Blog

Everyone knows about premature births -- but ever had one go waaaaay over the due date? like 387 day gestation? That's called "dysmature".

We recently had our first experience with this, and it's no fun at all. For mom, it means giving birth to a 26 lb. cria instead of the normal 15-16 lb. baby. Thankfully, this mom was not a maiden.

Of course, it's a white male - on our farm, seems like we are male oriented. But wow, what a baby. It takes years to know what you have at bi

Education with a Destination 2016 was the best ever! Being there is so much fun, with old and new friends focusing on the same passion of alpacas!

This year’s expert speakers were fantastic – Dr. Tibary, Dr. Evans and Dr. Kaysen. Each doctor presented their major focus from reproduction, health and genetics. There were alpaca ranchers from across the globe there -- Australia, Florida and all points from the United States.

We opted to stay in the Field House again, a house

The cria crop is in full swing, although this year, we are having fewer babies. We are very pleased with the quality thus far....meet the 2017 show string (to date)!

Echo
Beautiful bay black son of 6x champion Irish Meadow’s Carbon Copy and out of 5x champion London Dairy Double Play. The championship combination of this pairing has been succeeded and the future of this male will be exciting. Outstanding conformation, fleece organization and Echo is stunning in every way!

Getting the hay brought in, stacked and put away for the next year is a really great feeling. It’s kind of like putting money in the bank for any rancher. Ranchers know the importance of getting your hay load secured and put away. Having hay means security, it provides a comforting feeling even though it can be back breaking work – but all the while, worth it.

For alpaca ranchers, there is absolutely no difference. Our herd, albeit small, uses premium quality second cutting orchard gr

Welcome Adaline!

We are excited to welcome another beautiful true black girl to our herd, and she’s a Super Sonic daughter which is exactly what we were looking for! And talk about a beauty – this sweet girl is the complete package in true black from the outstanding breeding program of A Paca Fun. She brings with her some impressive winnings of two reserve championships from the East Coast and she will be shown this fall and next year!

We were unable to travel to the Parade

It’s no secret -- 2016 was our best show year ever. While it takes time to bring your breeding program up to the Futurity level, it’s even harder with such a small herd.

We are ecstatic to learn that our hard work has paid off, and that we’ve been honored with the 2016 Futurity Reserve Champion Small Breeder of the Year award!

Thank you to Tim Vincent and the rest of the Futurity gang for executing such a prestigious show!

And a huge shout out to the other farm

Ending the year on a high note was winning Judge’s Choice Females at the CABA Classic this past weekend with Liberty’s Magna Carta!

And to top it off, it was a sweet moment when Jeff took Magna Carta in and I led Zaynah into the championship round. That is a rare moment indeed, at least for our small farm to be in two places that would be considered for Judge’s Choice. But Maggie pranced her way into the ring – like she always does with her head held high and her signature animated s

We had a fantastic GWAS (Great Western Alpaca Show) this past weekend in Denver, Colorado! A level 5 show and we brought home top honors for our farm!

We earned three (3) championship banners, five (5) firsts, two (2) seconds, and two (3rds) and one (1) fourth placing ribbons.

This was by far our BEST showing in Denver, proudly representing the Pacific NW breeders. For anyone who doesn't think a small farm can compete - wrong! We have 28 animals and brought 9 with us. That

Jeff and Dean (Fiber Meadows Alpacas) are headed to one of the best shows in the country - Great Western Alpaca Show!, held April 29-May 1st, 2016. Breeders from all over the country converge to win bragging rights and have a good time showing off their alpacas! It's a 21 hour drive from Seattle -- not for the faint of heart. Traveling over the Rockies this time of year can be challenging.

2015 was a great year for us, winning two championships, two blues and a couple of other ribbons

This year, we took only four alpacas – 2 boys and 2 girls, one yearling and juvenile each. For the boys, we showed Atmos & Manassas and the girls, we have Zaynah and Magna Carta. Our results were stunning – we took a Color Championship and first place with Magna Carta as a juvenile, a second place for Atmos and Zaynah, and a six place with Manassas! Four alpacas and four ribbons! I have to remind myself that the Futurity is the annual event which can be equated to the “Superbowl” of Alpaca compe

Alpacapalooza draws top alpacas, breeders for stiff competition
Annual event was held at Clark County Event Center
From The Reflector
By Natalie Johnson
Photos: Natalie Johnson

Glenn and Carolyn Waddell drove all the way from Reno, Nevada to attend their second Alpacapalooza at the Clark County Event Center last weekend.

After the long drive, their four alpacas tumbled all at once out of their trailer in excitement Friday morning. The Waddells started

Let us introduce to you our newest additions to the Liberty Alpacas herd – the “Z” girls!

Zaynah, a bay black
Zarial, a light fawn

Both girls have magnificent phenotype – not to mention their exceptional fleece quality, pedigree and conformation. My favorite, is their heads. This is what every successful breeder is trying to achieve. Short, smothered in fleece, and in one word -- stunning.

We had a fun time at the 2016 Amber Autumn Invitational, being hel

http://m.reviewjournal.com/life/alpaca-auction-south-point-attracts-250-seeking-grow-herds

This article captures some wonderful highlights of the Priority Auction, put on by Silver Penn Sales every January at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

What an exciting weekend, lots of positive energy with 80% ++ of the alpacas sold! Tons of networking with new farms and seeing old friends is always the BEST part!

We took our silver grey pair, AE Liberty Rose and he

Nothing novel about the sock of the month club, BUT – have you ever seen an alpaca sock of the quarter?

What fun it is for people to receive socks in the mail! I’d liken it to receiving a Valentine or flower arrangement delivery! Fun and oh so comfy! Our socks are like a warm hug foryour foot!

So here’s the sales pitch – sign up for sock of the quarter at our website: www.libertyalpacas.com/store and you’ll receive a pair of socks in the mail. Yes, they will be random, bu

Everyone has their favorite Christmas gift – and this year, look what Whoopi Goldberg selected…..alpaca socks! She hates cold feet!

We stock our store with socks from the New England Fiber Coop – a US mill that works collectively with American alpaca farmers for sustainable alpaca products!

Get your alpaca socks for Christmas, or if you don’t get any – order them yourself!
See our online store at: www.libertyalpacas.com/store

It’s no secret that we sell a lot of alpaca socks every year – people keep coming back for more because of their quality and comfort!

I had a caller order more socks this week, and he said “You know, your socks are worth their weight in platinum!” Wow, pretty cool….and then he went on to say, “every time I have a house guest, they steal my socks!”

For those who have not tried out socks, what are you waiting for? Christmas is almost here! The gift of alpaca is enjoyed and ap

Any excuse for Jeff to fire up the Cub Cadet – he’s on it! He loves his farm machine, gator, fun mobile while working on the farm. He even has a smile on his face when he gets on it! Should have got him one years ago!

We haven’t had any snow yet this year, but I’m sure as soon as we do – photos will be taken and I’ll post on a future blog.

Ladies, if you really want to make your farm hand happy – get him his own farm toy. The next thing on his list is a drone. Oh brother, y

Commander, our ever loyal guardian dog loves to eat. All 140 lbs. of him.

One of my favorite things to do is make Sunday breakfast and then take him all the leftovers. Commander is always happy to see me and this morning, it was no exception, for I had made Belgian waffles. He waited by the fence for me to deposit my cooking at his feet – still steaming with heat. Happily, he gobbled them up and looked up to me as if he was saying – are there more?

Love these kind working d

This year, support small businesses for your holiday shopping!

Keeping money in your community is important and supporting small businesses is the right thing to do!

We have a variety of wonderful alpaca gifts, from socks, hats, scarves and other luxurious items in our store or online.

This year, we had all of our alpaca roving made into lovely rug bumps. A bump is spool of rug yarn made from alpaca fiber spun around a recycled cotton core. This is an excellent value-added product because some fiber is shorter in length or higher in micron and cannot (or should not) be used for yarn or garment processing. Examples of this type of fibers are neck, leg, belly fleece – there is now a wonderful process to create a material for use in rugs!

Our rug bumps are 50-60 yards,

This Saturday, we'll be selling alpaca gifts at the Emerald Downs horse racing track in Auburn, Washington. Come find us on the 4th Floor -- Saturday and Sunday from 10am - 4pm.

Get a jump start on your holiday gifts~

Whether you are in extreme cold or not, nothing says "I love you" more than a pair of warm, comfy alpaca socks!

And you don't even have to go out on Black Friday at zero dark thirty to get them! We have a variety of alpaca socks that everyone would cherish -- mailed direct to you!

Quality and US made -- which is very important to us. We sell thousands of pairs each year and customers return like the swallows of Capistrano!

Get enough or you'll have people fightin

We always enjoy our time over at the NW Alpaca Showcase, held in Pasco, Washington. The venue is superb, a nice hotel is attached to the show arena and it’s always a time for socializing with our friends!

This fall, it seemed like we had the least amount of animals to show. Funny how that works, young females that are ready to breed are bred, boys are either pet or show quality and males start their breeding careers in the summer.

Our show string was comprised of six alpaca

Nothing like a chill in the air to get me motivated to start working with alpaca fiber & yarn!

We are overjoyed to sell our yarn exclusively to a local high end retail store and a friend sent me a photo of their display utilizing our alpaca yarn and custom made shawl (9 different animals in this masterpiece).

So, if you are so inclined -- please join me. The days are getting shorter which means more night hours are available for whatever suits your fancy! Crochet - Knittin

Why not give the gift of warmth this fall/winter season?

Have you seen our ultra warm boot liners yet? These boot liners add an extra layer between your alpaca socks and the frozen ground or concrete. Not only will your feet stay warmer, but you'll have an extra bounce in your step with luxurious alpaca cushion!

