Hoosier Heartland Alpacas LLC - hoosierheartlandalpacasllc

Thanks to Shutterfly for their free website we have used for about a year now.  You can also find us at OpenHerd.com at this link....http://www.openherd.com/members/editBlogs.aspx?id=8ad0T525HYwV7CSr%2frgAvA%3d%3d  Open Herd allows us to post frequently but doesn't bombard YOU with each and every posting that we make. We hope that you will check it out as that will now be our main website.  It allows me to blog and post pictures and you can also see our herd, our farm store and things going on around our farm that you can participate in.  We do hope you will check that out and if you're in the area, we hope you will stop in and see us, meet our animals and visit the farm store.  

What a great year we've had here at Hoosier Heartland Alpacas. We started this year with the visit of a 4H group, Cloverleaf, in early February because 4H added Alpacas to their "things you can do list". We had about 14 kids and 2 leaders with us on a very cold day. I am not sure any of these kids decided to do an alpaca project, however we did have a couple of kids later in the year that did projects for the Bartholomew County Fair and she did get a nice ribbon for her project.

We also hosted a group of home schoolers that I think numbered 17. They asked lots of interesting questions.

A little later in the spring, we had a group of Japanese ESL ladies visit with Zion Lutheran Church, Maggie Schneider and Darlene Cooley. They were very inquisitive and very appreciative and thankful for the opportunity of the Alpaca Culture they got to experience. More culture was served them in Persimmon pudding and Raspberry Iced Tea. We had a great visit.

In May, we had a visit from a school teacher at Brownstown and a small class of 8 kids and a couple more parent chaperones. It was a very good visit, kids were very inquisitive and excited to see the alpacas. I happened to see one of the kids at Ft. Vallonia Days later this year and he remembered me. It's good when you can make a lasting "good" impression in kids lives. I think our farm visit is one they will remember for a long time.

June was a very busy month as well. We had Borcher's Day Campers here. There was a school bus and about 10 vehicles come down our driveway, with about 90 people. I also was priviledged to take my spinning wheel to Tea Creek Baptist Church this summer and tell the kids there how to make cloth and maybe how they made cloth in Bible Days from alpacas. 

June also started the 4th Saturday Farmer's Market in downtown Seymour. The 4th Saturday was where the crafters were invited along with the Farmer's to bring their wares and sell. I took my spinning wheel and demonstrated spinning while selling my yarns and talking about alpacas, met lots of new folks and reconnected with a lot of friends I hadn't seen for some time.

The rest of the year.......went equally as fast. We had lots of folks just stop in to see our operation and we do love sharing our passion. We began hosting a 2nd Saturday Spin-In where you could bring your wheel or drop spindle and just "sit and spin" or "watch and learn". One of our spinners had recently moved and couldn't find her wheel just yet so brought her counted cross stitch instead. 

I did get the opportunity to sit in period attire this fall at the local Ft. Vallonia festival for 2 days on the front porch of an original log cabin and spin..........did I say it was for 2 days? Yes, and it was fun both days. The weather was perfect and I even got sunburned. I hope I get the opportunity to do this again.

Late in September, was National Alpaca Farm Days and we had around 150 people in the two days at our farm. It was a great visit, despite the weather. Now, we are gearing towards our Christmas Open House on December 3rd. Frantically knitting and crocheting items for our farm store. Our alpacas have such nice fiber, it is a joy to be able to work with it, turning it into wearable items that will keep you warm and toasty. We hope you will stop in and see us soon.

Attachments:

Join us this Saturday, October 8th from 10am-2pm in our barn for our 2nd Saturday Spin-In.  Bring your wheel or drop spindle and spin some yarn with us.  We spin for a couple of hours and then stop to share some snack and then go right back at it.  Spinning yarns, spinning tales.  It is a lot of fun to just "sit & spin".  If you wish to purchase a drop spindle and one of our beautiful hand carded batts to spin into yarn, we have that available for you as well.  Come out and join us.  Our farm store will also be open Mondays and Tuesdays from 10am-4pm thru the end of the year for your shopping pleasure, remember, we have lovely alpaca items in our farm store either for yourself or for a gift for someone else. Please call ahead (812-445-7874) to let me know you are coming out on Mondays or Tuesdays

Attachments:

We are gearing up for our 2nd Saturday Spin-In this coming Saturday, September 10th from 10am-2pm.  Are you coming?  The first month we had 4 spinners spinning in the barn along side the alpacas.  The second month there were 7 spinners spinning in the barn along side the alpacas and we got to watch the new baby (cria) Moses who was only 3 days old.  We have our second baby due on Sunday.........will she come early?  Will she be born on Saturday while we're spinning inside the barn?  Hummmmmmm~  Regardless, baby or not, rain or shine, we will be spinning in the barn this Saturday.  Bring your chair, spinning wheel or drop spindle and a snack to share.  If you don't have anything to spin with, we will have drop spindles and also hand carded alpaca batts available for purchasing.  We hope you will join in the fun or making slow yarn.

