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Chapter 18
Alpaca Show and Tell We had little time to mourn the loss of Angel, Dancer’s cria, because we needed to prepare for the alpaca show at the Great Frederick Fair 2,000. We had attended this fair for...
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Chapter 17
Silver-White Angel The coming of fall in rural Maryland means that suddenly you are surrounded by spiders the size of mice. No insect should ever be allowed to grow to such dimensions, and they are...
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Chapter 16
Sire Consequences It is early June on the farm and the corn in the field beside the driveway is now over a foot high. The fireflies begin to light up at night, letting us know that summer is almost...
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Chapter 15
The Real Alpaca Lifestyle (Not the glossy magazine one!) Having lived through the first scary births and deliveries of alpaca cria on the farm, Tom and I will have a bunch of other firsts to...
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Chapter 14 – Joining the Herd
(and meeting some ill-bred alpaca breeders) Kathleen & I share alpaca shearing duty The alpacas were not the only ones that needed to work out their place in a new herd. Tom and I had to get...
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Chapter 13
A Herdsire is Born On April 2nd, we come back to the farm from a dinner in town and we hear the peeper frog chorus singing! Forget about almanac dates and weather reports, to Easterners living near...
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Chapter 12
Winter Leaves, Alpacas Arrive Pinka and Cher greet each other with Dancer close by It is the third week of February but spring has appeared early. The temperature shoots up into the 70s, melting the...
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Chapter 11
Gifts and Trials of Winter on the Farm Cher and Latte continue to bond, and Cher is nursing well and growing. I could go on, but that’s the thing about the alpaca farm. You imagine yourself...
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Chapter 10 – Saving Cher
Casey hugging cria Cher January 1st of the year 2000, has come and we still have no alpaca cria born out of our girl Latte. We spend a very quiet day on the farm, checking on the alpacas every hour...
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Chapter 9
Spit Happens! new neighbors Latte, Primrose, Polo and Lindy check each other out While we wait for our first four alpacas to be delivered, we continue to visit alpaca farms and look at their herds....
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Chapter 8
Tractors and Tiaras Tom and my brother admire the ongoing barn construction With the actual purchase of our first alpacas accomplished, it was time for us to finish our fencing, barn building and the...
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Chapter 7
The Stud the Bred and the Cuddly or: Mother Nature does not do politically correct. Latte and the “Don King” hairdo Despite the “it’s all about the fleece” hype, no one makes enough money on alpaca...
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Chapter 6
The Hand of Fate alpaca fleece for hand spinning “Why breed alpacas?” This is the question that you will have to answer over and over if you own alpacas. In the U.S. the answer will invariably be,...
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Chapter 5
Alpaca Research Rant Casey and Nick visit a Suri alpaca at The Great Frederick Fair Mention alpaca farming to a group of random people and several of them will immediately lose their minds and begin to...
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Chapter 4
The Storm Comes watercolor painting of Lewes Delaware by Tom Benson “Why?” This is the question on everyone’s mind when they find out that you will have, do have, or have had an alpaca farm. How do a...
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Chapter 3
Chapter 3 Goatterdammerung! Heidi goat queen of Mount Airy Judging by the frequency with which one sees their image represented on cozy, “country” décor, ducks and chickens can be seen as charming. So...
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Chapter 11
Gifts and Trials of Winter on the Farm Cher and Latte continue to bond, and Cher is nursing well and growing. I could go on, but that’s the thing about the alpaca farm. You imagine yourself...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chapter 10 – Saving Cher
Casey hugging cria Cher January 1st of the year 2000, has come and we still have no alpaca cria born out of our girl Latte. We spend a very quiet day on the farm, checking on the alpacas every hour...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chapter 9
Spit Happens! new neighbors Latte, Primrose, Polo and Lindy check each other out While we wait for our first four alpacas to be delivered, we continue to visit alpaca farms and look at their herds....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chapter 8
Tractors and Tiaras Tom and my brother admire the ongoing barn construction With the actual purchase of our first alpacas accomplished, it was time for us to finish our fencing, barn building and the...
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