04.23.08
My First Shearing
I went to a shearing Saturday… in Middleburg, just a few back roads from the shop.
With mixed emotions, I watched the men flip the first llama. He didn’t want to stay down and fought hard, it must have hurt, kicking and such on that concrete. Although, once they had been sheared they seemed lighter on their feet and much cooler.
I watched a total of seven alpacas and 5 llamas get a hair cut. It was a fairly breezy day and little puffs of fleece blew about the pen, finally reaching it’s destination just outside, alongside the road. Brown, white, black…a needlefelter would have made great use of what was just lying in the road.
The owner of the llamas had his first animal sheared and they were starting to bring in the 2nd…the fleece from the first was still just lying there in a pile on the floor. Someone asked what he was going to do with it…”I don’t care, I don’t want it, do you want it?” The alpaca breeder responds “I don”t want it”. It took about 1/2 a second before I blurted “I’ll take it!”
So…once fiber poor, I am now fiber rich! I have bags and bags of llama which…gives me a great excuse to have a play day!
08.07.07
Blue Daze
This morning started like any other, grabbing a cup of caffiene, letting the dog out and working in the shop. I stepped outside for a moment to feed Dennis and was amazed at my Blue Daze. After 4 years… never have they looked this beautiful!
It brought to mind something that has been lurking in my mind for several weeks now, my favorite brother-in-law. He passed away on 7/23/07 and like me, blue was his favorite color.
I met Kennan Finke a year or two before he married my sister, Pat.
Wedding day 11/3/2001
I never really got to know him well until they began to set up house in Zephyrhills, FL. At around 45 years of age… they were soul mates and acted like a couple of kids. I suppose after living a year or so on a boat they dreamed of nothing but space for days on end, because space was what they bought and….their first “animal”.
Kennan with Sarah and Leslie (2000)?
If I were to describe Kennan in a few words…it would be to say “he’s a big man with a tender heart”. But that description just scratches the surface.
Contrary to what his older brother might say, Kennan was handy to have around. He took the above picture, and changed it to what you see below. He knew his tools and how to use them.
Fenced and cross-fenced.
Roads were built so Sarah could drive the mule.Clean, tidy and everything in it's place and he didn't know we were coming!
You probably have surmised that they began a new endeavor together, Crystal Springs Alpacas. Kennan ran the ranch, Pat did all of the marketing and books.
Kennan was a mentor to my girls as well as other kids he new. Each time we’d visit he’d show them all the new toys he’d acquired since we were there last…the mule in the pic above, or a new 500lb fan for the barn, or just a new idea he was proud of. And as they walked, he’d discuss things like ’how’re your grades’ or ‘what are doing to keep busy’ and the conversation was always loaded with his advice.
Then if he wasn’t lectoring, he was teaching. Teaching them how to feed the alpacas, or teaching me how to build a berm to keep the water flowing in a different direction, teaching David, the boy next door how to care for the alpacas….always teaching, always sharing.
I’m told he had a way with animals, but he was always busy with us when we were visiting, Pat is the one to share those stories. I do know that they always had a strange wide selection of animals on the farm, right down to the guinea hens and emus.
I heard someone say that Kennan is now in heaven with his mother and The Lord…someone else piped up that she probably had him by the ears too. I can see a little of that. There were times when he would act a little childish…maybe it was something that he wanted…and wanted now, regardless of what was going on around him. Those that new him well could raise their voice ever so slightly, and using the same firm and curt way that I would use to tell my youngest to chew with her mouth closed or leave the table…he would heed, but with a smirk on his face.
Thanksgivings were special because that was about the only time you might get Kennan off the farm and it was probably the thought of Mom’s pumpkin pie that would persuade him. Mom would get flustered because Kennan would show up for Thanksgiving dinner and immediately want a piece of pie. That was big no-no in our gatherings…pies weren’t touched until after dinner! Or, if it was a Thanksgiving that he wasn’t able to bless us with his presence, he fussed because we ate all the pumpkin pie. Needless to say, Mom began making him his own pie. He could eat it when he wanted and have plenty to take home, and….it made him special – which is what he truly was.
So instead of being held by the ears, I choose think of him as watching over his flock, we know who we are.
And I choose to remember Kennan as someone that chose to live life to the fullest (pie before dinner) and still does. He lives through our memories, through his kindness and even through his favorite color blue.
