Gardens, berries, and Lily

Well, summer is in full swing here. It seems that it takes a rainy day and full dye pots before I get a chance to sit down and post an entry!

One good thing about living in the country is that the colour just seems to happen. My flower garden is a wild thing, designed to look that way by Jim Merrick of Commanda Country Gardens. I told him that I don't have time to fuss, so my garden is full of native perennials that are drought resistant and spread faster than the weeds can. Throw in a long, country driveway and from the road, my garden looks fantastic. The cherry trees are loaded. I'm not sure if they are ping or choke cherries - either way, I don't like the taste. However, the birds are all over these trees that surround our yards here.

It's a great year for raspberries. We've been picking quite a few.

And FRESH YARN has arrived from the mill, via a friend heading north on a kayak trip who kindly saved me shipping costs! There is always a few months turnaround from fibre to yarn at the mill, so I had best be getting my spring fleeces skirted and batched off to the mill soon. I have started dyeing this 3 ply sock yarn today.

Every livestock farm has sad stories to tell from time to time. I choose not to write about the sad stories in my blog. So, the following tale has been a while coming as I've been guarded about the outcome. Touch wood, but I think it's going to have a happy ending and wanted to share it here.

On June 26th, our Raven gave birth for the first time. She delivered in the back pasture in the early morning. When I went out to check the girls, Raven was grazing quite far away from the cria, so at first, I didn't think it was hers. Although a bit curious about the cria, she didn't stay near it like most dams do. She looked a bit bewildered when the cria started following her every move.

Things just didn't seem normal, and after watching, it was apparent that Raven had no intention of letting the cria try to nurse.

We've never encountered this on our farm, and we tried everything "in the book" to get Raven to let the cria nurse.

To make a short story out of a long one, we ended up bottle-feeding the cria. Bottle-feeding a cria is a pretty big commitment of at least 3 months.

On the second day, we noticed that another maiden alpaca, Aurelia was allowing the cria to suckle. We thought it strange, but allowed it to happen, knowing that the bonding with the herd is important to the health of a cria.

This kept on. We would bottle-feed and then it would suckle from Aurelia. Aurelia was taking on all of the normal protective instincts of a new mom, alarming at every different sight and sound and keeping the cria close to her at all times. On the off-chance, we started giving Aurelia some lactation herbs.

When the cria was 12 days old, we checked Aurelia's little teats and found that she had started to lactate a bit! The cria, who we have named Lily, had been adopted.


Over the next 2 weeks, Lily started taking less milk from the bottle.

Lily still isn't as big as she should be, but she is strong and sturdy and plays normally. We are still supplementing her with the bottle somewhat.

This is Lily as she was at 17 days of age.


She's a beauty with brilliant, white fibre. Keep your fingers crossed that this happy story continues....

July Farm Pictures

This morning, Smokey the barn cat puts action in as he retells me the story of his latest barnyard kill....(not really, this is him saying 'Hey, get rid of that camera and pet me already!").

Pepita and her baby are doing just fine, even with this oppressive heat.

With a healthy cria at side, a nice snooze in a sun-baked dust-bath is an alpaca mom's spa!


Awkward teenage chickens...

Have a great day!

Black Alpaca Jackets

I've been writing previously about the black alpaca jackets that my friend, Suzanne Philbin, was weaving and tailoring for us.

We modelled them in the fashion show at the Wasoon 2010 conference in Kapuskasing. Wasoon stands for Weavers and Spinners of Ontario North and is an excellent conference that takes place every two years in a different location in Northern Ontario, Canada.

It felt like we were the stars of the show in these jackets. Even walking into the conference hotel with the jacket on a hanger, I was surrounded by conference delegates wanting a closer look and touch. I kept explaining that I couldn't take credit for my jacket, my true talent lies in ensuring that I have a gifted and generous friend like Suzanne.

How these jackets came to be...

I was in possession of a surplus of 100% natural black alpaca yarn. This yarn was fairly coarse alpaca, with no loft and spun fairly tightly. I knew it wouldn't suit a knitting project. One day, I showed it to Suzanne to ask her opinion of using it to weave a jacket "some day". Suzanne is a very experienced weaver and seamstress.

Suzanne said that we should each weave a jacket. Now, this conversation probably took place in 2007.

The yarn went back into the great yarn and fibre bin that used to be our family basement.

Every once in a while, Suzanne would ask "When are we going to start those jackets"?

And is usually my reply..."Oh, in a couple months I'll have time to start...after (the alpaca show, shearing, school starts, fall sales events finish, etc. - you can fill in the blank with an excuse at any time of the year!)"

The Wasoon 2010 conference date was looming and Suzanne wanted to wear that alpaca jacket at the conference.

Finally, in early 2010, Suzanne announced that we were starting the jackets. Realizing that it was going to be impossible to get me to commit to weaving half the warp on a loom sitting in North Bay and understanding that I didn't sew well enough to tailor my own jacket, Suzanne agreed to do the bulk of the work.

