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It looks like we will finally be moving into the new barn at the end of September, just in time for our open house/National Visit an Alpaca Farm Days. The barn is 60 X 60 feet, with stalls and office downstairs and a 900 square foot apartment upstairs. Hard to say who is more excited...us or the alpacas!
We are proud to announce that Mike and Linda Wood of Square Top Ranch in Arizona have joined us as partners in the ownership of HRAZ Lucian!
The big move to central Montana is complete! All thirty alpacas and Deb are living on 95 acres outside of Lewistown, where there are gorgeous mountain views and lots of grass. Construction on the barn will start soon and Deb will then live in an apartment on the upper story. If you are passing through Montana, please come visit! The new address is: 3657 Forest Grove Rd., Lewistown, MT 59457. You can reach Deb by email or cell phone: (928) 853-6669.  This is the standard format for press releases, as mentioned in our Fall 2008 e-newsletter.  Due to some added responsibilities in our day jobs this year, we were only able to attend 2 shows. At the Southwest Regional Show, Phoenix, we took home a third place, a fifth and a sixth with our yearling string. In May we attended the Great Western Alpaca Show in Denver, a Level 5 show, and we took home a third place with our youngest, rose-grey Masquerade. Now we are anxiously awaiting next year's show circuit!  It's only January but we are already looking forward to the 2008 shows. Join Deb and Don and the Cloud Dancer show string (including Charleston, pictured) at the following shows this year: March 8/9 at the Southwest Regional Show in Phoenix; May 3/4 at the Great Western Show in Denver and May 21-25 in Salt Lake City for the AOBA National Show!  Every three years Peru presents its best alpacas at the International Alpaca Fiesta in Arequipa. This year's event included lectures, workshops, mill tours and a vicunya round up. Deb spent ten days in Peru in November, and in addition to the Fiesta she hiked Machu Pichu and hit the bazaars, bringing home many lovely new products for the Cloud Dancer alpaca gift shop!
It's time for the annual fiber work that every alpaca breeder has to do in order to send the fiber to a mill for processing. Here in Arizona we combine our fiber and send it to a Canadian mill. This year, 2007, we are having dress socks and three colors of yarn made. When the products arrive, kind of like giving birth, you forget about all the hard labor that came before!  From March through May, alpaca breeders around the state are busy shearing. Once the fiber is shorn we begin cleaning and separating the fiber by quality. Now it is time to collect the fiber at a fiber pool workday where many breeders gather and the fiber harvest is sorted and weighed. In July the fiber goes off to the mill and in October or November we will receive back the lovely products made from all that fleece. This year we are making dress socks, sport-weight yarn and knit hats!From March through May, alpaca breeders around the state are busy shearing. Once the fiber is shorn we begin cleaning and separating the fiber by quality. Now it is time to collect the fiber at a fiber pool workday where many breeders gather and the fiber harvest is sorted and weighed. In July the fiber goes off to the mill and in October or November we will receive back the lovely products made from all that fleece. This year we are making dress socks, sport-weight yarn and knit hats!  May 21, 2007- I just returned from Kentucky, from the AOBA National Show and Conference. It was another great event, with over 1000 alpacas at the show and over 600 fleeces in the fleece show. We entered two fleeces and came home with a 2nd and a 4th place ribbon. We also came home owning a new alpaca, lot 65 in the auction, a beautiful dark brown female named Mafalda. She took second at the halter show! We can't wait for her to arrive.  |
AuthorWe are Deb Hill and Don Sanfilippo, owners, breeders, and chief barn cleaners at Cloud Dancer Alpacas in Lewistown, Montana. We've been raising alpacas since 1996 and we still just love it! Archives
January 2017
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