05.20.07
Alpaca Solutions Magazine – A new journey
Life’s journeys…
My sister has a motto, “enjoy life’s journeys”. I’ve thought of it often since she mentioned it. When you ponder this thought, it places your mind at ease and you try to find the enjoyable side of the situation you are faced with, after all, it’s a journey.
We all have catastrophic journeys that can be very challenging to heart and soul, they will not, or cannot be enjoyable. I’m not speaking of those, I’m talking about the little paths and turns that life takes and most often, without a moments notice.
A few months back I began down a new path when I attended an Alpaca show here in Jacksonville, (sister mentioned above has an alpaca farm, Crystal Springs Alpacas). I was surprised by a few things…but mostly…the lack of fiber, fleece and yarn at the show.
The show was almost completely about the breeding and care of the animals, nothing about fleece. Hmm…
What is the alpaca industry all about?
At the same time, a new alpaca magazine was being born, Alpaca Solutions, The Ranchers’ Guide to Alpacas.
I chatted with the publisher for a bit at the show and suggested he include a few articles in his magazine about the fleece end of the industry. He thought it was a fantastic idea, then told me when the deadline was.
Needless to say, I began my journey of writing my first ever published magazine article.
I can’t say this journey started out as enjoyable, it was actually quite difficult. I continually had to remind myself that the reading audience would be alpaca breeders, not alpaca knitters. My entire goal was to let alpaca breeders know that there are a group of people in the world that can be labeled “fiber enthusiasts” and that it would be to their advantage to locate them and involve them in their fleece and fiber processing.
So here’s a link to the magazine, my article begins on page 15, entitled, “Where’s The Fleece?”
Enjoy the magazine, it’s free and online (pdf format), and I’m greatly flattered that they’ve asked me to write another.
Chalk up and cheers to another journey!
02.16.07
Alpaca show
I had the delightful experience of hosting a yarn booth at the Florida Alpaca Breeders Association show (FABA) in Jacksonville last weekend. It was only a couple of back roads away, so I really couldn’t resist the urge to be around all of those cute fuzzy faces.
I wouldn’t call mine cute, fuzzy maybe… the older I get. I never like pictures of myself, and prefer to take them than to be in them.
There were a couple of spinners just to the right of me and I thoroughly enjoyed watching (I’m not a spinner) the alpaca fibers turn into such a lovely yarn. There was a light brown that had just a touch of gray, simply beautiful.
I have a memory of a lady jumping away from an alpaca saying….”I thought you wanted a kiss!” Instead the darling little thing spit on her.
I have a memory of a man, a rancher I think… who could not conceive that there were fiber enthusiasts in the world that would actually pay for his alpaca fiber.
I have a memory of a sweet petite southern lady that just wanted to talk knitting. She was wearing a beautiful sweater she had made out of what she called Canada wool. She had purchased it years ago with intentions of making each family member a sweater. By the time she had finished her daughter’s, it was too small.
I have a memory of the lady that wouldn’t stop talking. Don’t get me wrong, she was a joy to talk listen to, even while we were packing up to go home.
Not to mention I met a lot of local knitters that were excited to have another resource for yarns.
The part that I truly missed though (because I was manning a booth), was watching my sister show her animals in the rink. Pat and Kennan are the owners of Crystal Springs Alpacas.
It was truly a family affair, Mom was there to help whoever needed it and claimed major bragging rights to the Florida Times Union article that printed in that morning’s edition. It mentions us…the sisters…while telling about the show.
08.24.06
Crystal Springs Alpacas
A few weeks ago, the girls, Mom and myself went to visit my sister at her ranch… it was her birthday. At The Dragon Fly Ranch, otherwise known as Crystal Springs Alpacas, there’s always an adventure to be had. Whether it’s feeding the baby birds (Pat is a breeder of eclectus parrots), to riding her new birthday present…the mule.
She has quite a few alpacas and specializes in Suri alpacas. While we were there, Mom and I picked up some fleece for the fiber show In Athens. These two look like Thing1 and Thing 2. 
The ranch is like paradise, huge grandaddy oaks, palm trees and water fountains. More like an Alpaca Resort, but then again it’s not too far from Disney! This is her first baby born on the ranch, Champagne.
I should also mention Pat’s other toys…..her first spinning wheel and loom. She was still assembling…so wasn’t able to play with those. Next Visit!