Suzanne and I collaborated on the warp, deciding on the on-loom width of 28” and putting a random length of Noro Blossom (wool, silk, mohair, nylon) yarn that I found in my stash.
We spent most of a Sunday at Ralph Johnston's studio, designing the warp and winding the warp.
Suzanne's experience really showed in the warp design - it's so important where the random strands of colour would go...I wouldn't call them random after all. It's in the planning of the material that consideration needs to ensure such things like there wouldn't be a stripe running centre of the jacket back.

Suzanne wove the whole 7 yards in over a week and several excited phonecalls.
I learned just how focussed Suzanne can be over a project...that's probably why she can create so many masterpieces, while I don't.


The project took 22 skeins of black alpaca and 2 skeins of the Noro. Then she handed me the heavy bundle and said simply..."I wove it, you wash it."
Yikes! What pressure that was.
Keep in mind the whole weaving studio community and Suzanne's friends and family were watching this project unfold.
Keep in mind that I've been known to destroy at least one handwoven article in my washing machine!
What pressure indeed. I contemplated how I might recover from a potential laundry disaster of this magnitude.

Happy to say that the material was washed and pressed, with almost 0% shrinkage in the width.

I brought the washed textile back to the studio, gladly announcing to Suzanne "I did it! I washed it!"....
From another weaver came "Well, really, I think it's the least you could do!"

I smiled.

Suzanne tailored the two jackets. Suzanne’s jacket is from Simplicity # 4045. Suzanne made a pattern for the second jacket from an old jacket of mine. In fact, Suzanne made 4 mock jackets out of sheeting before she was happy enough with the fit for my jacket to begin sewing it. What can I say...I'm a big girl with big shoulders.

For both jackets, the trim around the front and neck was knit from fingering weight 80% alpaca and 20% merino. A single strand of the Noro Blossom was woven into the trim to create a finishing touch. Suzanne’s jacket has this trim around the wrist openings as well.

I did knit my front finishing edge myself...which ended up being somewhere around 64 inches of very fine knitting. (Applause here)
See, that's another thing I did on this project!

Suzanne completed her jacket with hand-felted buttons with a knit alpaca clasp. I decided to leave mine without buttons, as it hangs so beautifully at the front and I never button my jacket anyway.

The jackets are important to me and Suzanne not only as one-of-a-kind quality hand woven alpaca garments. They symbolize a very valued friendship which began through fibre arts, our continuing inspiration and knowledge shared through this creative experience.

Chicks and Crias

Yes, Mr. Lonely settled in well with his new playmates. There are 45 now, of 4 breeds. I've stopped naming them ;)
I believe this handsome guy shown below is a 'Partridge Chantecler', a heritage breed. This breed is a variant of the Chantecler chicken which originated in Canada, and is resistant to our cold climate. Do I know what I'm talking about? Not really. I do find the whole chicken breed research fascinating though.


Well, it's summer here at Misty Haven Alpacas. Our weather has been pretty decent. Not too hot. Enough sun and rain to make things nice and green.


And what could summer be on an alpaca farm without some cria to adore?

This is SCA Pepita and her new baby from noon hour today.
It's a girl weighing 19.4 lbs! I love the medium fawn colour. The dad is our multiple ribboned bay-black DEA Cyrano.

Pepita is a new mom and even though she had a pretty tough time delivering this baby, she has taken to mothering like a pro.


Thanks for popping by to read my posts. Please leave a comment if you are inclined. I love to hear from others who either share my interests or those who are drawn to read about a lifestyle far from their own.

Mr. Lonely No More!

Mr. Lonely isn't so lonely anymore. In fact, I think he's a bit overwhelmed!

We were waiting for the call from the post office all day for the chicks to be picked up. The hay lady called to say that the hay was probably going to be baled for pickup off the wagon that night.
And you know how that goes.
The post office called at 6:00pm saying that the chicks were in North Bay for pickup before 7:00pm. The hay lady called to say the bales were ready to pickup...30 minutes in the opposite direction of North Bay.
I picked up the chicks, hubby and daughter picked up the hay.

Can you hear it now? "Oh, sure, we're unloading the hay and you're taking pictures for your blog!"
We are done one load of three. We usually ensure we have about 375 small bales of hay for 20-24 alpacas and llamas. Alpacas only eat 2% of their body weight in hay. That means that a 150 lb alpaca will eat about 3 lbs hay a day. Not much, is it? Some farmers weigh out the exact amount, to optimize costs and to keep the alpacas lean. Lean, healthy alpacas have finer fibre than overweight alpacas. The trick would be to ensure that each animal gets his portion. We choose to offer extra hay and much gets wasted. We have always had around 80-100 bales left over, but it's always good to be prepared with extra, in case of a late spring.

