January 2008

So much has happened in the last few months. In May 2007 we acquired the greatest fawn herdsire that we could find, SCA Peruvian Magnum. Magnum is the son of Misty Maiden, the dam of the Century. He is an AOBA Champion with two AOBA Champion offspring. His fleece numbers are outrageous. We bought Magnum from 5-time Small Breeder of the Year, Mary Goodman, who also owned the famed Caligula. When we purchased him, Magnum's breeding fee was $5,000, and Mary said that Magnum's was the most dense fleece she had ever felt. Mary wanted to focus on her white, full Accoyo breeding program. That was the only reason we were able to talk her out of him. We entered Magnum's fleece in two National Fleece Shows in 2007. He won first place at the AOBA National Fleece Show. Magnum also took a first place in the AFCNA (Alpaca Fiber Co-op of North America) Nationa Fleece Show, where his fleece was awarded the Spirit of Fiber Award. This award goes to the one huacaya fleece that best exemplifies what our fiber industry is breeding for. Magnum has thrown cria from white to black in color. We have bred him to most of our females and we look forward to meeting his cria in 2008!  We are offering special pricing on his breedings in order to get more cria on the ground. This is a great opportunity for our farm and our customers. Magnum is truly several generations ahead in fleece advancement.

We had some super cria born in 2007. Napster and Fairhope's Royal Cantigny are at the top of the class. Summer was the hottest one ever. We sheared some of our alpacas again in the summertime in order to keep them cool. This was the first time we have ever had to do that! Whew! Glad that's over.

In the Fall we attended the LA Deep South Alpaca Show in Shreveport. This was the first time my 3 youngest children had ever shown an alpaca. We trained some of our alpacas for the obstacle course at home. All the kids loved it, and they all won blue ribbons. (The little ones got blue participation ribbons, and our oldest won her first Blue in Showmanship.) Mom (Katy) also started entering some Showmanship classes in 2007. It was fun, and I learned alot about showing your alpacas. Xanadu P. Caruso was such natural in the performance classes, we will miss having him showing in 08. He is now retired to breeding. Maybe Cantigny will be his replacement.

In 2007, we had the opportunity to purchase a significant number of alpacas from our friends at Windy Ridge Ranch and longtime alpaca breeder Laura Hudson. At Fairhope Alpacas, we believe strongly in the future of the alpaca industry. In 2007, we added 30 new alpacas to our herd. This addition will give us the opportunity to grow, and to offer our customers more diverse bloodlines and even better pricing. We now have direct line daughters of Camilio, Legacy, Hemingway, Rockamundo, Jubilant, and the Reverend Mr. Black.

HUGE NEWS! On January 16, our super huacaya dam, Sheila, gave birth to a 3/4 Accoyo rose grey male cria, sired by McGwire. There are only a handful of 3/4 Accoyo grey males in the world which makes him very special! He looks like he will be as nice as his sister from last year, Patina. We are so thrilled!

Look for more exciting news as the year goes on.

February 2007

In the Summer of 2006 we acquired 1/2 interest in a Misty Maiden grandson with an amazing pedigree and awesome fleece! We now co-own SCA Peruvian Shawnee with Sue and George Bailey of Silver Creek Alpacas of Ohio. Shawnee will live in Ohio from May-October, and in Alabama from November-April. We expect him to be breeding in the Fall/Winter 2007-2008. He won the AOBA Championship and the Reserve Championship at the Futurity in 2006.Not to shabby. Coming soon: his listing on our website - herdsire page.

Last Fall we attended the La. Deep South Alpaca Show in November. Our herdsire, Xanadu P. Caruso took the Color Championship and our female, Caligula's Miss Katy of Windy Ridge, was awarded the Reserve Champion coming from 2nd place. (click below for pictures) Miss Katy is a dream to handle and was shown by our daughter, which made the win extra special. In December, 2006 we attended the first Belleauwood Sale and the Carolina Classic in North Carolina. A great time was had by all. We sold our darling Hot Fudge Sundae to The Downs of Twisted Locks Alpacas, a suri farm adding huacayas to their herd. Our Misty Maiden granddaughter, SCA Peruvian Portia, won a blue ribbon before retiring from showing. Portia is now in Ohio to breed with Frontier, a great Jericho son. 

December also brought the arrival of Accoyo McGwire. This was like Christmas coming early. If you don't know about McGwire, please visit his listing on the herdsire page, or contact me for a 30+ page info packet on him. He is truly an exceptional male. His offspring are outstanding. We are privileged to have McGwire standing stud on our farm until May 2007. He is a full Accoyo son of Victor. McGwire throws lots of color, including many tuxedo greys out of solid browns and blacks. Normally McGwire lives in Washington state so this is a rare opportunity for breeders in the South to utilize his services. His legs are like tree trunks, with tons of leg coverage all the way down, and the fleece he puts on his cria is to die for. I could go on and on and on.......I have gotten spoiled having such a fantastic herdsire on the farm. It has given me ideas of getting our own superstar. For years people have been telling me, "It's all about the males." Hmmm.I think I get it now.

