Our Maremma Guard Sheepdogs

For those of you that did not make it to visit our ranch last weekend, I will introduce you to our 3 Maremma guard dogs.  We are in an area with a large coyote population, a few wolves, black bear and of course the occasional panther sighting.  Living in a remote area we do have occasional visits from those animals.  We like to provide as much protection for our Alpacas, besides good fencing.  We invested in our first Maremma that we named Pan (from Greek mythology).  We placed him with the "girls" at the young age of 8 weeks.

Pan

 After a year, we decided we needed at least one or two more to help Pan with the guarding.  He can't be at all places on the 25 acre ranch at the sametime and he needs a rest from his job once in awhile.  Through the Internet we had learned of a litter of Maremma's that were abandoned and in need of good "working" homes.   So to make a long story short, we adopted two of the litter.  Their names are Furio & Meadow.  We received them at the age of about 8 to 9 months.  It has taken quite a bit of work, patience and understanding to make these two into good guard dogs.  They were in wonderful foster homes, but were not being trained for livestock guarding.  They have such a need to guard that I have included a picture of Meadow from this morning. She is guarding an empty beer can that my husband left on the table.  They are awesome guard dogs!  They do take their job very seriously.  We do appreciate them, as they do alert us at night of anything that they feel is a threat to the Alpacas. 

Furio

 

Meadow

Sunday Pics from Sundown Alpaca Ranch

Well Sunday's weather was a little warmer and sunnier than Saturday.  We had a few more visitors along with friends and family at the ranch.  My  "Aunt Betty" was dressed as a clown. She passed out ballons and suckers to the children.  They managed not to stick any suckers in the fiber of the Alpacas.  All in all we had a great time visiting with everyone.  Thanks for coming out.

Saturday Pics from Sundown Alpaca Ranch

Well the weather didn't cooperate yesterday, but we had a few brave souls that came out to visit the Alpacas.  Come out today from 12:00 to 6:00. Today is going to be a perfect day. Sunny and lots of fall colors!

National Alpaca Farm Days Open House

Sundown Alpaca Ranch is hosting an Open House the weekend of Sept. 25th & 26th, 2010.
Sat. from 11:00  to 6:00 & Sun. from 12:00 to 6:00
Follow this link  National Alpaca Farm Days and do a search for MI farms and you can get a map to our ranch.

This is a good time for all of you that expressed an interest in seeing our Alpacas to come out and visit us this weekend.  And a special offer for all of you spinners, knitters and weavers, as we are going to offer you something exciting for next years Alpaca fiber harvest.  We are now a CSA Alpaca Ranch. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Our fiber CSA will allow you to own a share of our alpaca herd and receive yarn and/or roving from our herd as if you owned the alpacas yourself.  When you purchase a share of our 2011 fiber harvest, you will not only receive a selection of fiber or yarns, you will also be invited to participate in the life on the ranch. You can come out for Ranch Workdays during the year (actually working is optional, of course!), and attend special events held here at the ranch. There will be more information and what other benefits you will receive with your CSA purchase next weekend during the open house.  Of course there will be a limited amount of shares to be sold so everyone will receive a lot of fiber and yarn.  Once the shares are all sold, you can be placed on a waiting list for the following year.  So come on out and visit the alpacas and see where your yarns and fibers will be coming from.