At our farm we host a “2^nd Saturday Spin-in” each 2^nd Saturday of the month from 10am-2pm.  We hope that you will join us and if you have a spinning friend, please bring them along.  Last month (July) was our first and there were 4 of us spinning fiber into yarn in the middle of our barn with our 10 alpacas.  It was a lot of fun.  We had two Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheels (both had spun for only a year), there was a Kromski Spinning Wheel (she spins at Spring Mill State Park occasionally and has been spinning for 34 years now) and then we had a gal using a drop spindle that just started but has now also purchased her first wheel, a Kromski. 

 

There were fans and a wonderful breeze blowing right through the barn so  it was a really perfect day for spinning in the barn.  Bo the barn cat even found a nice place to sleep. He had been under my feet while I was spinning until the expert spinner from Spring Mill arrived and then he became her buddy.  By the end of the day, he was inside her Kromski bag in a side pocket sleeping soundly.  I guess he knew she wouldn’t mind. 

 

There were some really beautiful yarns made that day and I know we all look forward to doing it again on August 13^th.  I will provide drinks but if you would like to bring some sort of snack to share that will be great too.  I really do hope you will join us as we try to revive this lost art. 

 

Bring your spinning wheel, drop spindle and a chair (I have some white plastic lawn chairs if you forget).  You can also bring your own fiber to spin or I have some carded alpaca batts for sale in our farm store which is also in the barn. 

Directions:
From US Highways 50 & 31 Go north on US 31 approximately 3.5 miles Turn right on County Rd. 900 N. Go two miles to County Rd. 1300 E. (County Line Road)
Turn Left on CR 1300 E./1000 W.
We will be ½ mile on the right.
2500 North County Road 1000 West

 

 

Happy Spinning and hope to see you soon,

Tomorrow, Saturday, July 23rd, I will be at the Farmer's Market in Downtown Seymour.  I will be bringing all things alpaca and then some.  Yes, there'll be "gold" there too!  I'll have scarves, hats, gloves, mittens, glittens, fingerless gloves....socks, sock monkey, alpaca bear, handwoven rugs, handspun and carded alpaca yarns and batts either for your knitting, crocheting or your own spinning.  I really do hope you'll stop in at the Farmer's Market and say Hi!  It's gonna be another HOT one but I will have my spinning wheel and there'll be a very nice breeze coming from it.  So that being said, I'll see you tomorrow.

Our very first "Second Saturday of the month Spin-In" was great. Please mark your calendars so you can plan on attending in the future. It will happen each month at Hoosier Heartland Alpacas at Reddington from 10am-2pm. Bring your wheel or spindle and just "sit and spin". Make your own yarn to knit with. It is a lot of fun. I spun some yarn from Justice and it will hopefully be entered into the Jackson County Fair this year along with a needle felted vest. (This is the first year that they have allowed anything alpaca into our fair so I have to put something in). Diana spun some Angora and Shetland wool, Dustin had some beautiful Shetland wool from his sheep and Alex was using a drop spindle. Everyone did a beautiful job. 

We had a few folks show up for our very first "spin-in" with good conversation and refreshments. We were in the center of the barn with a really good breeze blowing the whole time. Bo the barn cat slept at my feet until Diana came and apparently he felt really comfortable with her. She had brought her Kromski wheel and had the carrying case sitting next to her chair. When she was ready to leave she went to move the case closer to her chair and couldn't move the bag. We looked and there was Bo, sound asleep in the side pocket on some beautiful handspun balls of yarn. He was in heaven. Then, there was an alpaca feud going on....Fusion was mad at the world so he was really being mean to a couple of other boys, we had to put him in time-out. When we let him out about an hour later, Justice met him with a big greenie..........guess he was still mad. Ed was putting in fence posts and playing photographer for us. Alex, one of our Anatolian Shepherds, kept rolling under the fence and escaping. 

Dustin had brought a couple of really beautiful bunnies for Diana to take home with her. The bunnies sat under the shade tree in the yard the whole time in their cage. The cats never knew they were there. I figured they'd have an audience by the time the Spin-In was over but no, they were sound asleep on the back deck the whole time.

Well, anyway it was a great day and it will be an event every 2nd Saturday each month. We hope you'll join us.

