29 April 2007

Alpaca? El Camino? Whatever...

Yesterday, the four of us went to check out the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival. In addition to judging of animals and fleece, they also had fiber demostrations, including fiber preparation and carding, spinning, needle felting, and machine knitting. There were also vendors selling (amoung other things) alpaca yarns...very soft and yummy and so many beautiful natural colors. The kids enjoyed walking around and looking at all the alpacas. We learned that there are two kinds: Huacaya, which have kind of crimpy hair and look like big ol' puffy teddy bears and Suri, which have longer straighter hair that parts along the center of the back and looks a little bit like dreadlocks. There are pictures (including babies, which are called cria), here.

In the afternoon, Kitty Daddy went to the library to look around and the kids and I did some gardening. Our tomato seedlings were looking pretty droopy...I suspect because they have outgrown their little peat pellets. We had made a trip to Home Depot and bought a big ol' bag of potting soil and four terra cotta pots to get started. Using the four pots, plus a plastic laundry detergent bucket, we got two tomatoes, two jalapenos, and two basil plants repotted. That is half of our little seed pods. We also have two plastic kitty little buckets that will be converted to planters and then we might get a couple more regular pots. We will also need some more potting soil if we want to finish up. They are out on the back porch, but I'm glad they are in containers, because I have no illusions about the potential for a late frost in the midwest! I will try and get some pictures up soon!

To make a completely full day, we went and tried to fly Kitty Daddy's Darth Vader kite and Bug's Scooby Doo kite before supper. It went okay, but we had trouble keeping them up. Unfortunately, the Scooby Doo kite was one of the el-cheapo ones, so it was pretty much shredded by the time we got done. We fared better with Daddy's kite, which he bought at a real kite store on the Oregon Coast during one of our trips.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have some alpaca just down the road from us...along the road between our house and your brother's elementary school. After reading about alpacas, I think they must be the Suri variety. As with most species, the babies (cria) in the pictures are adorable.

knottykitty said...

Dontcha just love those alpacas?! They are the cutest things! Since I can't have a real one, I have a small-scale hand-felted one named (appropriately) "The Stash Alpaca."
:) Sounds like you had a fun weekend!

Anonymous said...

a Darth Vade kite! That is awesome. Do you hum the his theme song when flying it.

Did you by chance by the kite in Yahchats, Oregon? The spelling should be close enough to ring a bell if that was the place.

I always think of kites when I think of Yahchats. Sigh.....I some days I miss Oregon so very very much.