Rain, rain and more rain! Auntie still walked the trail, but we waited at home in case she wanted to be picked up early. When the call came to go and get her, we chose to stay home, because we didn’t want to go out in all that rain. But then, Mommy and Auntie went to a basket store where they made and sold all kinds of baskets, and we missed it! Were we ever disappointed!
After lunch, Mommy and Auntie had made an appointment to tour an alpaca farm. Mommy said we could go, too, but we were afraid an alpaca would eat us…I think the rain was muddling our brains, because I am sure Mommy and Auntie would never have let that happen. Anyway, off they went, and Luna and I spent the afternoon reading, colouring and playing some more with Mommy’s beach finds.
Luna and I should definitely have gone to the farm. Look at how cute those alpacas were!
The farmer said that alpaca wool is graded for texture and quality.
The age of the alpaca, along with other factors, can affect the grade of yarn the animal will produce.
Alpacas are very curious. When everyone went in the barn to see where the alpacas lived when they were inside, this fellow just had to come and see what was going on. The farmer told Mommy and Auntie that alpacas are friendly, but don’t like people to be in their personal spaces.
She said they have a bad reputation for spitting at people, but it is really the people’s fault. If they respected the alpacas’ personal spaces and just stayed a bit away from them, alpacas would never spit at anyone at all.
Mommy and Auntie got to feed Grizzwald, an eighteen year old llama, who lives with the boy alpacas. The farmer says Grizzwald teaches the young boy alpacas their manners. When Mommy offered him a carrot, he took it from her hand very gently. When all the carrots were gone though, he lost interest and wandered away.
Mommy and Auntie bought some beautiful hand-dyed alpaca wool from the farmer’s shop. Mommy got a soft sky blue, and Auntie got a lovely spring green.
Mommy brought us home a new friend, too.
Keating was born at the alpaca farm, but he came to live with us. His wool is soft and fuzzy, and unlike his bigger alpaca friends, he likes cuddles and hugs. At the end of a miserably rainy day, Keating made us all laugh. We read him a Robert Munsch book, and he liked it so much, he couldn’t stop laughing! The only problem was, he kept laughing all night so we didn’t get very much sleep. Silly alpaca...
The picture with S.and the Lama made me smile. I never saw S.in red.
It actually isn’t S., but the farm owner, although they do look very alike in some ways in that photo. It was quite hard to get pictures of your daughter while we were there…she really does not like having her picture taken! The llama liked having his picture taken though, as long as the carrots were around!
What have you made with the alpaca wool you bought?
Nothing as yet. I just admire how beautiful it is still.