Alpacas

On Saturday and Sunday, local Alpaca farms will exhibit the alpaca and alpaca products at one location: Annapaca Farm, 10702 Mapleville Road in Hagerstown. Here is your chance to see these animals up close as well as take in many activities. Events include spinning and felting, handling of alpacas, weaving and an alpaca educational demonstration. There will be an alpaca seminar both days titled "Alpacas 101, an Introduction to Raising Alpacas" for those who are considering purchasing an alpaca.

This week marks the three-month anniversary of our alpacas at Little Farm by the Creek. The alpacas are named Basilio, Copperfield, Sterling and Nochero. If you have never seen an alpaca, think of a small llama. If you have never seen a llama, think along the lines of a cross between a sheep and a deer. We got the alpacas in November, with the idea that if all went well we would get into the business of alpaca breeding. But our breeding program has been slowed somewhat by considerations of costs, the need for more fencing, the logistics of herd management and the fact that all four of our alpacas are boys.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com MERCERSBURG, PA. - Alpacas. Pets or livestock? That was the question the three members of the Mercersburg Zoning Hearing Board were preparing to wrestle with once testimony from a public hearing ended Thursday night. The board was still taking testimony at press time. At issue was an appeal filed by Joseph and Kelly Renner of 11 Linden Ave. The couple was cited for violating borough zoning laws by bringing two alpacas to their home in May. The board must decide whether the Renners are in violation.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com MERCERSBURG, PA. - The Mercersburg Zoning Hearing Board on Thursday decided that alpacas are livestock, not pets, and therefore do not belong within borough limits. Joseph and Kelly Renner of 11 Linden Ave. bought the animals in May and moved them to a quarter-acre fenced-in area of their back yard. Joseph Renner said Friday that he will appeal the board's decision to the Court of Common Pleas. "I knew I was going to lose going in," he said of Thursday's hearing.

o View Ag Expo photos for purchase! After three years of being in a 4-H club, Kathleen Michaels of Leitersburg Pike will have to say good-bye to the group next year because she will turn 18. Michaels on Monday said she joined the 4-H club because her family owns an alpaca farm with about 15 or 16 alpacas. Michaels, who will show alpacas at this year's Washington County Ag Expo & Fair, said she likes the Ag Expo because she enjoys being around the alpacas and other animals.

Fueled by hot chocolate and warmed by a bonfire, children darted around Cherry Run Farm on Sunday as adults strapped Christmas trees to pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. Jeff Hull, who owns the farm with his wife, Beth, said families need little guidance when selecting among the Fraser fir, concolor fir, blue spruce and Douglas fir trees. “The best advice I can give is beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” Jeff Hull said. Some people prefer the concolor firs for their citrus scent, while others like the blue spruces because they can hold heavy ornaments, he said.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Six alpacas escaped from a Monday fire that caused an estimated $75,000 damage to a small barn in Greene Township, according to the owner and a Fayetteville Volunteer Fire Co. report. The fire at the barn and storage building, owned by Dr. Jeffrey and Mary Jane Landon of 1143 Ragged Edge Road, was called in at 5:52 p.m., according to the report. It was engulfed in flames when the first units arrived, the report stated. "They watched the fire for about half an hour before they went back to grazing," said Jeffrey Landon.

I'm a bit concerned with the price of gas, yes. But I never imagined I would spend more time fretting over the price of hay. It's not as if we're real farmers; it's just that our pets are bigger than most people's. Donkeys, horses, alpacas, goats - if we had lived in biblical times, we could have provided Noah with a serious shortcut when he was rounding up inventory. So, needless to say, the pet food doesn't come from a can, it comes from a bale. And as comforting as the purr of a kitty can be, it is equaled by the sound of the big guys tranquilly munching hay on a still, frosty morning.

If you stumble across an animal that doesn't eat in the winter, let me know. I'm not talking about a dog, cat, Hannah Montana or anything else that, for the most part, takes its feed indoors. I mean the big kind. The sort that eats out in the cold. On milder days, there's a certain romance to taking the alpacas, donkeys, goats and geese a flake of hay or a scoop of grain as the sun is peeking over the hills and then again as it's disappearing with an orange glow in the west.

It seems as though a week doesn’t go by that we don’t get a call at the Extension office from new clientele. You would think an organization nearly 100 years old wouldn’t be new to many people. I have had people tell me we are one of the best-kept secrets around. Part of that anonymity is our fault; we get so busy doing our job that we often forget to promote ourselves. Also, people attracted to this type of work are not seekers of the spotlight. It often amazes me that even some of our longtime clientele don’t know fully what we do. So what is it Extension does for the citizens of Washington County?

