Alpacamania

Well my mom has gone completely crazy and wants to raise Alpacas when she retires in a few years.  As you have seen on this blog they have the land and are in a farming region of new york but its just, why Alpacas amom?  After giving her a hard time I finally said, ok it's been a few years and it seems like this idea is not going away so I'll support you (not as in shearing alpacas or shoveling sh!t but you know, stop making fun of her (so much) and supporting her).  I went with her to an Alpaca farm about 40 minutes from our house.  She's been to other farms in the area



this is what upstate new york looks like.  corn fields, cows..............alpacas? who knew?



there are 2 schools of alpaca farming, for the fiber (their wool), or for breeding and selling the animals.  Alpacas are from South America.  They are NOT llamas.  They are a lot smaller than llamas and were bred for their wool and not to be work animals like llamas.  Alpacas, llamas, and camels are all of the camelid species.





this farmer was super friendly and informative.  So apparently a profit can be made in both selling the fiber and breeding.  Its not unheard of for one to go for $20,000 if it has good blood lines.





alpacas are funny guys, they are super curious and will get right up on you but they don't like being touched and run away.







I mean come on look at that guy.  He looks like one of the beatles.



They are like walking cartoons are are always curious about what you're doing.





The females.  They are kept in a separate area so they don't drive the males crazy.



this is the newest youngest female.



females are messier than the males actually.  another "good" thing about alpacas is they are pretty clean and keep all their lil' alpaca turdlettes neat and tidy in one area they say.



next we went to the fiber factory down the road which was started and is run by his wife to process all the fiber and dye it and spin it into yarn or fabric.  They have a monopoly on this part of the biz because they are the only ones that do it in the area.  hum, who would have thunk that there would be only one alpaca mill in the southern tier of new york?  god are we in the middle ages here, just one?  just in case there are any alpaca folk reading this I am being sarcastic, I am amazed that there are so many in the area actually.  The whole tone of this post is a little sarcastic because its going to take a little time to accept my mom becoming "alpaca lady".



you can make some pretty sweet stuff out of alpaca.  imagine getting a three piece fall/winter suit made out of that!!! that would be pimp and probably super expensive.



the husband and the wife both asked my mom if she was serious about this and not just thinking alpacas are cute (they are indeed) because she saw this late night alpaca advertorial on TV.  She has never seen it, and i especially have never seen it.  Check that, i just looked it up online and think i found what they are talking about.  Here is the video below.
 


the alpacas in this  vid don't look as cute as the ones on this guy's farm.  Also i'm sorry you guys but this is kind of funny.  especially at the end with the long pause while the music keeps playing and then suddenly the custom alpacainfo.com jingle.  If it's gonna be like that I want me and bob to make a special alpaca video for my mom after she gets set up in a few years and we will score the whole 1 minute + video and make our own special jingle.  Now that's an alpaca video I want to see!  



alpaca socks, pretty sweet



someone lucky received these bad boys.  So at the end of the day, if this is what my mom really wants to do then i guess that's cool.  It's not like anyone in our family is not weird and I would rather have her be alpaca lady than something boring.  Perhaps this blog will live to see the alpaca days.  Ok lets go shoot some guns next!