What are you doing for NAFD?

National Alpaca Farm Days is upon us. I've spent the last month or so getting the open house on various community calendars and sending out flyers to everyone I can think of. We're having the farm open both Saturday and Sunday from 12 pm - 4 pm.


Some of my friends couldn't make it out this weekend so we started National Alpaca Farm Days just a wee bit early for them. Griffin and Ulysses helped train some new alpaca wranglers.

These are felted alpaca cat toys. They're my newest project. I haven't quite perfected the process just yet. The cats enjoy them. Once the cats have had their fun, the dog enjoys ripping off the felted fleece for some multi-species entertainment. I will have these for sale at the open house this weekend.

I invite all of you to come out and see the alpacas rain or shine this weekend.

Here's the info:

Dates: Saturday September 26 & Sunday September 27, 2009

Time: Noon - 4 pm

Location:
Big River Alpacas - Bob and Lisa Fererro
7820 Riverview Rd.
Dittmer, MO 63023
House phone. (636) 452-3436

Driving Directions:

Take Highway 30/Gravois Road West from 270.
Go Approximately 20 miles to Missouri Hwy B and turn Left
Go 5.2 miles and turn RIGHT on Missouri Hwy C
Hwy C dead ends into Missouri Hwy Y after 4.7 miles
Turn Right on Hwy Y.
Go 0.2 miles and turn left on Browns Ford Road
Go 2 miles and bear left on Ware Lake Road
Go 0.5 miles and turn left on Riverview Rd - there's a big sign that says 'Riverview'
House will be on the right.

Copy Cat

I work for a corporation. And sometimes when you work for a corporation someone else will steal/copy your work, ideas, and/or writing. We're having an open house for National Alpaca Farm Days. I wrote the advert. This was difficult for me as most of my writing experience is technical. I thought it was decent and apparently another alpaca owner did as well. Imagine my surprise when I saw my very own words used to advertise another farm's open house!

Here's what I wrote (if you double click on the image will open up a larger version that's easier to read):

"In honor of National Alpaca Farm Days, Big River Alpacas along with Mariposa Farms will be holding an open house. You'll be able to get up close and personal with our alpacas. You'll be able to pet and feed the alpacas, and we'll have answers to all of your burning alpaca questions. Fleece & alpaca products will be available for sale as well. There will be a spinning demo and free alpaca beans if you need compost for your garden this fall. (please bring a container if you'd like to take some with you)"

And here's what Copy Cat Alpaca Farm wrote:


"In honor of National Alpaca Farm Days, (Xxxxx Xxxxx) Farm will be holding an open house on Saturday, September 26th from 9am-4pm. Get up close and personal with our alpacas. You'll be able to pet and feed the alpacas, and we'll have answers to all of your burning alpaca questions. There will be a spinning demo and free alpaca beans if you need compost for your garden this fall. Please bring a container if you'd like to take some with you. "

What interesting is that Copy Cat Alpaca Farm has a copyright protection notice on their website so I'm pretty sure that they know plagiarism is a no-no. I've emailed this farm as well as left messages on their voicemail and I haven't received a response as to why they thought this was okay. According to the Copyright Website (notice how I give credit to the source as well as provide a link to the website) "almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law."

I have to say that I am highly disappointed as this farm is located in Missouri and I will likely see them at seminars and shows.

PS. If you like the advert and need one of you own, I'd be happy to write one for you.

On Hiatus

Readers and Alpaca Fans,

I'm going to be on hiatus for a bit. I recently slipped, fell and broke my right radius. Overall it's healing well but it will be some time before I'm back up to full speed.

I board my alpacas and they are in good hands so that's one less thing to worry about. For now my focus is on getting well.

Should anything overly exciting happen, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'll be back once I'm healed.

Update on Autumm (and the rest of the herd)

Things are progressing slowly with solving Autumm's mystery. An ultrasound revealed that she is not pregnant, even though her behavior indicates otherwise. She wants absolutely nothing to do with any of the boys. I am currently waiting for some feedback on the ultrasound. At this point it's getting too late for a spring breeding so I'm resigned to leaving her open until next fall. That should give us plenty of time to get her body back to normal.

Mariposa's Rose Marie has been successfully bred to BRA Bocephus. And my girl, Liberty, gave us yet another alpaca surprise. I had chosen to breed Liberty to Doc Holiday. Doc was quite excited about this and was absolutely enthralled with Liberty. However, Doc apparently is NOT Liberty's type and she had no interest in him whatsoever. But she did find BRA Jesse James to her liking. Perhaps Liberty knows something I don't?

Griffin and Morrighan are both weaned and eating well on their own. They got a halter lesson today. Both are very good at standing still and being touched. But walking around on the halter.....not so much.
Griffin poses for the camera during halter training while Baroness looks on (photo by Ellen Disseler).
Halter training Morrighan. Sometimes it helps to get on their level. Photo by Ellen Disseler.