MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Santa was good to us this year - we just got 3 new alpacas from Dougherty Creek Farms! They are Silly Millie, DCF Veronica, and DCF Kacie. We are really excited about these girls. Pictured at left is Silly Milly and Kacie, the mother / daughter pair. Both are beautiful. Milly is dense, straight, and conformationally strong. Kacie is still very young, but she looks like she'll have the same excellent conformation. Kacie's fiber is fine and showing some crimp, and we're hoping she'll do well next spring in the show ring.





Veronica is pictured at right. (We call her Roni). We are tremendously excited about this animal. Roni is dense, crimpy, with an incredible staple lenghth. Roni's fleece is incredibly soft - it's hard to keep your hands off of her. Roni will be bred to Ferrari's Excel later this spring, and that should be an outstanding cria!

May you all have safe travels this Christmas. In case you're wondering why I'm blogging on Christmas morning, it's the calm before the storm. My boys haven't gotten up yet!!

New website / socks & scarves

A quick December update:

-Our redesigned website has been unveiled! Check it out, and tell us what you think: www.offbeatacres.com. Paul and I did it together (he handled the artwork / layout, and I did the text and pages). Let us know if you need help with your website, we're contemplating a side venture to our farm.

-Thank you to everyone who bought socks and scarves for Christmas!! Our sales were outstanding this year. We are even starting to see repeat customers, who can't get enough alpaca wear!

Hate Christmas shopping at the mall?

Come out and visit our farm store! We have a nice selection of Extreme Alpaca socks, casual socks, and dress socks, as well as scarves, yarn, and roving.

Alpaca fiber is known for being luxuriously soft and warm. Alpaca socks and scarves will keep your feet warm in our cold Wisconsin winters.

The yarn and roving is made from our own Offbeat Acres alpacas. If you enjoy knitting or spinning, there is nothing like working with real alpaca fiber.

Prices range from $16 - $26 for socks, $16 for roving, $26 for a 200 yard skein of yarn, and $30 for scarves.

Avoid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, enjoy some peaceful country air, and do your Christmas shopping at Offbeat Acres. We will also deliver to the Madison area. Gift wrapping available too!

Lil Willow

Willow lost her battle over the weekend. It is sad, but it's also part of this business. Alpacas are ultimately livestock, and stuff like this is going to happen.

There are a few silver linings. Willow did not suffer, or go through a major decline. She was a little slow to get in the barn for the morning feeding, but that's it. She was sunning herself in the pasture, and it looked liked she died in her sleep.


The other silver lining came from the UW Vet Hospital. The vet who saw her back in August told us he would be interested in doing a necropsy when she passed. We didn't think much of it at the time, but decided to take him up on the offer. Paul said the doc was very excited to get her, and promised to treat her with utmost respect. The doc is doing research on alpacas with heart conditions, and will be able to learn a lot by comparing Willow's X-rays and test results from her August exam with the actual heart and how it's grown over the past few months.

Good bye, Willow. Rest in peace.

The Lord

We have purchased our first herdsire. Actually, he's a Junior Herdsire, which means he's too young to breed yet, but we're hoping all goes well.

His name is Robasia's Lord Muireach. We call him either "The Lord" or "Muireach". I have some other pretty obnoxious names for him too (My Pretty Boy, for example). We'll start breeding him next year. His first "date" has already been arranged - ask for details sometime.

Rescue update

We haven't had any foster dogs or puppies for a while. My husband's stepfather passed away suddenly in June, and we "inherited" his 12 year old Dalmatian, Moses. Moses is aggressive towards new animals (no trips to the dog park for him). As such, we've decided it's a bad idea to bring new dogs / puppies to the house every few weeks. We'll start fostering again when Moses passes (and let's face it - he's a 12 year old Dalmatian with bad kidneys, so this probably isn't a long term commitment).

My sweet baby Zigmund (see post from 7/22/09) is finally over his mange, and is up for adoption. Check out Shelter from the Storm's web site if you're interested in adopting him. He's such a couch potato, for a young dog. The adoptable dogs are listed in alpabetical order, so of course, he's last on the list.

The new guard dog

We decided to get another Livestock Guardian dog. Patty is great, but she is getting old, and working dogs tend to age faster than house dogs. We wanted to get a puppy while Patty was still active and getting around so she could train the new dog.

Enter Bucky. She is 3/4 Pyrenees, 1/4 Newfoundland. We got her from some alpaca friends of ours in Holland, Michigan, at Sunset Dreams Alpacas. This is the day we brought her home. She was about 14 weeks old then.



The training seems to be going well; Bucky idolizes Patty, and is often seen trotting around the pasture right behind her. She rarely barks, too, which is nice.

One night, we were laying in bed, and we heard a big dog bark. We were a little freaked out because it was unfamiliar. It was Bucky - her little puppy bark was long gone, and she was barking at some perceived threat. Patty was still in the barn, so this was Bucky protecting her herd all by herself.