We sell them online or at our store. You won't be disappointed!

2015 Issaquah Salmon Days was incredible! It just keeps getting better and better! We had a blast and enjoyed ourselves amid a sea of new and returning customers!

Special thanks to Jeff's parents, Elton & Gloria Williamson who pitch in 150% with labels, chores and tremendous sales!

We were so excited to donate our Liberty Shawl to the Quechua Benefit dinner held in conjunction with the Education with Destination this past weekend!

You see, it all started with a skein of yarn that was won at the 2014 Education with Destination and a “throw down, show down” with another local alpaca breeder who won the same. We challenged each other to bring back the skein this year, made into something! Almost like a boomerang, that yarn came back and we did!

Thankful

What was summer like before being on cria watch, delivering crias, shearing and breeding alpacas? It must have been sooooo boring!

Always something to do on the farm, each year life gets fuller and faster. I’m not sure if part of that is my age, or the fact that our herd is growing or both!

Daily chores, work and after work “work” fills the day with plenty of activity. Ahhh, those lazy days are long gone if you have alpacas in your life (or any other livestock for that matt

Life as an alpaca breeder during the long days of summer!

There's always work that needs to be done but summer brings extra chores – weighing crias to ensure adequate nourishment, breeding females and then spit testing! Yes, WE want the spits! it’s pretty amazing that some quick breeding gets the job done!

Jeff has the scale duty and I’m the scribe – he steps on the scale since he’s not bashful about it. It’s fun to play with the babies and nice to see them gaining weig

Our alpaca friends know that we love to dig up historical American names for our crias – and we’ve been saving a good one for this little girl. Welcome Liberty’s Appomattox! Appomattox is the site where the Civil War ended. Her farm name will be Mattie!

This female is sired by "the" Crescent Moon’s Aquinas, 11x champion and our champion Alpaquita’s Sorpressa – both rose grey!

Liberty’s Gilded Arrow shown here hours after birth, latched onto his mom, Raggedy Rose, affectionately called Annie. This beautiful cria is sired by TAG Peruvian Bellagio, a son of Accoyo America Marathon, 8 x champion.

Sitting on the tarmack at New Orleans airport, I had the opportunity to meet a father and his grown son from North Carolina. You ever strike up a conversation and have an immediate connection?

Yesterday, I experienced that and it was talk of quarter horses. This brought back a lifetime of memories of my younger years – the quarter horses I had, raised, shown and loved. My love for horses extended to my oldest daughter and as she grew….she trained, rode and competed with some of the

How exciting it was to watch a segment on Blue Collar Millionaires with the highly successful breeding program of Great Lakes Alpacas, Brad & Jandy Sprouse of Maple City, Mi. Loved the presentation and the shear enjoyment they have had for 35 years!

Way to go and promote the alpaca lifestyle! Everything they talked about hit a home run and exactly the same reasons why we ventured into alpacas!

In Japan, weddings are taking place that include alpacas!

The hotel told BuzzFeed News that for 50,000 Yen — about $400 — an alpaca and a trainer will walk down the aisle at your wedding. You also get to pose for photos afterwards. Guests may rent as many alpacas they want.

Hmmm, there's an idea!

There is nothing like having an elbow locked cria in the birth canal with a maiden mom.

What an experience that was, trying to help deliver a mom who had stopped pushing (and for good reason).

Glove and lubed up, going in and trying to figure out what was wrong. Not my idea of fun, watching this little cria stuck and not going anywhere. Hoping we can help and trying not to hurt mom and cria.

This story has a happy ending.....Thank God we were able to push the c

Summer time, we head to the Maple Valley's Farmer's Market to show off our alpacas and sell products. This is great exposure and a fun day!

If you are out and about, please come by and say hello! And you know, Christmas is coming :-) everyone loves alpaca socks when the weather gets cold! Hours are Saturday 9:00am - 2:00pm.

See our schedule on our home page for our appearances at the Farmer's Market!

June has been an unusually dry month, only receiving a 1/10 of the moisture that we need. It's turning brown and the pastures are so we say - crunchy.

We are watching our herd closely as we have bred females and juvies that need to be kept cool. Thankfully, we have lots of shade for them. After seeing the 10 day forecast, most likely, we'll be breaking out the electrolytes and fans too!

Stay cool and keep hydrated - people and pacas!

This time of year means nicer weather, the promise of babies being born and most importantly, fleece harvest. Shearing is one of the most exciting processes that validates the quality of our fleece output, herd, health and breeding improvements made from the year before.

The manual process is done by our shearer, a professional in her own right who works very hard to ensure best the fiber yield, animal & human safety and pleasing style. A shearer’s job is a difficult one and a good sh

At the 2015 Priority Auction, we sold a dam & cria pair – Patagonia’s Cholena & her cria, Liberty’s Allegiance.

Liberty’s Allegiance, a little true black girl with a gorilla face and fleece smothered head was, let me put it mildly….very hard to part with. They say, to be successful at auctions, you have to sell your best. And this little girl, was outstanding!

This weekend, at the CABA Classic show held in Portland, I got a chance to show her for her new owner Nancy Chapel,

We are pleased to add Greener Pasture's Malachi to our herds! Partnering with Fiber Meadows, Stellar Alpacas and Longneckers - we are very excited about what he brings to the table in terms of genetics!

For those of you who follow the phenomenal breeding program of Crescent Moon Ranch and some of the other programs around the country, this name may take on some familiarity. Malachi is the full sibling to Greener Pastures Leviticus (Top 1% of EPD in 4 traits for 2014) owned by Mike and

We have always loved showing at the Great Western Alpaca Show GWAS held in Denver Colorado. This year did not disappoint and we are so proud to have garnered two championships, three first-place ribbons, a second place ribbon, as well as a fourth and sixth place ribbon taking only six animals!

There's nothing more fun than being around your friends and seeing how your breeding program stacks up to the top competition in the US! This was a fantastic weekend and we are riding high! A

Denver.....here we come to participate in one of the largest alpaca shows in the country!

Jeff and his co-pilot Floyd Smith are driving mile after mile while I'm in Southern California for work until I fly in like a rock star! Again!

We hear there are over 1000 alpacas converging on this show. We look forward to the competition, networking and friendships. We are showing seven animals this year and anxious to see how we stack up against the competition!

We received a call this weekend from a heavily accented man who inquired about our raw alpaca fleece. He made an appointment for the next day, and brought his wife who had just arrived from Russia with him.

The man was specific about what he was looking for, and his wife stood close and spoke to him in their native language. I showed them many colors of raw fiber and they chose a lovely fleece that was 2 pounds. It turns out that she makes felted slippers back home in Russia and she

This year, we had Mike Cates transport our three alpacas to Futurity in Kansas City, Mo.

Competing at this level is quite a step up. Elite breeders bring their best - and thankfully, we came home with two ribbons. Liberty's Silver Medallion took a sixth in the medium silver grey male juvenile class, while Liberty's Lexington, took a third in the yearling light fawn male class.

Official pictures will be posted soon!

Kansas City rocks, and meeting new people from a

Wow, walking into The American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri is quite impressive!

It took me back almost 18 years ago when my daughter competed in the ABRA Buckskin World competition! It was eerily strange to be in the same building after all those years.

The Futurity is the ultimate in alpaca competition for elite breeders across the United States.

Celebrity Sales opened up with their auction -- lot number 1 sold for $182,000! What an amazing experience.

With Alpacapalooza under our best, we are off to a great start to the 2015 show season!

Alpacapalooza is one of the premier alpaca shows held in Ridgefield, WA and on it's 17th year! Jeff Williamson, husband and master of ceremonies (so to speak) worked so hard to pull off another great show! Lots of great volunteers helping make it a fun and competitive show!

We took some nice ribbons in fierce competition -- two 1st, one 2nd, three 3rds, one 5th and two 6th places competi

I would say I am mildly obsessed with alpacas. I know this because every morning when I wake up – I have the lingering visions of my dreams, all which include alpacas. Strangely enough, this is not new. I’ve been so captivated by alpacas from the get-go.

I’ve lost sleep thinking about them, dreaming about what next year’s cria crop will be, who to breed to. It’s just wild how much my subconscious has wrapped itself around this alpaca lifestyle. This is not a bad thing, it’s just kinda

Wow, what a show! The increased energy and renewed enthusiasm this year was phenomenal! Showing is one of the BEST parts of alpaca ownership! And gathering every year to see how you measure up against other farms is always exciting. Alpacapalooza is a fiercely competitive show with the top NW farms showing their best! This year, we took nine animals and eight of them earning ribbons. Of which, five of the nine garnered a place in top 3 of their respective classes. This is impressive being in the

Why is Alpaca Fiber So Warm?

Alpaca vs Wool

What is Alpaca Fiber?

Well all know that fiber from a sheep is called wool and the stuff that we wash and comb on our own heads is called hair but what is alpaca? The argument can be made that alpaca fiber is really a hair but is often referred to as wool but for the majority of breeders we refer to it as, fiber.

The fiber that is sheared from the alpaca is produced by primary and secondary hair follicles and

Here’s a follow-up to our alpaca hat donation to Knotsoflove.org. Knotsoflove.org is a wonderful charity that accepts new hats for cancer patients located across the US. We sent them a dozen alpaca stocking hats and the Director called me to personally thank us. She said that our hats were being distributed to several VA hospitals in Georgia, Montana and California. Her appreciation was overwhelming, and she asked to keep sending them. To date, they have donated nearly a quarter million hats all

It’s amazing to me that alpacas are drawn to kids – and always fun for us to watch the magic between them. For the kids, it’s pure wonder looking into the alpaca’s eyes, trying to touch and get just close enough before the alpaca moves. Every once in a while, the kids get lucky and find an alpaca who wants to be loved on. Quiet. Calm. Wonder.

