A Brief Peek at a Farm Tour...part 1

Good Wednesday Morning!  I'm late with this week's blog!  BUT....for a very good reason....we hosted a farm tour on Monday and what a GREAT time! 

While the weather was iffy at first, it turned out to be a wonderful day.  We had our sun shelters up, there was tea and coffee when things were a bit dreary to warm you up and of course a good selection of cold drinks.

We were able to shear a Llama and Snowflake was very happy to oblige and have her huge "blanket" removed....much cooler now!  She even had a pedicure!


Llama Fibre

Patrick and Lucy along with all the other sheep and goats entertained the crowd and Patrick was very insistent on getting his head petted.  Timo was our Alpaca ambassador and he came out to give kiss and smell everyone's hair!  He's a cutie.


Lucy and her son Jerry

Elmer gave an explanation of the various kinds of Sheep, Goats, Alpacas and Llamas and even showed the chickens and turkeys and ducks of various shapes and sizes and farm fresh eggs were greatly in demand!

"Scrappy"

Then it was on to the REAL purpose of this farm, the fibre....how fibre is processed....Lee took everyone through a full demonstration, the raw fibre...shearing, picking, combing, carting and spinning!   She makes everything look so easy! 

The store offers a great variety of fibre, alpaca, wool, mohair, blends of each and beautiful vibrant colours!  The solar dyed yarns were a real hit!

Store fibres

I will be posting pictures on Monday going through the steps.  Our group arrived at 10:30am and left at 3pm.  While we provided the drinks they brought their own lunch.

If you think you might be interested in having a group tour of the farm and the store just let us know.  Reach us at 705-778-2070 or email elmleaalpacas@gmail.com.  The cost is $20.00 per person.  We can slightly tailor the even to your needs...but keep in mind that we are NOT a petting farm and while Patrick and some others love the attention, most of the animals are farm animals.  Another point of interest is being a FIBRE farm means we are NOT eating these goats and sheep...or Alpacas!  The purpose of our farm is to use the fibre from these animals is various ways whether through creating yarns for knitting and crocheting or for using the fibre in felting.

BUT our farm store does sell lamb, goat, and beef (supplied by local farms)along with chicken, turkey and eggs.  If you are looking for your Thanksgiving Turkey you need to order it soon! 

Store is open Thursday thru Sunday 10 am to 5 pm!  Come say "Hi"!