Recent Events

On July 2nd Lily had her second baby, Rizpah.  Rizzy is beige and very active!  She has to be with Peter after her all the time!

We had an open farm day here on June 5th.  Just so happened that Bossanova decided to have cria number 7 that day!  Sweet Maple's Rebekah had many visitors to meet!  This was Bossy's very first girl!  We were very excited!

On June 25th Matthias left to move to New York to his new family, Steve and Amy Fancher.  That same week Molly, from Hidden Farm Alpacas, went to her new home with Sara Hughes at Wild Apple Alpacas. 

In June Tanya, Isadora Duncan and Maacah left to go to Hinsdale to Jim and Heidi Burdo's, 2 Acre Alpaca Farm.  They will be back for breeding the end  of July.

June 28th was a busy day here!  Two babies born!  Calysta had baby number 5, a boy we named Peter after our 12 year old chore helper, Peter Loomis.  Not long after that Anna had her very first baby, Ruthie!  Peter Loomis had never seen an alpaca born before and that day he got two in one!  Very exciting!

On June 30th two alpacas from Dream Catcher Farm came to stay with us.  Mountain Rayne is a beautiful silver grey male and Miss Lyra is a striking fawn female.  Both these alpacas are for sale! 

Last spring we had three cria, Tabitha, Mathias and Deborah.  All three are now approaching their first birthday.  Matthias and Deborah have been to two shows this spring.  The North American Alpaca Show and the Northeast Alpaca Expo.  Matthias took a 3rd and a 2nd.  Deborah took a 4th and a 6th!  Very exciting!

Last fall we had the alpacas from Hidden Farm Alpaca move in.  We currently have 56 alpacas on the farm!  We love it!  We are expecing 7 cria in June and three more in September. 

Tom is busy this time of year.  He's off shearing for most of the month of May and into June.  He enjoys it!  Yesterday we sheared some of our alpacas.  They sure look tiny! 

\We have had some sales on the farm and have had to say goodbye to some wonderful alpacas.  Amos and Galilee are going to Troy, NH to live with Joan.  Abi went to northern Vermont to the home of Rich and Anna Clemons.  Tanya, Isadora Duncan and Maacah are moving to Hinsdale to live with Heidi and Jim Burdo.  Hagrid, Hezekiah, Caiaphas, Sammy, Luke and Max have moved in with Donna Watterson.  Delilah made the move to Maine to Tripping Gnome Alpacas.  Betsy has gone to live at Gram B's alpacas in Grafton. 

Our niece, Renee, a vet tech, is still coming to the farm and helping us with toenails and shots.  She comes on shearing day to help out and has helped do some halter training. 

On May 27 we had 14 children and their teachers from the Calvary Baptist Church School in Claremont, NH come for their second farm visit.  They were able to spend time with all the alpacas and to see Caiaphas!  I think they were more excited about seeing him than he was about meeting them!  The children made their own alpaca to take home and also received a finger puppet.  Everyone had a great time!

Tanya gave birth to cria number 7 on May 24th!  A healthy 22 pound boy who is white with brown markings just like his mom!  We named him Sweet Maple’s Caiaphas.  Once again, we chose a name from the bible.  Caiaphas was the high priest who said Jesus was speaking  blasphemy when he claimed to be the Son of God.  Caiaphas and the other elders decided to send Jesus to Pontius Pilate, who was the governor.  Pilate washed his hands of the situation of Jesus and said it was the people’s responsibility.  Jesus was then crucified. We are calling him Cai.  Cai is doing very well, however he will be very happy when the next cria arrives!  He needs a playmate!

Dave Hinman came back to us this year to shear the alpacas.  Shearing this year was spread over 2 days, May 21 and 22.  We are very appreciative of all the help we had from Diana Fiorey, Renee Clark, Sandy Mowrey and Linda Dickey.  You all made it so much easier for us!  We sheared 25 alpacas using a shearing table.  It makes it so much easier on our backs!  The alpacas were very pleased to have all their heavy fleece removed.  Of course, the very next day it got cold again, so there was a bit of shivering going on!  We bedded heavy and shut some of the doors and all was well!

