It’s the fleece, stupid!

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there! Three quarters of the Lutz family (though oddly enough not the mother) at CCNF are spending the day recovering from the 3 day shearing juggernaut that finally came to a merciful conclusion around 5:30 yesterday afternoon. We ended up doing 66 critters on the final day, once we added in the 3 little farts that were still at their dam’s sides, bringing the three day total to a nice round 210 alpacas shorn. By the time we came in through the front door of our house yesterday, we had alpaca fiber everywhere: on our clothes, in our hair, and probably up our noses too (TMI?). “Be one with the fleece Grasshopper!”

I fell out of bed around 7:30 (beats the heck out of 5AM) today, made the boys and myself a big pile of celebratory french toast, and then we capped off the morning by watching our beloved Arsenal win their final match of the English Premier League season. All good. As for our resident mother and my better half, Jennifer has never been one to spend too much time stopping to smell the roses, at least not when there’s work to be done. Long before I had even dragged my sorry and, it must be said, slightly hung over carcass into the kitchen (there was some celebratory vodka and Stellas last night too), she had headed up to her office at the Main Barn shortly after 6 AM and then up to the Arena’s fleece room where she is literally as I write this a fleece skirting fool! Jen has three days to skirt, bag, box, and ship 30 new show fleeces for the AOBA national show coming up in Louisville, KY. As I always tell people: I married way, WAY up.

In any case as the photos below show, the fleece room is again full to the brim with this year’s clip. It is a sight that never fails to gratify.  As you can see, we did have to lay several of the fleeces out to dry on the floor because of the rainy weather. It never ceases to amaze how quickly the really fine fleeces — including some of those that frankly looked pretty cruddy on the hoof — bounce back as soon they are off of the animals. So that is why we rated what’s-his-name so highly even though he looked like a sweaty hay bag when we laid him down on the shearing mats!?

Lastly for today, we are happy to announce that the web site for the Vermont Fiber Mill & Studio is up and live! Though there is still a bit of functionality to be added in the coming days and weeks, the basics are all there. For those that don’t know, the VFM&S is owned in partnership between CCNF and Ed & Deb Bratton of Maple View Farm Alpacas in Brandon, VT where the mill itself is also located. Having known the Brattons for many years (we also own our Herdsire, Golden Sovereign with MVF) and having real trust and confidence in their business instincts, partnering on the Mill just made great sense to us as a way for CCNF to further diversify ourselves within the alpaca industry. We get an in-state production facility (never underestimate the inherent value of Vermont-made as a brand) as well as a venue that will also sell the finished products, while the Brattons get partners capable of furnishing several hundred pounds of high grade locally-grown alpaca fleece every year but who will otherwise stay out of the way on a day to day basis. As you can read on the VFM&S’s news page, the mill is up and running and we (that is Deb and Ed) have already hired three new staff members as well. So even though it’s all quite new, the future of that enterprise is very promising indeed. Needless to say that whenever visitors to CCNF ask us what it is that we do with our alpacas’ fleeces, we now have a very good and concrete answer!

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