One the other side of the coin, the alpaca mind is wondering – who is this small “human” and what do they want of me? I just need to check them

Liberty Alpacas is proud to donate a dozen alpaca hats to Knotsoflove.org -- a 501c organization located in Southern California who donate over 1,000 hats per week to cancer patients. Thanks JoAnn Weeks (Mom) for making these hats out of our alpaca fiber, your love and strength have taught me to be a kind and compassionate person with a strong spirit.

This is such a worthy cause.....enjoy their story......

Knots of Love.org-- Our Story

My grandmother taught me ho

February… Sunshine…Alpacas...Friends = Amber Autumn Invitational Auction!

This year we have proudly consigned two girls, both fawns with equally impressive bloodlines. Stop by take a look and we'll see you in the sun! Thank you Daryl & Shirley Krause!

Remember bid high and bid often!

Marketing for Alpaca Breeders: Think About Your Target Market
By Carla Paton

A spectrum of buyers
One of the first rules of marketing is to think about and to get to know your target audience or market. For alpaca breeders, our audience is usually somewhere along a continuum, with buyers who are totally new to alpacas to established breeders with years of experience. And with each marketing effort, we need to consider which group or groups we are targeting.

Match

The Alpaca Market in the Year 2018
By Mike Safely, NW Alpacas

I have given hundreds of seminars about alpacas in the last 20 years. There is one question that I am always asked: How long do you think the market for alpaca breeding stock will last? For years my pat answer was: At least five years. After fifteen years of giving that answer I realized that my answer was wrong every time.

The truth is that the alpaca market has exceeded most of us old timers’ expectation

This was our second year being a vendor at the Enumclaw Wine & Chocolate Festival! We had a great time at this well attended event.

People came back to see us and they were so happy to find us there!

That’s sure a nice feeling......and a true sign of quality alpaca products!

My new friend, Jennifer Gagnon – is all the way across the US and she has been contracted to make a couple of triangle shawls on her loom. And they are lovely!

The photo represents the start and I’m very impressed with her designs! I absolutely LOVE the plaid design!

What an exciting game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots! The Seahawks played an impressive game, but it all came down to 20 seconds and 1 yard. Sigh...

Jeff and I have been fans for years....at one point we had charter seats! What Jeff would give to have those back now!

We would sure like to shout out to the Seahawks Organization that we are proud of their accomplishments this year! Next year should be another great one!

Go Hawks !!

We look forward to the Priority Auction every year in Las Vegas! In 2014, we had the second highest selling female. This year, we saw some different prices but we brought a quality dam and cria pair that were equally as nice as last year's lot. Our mission - bring the best!

Patagonia's Cholena (dam) & Liberty's Allegiance (cria) sold to the highest bidder for $12,000 to Nancy Chappell, of Patagonia Estates who hails from Bend, Oregon.

This mom and daughter really had a buzz

The definition of organized is this, "arranged in a systematic way, especially on a large scale". I can think of a lot of things that are organized but wrapping my head around an organized fleece is a little different.....until I saw this graphic.

Take a look at the difference and then think about the positive impact that an organized fleece has. The biggest thing we are looking for in is fleece -- the more fine fleece, the better. More = more and yield = money! When you have an organ

AAWW proudly presents Jude Anderson & Al Cousil of Pucara Interational for a riveting, educational and entertaining weekend! The Alpaca Association of Western Washington hosted the annual education event by having two industry experts present over the weekend on a variety of topics.

Topics included the aspects of alpaca fleece, embryo transfer 101, showing, marketing tips and tricks. We certainly had good attendance as everyone was sitting on the edge of their chair soaking it all in.

Lot 48 – Priority Auction January 24, 2015

Discriminating breeders - LOOKIE HERE........Carmella is a beautiful young maiden with a pedigree from the who's who of Patagonia's VERY BEST! Black or grey color breeders pay attention....she's out of two blacks. Her dame is La Prestige, a Neruda daughter. She is following in the footsteps of her mother who garnered many wins in the show ring – she was a 2x champion with three 1st's & three 2nd's in large shows. If Lennox, Neruda, Kaspa or N

Lucky lot number 2 – we are excited to present two beautiful alpacas – Patagonia’s Cholena and Liberty’a Allegiance for your consideration at the Priority Auction in Las Vegas this month!

Cholena, a dam that has phenomenal bloodlines from the highly successful breeding program of Alpacas de la Patagonia.
Dark or grey breeders pay attention here.....Patagonia's Cholena is a beautiful dark brown girl out of Patagonia's Malbec and Patagonia's Natalya. She has placed in the top of h

We are headed to Vegas for the Priority Alpaca Auction – held January 23 & 24, 2015 at the fantastic South Point Casino!

This will be our third year attending, but second year to submit alpacas in the auction! We purchased two nice girls on our first visit – and it doesn’t get any more fun to be in a beautiful place with all your friends (or friends you haven’t met yet)! Jeff will be hitting the blackjack tables as often as possible!

This year, we are taking two very nice P

Alpaca peace on earth, rather fleece on earth -- oh bother -- PEACE ON EARTH and goodwill to man!

And may your holiday be always joyful, merry and bright~

Unless you include alpacas......there are days that I reflect upon the changes in our lives since 2007 when we started raising alpacas. What utter and complete changes have come - all positive ones. All aspects of our lives have changed -- it's sure really interesting to think about a life WITHOUT them.

The people we have met, the things we have learned, our personal growth and the endeavor to start something that is a passion......what a difference in our day to day routine, alpacas

This season, with all it's hustle and bustle - life starts to get out of control the days before Christmas. You know, all the errands, shopping, appointments, places to be at the same time, etc.

Let's all remember the reason for the holiday season! Take just a moment to think about the special things and people in your life. This holiday season moves fast -- but keep those (human or alpaca) who matter, close to your heart.

Noel to all~

"Dear Jeff and Lorrie, I've recently returned from the windiest and sometimes coldest place I've ever known - Patagonia. My daughter sent me a gift of your socks just before my trip. I wore that one pair of socks for 7 days straight - no laundering - and nobody complained! - during all the daily hiking and horseback riding excursions (even in the rain). Now I'd like to order some as Christmas gifts. Donna Lindgren"

We sure appreciate testimonials when it comes to our socks -- but this

......that's easy.......it's Jewelry!

Jeff's parents make high quality, beautiful jewelry! They pulled a few pieces from their collection to offer here at our online store!

If you like turquoise, hematite and sterling -- please venture a peak!

Everyone needs a friend. That goes for animals as well.

Alpacas are herd animals, so they need at least one companion for an optimum life. Easy to understand, what quality of life could one have alone?

New breeders need to plan for (at least) two cria to be born each year. Having two makes it double the fun and watching them play is a favorite in my book. Having just one cria would be boring, certainly not as much fun or exercise since the moms are interested in grazing 24

It's been a rough week, snow and sub freezing temperatures while transporting alpacas from out of state. When I say rough, I mean farming at it's finest. Number 1 goal is making sure everyone has extra groceries (energy aka food) to keep themselves warm.

We hauled back a couple of alpacas (one dam with cria at side) and got caught having to make a decision driving over the mountain passes. To drive over or not to drive over -- this was the question. Even though we have a four-wheel dr

Alpaca gifts from our farm store are fantastic for holiday gift giving! The recipient will love, love, love the quality & warmth throughout the winter for years to come!

We have blankets, scarves, shawls, hats and lots of socks available for purchase! In December, we are open on weekends until Christmas - Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 12-4!

Stop by, get some Christmas cheer and give the gift of alpaca :-)

ps...you can purchase these items at our online farm store too

Teri Agins Advises a Boyfriend on What Would Make a Unique Gift for His Girlfriend.
Teri Agins, WSJ Wall Street Journal

When it comes to the most luxurious natural fibers that are warm, lightweight and soft against your skin, all three fibers fit the bill. The top-drawer pick is vicuña, from the rarefied endangered species. That will easily set you back $4,000 and up for a scarf. Go shopping in person to examine these fine fabrics up close.

Cashmere became the rage st

Our grandson is the apple of our eye…....he and his parents came to visit the farm this weekend and what a beautiful, crisp day to hang out with Commander and all the alpacas! It’s always special when they come up from Oregon, which is about a three hour drive. He is not afraid of the alpacas, at age 2.

When it was time to leave, he said “I don’t want to go home”….priceless! How can a grandparent resist that?

We love our guardian dog, Commander. He is a Komondor, a livestock guard dog breed from Hungary. Our boy Commander does his job well - especially when he's looking after the crias. This photo is of him and Liberty's Glory Be. It's funny how much he looks like an alpaca, all 135 lbs. of him.

For those interested in seeing Commander, we'd love to introduce you. He has a fantastic personality but he can certainly be intimidating over the fence. Just another day for him, watching over his

You know you have a fine fleeced alpaca when she looks like this when she rolls in the leaves!

Felician's micron at year one was 13.9 AFD, and her second clip was 16.3 AFD - Wow! This girl is one very fine female…..and velcro comes to mind when I see this photo of her today enjoying the fall leaves!

It all started decades ago, while visiting Hawaii and I was fascinated by the pearl stands – you know, the ones where you pick an oyster for $15 and the sales person waves the tongs over it while chanting a Hawaiian good luck chant?

I am always mesmerized by seeing what’s inside that oyster! I can’t even lie about it – I have done this over and over again and am still excited to go through the motions every time I see one of those darn pearl booths at the fair!

I ask mysel

How's this for cute food -- rice and curry! Too adorable to eat (and to my alpaca folks -- it's chicken)!

Alpaca is more insulating than wool – 6 x warmer.

Alpaca socks won’t allow bacteria or odor adhere to the fiber.

