Wow! It's less than a week until Christmas!  I feel bad that I've let so much time pass without updating my blog.  My sincere apologies to my followers and visitors alike.  Let's see, where do I start with my updates??? I'll begin with the easiest: my feathered friends.

The hens (or girls, as I call them) have not been producing quite as many eggs lately.  I know that 2 of them are molting, and possibly more.  That apparently takes up most of their energy.  Plus, we've had quite a bit of frost here already.  Such cold temperatures also effect affect their egg-laying.  I haven't had enough to sell, but I've had enough for our personal use.

Doc's first show - a 5th place

Amy takes a 4th place

Zamboni

We've added a few new alpacas to our 'barn family'.  Zamboni, Amy, and Ember are our new additions.  They have fit in very nicely with their new surroundings.  Zamboni, pictured below, is with the young boys, and Amy and Ember are bunking with the babies, who are not so small anymore!
We also brought Genny home.  She is in with Amy and Ember and babies, as well.  We are half owners of one other boy, All in Favor.  He was with us for a month but has gone back to New York to his other farm for the next 6 months or so.

John and I have been to 2 alpaca shows this fall: Royal Alpaca Challenge in Conyers, GA, and VAOBA Expo in Doswell, VA.  Favor took a first place and Reserve Champion in GA and a first placer at VAOBA.  Zamboni took 2nd place at RAC and a 3rd place at VAOBA.  Amy placed 4th at Vaoba.  Our two other ribbons at Vaoba were 5th for Doc and 6th for Banjo.



John and I were vendors at a Holiday Market in Wytheville a week ago.  Despite very cold, windy conditions that morning, we did quite well.  We sold lots of alpaca socks! The therapeutic socks and hiker socks were by far the biggest hits!  Here is a photo from that morning!

Okay, to finish off today's update, I'll tell you about some of my newest spinning projects.   I have 3 skeins that I'm particularly excited about:

300 yds of grey from Wyatt's fiber, 200 yds of Ginger's fiber, and the third skein is my funky yarn.  I took my wheel to the GA show because I knew that they would have a spinning circle there.  Moonwood Farm provided samples of fiber called "cloud".  It was a blend of several different fibers, actually: alpaca, wool, milk fiber, bamboo, and angelina.  She handed me a small chunk of fiber to start spinning.  I was definitely spinning outside my normal comfort zone! Not only was it a mix of different fibers, not even carded, but the colors were totally opposite of what I would have chosen for myself.  It all turned out great though!  I even bought some of it to add to the freebie fiber she gave me.  It went to a friend of mine for Christmas that absolutely loves anything and everything funky and wild! (see below for photos of aforementioned yarns)

Wyatt yarn

Ginger yarn

My first 'funky' yarn - won't be my last!

Well, it's getting late!  My barn is calling me to get my tail outside to scoop before it gets too dark!  Bye for now! I'll try to update things here more often now.  That will be high on my list of New Year Resolutions!!!  Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year too!