Valentine's Day at the alpaca farm.....

Yesterday my friends Holly and Cathy, agreed to go on a little field trip with me to the local alpaca farm.  You have to understand that up until this past Fall I did not even know we had a local alpaca farm.  I happened to drive by it and I was stunned.  Yesterday was open house day at the Golden Spirit Alpaca Ranch and we had to see for ourselves these sweet fiber producers.   The ranch has three properties with over 75 acres and 250 alpacas living there.  The farm was beautiful, large, clean and so well kept.  You can actually buy an alpaca and have it bordered there.........tempting I know.

This is Vera, she was my absolute favorite.  She was so friendly and social, or maybe she was just hungry, I am not sure.  She is just a beauty, look at those eyes!  

Each alpaca had a name tag, here is Vera's.  There was Blueberry and Joy, and of course Merlot.  So many fun names, they made us laugh.

Here is Cathy with Vera.

And Holly is with Vera, too.  Apparently in the 85 pictures I took of the farm, Vera was in about 40 of them.

 Not the best picture of me here, but who could ever look good with Vera right next to them, she steals the show.

I just can't tell you how sweet they all were.  It was such a beautiful day, cool and sunny which certainly helped making living on an Alpaca farm seem like the ideal way to live.  Can you imagine walking out your door to the barn or fenced in area to have a little snuggle with a bundle of soft fleece?  Yes I know it would be a lot of work, but in my fantasy it is always sunny, cool and dry, and I get to snuggle anytime I want to with a willing participant.

Some were inside the barn in clean fenced in areas.

Others were in outside big penned in areas or left to roam in big open spaces.  Really if I was an alpaca I would love this to be my home.  

Look at this hairdo!

Alpaca's are herd animals so if you want one you had better buy a couple of them.  Oh darn that would be such a tragedy owning several of them. You could buy one of these and I promise I would go visit it for you!

It was just the best little field trip.  I plan to take Little Buddy when he is a bit older.  They sponsor these events several times a year.  There was also a little shop, lots of expensive things to wear and cute hats for little ones.  I restrained myself.  As soon as I got home all I wanted to do was work with alpaca yarn not my green, crummy, knit picks crochet blanket.  Ah well I will have to discipline myself to get that blanket done so I can have fun with yarn I love to work with.  And after yesterday that just might be some alpaca. 

Funny, well sort of a sad fact about me, my missing sister, the one who has nothing to do with my family or my sister Claudia, has an alpaca farm in Minnesota.   We have never seen it or actually heard about it from her.  She also knits, which we have never talked about.  Crazy isn't it?

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day and a nice weekend.