Alpacas ~ lovable and fiber-licious

Zia and Zulu have joined the mob at Rivervale on 19 Feb 2012. Born to Zena and Zoe respectively, they are simply fabulous. Both ahead of their due date, they are feisty little pacas.

Zoe was mated to a Rose Grey alpaca named Gandalf, he is a prize winning, handsome huacaya whose fleece spun during TDF 2011. Our order, a rose grey girl. Hmm, well we have an adorable very very dark brown boy with a black face. Welcome Zulu.

Zena, our pure white huacaya girl with fleece to die for, was mated to a multi-award winning sire called Bayden, a pure white, densely fleeced boy of superb proportions. Our order, either a pure white girl or a multi (fancy) girl. Well she unpacked a gorgeous little white girl, soft as a cloud, named Zia.

Rasberry has been mated to a beautiful rich brown Suri boy - our order is a multi-Suri girl.

ZsaZsa has been mated to the same boy, Gandalf, and yes, we want a rose grey girl or a black, thank you Zsas.

Shearing 2011 is done at Rivervale, huge THANK YOU to Alan at Chakaya Alpacas for his caring and considerate shearing. The girls wear their designer gear for two nights after shearing. Hmm, me thinks Zoe needs a bigger coat.

Little Tessa has joined the Rivervale mob. A fancy little Suri girl, we look forward to enjoying her company and beautiful fibre in the coming years. Here she is with Elvis, just shorn with her best party dress on.

and here she is shorn and pretty as can be.

We love our alpacas, they give us fibre, fun and entertainment for very little in return. Our 8 are as individual in character and temperament as the people around us. We have 3 groups; the wethers Elvis, Chester and Mathew look out for the girls and babes. Zeke and ZsaZsa have lost their mother and look out for each other, and Rasberry has mothered Zoe and Zena. Each family group still 'hangs out' together which is very touching to see. They give us a range of coloured and textured fibres to play with - we waste very little. Rougher fibres have their place, being kept for felting or weaving floor mats, knee rugs or cat basket blankets.

The mob like to cruise the driveway occasionally nibbling the ultra tasty new grass. The gravel driveway is good for their nails and their appearance at the top gate always gives passer's by a visual treat.

We love how the alpacas are curious about each other, when Zeke (our Suri) was born little Zoe was most eager to meet him. Several years later they are still firm companions.

We feed our pacas sparingly as they have many acres of pasture to roam. They get some paca pellets now and again, biscuits of good grass hay during the winter months, and a weekly muesli of oaten chaff, lucerne chaff, oats, sunflower seeds, garlic apple cider vinegar, dolomite, CaPO4 and other bits and pieces, I sort of make it up as I go along. There is always a dish of seaweed meal available. We live in a beautiful and productive valley so we keep a stock of apples and pears in the shed and one look from those big eyes is usually enough to make one of us stop and cut a few pieces of fruit to share out. Our alpacas have us well-trained.

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In one murderous moment at approx 11pm on Wednesday 19 January 2011 someone took our lovely alpaca Ivory from us and her 8 companions. Due to birth 10 days later, they also took what would have been a beautiful cria, probably a rose grey. This person parked on the road and shot her from a few metres way, firing into our house paddock, only a few metres from our residence. As I was working with fibre at the time I was in the paddock within seconds of hearing the gunshot and cradled her as she passed, with the 8 alpacas gathered around in puzzlement and fear. The police were brilliant and arrived at our property within 30 minutes, a great effort given we live remotely to town. We take this opportunity to thank the tens and tens of people who rung to express their outrage and sorrow, and to the three studs who offered us replacement alpacas at no cost to us. We are overwhelmed with your generosity. Ivory lived with us for 4 years, gave us many kilograms of beautiful fibre that has made cloth and clothing and has two beautiful progeny here who are still looking for her.

June 2011