I’m hoping to find a volunteer or two to help keep our alpacas and goats socialized and trained. They all are interested and curious about people, but they tend to get shy and skittish without ongoing interaction with people.

Stella wants to know what's up.

We have three African pygmy goats. Stella & Luna are the twin sisters shown in the photo above.

Tillie snoozing away the afternoon.

Here Tillie is snoozing in the sun on a late October afternoon.

Although tiny, our goats all have big personalities. They are curious to the point of being nosy.  When not eating, sleeping, begging to be fed, poking around, looking for food, or bossing each other around, they are usually shouting in their goaty way for me to come feed them again. Rest assured that they are not underfed.

Our alpacas and goats enjoying their morning hay.

The alpacas and goats get along well together in spite of the size discrepancy. If a dog happens by, the alpacas stand guard over the goats until they see the danger is gone.

Like the goats,  the alpacas are also curious about people. Sabino, the white alpaca is the more reserved. Faron, the dark alpaca is willing to come up to you and check you out, especially if you have food.

Frost on Sabino's back shows the insulation value of alpaca fleece.

Alpacas are native to the mountainous Andes. Their fleece is very warm for its weight. In the photo above you can see how well alpacas are suited to frigid weather. The morning frost on Faron’s coat was insulated from Faron’s body heat, and didn’t melt away until the sun heated up his dark coat.

If you would like to spend time with these engaging animals, let me know and we’ll talk.

Sabino before shearing

Faron before shearing

Sabino is a Suri alpaca, with a fleece that forms long locks that hang down. Faron is the more common Huacaya alpaca. The wooly-bear look of his fleece is due to a crimp in the fiber. Both fleeces are soft and luxurious. Sabino and Faron are about 2 1/2 years old, and have been together for most of their lives. Behind Faron you can see one of our Barred Rock chickens.

Shorn Alpacas

Underneath all that fleece, the alpacas are solid lean muscle and bone, fundamentally built as graceful running machines. A bit shy, but curious and willing to be friendly with people holding food, the apacas are a big favorite at the farm.

Seeds are starting to arrive. Territorial Seed came first, then Johnny’s, and, yesterday, Seed Savers Exchange. I’ll spend some time on variety choices some other time. Our drip line also came last week. We drip irrigate almost everything. It saves a lot of water and also saves a lot of time. No more spending hours dragging hoses and sprinklers around two or three times a day.

Claire & I still have a myriad of things to work out for production this year. We met for several hours yesterday and decided to schedule a weekly Tuesday morning meeting until we get to the point where short spontaneous discussions work better. We are working on a number of ideas new for the farm this year. Here are two: We’re hoping to be able to deliver to a number of restaurants. We will be at a Farmers’ Market this year. We haven’t yet decided on which one to apply for, so if you have a favorite, let me know.

We will also be recruiting someone to apprentice with Evert & Claire to become the Veg lead next year, responsible for growing & harvesting veg, flowers, & herbs.

There are a couple of beekeepers who want to keep bees at the farm this year. I’m hoping we’ll see over 1000 pounds of honey in the farmstand.

Faron, our black alpaca

Sabino, our white alpaca

This time of year the farm is not very photogenic, so I took a few photos of our alpacas. Here are Faron (black, a Huacaya alpaca) and Sabino (white, a Suri alpaca). These two guys were instant crowd favorites when they joined the farm last June.

I’ve been researching blogging software and got sidetracked into Twitter. I am now microblogging on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FarmerRoger.

If you don’t know Twitter, entries are limited to 140 letters, so they must be short, but I can quickly add a Tweet anytime I have something to share. I’ll write what I am focusing on that day, and what is going on at the farm. Follow my Tweets to be one of the first to know when tomatoes are finally ripe. I’ll also be entering the day’s weather and changes during the day since a few miles distance from the farm can make a huge difference in the weather. You may want to check before deciding it is too rainy outside for a visit to the farm. You don’t have to join Twitter to follow my day, but you do if you want to write back.