Welcome to the inaugural edition of “THE HUM ON THE RANGE”, our monthly website newsletter! We plan to keep all our alpaca friends up to date on what’s happening at Singletree Farm. We’ve had a busy summer of alpaca events here in Arizona. In June we were in Flagstaff for the fiber festival held at the historical museum. This festival is host to sheep, goats, llamas, spinners, weavers, felters, blacksmithy’s and lots of fiber enthusiasts. Since we had just sheared the pacas, we took lots of raw fiber, roving, yarn and finished goods to sell in our booth. This fest is host to lots of out of state visitors who were seeing alpacas for the first time, and we had a great weekend talking to people from all over the U.S.A. about alpacas. Afterwards, we were invited to dinner at Sandy & Charles Van Riper’s ranch in Flagstaff for a delicious lamb and elk feast. This was our third year attending the festival, and it just gets better every year. We sold lots of fiber and practically all our finished textiles. People are falling in love with the luxurious feel of alpaca! In August, our affiliate “Alpaca Breeders of Arizona” hosted a tax advantages seminar in Prescott. This seminar was geared toward people just getting started, or thinking about raising alpacas. Taught by Alan and Eileen Davis, C.P.A.’s who are well versed in small livestock operations. Eileen has even written a book and computer software program for alpaca record-keeping. Deb Hill, our affiliate president, gave a talk on how to set up your alpaca operation, based on her own experiences. After the seminars, all attendees were invited to the Vaughan’s ranch in Prescott Valley for a bar-b-q and a chance to see alpacas first-hand. That same weekend, Chris Switzer, a fiber expert from Colorado, gave an all-day workshop on fiber. We learned how to sort and skirt our fleeces; how to determine fineness by sight and feel; how to card the fiber and ready it for spinning, and how to use a drop spindle to spin our fiber into yarn. We had 30 attendees from 4 different states for the workshop. Chris is a wonderful teacher and if you ever get a chance to attend one of her workshops, don’t miss it! October has brought us cooler weather, falling leaves (LOTS of leaves!) and 3 cranky females anxiously awaiting the birth of their crias. Midnight, our black beauty, is trying her best to share her misery with everyone. The Singletree farmers are pestering her every two hours during the night –flashing the lantern over her over-abundant body looking for “signs” of impending labor. They’re all getting so used to this late night routine that they don’t even get up when they see us coming….just raise their heads and flash us dirty looks at this intrusion on their beauty sleep. So…the farmers are on 24-7 baby watch; the cria medical kit is ready, and the baby name book is being poured over. We will keep you posted! Farmer Jack has finished two new pastures for the herd and is planning two more for spring. This will give us eight grass pastures, and 5 dry lot pastures. Gee, we only have 10 alpacas. But Jack says, even if they don’t need all that real estate, they really appreciate the variety. (It’s always greener on the other side of the fence.) We took our three weanlings to the library on Sept. 29th, to meet the Head Start kiddies. These children are 3 and 4 yr olds and the alpacas just love interacting with them. Everyone fed them carrots and let the alpacas smell their heads. For some reason, alpacas just love the smell of Johnson’s baby shampoo. We will be taking them back in November to meet the kindergardeners. These short trips are a great way to get the young alpacas socialized and used to crowds before we start taking them to shows in the Spring. Just a reminder to everyone….we welcome visits to the farm, so give us a call.
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