaca?

We have an alpaca at the ranch who is quite the clown. His name is Thing. He can be very entertaining.

Thing the chicken grain addict

He loves chicken feed so much, that when I walk into the Alpaca's pen to feed the chickens, I have to have my husband fend off Thing. He will follow me and try to get his head into the bucket to eat all of the chicken grain.

Thing with his head in the bucket of grain!

Gary removing the bucket.

If Thing can't get his head into the bucket then he tries plan B. He gets his head into the chicken coop thru the opening that the chickens use  to come and go outside.

Things rear

There is nothing more funny than for me to be in the chicken coop feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs to see this!

Thing looking for chicken grain.

Once he gets his fix for the day, then he just wanders off to eat hay with the rest of the guys. He may be a pain to us at chore time, but we still love him.

National Alpaca Farm Days

September 24^th & 25^th

Meet the Alpacas!

Where: Sundown Alpaca Ranch

4727 West River Ridge Road

Ocqueoc, MI

Time: Sat. & Sun. 11:00 am to 6:00 pm

Pet the Alpacas and see demonstrations of spinning yarn and weaving.

 

	Driving Directions to Sundown Alpaca Ranch
	From I-75, exit at (M-68) Indian River. Turn east on M-68 driving towards the City of Onaway. Drive thru Onaway continuing east towards Rogers City for 6 to 7 miles. Turn left (North) on Ocqueoc Rd. Follow another 6 miles to Schaedig Hwy. (Landmark is a white church). Turn right (east) on Schaedig Hwy. follow to the end of road (dead end) and then turn left on W. River Ridge Rd.(Private Rd). Follow around curve and driveway for Sundown Alpaca Ranch on left side. From US-23, turn south on Ocqueoc Rd (at the mouth of the river by the Hammond Bay Party store). Follow for about three miles to Schaedig Hwy, making a left (East, landmark is a white church). Follow to the end of the road and turn left on W. River Ridge Rd. (Private rd). Follow around curve and driveway for Sundown Alpaca Ranch on left side.