On May 16 nine alpacas arrived at our farm from Adirondack Evergreen Alpacas in Plattsburgh, NY.  Our good friends, Leo and Sandy Lawrence brought three of their outstanding breeding males to stand stud at our farm through September.  See our herdsire page for more information on these boys.  They also brought 3 beautiful females, 2 of which are bred, one is a maiden, and 2 fiber boys for us to sell along with some of our own animals.  One female they brought, Starflower, is joining our herd.  We are very excited to have her become a part of our breeding program.  To find out how you can own one of their alpacas or one of ours please see our Sales page.  All arrived safely and have settled in comfortably.  I love having them here!

Well, I did something a little crazy, according to my husband!  On May 13 fifteen baby chicks in a variety of breeds arrived at our farm.  Hopefully they will all be females and begin laying eggs for me in about 4 months.  They are the cutest things to watch running around!  My grandparents had a chicken farm for years in Walpole, NH.  It was called Keefe’s Poultry Farm.  I am very excited to have my own chicks here!

Along with all the joys of alpacas there’s always heartbreak too.  On May 12th we had to say goodbye to Leviticus.  Levi was only 3 ½ years old, but on that day he suddenly died.  We had had no warning that anything was wrong with him until that afternoon.  We called our vet, Roger Osinchuk, who arrived immediately.  We tried everything possible, but Levi died.  Roger did a necropsy (like an autopsy) on Levi and discovered that he had Lymphoma of the kidneys.  That is, cancer.  Alpacas are so stoic that until the very end we had no idea he was even sick.  He was continuing all his normal behavior.  Levi leaves a big hole in our hearts. Fortunately, Jazzy is due to have his cria in July.  We are very much looking forward to this delivery!

Again this year I went to Hopkinton Fairgrounds for the NH Sheep and Wool Festival.  What a wonderful event that is.  I was able to sell many skeins of alpaca yarn and bags of fleece, and meet so many wonderful people.  If you’ve never been to this event and you enjoy working with fiber, you have to put it on your calendar for next year!  It is always Mother’s Day weekend.  They have shearing and spinning demonstrations.  There are alpacas, sheep, rabbits and llamas to visit, and so many vendors!  With something for everyone!  What a great event! 

On May 9 I went over a day early to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival and helped with the judging for the New England Hands On Alpaca Fleece Off.  It is a fleece show of alpaca fleeces.  There were over 50 fleeces to judge in a variety of colors.  Les Foshay was the judge and by helping I was able to learn a lot more about fiber!  I was very pleased to have our Senor Amos win a third place ribbon! 

Congratulations to Sherry Bacon of Gram B’s Alpacas.  On May 7, she purchased two of our females.  It was very sad to say goodbye to Sweet Maple’s Greta and Lydia’s Lexus.  Both are due with crias this summer and will be back to breed to our males.  Lucky for me Sherry doesn’t live that far away, only in Grafton, VT, so I can go and visit when the crias are born!  It’s difficult to have to say goodbye!

For the fourth year in a row we went to the Herrick’s Cove Wildlife Festival in Rockingham, VT.  It was on May 4.  We took Phoebe and Benjamin with us.  The children had a lot of fun visiting with the alpacas.  This is a great event to bring children to.  It is held the first Sunday in May.  All the events are centered around and for children.  We highly recommend it as a great day to spend with your children!

The Village Preschool from Saxtons River visited us on April 24, with 25 children and their teacher, Joy.  Many parents came along with the children to check out the alpacas.  The children were able to visit with Betsy, Phoebe, Ben, Zeke and Nicodemus.  Many thanks to our daughter Melissa and Sherry Bacon for taking time that morning and helping me with the big group.  It was a lot of fun for everyone!

On April 17, The Saxtons River Montessori School came back for another visit.  I believe they have come every year that we have had alpacas!  There were 7 children with their teacher, Judi Ryner.  Everyone had a great time and the weather cooperated!  It had called for rain, but thankfully it held off!

We headed down to Springfield, MA for the North American Alpaca Show on April 4th.  This is a level 5 alpaca show!  There were an incredible number of alpacas and farms registered.  We were very happy to have Hezekiah (Zeke) bring home a blue first place ribbon.  He was in a class of 15 alpacas!  We were also very happy to have Benjamin bring home a green 6th place ribbon, he was in a class of 10 alpacas!  We also had Phoebe and Betsy with us.  The alpacas behaved themselves very well.  All that halter training paid off!

