According to a quick goggle search the meaning of spring is ‘the season after winter and before summer, in which vegetation begins to appear’, and on our farm that is entirely correct and is a stunningly beautiful time of the year!
Our farm, One Tree Hill, is named after the old and majestic heather tree at the top of our one hill but there are many other very pretty trees and grasses growing across our farm that come alive at this time of the year. I love this time of year for many reasons. Firstly the grass in the paddocks start to grow! This is my favourite reason why I love spring! Growing grass = happy and healthy alpacas = more fibre = more yarn!
Secondly it is only a few weeks away from shearing time!! Shearing time = more fibre = more yarn!
Ok ok you get it….I love more fibre and more yarn! I’m easy to impress really! Does not take much to make me happy.
Thirdly the trees come alive! The flowers are stunning at this time of year. Just stunning! We have a range of colours from yellow, to white and a full suite of lovely soft pinks! Insects crawling up the branches that are swaying in the breeze, whilst covered in budding flowers, waiting for just the right time to burst into life. They create beautiful viewing pleasures for us and our farm visitors alike.
We get lots of wildlife visitors at this time of year too. Pretty flocks of native parrots visit us on a daily basis. The other day we had a flock for about 30 yellow black cockatoos fly over the house and land in the paddocks. They were lovely to watch!
We have our cats either in the house or in a cat proof cage in the back yard. They too can enjoy the birds, and the farm bursting to life, all the while stopping them from eating our bird life. It’s like cat TV! The best for both the cats and the wildlife.
Did I mention that we have shearing in a month?
Spring is the time to get ready for shearing. This year we have 2 work experience students from a Canberra High School working with us the week of shearing. The two students are agricultural students so will get hands on experience running an alpaca farm, learning to shear and then learning to skirt and prepare fleeces for processing.
During shearing we take fleece samples from all our alpacas and send these off for testing. The results help us made breeding and fleece processing decisions. To maintain the highest standard of yarn, we ensure that all the fibre used in our yarns fit within strict parameters. We want to process the best fibre we to ensure our customers get the best yarn we can produce.
Life is just too short to knit, crochet or weave with low quality yarn…don’t you think? Have you used our alpaca yarn before? If not maybe spring, the time of the year that brings new life to the world, is the perfect time to try a new fibre! Fall in love with alpaca yarn today!