Hole in the Woods Family

Midnight

Midnight is our herd leader. In other words, they may be our alpacas, but it's his herd. He looks after them, chases away threatening animals (or plays with dogs...), and pretty much keeps everyone in line. We've been told that he also has a very loud, very distinctive shriek when something really panics him, which lets you know it's time to run, not walk, out to the pasture with lots of large rocks, or a shotgun. Thankfully, we haven't heard that yet.

Midnight has true black fiber, which is one of the most valuable colors. While breeding males typically have poor fiber, Midnight is a gelding. Thus, he has a history of producing very fine fiber, and his fleece is presently quite long and dense.

Midnight is fairly affectionate, so long as it is on his terms. He loves to be petted and occasionally scratched behind the ears, but if you're handling him he doesn't like to be restrained. However, he also doesn't struggle, even though he is very large and very strong. He's much to smart for that. Instead, he waits until you are changing sides or reaching for something, and times his escape well. You can't help but admire and love him!

Mahogany

At 18, Mahogany is our grandma. There's no really polite way to say it: she's old. And, with that age comes a lot of wisdom. As a result, she's kind of wary. Not at all unfriendly, she's nevertheless not going to walk right up to you and give you a kiss like Sunni. She just needs time to decide it's safe, and will still keep a good escape route.

Mahogany's fleece shows her age. It's a little coarse, and kind of short (but, really, still better than most sheep...), but an absolutely gorgeous color. What color? Well, Mahogany, of course. She was well-named.

Sunni

Sunni is our mom. In June of 2010, she gave birth to our baby, Joy.

Sunni is also a major schmooze. She is always the first up to the gate, the first to snatch hay out of your arms, the first to burry her nose in the grain canister - if it involves food or attention, Sunni is always first. All of our alpacas have a lot of personality, but Sunni has a lot of personality for our herd.

Of course, that just makes her all the more endearing. She's a bit more high maintenance, and you simply can't ignore her, or she'll bump into you, block your path, or just generally become annoying until you indulge her. And, if you've got food, you do need to be a bit careful - if you ignore her too long, she has been known to kick! Rarely, and it only hurt the first time, when it came out of the blue (I was medicating Joy and she clobbered me from behind with a kick to the head), but still, one needs to be aware so he can correct the behavior. And, feed her, and she'll be back to giving you 'paca kisses immediately (which kind of smells...).

Sunni is a medium reddish-brown, with some buff and white splotches mixed in. She is still in the process of weaning Joy, so her fiber, while nice, does show a little bit of her stress. We don't quite know what to expect when she has a full year without the stress of carrying a cria, giving birth, and nursing. Bur we're excited for 2012's shearing, because even with the excess stress, her fleece is quite nice.

Joy

Joy is our baby. She was born to Sunni in June, so just 3 months old when we adopted our herd. A bit of an illicit affair, no one knows who the father is. But he must have been beautiful!

Unfortunately, Joy had a bad eye infection when we got her, which required twice-daily medication for a couple of months. It's remarkable that she doesn't run away whenever a person approaches. However, she does like to follow mom, and as mentioned above, mom is an utter schmooze. So, basically, if mom is interested, and Midnight seems OK with it, Sunni will come up, usually trying to keep another alpaca between you and her.

She is sweet, though. And, as time goes by and we're not catching and holding her while squirting strange gel in her eyes every time a person visits the pasture, she's getting more confident and friendly. On Christmas day, she ate grain for the first time. As her sweet tooth develops, she surely will become more friendly, which is good, because we're looking forward to spending many years with Joy.

Joy has very long, very thick, white fleece, with a small medium brown heart on each side. Absurdly cute. We are anxiously awaiting shearing time - Joy may be small, but her fleece is absolutely incredible. We surely won't be selling any of her fiber this year - it's way too precious! Instead, we'll probably be fighting over who gets what item made from her fleece.

Tia

Tia is our most vocal alpaca. She knows my name, too. When it comes feeding time, she can always be heard calling "Chaaaad." She's also our biggest. She's huge. We haven't weighed her, but she's certainly well over 200 pounds.

She also has the most incredibly thick fleece. Her staple length may be a tad average - a little longer wouldn't hurt, but it's certainly long enough - but it is, amazingly soft, astonishingly thick, and exceptionally warm. Or, at least, I presume it is. I can't actually get a finger down near enough to her skin to feel any body warmth because it's so thick. Her back, though, is the first place snow began accumulating when we had our first snow of the year - before the hood of the truck, the patio table, or the barn roof, and way before the ground. That's insulation!

We are a fiber farm, not a breeding farm. But, if we were to breed any of our alpacas, in would be Tia. Pairing her with a male with long staple length that could use a little thickening would likely produce some sort of super-alpaca. Of course, we don't have any papers, so that cria wouldn't have much value to sell, but her fiber sure would!

Sierra

If Tia is our most vocal alpaca, Sierra has the widest vocabulary. She's a bit of an intellectual anyway. You can always see her studying situations and the world around her. I think she's working on compiling a collection of her lecture, called Modern Alpaca in Search of a Soul. The only problem is, She also speaks a foreign language. I think it's either Mogwai or Ewok, so her audience may be a bit small.

Being an intellectual, Sierra is also a bit more likely to wander off on her own. Not anti-social, by any stretch, but if the herd is packed in a little too tight for her, she'll be found hanging out about 30 feet away (probably working on that book). She also really doesn't like to be held still, particularly to have her toes trimmed!

Tia is a beautiful bay black, with patches of white. The white on her lips and nose is particularly cute! I really think she'll make a beautiful, and very warm, sweater.