March 29 and 30 we held our 5th annual Alpaca and Maple Sugaring open house.  Once again we were blessed with about 500 people!  The weather on Saturday was very windy and cold, but with the sunshine out you didn’t notice it too badly.  A big thank you to my Aunt Linda Dickey, Cousins Kim, Amanda, Melanie and Megan Munoz, their friends, Michaela, Kyle, Sarah, and Melanie, and our daughter Melissa  for being such  big helps that weekend!  We couldn’t have done it without you!

Greta and Sammy returned home on March 23rd from Moonacre Farm.  Greta successfully nursed the orphaned cria until she was ready to be weaned.  Greta seemed very happy to be home with her old friends and settled in quickly.  Sammy discovered his old friends also and immediately started running around and wrestling with them!  I think everyone was happy to see them return!

Nicodemus brought home another ribbon!  On March 1 at the Empire Symposium Fleece Event his fleece took a third place ribbon! 

January was the time for weaning!  Phoebe, Ben, Zeke and Betsy were all weaned successfully from their moms.  That’s when halter training began for these four.  It was a bit of a challenge with the tall snow banks and ice.  We took many a walk together down River Road where the going was much easier!  They all did well with it, except for Betsy who would rather lay down than walk!

Other than a whole lot of snow and shoveling the winter passed pretty peacefully!  We had 17 alpacas all snuggled together in our big barn. 

On November 11 Greta and her cria Sammy moved to Barton, VT to Moonacre Farm to take care of an orphaned cria.  Greta will nurse other crias alongside her own, so she was a big asset to Karen Shaw. 

In November Noah, Simon and Jed all moved to Surry, NH to live with Russell and Diana Fiorey.  They are the first alpacas for the Fiorey’s who raise miniature horses.  The boys have settled in nicely!

We were scheduled to bring Amos and Titus to the Green Mountain Fall Spectacular on November 3 and 4, but we decided to leave them home because of an illness that was affecting some of the alpaca farms.  Instead we put Titus’ and Nicodemus’ fleece in the fleece show held there in conjunction with the Green Mountain Fall Spectacular.  Titus took a 4th place ribbon and Nic took a 3rd!   We were very happy!

October 21 and 22 we went to Syracuse, NY to the alpaca show there.  We took Titus and Amos with us.  They each took 4th place ribbons in their age and color class.

All of Toms hard work and long hours have finally come to an end! On Sunday, October 7th the new barn was finally complete and the moms and crias could move in!

They were all very excited to get onto all that tall, green grass. But, at the end of the day, they all lined up at the fence closest to the old barn and waited for us to take them back! When they were tired of standing, they all cushed down and made themselves comfortable. They are now adjusting nicely to their new home!

We bred Meg to our herdsire Elijah on October 7th.

On October 5th we bred Bos to our herdsire Levi.

Congratulations to Matthew and Renee Williams of Armida Alpacas! They purchased Sweet Maples Isaiah on October 3rd. From reports I have received from Renee, Isaiah has settled in nicely and is enjoying his new herd mates. We are very happy for Armida Alpacas!

We had some great news on October 1st! Our vet, Dr. Roger Osinchuk, performed some ultrasounds on our girls. We have confirmation that Tanya, Calysta, Lexi, Jazzy, and Greta are all pregnant! And, our Abigail is also confirmed pregnant with her very first cria! We are very excited!

We bred Greta on September 13th to our herdsire Micah.

On August 23rd I went out to the barn midafternoon and was very surprised to see a strange little cria looking at me! Greta had her cria 10 days early, all by herself. We welcomed Sweet Maples Samuel. His sire is our herdsire, Levi. Sammy is Levis first cria. He is medium fawn and very beautiful. Greta was fine, also. She did a great job!

We bred Jazzy to our herdsire, Levi on August 10th.

Imagine being 9 years old and spending your summer on an alpaca farm, just hoping to see a cria being born!  Dreams do come true!  On July 20th my nine year old cousin, Megan Munoz was able to witness Jazzy giving birth to her fourth cria!  We welcomed Sweet Maple’s Lady Elizabeth that day!  Betsy weighed 19 ½ pounds.  She has a fawn streak from the top of her head to the tip of her tail and the rest of her appears to be beige in color.  Betsy’s name, Elizabeth , has several meanings to us.  As you may know, we always choose a biblical name.  In this case Elizabeth also stands for Jazzy’s dam, Lady Elizabeth, who passed away last summer, and it is Megan’s middle name!  Betsy is a special girl! 

