These pups were born in March, 2020. We call them our Covid Puppies. Because of our state's stay at home order, we did not "advertise" selling them. Now we are moving them on to good homes. We have 10 left, 6 males and 4 females. They are raised with our older dogs, alpacas, chickens and ducks. They are very lovable. They have had their puppy vaccines and wormed. If you are interested, please fill out the contact form so I can email you. If you leave a comment, I am not sure you will see my reply. $200 for males & $150 for females.
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The puppies are now 4 months old. We have 4 females and 4 males left. They have been in with the older dogs and alpacas learning their job. This would be a good time to get one or two, especially to bond with your livestock. We have 4 working dogs for our alpacas, chickens and Muscovy ducks. They do a wonderful job of keeping the predators at bay. They are loyal, lovable and intelligent dogs which is what makes them good LGDs. They can also be a good family pet. They will guard you, your family and home. You have to socialize them very well with other people. I had sold two puppies from the last litter as pets. They are doing very well with their owners. You can contact me for more information. Puppies for saleThese are a couple of our Maremma Sheepdog puppies. We have a total of 11. 6 Males and 5 Females. They are 3/4 Maremma & 1/4 golden retriever. Their parents are working dogs here at the ranch. They are excellent livestock guard dogs. We have owned Maremma's since 2006. Pan is our oldest guy, who is now 13 years old and retired. We have 8 total. 2 retired, 4 adult working dogs and 2 nine month old juveniles that are in training. They keep the predators off the property. They not only guard our alpacas, but chickens, turkeys, goats, and ducks. They are very loyal and lovable. Selling price is $200 males and $150 females. Leave a message, or email via the contact form for further inquiries. What fun I had SPINNING in this first time eventThis event took place during the week of October 6 2019 and ended at midnight on the 12 October 2019. The above picture is what I spun during the event. I didn't spin as much as I would have liked, but I did reach my personal goal of a mile or more. We calculate our totals by the actual yardage of the finished yarn, then multiply by the number of plies and add 1 (for the actual plying). My yarns are all 2 ply yarns, so I added my totals and multiplied by 3 for a total of 1,818 yards. I spun with my online team named Twisted Spinners. As a team we spun 99.436 yards which is 56.5 miles total! This is submitted to the organizers and they are awarding prizes for different categories. Another "category" was spinning a wild crazy art yarn and a pretty yarn. I did spin an art yarn for this event on my Spinolution Echo Wheel. below. It was spun from an alpaca & sari silk art batt that I created on my Baby Brother Drum Carder. I spun the red mulberry silk to ply the thick-n-thin yarn with. For more results and information about this event visit http://www.spintogether.org/competition-results-for-spin-together-2019/.
Lately I have been spinning a lot of my Suri locks into an art yarn. The core I am using is a fingering alpaca yarn. First step is I wash my locks. I don't pick them or flick them, I just grab a handful and start spinning. I did a little video so you can see what I do. I am spinning on my Spinolution Echo Wheel with a 16 oz bobbin. As you can see the yarn is a little kinky from spinning the fibers around the core yarn. In the next video I spin the opposite direction over another core yarn. As I am spinning I push up the locks to get a double coiled and balanced yarn. That is all there is to spinning this coiled yarn. I will then skein and wash the yarn. I use this type of yarn in my Alpaca Art Cowl knitting and in my Saori weaving. I find spinning art yarns a lot of fun.
We are not open to the general public, but we do offer private tours. There is no charge for the tour. The tour lasts a couple of hours. We do a sit-down presentation all about alpacas and the ranch. Next you can feed grain to the alpacas, take pictures and ask more questions. After that we offer an optional craft that small children to grandparents can do. You will make an alpaca felted soap to take with you. There is a minimal charge of $8.00 for the mini class. We will have our farm store open for shopping which includes pasture raised eggs to alpaca yarns and products. We like a minimum of 10 people/children to book a private tour. Just email or call us to schedule one. Grandma Tours now Available
We do get requests from grandmothers who want to bring their grandchildren for a visit. We know that it can be difficult to get 10 people together. We are now offering Grandma Tours once to twice a month. All we ask is for you to contact us so we are prepared for the actual numbers of grandmothers and their grandchildren. Just check out the event calendar for the next scheduled Grandma Tour. We had our first cria (baby alpaca) of the season born here on the ranch. Its a girl and we named her Dusty. Her and mother are doing well. These two pictures above are of her at a week old. We just love her. Our Muscovy Ducklings are getting big. Soon we will have some for sale. These ducks do not require a pond as they are a wood duck. They are great for bug control. We have had no ticks in our yard this year. This nest has some of our alpacas fiber in it. These are barn swallows and she builds this nest every year over our farm store entrance. The birds are still building nests. Yesterday I saw a golden finch taking fiber from my hanging bird nesting ball. We still have some in our store for sale. Just hang it somewhere close to where you feed the birds and watch them come and take it to build their nests. Our puppies are 5 months old now. Look how big they are getting. This is Pan our oldest Maremma who is now retired at the age of 13 years old. Clyde is laying in front of him. Pan tolerates the puppies. Clyde likes to give him sloppy kisses. Here is a picture of Pan and Bonnie. Bonnie is a little troublemaker who likes to lead her brother Clyde to do mischievous things that they shouldn't be doing. Once they reach maturity they will make awesome guard dogs for the ranch. If you would like to see all of these animals in person, email, message or call us to schedule a tour. We like to share our alpacas with you.
It has been a wet spring and we have had more than our share of rain. The weather people say we are above avg by 4-6 inches. We had a perfect window to have our alpacas sheared in May. Here a couple of pics of alpacas before and after shearing, along with all of the fiber that we sheared. Springtime is a time for babies. We have several Muscovy ducklings that hatched. We have added something new to our farm this year. Two Hereford piglets. Their names are pork chop and bacon. Of course there is the beauty of wildflowers in our woods. Spring is one of my favorite seasons.
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AuthorHi, my name is Liz Fagel and I love to blog about our ranch located in beautiful Northern Michigan. I write about the alpaca's and of course the fiber arts. Archives
January 2020
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