Alpaca socks are not itchy, hypoallergenic.

Our alpaca socks, you can machine wash & dry.

Alpaca fiber has stronger tensile strength than wool.

Alpaca regulates with your body temperature, you won’t sweat in socks.

The Alpaca is an animal that has been bred to a more extreme climate ….in the high Andes where Alpac

Norma writes "First, thanks for the best low profile socks ever!! I just ordered another five pairs - they are the best - very comfortable, warm -- but I have problems with sweating feet and these are the best because my feet don't sweat and therefore do not get cold when the moisture evaporates!! - a problem with cotton socks."

So nice to hear from our customers. If you haven't tried our socks - you are missing out! And yes, we can ship to your door. See our store, under the "socks"

Happy news, now our Senate needs to get in gear!

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a handful of tax extenders in H.R. 4457, the American Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014 on June 12th, including expiring Section 179 of the tax code allowing small businesses to expense up to $500,000 on purchases of qualified equipment up to $2 million.

Purchases at levels above $2 million will reduce the expensing allowance dollar-for-dollar until it reaches zero.

On J

NOTE: This content may be upsetting to many alpaca owners! It is merely a topic of discussion.

Couldn’t think of a more controversial livestock issue today than – alpaca meat. As with any livestock industry, there must be viable economic decisions requiring an end product. For the past three decades, alpacas have only been fiber and fiber alone. On the 30th anniversary of their introduction to the US, we find ourselves at the crossroads – of a touchy subject – alpaca meat and hides.

As salmon return home each year, we happily return to the internationally awarded Issaquah Salmon Days festival held the first weekend in October in the quaint town of Issaquah, WA.

This year did not disappoint. Our alpacas were showcased, along with their products and a crowd pleaser to the some 180,000+ visitors. The weather was a perfect sunny fall day, crowds and crowds got to see our alpacas up close and personal plus learn a little in the process.

Jeff’s parents com

Here we are…Salmon Days 2014, held in Issaquah Washington every year. We are going to have a “groovy” time bringing the alpacas (our sixth year) to the nearly 180,000 people that attend the festival.

What a weekend, as we are surrounded by people – sometimes 4-5 deep around the alpaca pen. And alpaca socks, YES! we gottem’ ……so optimistically, we want to sell out again this year! For our local folks, please come see the amazing salmon, the crowds, music, the food and enjoy a beautif

This weekend celebrates our 7th alpaca anniversary and how it all got started with alpacas! Way back when, we drove by a local alpaca farm that was open and that was IT!! – love at first sight! Each year, our NAFD event gets bigger and better – this year, by adding our farm store!

We drew a huge crowd this year, 600+ visitors (at least) came out to see our alpacas! A crowd favorite, as might be expected, was this year’s cria crop. Crowd comments were “irresistible, adorable, and down

Summer is slipping by and my favorite season of all – Fall starts tomorrow. Working out in the sun, enjoying the alpaca sights, seeing the babies play are some of best parts of owning alpacas! As the days get shorter, and with the hint of chill in the air (and tempting pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks).

At the end of the chores, we went inside to watch our Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos. Life is good.

The 2nd annual pen sale at The Alpaca Group (TAG) was terrific! We were honored to be graciously invited to bring some of our alpacas to include in the offering! Not only was attendance way up, the company of those who supported the event was terrific.

Thanks to all who came and viewed the beautiful TAG operation. Of course, TAG didn’t disappoint, with their high quality alpacas! We saw great interest in some of our animals and theirs. Our most heartfelt appreciation goes out to Ma

Today we had the pleasure of hosting a film crew from the Korean Educational Broadcasting System (EBS). The crew consisted of four people, a lead camera man, grips and the producer plus two local affiliate representatives based out of the Seattle area. This was an amazing experience and we were so proud to show them our ranch and herd. The highlights of their trip included a breeding between StilHot SmokinGun and Liberty's Belle, some champion fleece and the farm store which has been newly remod

RAY STILL, Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier-Herald Reporter

National Alpaca Farm Days will be coming to the Plateau Sept. 27 and 28. Farms that are hosting free open houses for the weekend include Liberty Alpacas in Maple Valley, Polaris Alpacas in Tacoma, and Stellar Alpacas in Spanaway.

Alpacas are mainly used for their fiber, which the Alpacas Owners Association claim is lighter and warmer than wool. Alpaca fiber also does not contain any grease or lanolin like wool can, is

Welcome Liberty's Ruger -- a .38 Special grandson, who was born today! This bright fleeced little guy has grey ears and grey on his legs! Perhaps he'll grey out as he matures! Genetics plus plus +++

Spending any time in Central Oregon is like heaven on earth for this girl. And we were fortunate enough to spend four full days basking in the high desert sun learning more about alpacas, their care, history of the show system and playing a “judge” giving oral reasons on both fleece and halter mock classes.

As always, Crescent Moon & Flying Dutchman really lay out the red carpet for their guests. And for anyone who hasn’t gone to Education with a Destination – you really should grab t

Welcome Liberty's Atmos, a beautiful medium fawn son of El Duro Principio & Amber Autumn's Elania. Atmos is short for atmosphere -- because this young cria is out of this world! We were actually in Central Oregon when he was born!

Atmos exhibits elite fleece characteristics - even at such a tender age. We are very excited about this male and what both dam & sire bring to the table!

We love to consider ourselves quality grey alpaca breeders! But with color genetics, you just never - ever - know what color you are going to get!

Our farm stands two herdsires - one in black and one in light rose grey to improve the odds of getting grey in our herd.

Stilhotsmokingun -- phenomenal champion son of .38 Special

The Black Medallion - next generation of black

Both males were selected for their attributes of lingering fineness and color!

We were thrilled to host the Northwest MG car owner’s group to our farm and show off our alpacas today!

All in all, we had 15 cars pull in and about 30 folks were interested in learning about the animals and their products. The weather couldn’t have been any nicer and even the cria were interested in the meet and greet!

What a fine group and we welcome you back next year!

Liberty’s Allegiance is a stunning jet black female that we are proud to welcome to our herd!

Her sire, Patagonia’s Ernesto, is a 7 time champion is known for his excellence in fineness, crimp structure and most notably, a fleece smothered, chiseled head. He is a proven male that passes these qualities along to his offspring.

Her dam, Patagonia’s Cholena is a stylish dam backed by a beautiful dark fleece, earning her high ribbons during her show career. Cholena shares the

Alpacas and llamas, part of the group of animals referred to as New World camelids, originated from the high elevations of Chile and Peru in South America. Known for their luxurious fiber, these relatives of the camel are equipped for the biting winds and chilly temperatures that are typical in the Andes. But displace these animals to the warmth and humidity of a typical North American summer and you can get problems. These animals are very prone to heat stroke.

At first, an alpaca or

Today, we were lucky to have not one, but two cria born on our ranch! Both share the same beautiful color of fawn – one boy and one girl. Makes one wonder if the hormones were raging since alpacas are such good mothers!

Liberty’s Gold Medallion
This fawn male is from a beautiful Patagonia bred light fawn female and our true black herdsire, The Black Medallion. His fleece, even at a tender age is nothing short of stunning. He has a dark fawn base with vicuna markings, and bl

Our two year old grandson came to visit and he loves the “pacas”. We couldn’t resist the photo opportunity with him and Papa posing with Silver Medallion! Always a great day to enjoy the little ones, two and four legged!

The apple doesn’t fall far from the trees. All of them.

Liberty’s Silver Medallion was born and thus begins the start of our cria season here at Liberty Alpacas! We were thrilled to welcome this stunning medium silver grey male to our herd. This is the first grey out of his sire, The Black Medallion, whom we co-own with White Cloud Alpacas.

The Black Medallion hails from grey – McGwire who was a full Accoyo rose grey male. While this cria’s dam is Aleutian Eagle’s Liberty

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? What fates befell them for daring to put their names to that document?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolut

It’s almost July and our birthing season starts coming about mid-month. We are always so anxious around this time of year, filled with wonder and excitement about the tentative arrival of our babies. This time draws closed, nearly a year of decisions, planning, logistics and pedigree to a full circle of our cria births.

For the 2014 season, we have nine arrivals due and they are all from high caliber herdsires!
They say, (whoever those people are) that good things come to those w

One of our favorite times of the year is the fleece harvest from our herd! Alpaca shearing requires a lot of hard work and planning. Our shearing weekend is exhausting but it’s fun to watch the beautiful fiber taken off with each stroke of the shearer’s hand.

We wait a year to grow these fleeces so it’s a rewarding process to bag up each animal’s fiber and prepare it for the mill. We send our prime fiber and seconds to be processed into yarn and roving. The thirds are used in dog and

Yesterday, it was a tough day on the farm. Losing an animal that was in seemingly perfect health who was due to deliver a cria within 30 days by a high profile herdsire was agonizing.

The herd had run up to the barn and I really didn’t think anything about it. But I noticed that one of the girls was very tense and on high alert. She ran back to the back pasture and the rest of the herd followed. I thought, hmmm, kinda weird but perhaps a neighbor’s cat was on the fence line causing a

This year’s show season was a blast and we are seeing the fruits of our labor by seeing improvement on how we stack up against our competition in the alpaca show ring. Overall, we finished with six championship banners!

We enjoy being out there in the ring, whether it’s at our local shows (Alpacapalooza or CABA Classic), and we are always thrilled to travel to Denver for GWAS for a level 5 show. A Level 5 show brings the best and most fiercest competition for us. Seeing how our alpaca

Returning to Denver every year for GWAS (Great Western Alpaca Show) has got to be one of our favorite annual events to participate in with our alpacas. The Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies folks are warm and welcoming to us each year. For those of you who have never been, the arena is held in the historic National Western Complex & Stockyard which is legendary to livestock owners. Of course, we were lucky again this year with dry weather (at least to us folks in Seattle, it’s dry). This show boast

For us, going to the futurity show can be compared to going to the Superbowl of all alpaca shows. And may we remind you that the Seahawks won the Super Bowl this year!