Bos gave birth to her fourth son on Friday, July 13th.  Sweet Maple’s Hezekiah weighed 20 ½ pounds.  Zeke is all black and all boy!  He and Ben are tearing around like crazy!

On July 9th our cousin Megan Munoz started helping out at the farm with the alpacas.  Megan’s favorite is Simon.  She has been working with him on the halter.  Megan is proving to be a very big help even though she’s only 9!

Calysta was bred to Amos on July 3rd.

Sadly, on July 2nd  baby Josiah passed away from what appears to be a perforated bowel.  It was a very sad day for us and for Lexi.

Hallie was bred to Levi on Saturday, June 30th.  Everything went very well!

On June 27th  a beautiful rose grey girl named Hallie came to visit for a breeding to Levi.  Hallie comes from North of the Andes Alpaca Farm in northern Vermont .  Hallie will be with us until she is confirmed pregnant.  Also on June 27th Quinn Lawrence came back to help me work with the alpacas for the summer.  Quinn is a cousin of ours and lives in Saxtons River , VT.   She helped us out last summer also.

Tanya was bred to our herdsire Amos on June 24th.  This was Amos’ first breeding. 

Calysta gave birth to her first cria on June 12th.  A little boy, Sweet Maple’s Benjamin.  Ben is a medium fawn color and he weighed 17 ½ pounds.  

June 10th  was the date of the birth of Lexi’s second cria.  Sweet Maple’s Josiah,  a beautiful bay black male who weighed 23 ½ pounds!  Phoebe was very happy to have a new playmate!

Our first cria of the year was born on Sunday, June 3rd .  Tanya gave birth to her sixth cria!  A beautiful medium brown girl we named Sweet Maple’s Phoebe.  Phoebe weighed 22 ½ pounds!  Phoebe is our herdsire Micah’s first cria!  We were very excited to welcome her!

May 18  was shearing day here at the farm.  And once again our friend, Dave Hinman, came to do the shearing for us on his shearing table.  Two of my aunts came to help this year.  Barbara Dickerman from Connecticut and Linda Dickey from Swanzey , NH .  They had never seen shearing done before, and were a tremendous help to us!  We did 18 alpacas in 5 hours!  All the alpacas were very happy to have that heavy fleece off! 

A group of students from the Walpole elementary school came to visit on May 17.  It was the first time most of the children had ever seen an alpaca.  They had a good time feeding the animals and petting them. 

May 11th and 12th was the date for the NH Sheep and Wool Festival in Hopkinton , NH .  Alpacas and alpaca products were represented there, also.  This was the first year I had gone.  I was able to sell quite a bit of yarn and fleece.  If you’ve never been you should check it out!  It is amazing, all the varieties of wools and other products!  They held an alpaca fleece show.   It was called the New England Hands on Alpaca Fleece Off.  I entered the same three fleeces I had sent to NY.  This time Amos took a sixth place ribbon, Micah took a fourth place ribbon and Levi took a third place ribbon!  A very good weekend for us!

The Saxtons River Montessori School with teacher Judi Ryner came to visit on May 9th.  Each year Judi brings her students to learn about the alpacas. 

We attended the Wildlife Festival at Herrick’s Cove, in Rockingham , VT again this year.  It was on Sunday May 6th.  We took Simon and Noah with us.  They were very curious about all the people.  There was even a wolf there on demonstration!  It is a wonderful event for children.  It happens the first Sunday in May each year.  They have lots of animals for the children to interact with and lots of activities like building a bird house, painting t shirts and much more. 

We had a group of girl scouts come to visit on April 23rd from Troy , NH .  Twelve cadet girl scouts with their leader Julie Reekie enjoyed visiting with the alpacas.  The girls were able to work with the alpaca fiber.  They practiced carding and spinning the fiber and each did some felting.  Everyone had a great time.

Finally on April 9th Nic’s splint came off and he was completely cast free!  After a week of becoming steadier on his feet, we introduced him back into his group.  They were happy to have him back with them and they all behaved very carefully around him.  Whenever they would start to rough house, Nic would remove himself from the area until they were done.  They learned very quickly that he wouldn’t put up with their fooling around!