Alpacas, master gardeners and vintage cars mixed well together during two separate but simultaneous events Saturday at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center south of Hagerstown. Farmers from six local alpaca farms brought their camel-like livestock to a barn on the east end of the center to educate the public about the unique animals. “A lot of people just don't know a lot about them,” said Jeff Hull, an alpaca breeder from Cherry Run Farm in Mercersburg, Pa. “This is one of the reasons we had this event.” A little south of the alpaca barn, The Washington County Rural Heritage Museum held its 12th Annual Spring Open House.

Three area alpaca farms recently took champion and reserve champion honors at two national certified alpaca shows.   Long Acres Alpaca Farm in Mercersburg, Pa., took champion honors in the gray male category, and Alpine Alpacas in Hagerstown and Cherry Run Alpacas in Mercersburg took reserve champion honors, also in the gray male category.   The two events, Empire Extravaganza in Syracuse, N.Y., and VAOBA Expo in Doswell, Va., are considered the top two competitions in the fall for alpaca breeders.

It seems as though a week doesn’t go by that we don’t get a call at the Extension office from new clientele. You would think an organization nearly 100 years old wouldn’t be new to many people. I have had people tell me we are one of the best-kept secrets around. Part of that anonymity is our fault; we get so busy doing our job that we often forget to promote ourselves. Also, people attracted to this type of work are not seekers of the spotlight. It often amazes me that even some of our longtime clientele don’t know fully what we do. So what is it Extension does for the citizens of Washington County?

Fueled by hot chocolate and warmed by a bonfire, children darted around Cherry Run Farm on Sunday as adults strapped Christmas trees to pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. Jeff Hull, who owns the farm with his wife, Beth, said families need little guidance when selecting among the Fraser fir, concolor fir, blue spruce and Douglas fir trees. “The best advice I can give is beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” Jeff Hull said. Some people prefer the concolor firs for their citrus scent, while others like the blue spruces because they can hold heavy ornaments, he said.

o View Ag Expo photos for purchase! After three years of being in a 4-H club, Kathleen Michaels of Leitersburg Pike will have to say good-bye to the group next year because she will turn 18. Michaels on Monday said she joined the 4-H club because her family owns an alpaca farm with about 15 or 16 alpacas. Michaels, who will show alpacas at this year's Washington County Ag Expo & Fair, said she likes the Ag Expo because she enjoys being around the alpacas and other animals.

On Saturday and Sunday, local Alpaca farms will exhibit the alpaca and alpaca products at one location: Annapaca Farm, 10702 Mapleville Road in Hagerstown. Here is your chance to see these animals up close as well as take in many activities. Events include spinning and felting, handling of alpacas, weaving and an alpaca educational demonstration. There will be an alpaca seminar both days titled "Alpacas 101, an Introduction to Raising Alpacas" for those who are considering purchasing an alpaca.

Alpaca Days continues today at Annapaca Farm at 10702 Mapleville Road (Md. 66). The free event includes seminars and demonstrations, an obstacle course for alpacas, raffles, prizes, food and activities for the whole family. Representatives of eight local farms will be on hand to answer questions.

We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 farm critters, depending on whether you count the chickens as one species, or 18 birds in total. I count them all because we have three horses and we count all three -- doing less for the chickens seems disrespectful. Last week, the total doubled as we entertained about 35 kids from Winter Street Elementary School's after-school program. The animals and kids represented a clash of energy forces that, could it have been harnessed, would have mothballed at least three gas-fired power plants for about a week.

Eight local farms will participate in Alpaca Days '09 on March 28 and 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Annapaca Farm, 10702 Mapleville Rd., Hagerstown. The event, which is free to the public, will be held rain or shine. There will be seminars and demonstrations throughout the weekend. Spinning, weaving and felting of alpaca fleece will be part of the program. The program will provide an overview on handling and care of the animals and spectators can watch 4-H members work alpacas through obstacles courses.

Six months ago, when I first wrote about our alpaca acquisition, I received a nice note from Sue Hull of Clear Spring, welcoming me into the alpaca fold and asking if we had a shearer lined up to cut their fleece in the spring. I was happy to be able to provide her with an answer: I told her I didn't know. Through the course of the year, alpacas grow thick, luxurious layers of fleece, and as this happens, they rather look like a balloon that is very slowly inflating. At some point, something has to be done about this, or each alpaca would take up about 1 square acre of space.