The All American Futurity brings together a collection of the best alpaca breeders in the country, and then class by class and color by color – they are judged on their optimum quality and excellence of fleece.

This year, we showed for the first time taking four animals, taking a second place, fourth place a

Alpacapalooza is our first big show of the season! It gives us NW alpaca ranchers an opportunity to measure up the competition and have a lot of fun in the process!

We had a great show and took home some nice ribbons. But the best part of the show is seeing our friends and getting back into the show ring.

Jeff was the Event Chair this year, working with Deanna Skirving as the Halter Superintendent. He worked his tail off, and I was tasked with showing all the alpacas. Thank

One week to go and Alpacapalooza will arrive! Seeing all our friends and meeting new folks is the best part of show season!

This year Jeff is the show superintendent so I get to show all the alpacas myself. Might be interesting if we have some males in the same color class. We'll see what the color check thinks, but I think they're pretty darn close in light fawn shades!

The Saturday night Herdsire Roundup should be a blast and yes (don't tell Jeff) I have my eye on several

We are so thrilled for our partner's - King and Prince Alpacas down in Texas for taking a BIG win at the Houston Livestock & Rodeo this weekend!

StilHotSmokinGun in all his light rose grey beauty won a First place ribbon in a large class of 12 animals and then on to take the Reserve Championship! Way to go Tony & Shannon in Texas! Ya'll done good!

Gun, as we affectionately call him, is a .38 Special son with a smokin' hot grey fleece and fantastic confirmation! He has sett

It has been raining cats and dogs here, with the past three day’s rain totals being double than entire month of March last year!

Getting ready to show and keeping everyone fairly dry is always a challenge. This year, we decided to add walls to our barn, filled with drain rock and installed indoor/outdoor carpeting for the alpacas comfort. But it sure helps us keep them clean, dry and pampered!

Even Commander, our Komondor has gotten into the action. If dogs can smile, he i

Winter in Seattle doesn't bring much sunshine, and it’s nice to get away to enjoy a drier climate. Our friends, Daryl and Shirley Krause at Amber Autumn Alpacas held their first annual auction in sunny Phoenix, Arizona! What a class act they provided to their guests!

What a treat it was to go enjoy the scenery there and happily we found two extreme quality alpacas to add to our herd. Berry Blitz is a beautiful black young female, see her in the show ring soon.

We also added

Friends,

With the holidays upon us, it is a good time to reflect back throughout the year and be reminded of all that is good. This year is no exception – we thankful for all of blessings of health, family and love. We send our warmest wishes to you and yours and may 2014 bring joy and prosperity.

“Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but look at what they can do when they stick together." ~ Unknown

Come celebrate the season!

11/29, 11/30 & 12/1

Shop and see the alpacas!

FUN * FOOD * PRIZES

11/29 – 11/30 – 12/1
12 pm – 4 pm

Liberty Alpacas
20014 SE 240th Street
Maple Valley, WA 98038

Here at the ranch, we are thankful for many things - family, friends and good health. But living with an alpaca herd, you become thankful for things like healthy animals, attentive mothers, beautiful fleeces and the kinship between herd and humans.

We are grateful for so many things this Thanksgiving holiday. Just ask us, we'll tell you with a smile.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours~

Cleaning the pastures gives Jeff and me a chance to walk the pastures and play with the dogs in between scooping. Harley, the Jack Russell terror (I mean terrier) thinks he’s the boss but in reality, it is Commander, the Komondor. Commander, is, well, commanding – all 130# of him. He is the all mighty herd master, guardian, alarm howler, who sleeps, eats and breathes with our herd.

Yesterday was no exception, but on this crisp fall day where the brightly colored red and golden leaves

Although we really don't get into Halloween like some people, it is a popular holiday to see all the costumes and decorations. Jeff gets into Halloween just for the candy corn, which is kept in ample supply for him the month of October and November.

We have lived on our farm officially for seven years this month, and never once have we had a trick or treater come to our door. Steph always enjoyed carving pumpkins but this year she has her own place to live. So this year, it was especi

When you are a rancher with hungry livestock to feed, the day you get hay feels like Christmas. I know it sounds weird...but it's true! Getting the hay unloaded and put away for the year is one of the most fulfilling feelings a rancher can have.

True. Believe me. You ranchers out there reading this can relate to exactly what I'm saying.

When the semi-truck finally arrived at our place yesterday, it felt overwhelmingly satisfying as I gave a big sigh. But this year, we tried

I can relate. Totally. Today we did a weigh-in with the alpacas after changing around our process. The girls looked a bit puzzled but they figured it out.

Looking at it through their eyes, they are corralled, moved, pushed (that's me) onto the scale - wait patiently and politely as if they are saying "please keep my weight private".

Of course, the babies don't have a clue about their weight, all they want is back with their moms.

It was a fun day doing the weigh

This week, our farm store building was built and we are very excited to offer alpaca products and other farm goodies to the public! Our goal was to be open before the holidays and we did it! This feels great and we are so proud of taking this next step in our business.

Our phase II will be to finish the interior this next spring so for now, I (Lorrie) have to be patient! We are so fortunate to have great visibility from the road and we have worked hard to network with community events

Wow, what a fabulous event to bring the alpacas out to show the crowds of people at the 2013 Issaquah Salmon Days event! The weather was absolutely amazing both days and we sure got lucky this year!

This is our fourth year as a "Spawnsor" for the festival with 180,000 people attending each year. See the link for more information at http://www.salmondays.org/index.html.

Our 10’ x 30’ booth was filled with people all weekend long, and people were enchanted by the beauty and w

Today, we officially broke ground on our future farm store! We are so excited to finally have a retail space for people to come visit and purchase the beautiful products from alpaca!!! We will also have other local products such as honey, soaps and candles.

The store will be built early next week and it will be a 10 x 16 space. We are going to ease into the interior finishing a little slower than I'd like, but our goal is to be open for plenty of time for holiday shopping!

Oh my goodness....what is with all the hashtags these days? Jeff and I have completely different opinions about their usage, which makes sense since he sells computer software.

I must admit, #Alpacas, is kinda catchy. But will it help us boost our web analystics? Will I have to pay up on the bet about using the #? Do I have to listen to my husband say, "#I told you so?". One thing is for sure. If #alpacas helps our business....I'll tell him #sorry. Or #you were right dear.

Despite cold, wet weather – we had our BEST National Alpaca Farm Days ever this past weekend! We had people come in droves from a couple hours away to visit the farm and see the alpacas up close, and for many, it was the first time!

A recent segment on Evening Magazine did their video shoot at our friends, Tina & Gvido Bars, who operate Stellar Alpacas. This generated a lot of interest for us local alpaca farms and we were thrilled to watch them on TV. You guys rock!

Produc

Get ready.....Get Set......every year, alpaca farms celebrate National Alpaca Farm Days by opening their farms for visitors to discover alpaca farming, the alpaca way of life, and have a fun, wholesome day out with their family.

Alpacas are inquisitive, photogenic, and very safe for young children to be around. So if you've been wondering about these animals and curious to see them in person, bring out your entire family to a participating farm near you and enjoy a memorable day and l

Ever see people and their pets together and think “hmmm, they kinda look alike”? I wonder if that holds true for all pets and all people?

After running across a celebrity that has an alpaca twin, I started thinking about what alpaca that might resemble me. Funny, you ask...think about it. So I went to work looking for photos and here’s what I came up with. Since alpacas have hair, I spared my husband Jeff from this exercise.

One of my most favorite actresses is Kirstie Alle

Our alpacas are spoiled. Seriously spoiled. Riding around in a custom alpaca hauler, with all the bells and whistles too. The life they live...

On our recent trip to Portland, we got more attention than we were used too with waves from passers-by. The graphics were completed by Rainier Industries and we are thrilled to have this completed.

Oh say, can you see? By the dawn’s morning light, what so proudly we hailed!

Born to our farm, a little chocolate brown girl which we have affectionately named Liberty’s National Anthem.

Anthem is from Mile High Leona and sired by Premier’s Gold Standard. We were amazed to see such a luscious dark brown color come from this pairing but even at such a tender age, we are excited with her degree of fineness, density and brightness!

Making these hats has been more fun for me! I even took my knitting stuff to Cabo San Lucas to make a bunch of hats to stockpile for the fall and winter sales.

My parents visited and delivered some birthday gifts which was awesome and the return were some good looking photos with the hats being modeled, by my loved ones.

What a feeling of accomplishment to produce a product off your own animals. Wow. This is really good stuff and I am, really head over heels over these hats

I have so much fun making pure alpaca stocking hats for the fall/winter seasons! These hats are roasty, toasty and use between 4-7 ounces of pure alpaca fiber!

I also take and make custom ordered just for you or your family! Don't forget, these make a great holiday gift :-)

We are pleased to announce some BIG news on our farm!

Greener Pasture’s StilHot SmokinGun has been added to deliver excellence in grey to our breeding program!

We'd like to thank our friends, Scott & Debbie Miller from Crescent Moon Ranch/Greener Pastures for this incredible fellow who is a .38 Special son from a Kirwin daughter who has an amazing fleece of her own. Density and fineness merge to create a wickedly good grey fleece. When you look at this pedigree, tell us th

Ok, I must admit that any excuse to go to Central Oregon is a no brainer but this year, we decided to join in on the fun at Education with a Destination. This four day, intense training covered many aspects of the alpaca business – fleece, history of the ARI, herd health and most of all, networking.