We took 7 of our boys, Micah, Levi, Amos, Isaiah, Jed, Titus and Simon to the North American Alpaca Show in Springfield , MA on the weekend of March 30th.   We saw a lot of old friends and made some new friends!  We also got to see Chloe again!  We were very happy with the way she was developing!  Amos was the fortunate one, he brought home a sixth place ribbon.  It was a very big show!  It is amazing how much it has grown in such a short time.

On March 26 we took Nic to Tufts for the final time!  They discovered that the left leg had healed faster than they had expected!  For some reason bone grows faster in camelids than in other species. They removed both casts that day.  The left leg was splinted for extra support.   Nic experienced a great deal of pain in that left leg.  With the right leg he had a cast on for support after the pins were taken out.  Because the bone was beginning to adhere to a bone it was not supposed to in the left leg they could not recast that leg for support.  The splint helped, but Nic was very uncomfortable and needed to have some pain medication.

The weekend of March 24 and 25  was the date of our 4th annual alpaca open house.  What a weekend that was!  We had over 530 people come to visit!  My cousin Kim Munoz and my Aunt Linda Dickey  were a huge help to us that weekend as were our friends Brian and Sherry Ames and Peg Porter. Our daughter Melissa was in charge of the store and did a great job!  We couldn’t have done it without all their help!  The alpacas all behaved very well.  Amos was misbehaving with the boys so we had him on a lead and people got a chance to spend time with him.  His buddy Isaiah never left his side!  

Our herdsire, Mico, went back to Pennsylvania to Finca Alta Vista, the farm we co own him with on March 21.  He will enjoy his time there, visiting with other girls!

Nic had to go back to Tufts on March 5.  He had xrays to see how the bones were healing.  The left leg was not healing as well as they would have liked.  There was some concern that Nic would need an additional surgery.  Both legs were recasted that day as Nic was outgrowing the casts.  The right leg had the pins removed from the cast, but the pins remained in the left leg.  Back home again!  We still had to get him up every 4 hours! 

February 17 and 18th  was the Empire Symposium Fleece Event in Syracuse , NY . We sent off three of our fleeces to be judged.  All three did very well!  Micah took a sixth place ribbon, Levi took a fourth place ribbon and Amos took a third place ribbon! 

The week of January 10th brought some changes to the barn. It was time for Jed, Noah and Titus to be weaned. The moms were ready for the break, but the boys were a little sad. They did very well and even managed to continue gaining weight! With that it was also time to begin halter training! The boys were not happy with that either, but they are learning quickly and will be ready for the first show of the year.

February was a tough month for Nicodemus.  On February 8 he was cushed in the pen taking a nap when one of the older girls jumped up and when she landed she landed squarely on both his back knees!  Crushing the growth plate in each knee!  Poor Nic!  It was pretty painful.  We called our vet, Roger Osinchuk who came right away.  We had to take Nic to our local small animal vet for xrays.  Sure enough they were both broken and very badly!  Roger contacted Tufts University in Worcester , MA and sent us on our way.  Nic was at Tufts for 10 days. The diagnosis was 2 bilateral calcaneus fractures.   He had to have surgery to put rods through both his knees.  Then he had full leg casts with pins to hold the legs steady.  Nic could not get up or down.  He had to be lifted and steadied every 4 hours.  He came home on February 19.  He was so happy!  The entire time he was at Tufts there were no other alpacas there!  He was very happy to be with the others again.  Unfortunately he had to be kept alone in our vet room.  Because he couldn’t get up or down there was the danger of the other animals hurting him.  Plus with the winter temperatures he needed to be kept warm and dry.  Every 4 hours around the clock I had to go out and get Nic up, help him move around, and made sure he ate, drank and went to the bathroom.  Tom did the 10 pm and the 6 am duty.

On January 4, 2007 we had to say goodbye to Lydia and her cria, Chloe. In December they were sold to Austin and Mary Gunzenmuller of Happy Hollow Alpacas. The girls are doing great, we hear, but they sure left a hole in our barn! We are looking forward to seeing Chloe again at the North American Alpaca Show. Congratulations Austin and Mary!

December was a very quiet month in the barn. All the moms and crias were happy and together. The big news is that Micah, Levi, Amos, Elijah and Isaiah moved back to the barn from across the road. There are 21 animals in our barn! Very cozy. Luckily everyone is getting along fine!