Lucy is our 12 year old husky cross. She's a sweet, sweet dog. Lucy had a very hard time getting over the absence of her buddy Molly, our 14 year old dog who recently passed. Lucy had never been alone for longer than 30 minutes. We are giving Lucy extra attention these days. Many people suggested that we get Lucy another younger dog or puppy for a companion. I think Lucy will enjoy her final years as an only dog who gets all the attention.

That black box that you see at her throat is the transmitter for our radio-controlled invisible fence. Huskies like to run and we live in a fairly populated area on a fast road. Having an invisible fence means never having to tie your dog up to keep them safe.

Mr. Lonely

Lonely, he's Mr. Lonely.....
Poor little chick had a rough start. Mom kicked him out of the nest and hubby found him on his side with his eyes closed. So, the back of my alpaca trailer has become a chick nursery. We've been wearing a path to the trailer checking on him. None of the other eggs have produced a live chick. We suspect some nasty chicken business is going on...I'll leave out the details for the faint of heart.
Hubby has ordered some chicks to arrive tomorrow, so Mr. Lonely will have some friends.
It was either that or I was going to bring him in the house.

I did some crock-pot dyeing of rovings on the weekend. Wild and crazy colours. The colour is random and fun to spin.
Some for sale, but I just have to try some of this myself.

Saturday was my first day at the North Bay Farmer's Market this season. I'm an occasional vendor, which means that I get offered a booth when a regular can't make it. I like to talk to people so I usually enjoy myself there. As usual, I run into old friends and customers that I haven't seen for a while. It didn't rain, which was a bonus on a market day.

Smokey the barn cat. "Mr. Cool" defined. It's his barn...don't forget it.

Our hay lady called to tell me that they've started cutting. Hopefully, within a few days, the hay loft will be full and another job will be behind us.

It's Been a Month!

Here's a picture of the "Simple Shawl for Fancy Yarns" that I made out of my hand spun, handpainted alpaca\kid mohair\merino blend. The pattern is by Jenn Hintz of FibreFibers and can be found on Ravelry. The shawl's for me and I love it! So soft and colourful.


It's been a month since my last blog entry. I could say that I've been awfully busy but that would be true of my life in general, no more this month than others. Well, I can say that I was rather distracted with an sad event that was unfolding in our family. I'll leave it at that for now and tell you about the positive things that happened in the month.

On May 16th, the Country Roads Studio members had it's own studio tour. This is the day that we set aside to travel together to each others' studio, have a meal and a meeting together. It was a beautiful day, spent with friends. I'm always amazed at the talent that is possessed by these artists and artisans on our tour. I'll be posting some pictures of this work in later entries.

The next weekend was our Victoria Day long weekend in Canada. We don't usually shear until the end of May or early June, but it's been terribly hot and I gambled that the May 8th snowstorm would be our last. Our family of three decided to try shearing without help this year. It went marvelous. We started with the little ones and found that it was so easy, we continued on. Usually we would be having a very long day trying to get all 17 animals sheared while help was onsite. This year, we sheared a comfortable number each morning and when it got hot, we quit and went to the lake. On the last morning, our friends Tim and Lise came over to help lift the table when we did the last 4 heavyweights. It was such a relief to get it done!

The following week, May 28-30, I drove to Kapuskasing, Ontario to participate as a vendor at the 2010 Weavers and Spinners of Ontario North conference. It's a 6 1/2 hour drive north, through a lovely part of Canada. I was happy to have my friend Jane travel in my car for company. The conference was wonderful as always. It is always amazing that such a large event can be put on by the members of these small guilds. I was the chair of the conference in 2008 when it was in North Bay, and I appreciate the amount of work and organization involved. Seeing it from the 'outside' this time, I can also appreciate what this conference does to help keep our craft and our important artist relationships alive.
Hat's off to the Kapuskasing guild, especially for juggling to find numerous generators to keep the conference going when Ontario Hydro announced a total town power outage for Sunday morning!

My friend and fellow weaver, Suzanne Philbin, completed our two black alpaca jackets in time for Wasoon 2010. We wore them in the fashion show and received much praise for them. Staying in a hotel crawling with textile artists and carrying these jackets on a hanger through the lobby made me feel like a celebrity! Everyone wanted to touch and admire! These jackets deserve their own blog entry - so pictures will follow on another day.

We are on "cria-watch" at the farm. That means that one female has passed the 11-month mark in her pregnancy, so we have to keep an eye on her. The other will follow shortly. We are only expecting 2 cria this year.

However, we have some new life springing forth. One of the eggs under Velma has hatched the night before last! Cute! We are waiting for 9 more....

This is our first time having chicks! I hope he has some buddies soon, he looks a bit bewildered!

So...the sad event unfolding is the death of our 14 year old dog, Molly, last week. We knew it was coming and thinking about it overwhelmed a lot of other things in our family life. Someday soon, I'll write about Molly and share some pictures to honor her. Not now. It's too soon. It's too hard to write it.