Another Christmas done

Christmas has past, it's time for taxes. Hurrah!Hurrah!

I sold my spinning wheel, an older traditional of unknown origin. Thanks to Ravelry's Mariaknittedit for a smooth transaction.

Now I think I'm going for a Fricke Double Treadle like this...

It's closer to the style I learned to spin on and it folds for travel needs.

All of the animals are doing well. We had a close call with Bella getting sick, but after some wonderful care by Dr. VanAmstel at UT-Knoxville she's well on her way to recovery AND she held onto her pregnancy. Unfortunately they had to shave both sides of her body so now she's wearing a nice warm coat all winter.

A special thanks to Melody Johnson for mentioning us in her blog Fibermania. Check her out for tons of creative stuff... Fantastic quilts, art, knitting, etc.,etc.!

Time flies

Time flies! Since my last post we've had National Alpaca Farm Days, which was a rain out on Saturday and awesome on Sunday. About 50 people showed up! We were expecting maybe 10. Sweet! I was so busy I didn't get to take many pics, but here's Wendy and Kevin playing with a new cria in the rain.

My first SAFF was a BLAST! Kathy Swift-Lawson and I spent the entire weekend learning and shopping and shopping and learning. We did a fair amount of eating, too, but that's a whole other blog! We learned how to spin, I learned to crochet and needlefelt and nuno felt. It was a whirlwind of fiber! I got to try out lots of spinning wheels and see several alpaca friends. I could have stayed another week! Can't wait to go next year.

Skipping ahead, we just recently took some juvies to the Royal Alpaca Challenge, the first GA alpaca association show. It was a nice venue but would have been much nicer without the rain and if Brian hadn't lost his Nintendo DS. Our good pal Wendy couldn't take her boy Blizzard but we asked her to show Juliet to get some practice. She did better than all the others! Thanks Wendy!

Juliet brought home a 2nd place ribbon, Ember had a 4th because he was in a tough class of older boys who had all been previously shorn-he was docked for having "weathered" tips, Serafina got 3rd and Trinity a 6th. Tim Lavan didn't care for our "open locked" suris appearantly. Oh well, there ARE other judges. We love them all like banner winners.

We're looking ahead to Southern Select! I am planning to take a surprise attack, our newest addition-Eclipse. He's our new true black stud!

Oh yeah, he's a HOTTIE! And sweet as the day is long. We already love him and we're putting him to "work". His grand daddy is Silvio of Magical Farms and he's got tons of other gray in his background. We can't wait to see what he produces.

We're still deciding who else to take to Southern Select but a couple of our soon-to-be weanlings are looking really good. Rudy, the light fawn with dark fawn eyelashes is drop dead gorgeous!

And Marc, the beige suri, is shaping up very nicely.

My instinct is telling me to take Angelia, too, who will be in the yearling class of light suri girls.

The youngsters I took to GA will probably get to go as well if we can get enough stall space.