October and November were busy months for the barn animals! They had some visitors, including the Westminster Center School kindergarten class and 15 3 year olds from the Early Education Program. In October we traveled to Syracuse, NY for the Empire Extravaganza. We took Micah, Levi, Amos, Isaiah, Elijah and Abigail. Micah took a 4th place, Levi took a 2nd and Isaiah took a 1st! We were very happy. Two weeks later we headed up to Northern Vermont for the Green Mountain Fall Spectacular. This was the first year for this show and the people in charge did an incredible job! This time we took Micah, Levi, Isaiah, Amos and Elijah. Micah took a 3rd place, Isaiah took a 4th place and Levi took a 2nd place. We had a wonderful time! Also during this time the store was very busy with people stocking up for Christmas.

On October 2nd we bred Greta to our herdsire, Levi. This was Levis first breeding. Their cria is confirmed by ultrasound and is due September, 2007.

I was sad to see September come! We had to say goodbye to Quinn and Tucker who had helped us all summer with the alpacas. They had to go back to school! But they promise they will be back next summer! The alpacas were enjoying the cooler temperatures and the decline in the bug population! All the crias are growing quickly! The moms are all very tolerant of their children.

Greta gave birth to her first cria on August 28.  Welcome Sweet Maples Simon!  He weighed 19 pounds and was up and nursing in a very short time.  Greta had an easy labor and delivery.  She certainly is enjoying being a mom!  She always knows where he is!  Simons sire is our herdsire, Leonardo da Mico.  Simon is bay black with lots of fiber!  He is running around, keeping up with the other 5 crias.

August 18 was a very productive day for us.  We started out with a visit from our vet, Roger Osinchuk.  He did ultrasounds on four of our pregnant girls.  Lexi, Tanya, Calysta and Lydia are all confirmed pregnant!  Later that day, we bred Jazz to Our Bolivian Micah.  Everything went very well.

Tom and I decided we needed a little bit of a break, so we headed out to New York for a few days of R&R while Toms sister, Penny, took care of the alpacas.  Thank goodness for Penny!

Meg and Bos were both bred on August 3^rd.  Meg was bred to Our Bolivian Micah and Bos was bred to Leonardo da Mico.  Everything went well.

July 28 was another productive day!  Early that morning Jazzy gave birth to her third cria, and first son!  Sweet Maples Nicodems.  Nic was only 15 pounds, but perfect in every way!  He has his sires, Mico, head and bone structure.  Hes a compact little guy.  We are very excited about him!  Later that day Lydia was bred to Leonardo da Mico.

On July 13 we bred our maiden Calysta to our herdsire Leonardo da Mico. Everything seemed to go well, so well be patiently waiting to find out the results!

On July 12 Bos surprised us a few days early by giving birth to her third son, Sweet Maples Titanium Titus! He is beautiful! He is from Cas-Cad-Nac Farms Heavy Metal, who is a dark silver grey. Titus appears to be a light silver/rose grey with a patch of darker grey! It will be interesting to see how he develops! We are very excited about him!

On July 8 we bred Tanya to Our Bolivian Micah. It was his first breeding and he did a great job! So far it appears that it may have taken!

On July 7 Lydia had her cria a few days early. She gave us a beautiful medium rose grey girl that weve named Sweet Maples Chloe. Lydia loves Chloe! She wont let her out of her sight! Chloe looks so much like mom, its like her Mini Me!

We bred Lexi on July 3rd to Fantasys Bisbee. He is a medium rose grey herdsire. We are hoping with her background of rose grey that we get a rose grey cria from them next June!

On July 3 Quinn and Tucker Lawrence, more cousins, came to spend the day with the alpacas. They both will be coming throughout the summer to help out with the alpacas and learn more about them. It was so hot on the 3rd that they were able to spray the girls down with the hose. Everyone enjoyed that! They learned how to clean the barn and how to handle the crias. Quinn even took some of the pictures that are on the website!

On Thursday, June 29, Meg gave birth early to a true black boy, who, unfortunately, didnt survive. Meg is doing very well, and as soon as we can well breed her back. She was sad the first day, but she has been fine ever since!

Tanya decided to go a few days early and deliver 21 pound Sweet Maples Noah. Noah is the spitting image of mom! He has dad, Micos, dense fleece and heavy bone structure, but he has moms color! White with brown markings. His feet look like he has chocolate shoes on! The very tip of his tail is chocolate brown, as are the markings on his face. He has brown spots in his white fleece, just like mom! Mico has a reputation for throwing the dams color, and I guess we cant argue with that!