Attachments:

Time	Saturday, July 9 · 10:00am - 2:00pm
Location	Hoosier Heartland Alpacas 2500 N. County Road 1000 West
More Info	We will host a Spin-In on the 2nd Saturday each month beginning July 9th. If you already spin and want to join in, I hope you do....bring your spinning wheel and/or drop spindle. If you want to watch and learn, come on out. It is a lot of fun and it is a lost art that I believe is growing in interest in this area.  We raise beautifully colored Suri Alpacas at our farm and the farm store will be open. If you need batts for spinning or yarns for knitting or crocheting, I will have plenty of most every color available. Also, knitters or crocheters, if you would just like to bring your projects out and knit or crochet for that time, we hope you will join us. Please bring your chairs and a snack to share. I will have drinks (tea and lemonade! available! who knows, maybe we'll have a baby alpaca (cria) born that day. Directions to the farm: From US Hwys 50 & 31 Go north on US 31 approximately 3.5 miles Turn right on County Rd. 900 N. Go two miles to County Rd. 1300 E. Turn Left on CR 1300 E./1000 W. We will be ½ mile on the right. 2500 North County Road 1000 West

Tomorrow, Saturday June 25th, from 8am-Noon I will be at Seymour's Farmer's Market.  I will have my spinning wheel with me along with several carded batts for spinning and also some handspun yarn that I made for sale.  I will also bring several other items we offer for sale in our farm store including "alpaca gold".  I hope to see you there and I will post some pictures of it all later.

Last Saturday, I got to load my car with spinning wheel, drum carder, fiber to show and alpaca finished products to show the kids my passion with fiber and maybe how they made clothes back in bible days.....it was very fun.  Some of the kids you could tell were really into it, some not so much.  Lots of age differences but it was a lot of fun.  Probably about 100 kids in about 3 hours heard all about alpacas.  Very fun!

We will be having our farm store open in the Big Red Barn on Saturday, June 11th from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm for your shopping pleasure, or if you just want to come and get some "alpaca gold" for your garden or landscape plants we've got it dried and bagged and waiting for you.

If you are a spinner, I have some carded alpaca batts ready for your spinning pleasure and there's also some yarns for you knitters and crocheters.

If you like to or would like to try your hand at felting, there are some felting kits put together with instructions ready for you as well.

Maybe you would just like to come and visit the alpacas.......we're scheduled for a new cria (baby alpaca) soon, who knows maybe it'll happen while you're here.

On May 25th, we had a group of Japanese ladies who are involved in an ESL class at Zion Lutheran Church.  Their leaders are Darlene Cooley and Maggie Schneider.  They were a great bunch of ladies and I think enjoyed their cultural experience on the farm.  We talked alpacas in the barn, they visited the farm store and then we went into the house to see the loom and spinning wheel and talked a little about needle felting.  They enjoyed some homemade, still warm, Persimmon pudding and Rasperry Iced tea.  They were so very thankful for the hospitality.  I hope they come again some day!

Attachments:

Today, we had about 17 home schooled kids and parents out to visit and learn more about our alpacas.  It was very good.  Two moms brought their looms with them and asked me for help... I hope I answered them right.  I think they will come back and bring their looms with them and we can just sit and spin and weave and talk..

Attachments:

On Thursday this past week was our first school visit.  One teacher, a set of parents and about 8 grade school kids.  It was very exciting and they were a very excited group of children.  So many questions asked by them, it was fun watching their enthusiasm.  The alpacas and dogs also liked their visit.  Ed told them all about the alpacas and haltered Justice and led him into the barn so they could touch him.....Justice was very excited too.  Ed also told them about the "alpaca gold" and all the ways you could use it.  Next, I got to talk about the fibers and the difference in sheeps wool and alpaca fiber and lots of the possibilities of using their fiber.  I had the spinning wheel out in the barn so they also got to watch as yarn was being spun right before their eyes.  We ended up in the farm store, which they also loved.  It was great having them, some were farm kids but most had never been on a farm.  A memory was made that day.  We have several more visits planned with different groups in the next few weeks so I'll blog more about that as it happens.  And, I will try to take pictures to go along with this....since it was our first visit with a group of school kids I forgot that the camera was hanging on my spinning chair the whole time.  Oops!  Until next time!

Attachments:

It's raining again today.  It has rained a lot lately.  All the crawdad holes are full of water and soon, there will be crawdad castles everywhere again.  

Today, it is a great day on our farm.  We hope you will enjoy the tour here and come for a real visit sometime and meet our alpacas.

11/21/2011 6:26:06 PM - hamiltonckfarms@...
Bob & I enjoyed visiting with you during your open house.  I'd like to have a drop spindle like you sell but would prefer one with a natural finish. I'm wondering if the guy who makes those for you would be willing to finish one w/o stain, just a clear satin finish or sell one unfinished & I can finish it myself?
Many thanks,
Annabelle Melton

4/4/2011 3:20:04 PM - 003039975878