9/26/10 (a.m.) National Alpaca Farm Days

What a delightful morning with gentle, inquisitive and sweet alpacas, a llama named Major Bob, an appealing Australian shepherd named Flint, and then a field full of sandhill cranes!

Moms and offspring. Jimmy talking to the "guys" and Major Bob. So neat to hug!

One of the "guys" eyeballing the lens. Flint, the shepherd dog. Sandhill cranes gleaning a field.

An ad in the paper said "join us," so we drove to 60 Mule Deer Road in Paradise Valley to personally tour an alpaca farm. We spent a couple of hours feeding and petting and touching the Huacaya [Wa-kee-a] alpacas and learning about their breed and care from their owners. Huacayas are the "teddy bear" alpaca, whose fiber is deemed "finer than cashmere... smoother than silk... softer than cotton - and ten times stronger than sheep wool. An adult alpaca weighs 100-190 lbs, and the average yearly weight of the shaved adult alpaca coat ranges from 8-10 lbs! They generally live 15-20 years. Major Bob and Flint are the herd protectors from roaming predators. Flint is a 100-lb puppy (!) and Major Bob could do serious damage by kicking and spitting! This was really a super morning! On our way home in the afternoon, we spotted maybe 30 sandhill cranes in a nearby field - they looked like large gray boulders... till they moved!