Hello World or is that too presumptuous, it probably is, hopefully I won’t be rambling on to myself and there will be someone out there interested. I would like to introduce myself, I am Donna and if you’ve looked at the web site you will have seen we are a small family owned farm in Wiltshire concentrating on breeding elite white Alpacas. Although I have to say that a couple of very special Light Fawns have managed to creep in.
Talking of special, I think my very first blog should tell you about Dora, she is not special in the same way as the rest of the herd, which have absolutely gorgeous fleeces etc… She is only very special to us. I will try to explain.
Dora is our Matriarch, she looks after all the girls, she is a much older girl, dark fawn and has a fleece to die for , by that I mean if you had a herd full of Dora’s you wouldn’t have a business, her fleece is so bad. Don’t worry she will never be sold, she may not have a commercial value but like “Bagpuss” (I’m giving my age away now) we love her.
As a Matriarch she is just the best, she is so intelligent. I sometimes wonder who runs this farm, her or me. She teaches the youngsters, is always the first to give a warning, the first in the feed troughs, her eagle eyes will spot you coming from a mile away and she lets you know when she wants to change paddocks or stay in the barn for the night and boy can she scream when her toe nails are cut, she’s not taught that trick to the youngsters luckily, but whatever she’s up to she always, always makes you smile. Every farm should have one, only you’re not having mine.
We use all our fleeces here at Honeyfield farm, we send them all, except for one, to the mill to be made into lovely double knit wool. I expect you can guess the one fleece that doesn’t go, if you said Dora’s, you were spot on. Dora’s was a problem, even though it was bad, we wanted it to have a use. Well to cut a long story short, Dora is now a “Dora Bear”, this year she’s disguised as Hilda Ogden (Coronation Street) and next year we are thinking she will be the Queen. These bears using your own fleeces are made by Calamity Bears, they are gorgeous but can only be made from harsher fleeces, the soft silky fleeces produce by the rest of my herd are just no good which according to Dora means she really is very special.
NOV