Lexi had her first cria on Monday, June 12. She had a boy, Sweet Maples Jedediah. Both mom and cria did really well. Lexi had a really easy time of it. Jed weighed 19 pounds and was up and nursing in no time. Lexi took to being a mom very quickly. Jed is a medium fawn color and both Lexi and his sire were true blacks!

In early June we finally finished the run in shelter, water and electricity across the road in the new pasture. We moved the boys, Mico, Micah, Levi, Amos, Elijah and Isaiah over there. For the first few days they paced the fence line wanting to get back to the girls! They finally settled down and are enjoying all the grass they can eat!

Leonardo da Mico came back from Finca Alta Vista farm at the end of May to spend the summer with us. It was good to see him again! We co own him with that farm. Its always sad to see him go, but great to have him come back!

Weve been very fortunate to have our niece, Renee Clark come each month to help with shots and toenail trimmings. Renee is a vet tech in the White River Junction area and is enjoying learning about alpacas. We love having her! Congratulations to her and her husband, Randy, they are expecting their first child in January!

We welcomed back shearer, Dave Hinman on May 22 to help shear the herd. We had a wonderful time. We even brought Barney and Fred back from Judis house to be shorn here. When we brought Fred and Barney home we also delivered Malacchi. Judi is pretty busy now with the three boys! Luckily she lives close enough so we can go visit them!

For the second time Kindergarten teacher, Cheryl Miller, from the Westminster Center School came to visit with her class. This year they came on May 9. There were about 14 kids. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

For the second year in a row we attended the Herricks Cove Wildlife Festival in Rockingham, VT at the Herricks Cove boat landing on May 7. We brought Amos, Elijah and Isaiah to visit with the people. We sold many alpaca products. If youve never been you might want to check it out. They have lots of activities for children and many interesting wildlife animals for children to meet. This year they had owls, eagles and a wolf, not to mention the alpacas!

On April 18th we had our biggest school group yet! 43 students from the Troy Elementary School in Troy, NH came to meet the alpacas. It was a group of first, second and third graders. One of the third graders was my cousin, Megan Munoz. The children had a great time, they got to meet and learn all about the alpacas.

On April 13 we had students from the Saxtons River Montessori School come for a visit. This was the third year that they have come to visit the alpacas. Their teacher, Judi Ryner, now owns three alpacas!

The weekend of March 30 April 2 we traveled to Springfield, MA for the North American Alpaca Show. It was a huge show! There were more than 1200 alpacas there. The classes were very large and the judges were kept very busy! We were fortunate to bring home 2 ribbons! Sweet Maples Isaiah took a third place in the juvenile male, light silver grey category. Our Bolivian Micah took a fourth place in the yearling male, medium and dark rose grey category. We were very happy and proud of all of our animals. For some of them this was their first time away from home! We can only imagine what they must be thinking to be brought to a place where there is a lot of people and other alpacas that they have never seen before! They were very happy to be home! All of them were running around outside, kicking up their heels!

What a busy month March was!

Sugaring season finally got started. It was a very quick run but we were able to make 90 of the 100 gallons that we usually make. Tom and Brian didnt have to spend as many late nights out in the sugar house to accomplish it! All in all, a very good season for us.

On March 25 and 26th we held our 3rd annual Alpaca and Maple Sugar Open House. We had 385 visitors in the two days. It was incredible. There were so many people that we didnt get the chance to visit with everyone. Looking at the guest book it amazed us how many were here that we missed! The sugarhouse was a busy place. Brian and his family were up there making maple syrup and explaining the process to everyone. We had Jen Muzzey, Amanda Munoz and Amandas friend Michaela helping out with childrens crafts. They had a busy 2 days! Amy Alderman and Ginger Cook helped us out by taking care of the refreshments and guiding people around. . They were even able to answer many alpaca questions. Theyll have their own farms before we know it! Amy also took many of the pictures at the event. Both days Peg Porter worked in the store and sold alpaca and maple syrup products to many people. It was a busy two days but we had a blast! Thank you to everyone who was able to be there.

During this time we also sold our herdsire, Malacchi. He is going to live with Bob and Judi Ryner of Alstead, NH. He is their third alpaca! We are very happy for Malacchi and for Bob and Judi.

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Come and see what were accomplishing! Call or email us today to set up your farm visit. 802-722-9846 or .