The scenery at Crescent Moon, Flying Dutchman and Marty McGee’s ranches were all impressive. That being said, the natural beauty of Smith Rock was so stunning that it was hard to focus on

This weekend, I took Andy Merriwether's Color Genetics and EPD seminar. Expected Progeny Difference(s), EPDs, are the “new” science in the alpaca industry. The same process of acceptance and transparency is repeating itself, just as it did with histograms. New and existing breeders are catching on. EPDs provide credibility and help establish value so breeders can make informed and scientific decisions in their breeding program.

The image shows the 2012 results of the submitted EPD dat

She grew up on a side of the road
Where the church bells ring and strong love grows
She grew up good
She grew up slow
Like American honey

Steady as a preacher
Free as a weed
Couldn't wait to get goin'
But wasn't quite ready to leave
So innocent, pure and sweet
American honey

There's a wild, wild whisper
Blowing in the wind
Calling out my name like a long lost friend
Oh I miss those days as the years go by
Oh n

This weekend, we hosted several visitors to the farm to learn more about the alpaca lifestyle and give an Alpaca 101 seminar. We always enjoy teaching folks about alpacas and letting them get their hands-on experience. It’s a joy to walk people around the ranch and hear their questions and comments.

It also helps us remember all the same questions we had when we first looked at alpacas. That’s a good thing to remember actually – and try not to overwhelm people with facts, data and in

In our nation’s history, there has never been a more prominent point in history to bring equality to the country with both the battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg address by President Lincoln. The speech starts out with “Four score and seven years ago”. For you who are wondering what a “score” is, it’s 20 years.

Liberty's Gettysburg, is a beautiful medium fawn son of Patagonia’s Ernesto. His dam, Mermalada is a Nishio granddaughter with a superfine fleece. Gettysburg exhibits a d

Summer time is always a great time to get out there and see other alpaca farms. This weekend, we had the pleasure of stopping by five fellow farms – four in Washington and one in Oregon. We had great company with our friends Janis & Floyd Smith of Aleutian Eagle Alpacas along the way. Between delivering females for their breeding dates and transporting their herdsire to their partner’s farm, we had a blast!
Floyd was patient enough to allow me a few extra grab-n-go stops along the way!

Google's definition of excellence is “The quality of being outstanding or extremely good”. This meaning could fit for any product or service from soup to nuts - breeding grey alpacas to white alpacas.

Our alpaca breeding program has been in pursuit of excellence for the past few years. Making sound breeding decisions that will advance our program has become very near and dear to our hearts. I’m sure other breeders will agree, to improve quality, it takes a few basic steps:

Naming a cria can be challenging, particularly when your farm has a theme. With our patriotic theme, it seems pretty simple -- but when you have a cria that has the "it" factor, you want to make sure it's captured in a good name. I think it's harder to think of macho male names that people will remember. Liberty's Torch, our latest member is no exception. He is tall, proud and moves in a captivating way. We have optimism in his presence at such a young age. His name came from our trip to Ellis I

We're very excited to have our new custom alpaca trailer finally arrive. It looks like it was well worth the wait. It will be making its maiden voyage over to Crescent Moon and Amber Autumn in a couple of weeks.

Lexington, historically known as the place where the Revolutionary war started, which lead to America’s independence from the British. What a honorable name to our newest herd addition -- Liberty’s Lexington!

Lexington’s sire, TAG Peruvian Nitro -- a dark rose grey champion and 10 time blue ribbon winner along with his dam, Alpaquitas Sorpresa, a light rose grey color champion and ribbon winner have made this beautiful light fawn male with silky, bundled, bright and dense fleece. Lex

Grade 1-Royal - Less than 20 microns -To wear next to the skin garments

Grade 2-Superfine - 20-22.9 microns - Gently used items such as shawls and baby items

Grade 3- Fine - 23-25.9 microns- Most versatile grade, all purpose

Grade 4- Medium - 26-28.9 microns - Socks, throws, outerwear and felt

Grade 5-Intermediate - 29-32 microns- Batts, duvets, outerwear and felt

Grade 6-Strong - 32.1-35 microns - Batts, insulation and rugs

I

Lining up work for our herdsire....ladies, step right this way! The Black Medallion has a lot of work to do this summer! We have 16 dates lined up for him and he wants more! We are running a great promotion to get him earning his keep!

The Black Medallion has two dates lined up with our friend's at Triple W Alpaca Ranch - Will & Shannon Deckert. They have two nice black females ready to go when the Black Medallion arrives from his "winter" home at White Cloud Alpacas next week!
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Summer is here!

Now that shearing is done, we are anxiously awaiting this year's crop to hit the ground - a very exciting time of year at the ranch! Waiting, wondering, hoping, dreaming, and more waiting!

The alpacas don't find it as interesting as we humans, I'm sure about that. Take a look at what they are doing on their first day of summer. Kind of a sleeper, don't you think? I wonder if they are dreaming alpaca 'happy' thoughts...

I know growing babies takes

Ever wonder if the alpacas gather around the water cooler (trough) like humans? Do they exchange gossip or rumors or use the place to assert their pecking order? Funny, maybe I overthink things and they just use it for plain old water. Love hanging out with the herd on warm days (I didn’t say lazy warm days) and enjoy particularly how they drink at the trough. Some sip, some dip their mouth over and over again – making me wonder if they actually get anything in their mouth or it they are bobbing

Planning is everything - right? Wow, was Mother Nature on our side this year with over a week of dry weather BEFORE shearing! This is almost unheard of but boy were we glad! We had 19 total this year, as three were off the farm getting sheared elsewhere.

Our shearer did a great job, and we were thankful to get them all done in one day! That included toe nails and annual CDT shots. This year was the most organized, fun and relaxing it has ever been. The pace was laid back, and even tho

I am constantly amazed at my husband - the herdsman. With an upbringing as a city boy, with no livestock experience whatsoever - he has earned his stripes on the farm!

He takes great care of the herd, does the daily feeding and helps with all chores (cleaning, toenails, shearing, business management, etc.). I am so proud of his learning and alpaca accomplishments.

Somedays I wonder who loves the alpacas more....me or him?

Seeing this photo made me laugh -- especially after the long day at Mother Earth Fair, held at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. We met a lot of people and spoke about the benefits of alpaca ownership! It was a fun day, let's say "adventure". People watching was at it's prime :-)

Making my first stocking hat on the Addi machine was a blast -- easy, fast, simple (right up my alley)! This hat was made with 100% alpaca in two-tone layers of grey and white. Finished weight was 6 ounces and there is no way of getting cold with this wonderful heavy weight stocking hat! This took me about an hour to make, so my goal is to get faster as I make more for this season's markets and holiday events.

I sold this hat at Mother Earth Days within an hour - it's new owner was go

What a rootin’ tootin’ time we had at the 2013 AOBA Nationals Show, held in Denver! We took four alpacas and brought home two seconds and two thirds! This was a great show for us as it tells us that our breeding program is improving and headed in the right direction!

The Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies folks sure put on great hospitality! We met a lot of new people this year and our push to 'get out there' has paid off. A fun dinner was held at Cinzetti's with a large group too :-) (p

Our first auction, nervous - anxious - fun!!!

We took our medium silver girl, Liberty's Midnight Revere to this year's 2013 AOBA National Auction! That is an experience and thrill!

Reva, as she is called, did a great job with the experience and so did Jeff (who was the lucky one on stage getting all the glory)! Meeting people and talking alpaca was fun.

We are thrilled that Deborah Low, with Near Sawrey Alpacas won the bidding for Reva. Reva is being bred at Alp

Nothing says more fun than bidding on elite herdsires while enjoying dinner and scrumptious cake with friends! Recently, the Columbia Alpaca Breeders Association (CABA) had their herdsire auction and show.

We couldn’t resist getting involved in the action with the bidding. Neither could our friends Floyd & Janis Smith with Aleutian Eagle Alpacas, who bought the most decadent German chocolate cake of the decade! They shared this beautiful dessert with the table and the rest of the eve

Heading to GWAS is always an adventure. This year Jeff and our good friend Floyd from Aleutian Eagle Alpacas partnered up for the roadtrip with a load alpacas! The Road Warriors hit an incredible snow storm that closed the interstate between Laramie, Wyoming and the Colorado border but managed to get through without problems.

This year's show was a Level 5, with over 800 animals attending! I was lucky enough to fly in and enjoy the fun and excitement without doing all the work. We too

This past weekend's show was held at NW Showcase, held in Pasco, Washington - a warm 84 degrees when we unloaded. Seeing friends and making new acquaintances are the best part of shows. It is imperative to get out there in the ring and show your animals!

When you show, it measures your herd across all other competitors. This helps make breeding decisions, tell people are you serious about the business and it's a whole lotta fun!

You can never market or network enough in alp

Alpacapalooza 2013 painted our show season start with hues of purples & blues! Wow, Liberty's Antebellum - rose grey juvenile female and Patagonia's Sanson, medium brown juvenile male BOTH take Reserve Championships and blue ribbons in their very first class!

Amber Autumn's Elania takes a first in her class also!

Palooza is a very competitive show here in the NW and we are thrilled to acquire such good ribbons! This starts the show season off on the right foot!

Load’em Up and Head’in Out! Show season is exciting and it’s 2013 Show Time – Go Time!

Years of planning, working, praying all comes down to show time for our alpacas! We always start our year with Alpacapalooza, a very competitive show held in Ridgefield, Washington. This year, we have seven animals going and hoping for some nice ribbons to bring home! This time of year gets exhausting with back-to-back weekends travelling, showing and working. Jeff is going to visit Futurity, to sc

This beautiful medium silver grey Deacon Grey daughter has been accepted to the 2013 AOBA Nationals Sale! She comes with a breeding to any herdsire at Alpacas de la Patagonia.

Reva is a beautiful medium silver grey girl out of Mile High Deacon Grey, 2008 Grey Champion at AOBA National's. She has a beautiful head, consistent blanket color, exceptional fleece characteristics & crimp, straight conformation and a flirty personality. This girl is very fancy, ultra fine and dense blanket!

This past Saturday, we learned about the importance of Permaculture at an AROW seminar hosted by Stellar Alpacas. Dave with PacaPride was our speaker for the day and we covered quite a few topics with the essence of the seminar revolving around Permaculture.

Permaculture is defined as the core ethics of:
Take care of the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
Take c

Rawna Hamann, a friend who has amazing knitting skills made a LOVELY shawl comprised of yarn from 11 of our own herd! What a labor of love to see this and I can't wait to wrap up in this beautiful art! I see the only color I don't have in here is black :-)

Great News!
Section 179 Deduction was extended in
the Fiscal Cliff Bill!

If you are doing lease-financing on equipment or livestock this year, you can write off the entire amount up to $500k. Here are the new Section 179 Deduction limits for 2013:
•2013 Deduction Limit = $00,000 (was $139,000)
•2013 Limit on Capital Purchases = $2,000,000
•2013 Bonus Depreciation = 50%

*Please Note: The above limits are as of 1/1/2013, and are for tax year 2013. I

We are so pleased to welcome The Black Medallion to our farm! This fine male comes from Wing & A Prayer Alpacas. This amazing True Black Herdsire that has it all. Fineness, Density, Bundling Crimp and Excellent Confirmation. Check out his fiber stats at age 4!

During the 2009 show season, the Judges commented on Black Medallion being "the next generation of black fleece". His show career is impressive taking first at Futurity, CABA, GWAS and a color at CABA all as a juvie.

We were honored to have guests from the Netherlands visit our farm this past weekend. It was delightful to meet with Pauline & Jan-Willem who operate a family owned mink ranch. Raising mink is interesting and they have 6,000 mink that sustains their family business. We learned a lot about their business and how closely it parallels alpaca ranching. The main difference of course, is that alpacas are not harmed in the harvest of their fleece.

Holland’s government has put a ban in place

Nothing better than gathering to show off your herdsire, fiber and pen sale animals! This year, AAWW selected the location and it was held at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. At last count, 17 farms were represented with over 50 animals on site.

We sold a variety of alpaca products throughout the day with a steady stream of visitors that were attending the neighboring gun show.

It was a cold, wet day but nothing warms my heart more than seeing fellow a

My Survivor Slipper Socks were specially designed by a cancer survivor to keep the feet cozy and warm. Chemo treatments can cause the patient to be cold. The treads on the socks enable the wearer to go shoeless during treatments or at home.

These will make an excellent gift for love ones that are in a treatment or just anyone that wants to support them and wear any time at home. Made in the USA. Easy to care for, machine wash and dry.

We have these in stock, pink. Let us

We delivered a trailer load of alpacas today consisting of three males and three bred females. This group was a herdstarter package for a new breeder. This sale felt great but it was bittersweet at the time of delivery. Why, you ask?

One of the bred females was our very first alpaca we purchased. Apple-Co Liberty will start another new farm now. Liberty taught us the ropes with her kind and gentle nature. She earned her keep by giving us four beautiful and healthy crias....two girls a

The Priority Auction in Vegas was exciting this year! Meeting like-minded alpaca folks from across the country was fun! Of course...the best part was seeing 80 beautiful alpacas and getting caught up in the auction excitement. The Southpoint Casino is quite a facility that caters to the livestock crowd. We had a great time and wished it could have lasted a few more days.

Fawning all over what food coloring can do with fawn alpaca yarn….wow….the beautiful vibrant colors that are true and colorfast! What fun!

Our herd keeps growing and we are moving into more fawn colored alpacas. They can add great fleece characteristics such as fineness, color and crimp and you can breed with silver and get that highly-sought after rose grey! That's my plan anyways.

These photos represent a very frozen winter day and yarn from our herdsire, Premier’s Gold S

Old man winter is here. This time of year, going outside to work the herd and the pastures gets miserable. I’m not gonna lie…..the wet, cold rainy blustery days are no fun to be outside. The best part of that is the alpaca interaction. Each one has their own look as if they say “hey, thanks for coming out and feeding me, I’m hungry, or it's about time.....” We save field cleaning for the weekends, although our daughter Stephanie goes out and does the main fields midweek. With short daylight hour

With 2012 almost near the end and Christmas upon us, we wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! This year has had its challenges, rewards and most of all - new friends!

May 2013 bring you health, wealth and alpaca kisses!

Learning how to wet felt alpaca roving has been a fun experience! Our daughter Stephanie, owner of Alpaquitas Ranch, has become quite good at it making some beautiful pieces of scarf art. She has an artistic flair that amazes me how she pulls it all together. Yes, I’m impressed.

Taking the alpaca roving to a finished product is rewarding and will be financially fulfilling when we head off to the Christmas bazaars this season!

I have so many ideas, just so little time!

When is the last time someone surprised you? Seems like the older I get, the harder it is for me to get surprised. I don't know if that's a bad thing or good thing but it happened!

Our ranch has such a beautiful entry way and brand new wrought iron entrance gates. Every year, I ask for Christmas lights to line the fence line. And every year, it doesn't happen. But this year - my wonderful husband decided to surprise me during one of his days off. His covert mission was to purchase lig

What a fun experience (and experiment) it was playing with some natural dyes! Taking some white alpaca yarn and seeing how it would take color sure sparked some excitement! We did three colors, one pot of turmeric, spinach, and red cabbage. The spinach did not produce nearly the shade I wanted but it was fun to see a pale green yarn produced. The turmeric was the most exciting and I had no idea how potent it was on yarn, my countertop, sink and clothes but it yielded the most brilliant golden hu

What is your why with alpacas? I challenged myself to articulate my “why” so when people ask me about alpacas, I can convey my true feelings.

Experts say that we all go back to something familiar from an earlier time in our lives. Perhaps to rekindle a fond memory, childhood experience or to rediscover a past hobby or passion. That could not be more true. Getting my first horse at the age of 14, my love of being outside – working, handling, and dreaming of winning in the show ring c

We had the pleasure of hosting several out-of-state visitors to our farm this past weekend. It is always nice meeting people who are interested in learning more about alpacas and we admire them for visiting different farms before they take the plunge. It is particularly interesting to meet people in different stages of the buying cycle and what their business model looks like.

It sure makes me reflect on our initial business plan and how much it has evolved over the past five years, s

Winning a Color Championship in front of your peers is a wonderful feeling -- but winning it with an animal that was doomed from the very start of it's life is truly a Cinderella story.

One year ago, we took Alpaquitas Peruvian Sorpresa to the elite Alpaca Breeders Invitational (ABI) show in Redmond, Oregon where she took a color championship above the "Who's Who" of all other grey females - as a yearling!

But it all started with love at first sight. My daughter and I found

Bundled up, our first grandson was introduced to the alpacas! Bradyn is almost 4 months old now and is really starting to interact, smile and giggle with us! We had a great time being with him and his parents!

It never dawned on me that folks new to alpaca yarn would have difficulty untangling the tangled web of yarn known as a skein. I have sold a BUNCH of yarn, and I assumed that everyone knew how to handle it once they got it home. Shame on me.....I should never assume.

One customer called and politely asked "ok, this is a tangled mess and how do I do this". I felt bad that I hadn't explained it at the time of purchase, so for all those of you reading this and don't know - this is for yo

This was our third year at Issaquah Salmon Days, being a Bronze Spawnsor (notice the play on words?)! Each year, we are thrilled to see the mobs of 180,000 people flock to our booth to learn more about alpacas. Folks from as far away as Morocco snap a bazillion photos and buy luxurious alpaca products and yarn.

With overwhelming pride, this was the first year to have two of our beautiful daughters and Jeff’s parents become a part of it! We are so happy they can see how alpacas have tr

Why is it that my aches and pains disappear when I’m out with the alpacas? I’ve noticed that I feel better physically and mentally when I’m out with the herd. Sounds funny, I know. For some strange reason, the cold, fresh air or even hot, dry air takes me away from the everyday stress and strain of life. Maybe it's the oxygen. Maybe it's the soothing hums from the alpacas.

I could equate that feeling to “pasture counseling session”. How could being out there with the herd and having C

There is no better way to promote your farm, meet local people and gain sales opportunities by showcasing than at your local Farmer’s market! We hauled alpacas, catch pen, products and smiles to our local farmer’s market this past weekend. Sales were brisk, everyone LOVES alpacas! We were placed at the front of the entrance, so young and old had to walk past our booth and visit with us and the alpacas. A SUPER fun way to visit with folks and sell the alpaca lifestyle – and we are so happy to be

Caller “your yarn is ready”

Me (outside voice) “awesome”!

Me (inside voice) “YAHOOOOOOOO”

It’s taken a long time for me to understand the importance of fiber processing. I have put so much time into understanding confirmation, lineage, colors, fineness, density, etc. I’m finally getting the all important “this industry has EVERYTHING to do with fiber! Wow, what a concept!

The past five years have been about breeding and raising the alpacas – not the

We are thrilled to have launched our NEW website! As anyone knows, this can be a really big deal to help promote and market one's business identity. We take this seriously and for the most part, enjoy the fruits of our labor (ok, Jeff does more than me).

We hope everyone enjoys the updates and ease of functionality! Grab a cup of coffee and stay a while -- be sure to visit often, we have some exciting news coming soon!

If you would have asked us 10 years ago about a life with alpacas – we would have laughed up a storm! Ask our daughter Stephanie about that one! When she went away to college across the country, and within a few weeks, the empty next was just that - too empty! We found alpacas and they filled a void. Her first visit home from school break she thought we were nuts. That was 5 years ago and now she has her own herd of 6 animals to offset her school expenses.

If you would have asked me 5

Lazy Days of Summer

Who said summer was a time for laziness? Remember that old song, “Here comes those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer”? You’ll never catch me whistling this tune or singing those lyrics at the ranch!
Summer is a time for herd health, cria watch, cria deliveries, rebreeding, fleece skirting and fiber preparation! Who has time to be lazy? Not us….let me tell you.
Keeping the herd cool with water is one of my favorite things to do after work – and I don’t con

What on earth is better than having adorable crias running through our pastures? Hard to beat...I know....but it has to be the social part of alpaca networking! We had such a great weekend visiting at the AAWW meeting that was hosted by Karen and Hugo of Alpacas de la Patagonia. Spending time with like-minded folks can't be beat. Of course a beautiful summer day on Camano Island with outstanding potluck food helps make it perfect!

Oh, the joys of shearing. Hard on our legs and back but so nice on our eyes to see that luxurious fleece coming off the alpacas! This year, we sheared 23 animals in one and a half days. Kim, our shearer takes extra special care to see that each animal is handled calmly and uses great patience with us!

I appreciate how she gets us warmed up as we chose an unbred female who is very laid back to start with. Good thinking...starts the day off the right way and we get our instructions down

Welcome to the first of our crias for 2012!

Antebellum is a stunning medium rose grey with tons of chrome!
Eyecatching both in appearance and in lineage, her sire is El Nino's Golden Legend. El Nino's Golden Legend's offspring have shown extremely well and have garnered many Get of Sire awards to prove his capacity for producing champions. Antebellum's dam, Raggedy Rose is a lavender colored rose grey with amazing density and lingering fineness standing proud on her own show reco

Our nieces, both girls are 8 years old, came for a visit and wanted to play with the alpacas. They were thrilled to get to halter the babies and lead them around. Jaelyn is on the left, leading Liberty Rose who is 9 months old and Kaia is leading Legend, who is 11 months old.

These adorable little girls LOVE the alpacas and when I said, let's have an alpaca show -- they both beamed! Of course, neither of them have ever been to an alpaca show so Stephanie and I explained what to do and

Taking our 22 year old daughter shopping for cria kit items seems like an easy feat – but when you think of all the necessary components, it can be more complicated (and embarrassing) than I thought. Having a modest daughter with a good sense of humor made this a fun adventure at the local drug store!

Our cria kit contains the obvious sort of things – towels, thermometer, iodine, scissors, thread (no, we aren’t sewing) garbage bag, latex gloves, corn syrup, syringe, sterile saline, b

Purchasing on tax day.........today was fun going to pick up a new member of our herd. Melody Rose came home today, an amazing medium rose grey female. This girl looks just like her sire, Kaspa. I am so excited about the prospects of this girl producing great cria for our farm. Her first cria will arrive in August, as she is bred to a son of Avatar....

Tax day has turned out to be a fun day in 2012!

Our Easter holiday didn't start off all that well, given the dead rabbit that was outside our bathroom window. Glad we found it and not Stephanie, although it appeared to die of natural causes and not by predator.

Stephanie sold her nice girl, Victor Hemingway's Freedom to a nice farm in Liberty, Kentucky. The transporter picked her up today and hopefully the weather will be mild on her trip. "Fria" is soooo dense, hate to think of her sweating on such a long trip.

Last of

An inch of rain today! The ground is so saturated that the catch pens are soggy, soupey and messy! These areas remind me of chocolate pudding!

Weatherman says no end in sight to this rain. Palooza is coming, hopefully we get a dry spell so we don't have soaking pacas!

A couple of years ago, my husband took our show animals to an alpaca show on the California/Oregon border. While at the show, he fell in love with a Komondor male that was there and learned there was a litter of pups that were ready to go. Just so happens, one of these pups was being donated for the dinner auction and guess what -- he bid, and bid, and bid.....after about 12 telephone calls later, he was disappointed to tell me that he lost out on the bidding. The next morning, Zoltan (the breed

How did we get so lucky to have two high school sophomore girls in 4-H ask US if we wanted help halter training the crias this year?

Hmmmm, lucky is right! Danielle & Gracie have been so sweet to come out twice a week to wrangle the crias! They know their names, their personalities and these girls work hard in the pastures!

WE SOOOOOOO APPRECIATE THEM!

This day brought cold, drizzley rain but warm hearts to the first annual AAWW Herdsire Event held in Enumclaw, Washington! There was good participation with over 50 local herdsires present and farms representing both huacaya and suri males for a date in 2012!

Everyone enjoyed the Valentine's theme with dressed up alpacas, lots of decorations, chocolate, roses and me with my big crockpot full of chili :-) Thanks to Sara for bringing corn bread muffins. We had a good time visiting wit

Ok alpacas, get your nom nom on.....yes, we decided to add another element to our alpaca business by carrying Puget Sound Vet Group alpaca feeds.

Our herd has been enjoying this feed for over a year, utilizing the three different rations:

Maintenance
Lactation
Show Ring

These different blends meet special requirements for our herd and we've noticed weight GAIN, even in lactating moms with crias at side! Highly palatable, lower cost and lower consumption

Gotta love the weathermen....snow has been flirting in the forecast but today it arrived. At the time this picture was taken, the ground had accumulated about three inches of snow.

Watching the alpacas in the snow is always entertaining, especially when they nibble the snow off the top of the fenceline. It almost reminds me of someone eating an ear of corn, row by row.

The moms found cover most of the day in their shelters and mostly stayed close to the hay feeder, only to

Anything but rain is generally welcomed here in the Seattle area but this past 10 day stretch of weather has brought sub-freezing temperatures at night. Leaving in the morning in the dark and then coming home at night in the dark is my least favorite part of the winter weather.

The alpacas are well suited for this type of weather and not at all bothered by it. Some of the older moms with crias at side, we give a little extra ration to. This helps them help retain body score and heat w

New construction is always exciting, and adding alpaca space certainly gives a sense of satisfaction to us alpaca ranchers. We are happy to add a 24' x 20' overhang to our existing barn which will allow us the convenience of the obvious weather issues we have here in beautiful Washington state where we get a lot of rain (aka liquid sunshine)!

This structure will help us to keep the show alpacas dry (which is always a challenge here in the Pacific NW no matter what time of year) and wh

Winning a blue ribbon is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment for the alpaca owner but taking the purple banner takes it into a whole other level!

Nervously standing in the ring, watching the judges eyes darting left and right and then left and right....when finally, the moment of anticipation when the judge walked directly towards me and awarded Alpaquitas Peruvian Sorpresa the Color Championship in a highly competitive class of silver females! And to think, she's just a yearling!

What a great group of folks to come out to show support for their AAWW association! This was the 2nd annual event, bringing together the social aspect of like-minded alpaca folks + bbq food + door prizes + herdsire auction + bowling = a great time had by all!

The bowling awards went to - Lighthouse Alpacas, capturing both male & female high scorers, Twinkle-Toes award goes to Alpacas of Strawberry Fields, and we won't mention the low scorers (even though they did better than my highes

The fall brings along a change of seasons and with it, a flurry of business! We exhibited at 2011 Salmon Days and introduced masses of people to our alpacas! The event draws over 150,000 people and we set up alpaca pens and alpaca products for retail purchase! We sold out almost the first day and were very excited at the interest that the alpacas brought!

We are also gearing up for a new show in Redmond, Oregon and wrapping up the breeding season with The Reverend Mr. Black and Gold S

This weekend was our third annual National Alpaca Farm Day held at the ranch! Saturday brought a nice day and most of the visitors while today was a blustery, rainy day with only a few visitors. Although it seemed to be better attended in 2010, we were happy to show off the herd and especially this year's cria. Our daughter sold two pet boys this weekend for her farm, Alpaquitas Ranch!

For those who wish to learn more about alpacas, we are hosting a seminar - Alpacas 101 - on October

Having crias sheared for the first time is fun and I still can't get over how much cuter they look than they did full fleece! Americus & Legend were the last ones to do this year so our show string for 2012 is starting to come together!

Thankfully, both of their moms accepted them as if to say "son, look at you -- look at you!" All is well with the herd tonight~

It was a busy day here on the farm, and knowing that the August heat would reach near 90 degrees - I decided to get up early and bake a dessert for our BBQ lunch with Alan & Michael, owners of Squire Creek Alpaca Ranch. The organic apple & raspberry cake turned out delicious! They were bringing Gold Standard back from their ranch after putting him to work up north. We have more work for him here so I'm sure he was happy to return to his pasture.

Jeff had been in Portland all weekend a

The Consulate de Peru, located in Seattle asked us to participate in their Independence day celebration with our alpacas!

Independence Day is a two-day national holiday held on 28th and 29th July each year in Peru. It celebrates José de San Martín's proclamation of Peru's independence from Spain on 28th July 1821.

We enjoyed meeting Miguel Angel Velásquez and his staff for a fun-filled event. Our alpacas were at the front entrance as guest arrived and had many photo opportu

The much awaited arrival of the The Reverend has come. Schedule a time to come by and see this beautiful herdsire and reserve your breeding.

Fun day today as our latest two additions, Raggedy Rose and Mile High Leona finally arrived at our farm looking beautiful!

Seeing this magnificient black alpaca herdsire was the highlight of our trip to Denver for the AOBA Nationals. Sharon & Frank Loner have a terrific breeding program, producing champion alpacas! We are excited to host The Reverend Mr. Black from August 1st to October 31, 2011. Contact us at www.libertyalpacas.com for more information!