To make more room for the alpacas who visit us for breeding, we have added two new pastures in 2007. They are almost completed. We are finishing a shelter for one, and need one more gate for the other. By Valentine's Day we had 10 cria running around. And of course, we think they are the cutest crop of cria yet. Some highlights include Patina, a stunning rose grey girl who was born on Steve's birthday. Patina is out of Sheila and the Colorado sire Roso Y Grigio. Steve insists we keep her. Who am I to argue? Steve wondered if the clouds would part and the angels would sing when our Archangel cria was born. I know I was singing when this guy hit the ground! He is so totally different from any cria we have ever had. I think that's good but stay tuned. He is super bright, white with fawn on head and topline, with ragmop fleece, tons on fleece on the face and feet, and Yoda ears. I think that's temporary but it makes him even cuter. Look for Napster on our Foundation Herd section of the Sales page in case you want to see more of this son of the great Archangel. The Locota's Teddy cria have been very nice, and we have been pleasantly surprised with how typey the Luminescence crias have been. They also have dense, crimpy fleece, very fine. We look forward to more of those. 

In February we attended the FABA Show in Florida. It was cold, but we had a good time meeting people and shopping with their vendors. I entered the Showmanship Class (don't laugh too hard, I thought I might learn something!) and come in 3rd out of 3. But I did learn something. See my new article on showing on our articles page. Xanadu P. Caruso won another blue ribbon, Julio Sumar liked his conformation and uniformity. Caruso has grown so much with heavy bone now, and he's breeding! 

May 2006

So much has happened since the last update. First we have to thank Magical Farms and Ameripaca for their generous donation to the Deep South Alpaca Connection for hurricane relief for its members! Thanks so much! 

In the last year we have re-invested heavily in our alpaca herd. We have changed our business plan to some degree to focus on the highest quality alpacas in fewer numbers. Our herd numbers will remain where they are (30-45) but the quality of alpacas we will be producing will be improving, and that is not a new goal. If you haven't looked at our foundation herd and our jr. herdsires please check them out. We think you will agree that we have acquired some impressive animals including the 2005 AAA Futurity Grand Champion MFG Huckleberry Rose, multiple blue ribbon winner Womat's That Sheila's A Looker, Reserve Champion Xanadu P. Caruso, and the two Misty Maiden line cria - SCA Peruvian Portia and the son of Misty Maiden herself - SCA Peruvian Caesar. We have also bred some of our alpacas to some phenomenal males this year including CCNF Archangel, Greybeard, and Roso Y Grigio. Look for us to have a visiting herdsire from November 2006-April/May 2007 who will knock your socks off! More on that later. 

This year has been a busy show season for us. We attended the FL Alpaca Expo, TXOLAN Spectacular, Southern Select, Kentucky Classic, the AAA Futurity, and we will wrap things up at the AOBA National Convention this May. Whew! Look for our girl Siege in the AOBA Auction - Lot 72. This is our first AOBA auction so wish us luck! 

This Spring/Summer we plan to fence in two more pastures and add another shelter for visiting alpacas. We plan to increase our breeding business in the Fall and more space for alpacas will be nice. We are also in the midst of planning our seminars/clinics for the next year so any input on what you would like to learn is appreciated. Feel free to contact us and let us know what you'd like us to offer. Best wishes for a Happy Spring and Summer! - Katy 

Hurricane Katrina

Fortunately we are okay after Hurricane Katrina. We were on the eastern edge of the storm and received 100MPH winds and the storm surge along our coast was devastating. We are 4 miles east of the eastern shore of Mobile Bay which experienced a 20 foot storm surge into downtown Mobile. Friends closer to the bay in Fairhope experienced 6 foot waves in their living rooms! Of course this is nothing compared to what our Mississippi and Louisiana neighbors faced. Remarkably we only lost power for 6 hours and have only trees down and debris to clean up. We had no flooding, mostly wind damage.

Steve and I lived at the edge of where Hurricane Andrew hit in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and now we are on the edge of the worst natural disaster our country has ever faced, Hurricane Katrina. The devastation is beyond comprehension. Katrina was one of the largest hurricanes in history, 450 miles wide. As we watched and waited for her arrival, New Orleans, LA, and MS officials did wonderful jobs of evacuating people. The fact that New Orleans evacuated 80% of its residents is outstanding! Some people from other parts of the U.S. have asked me why more did not evacuate. Hurricane fatigue is one reason. People in MS may have evacuated for both Ivan in September 2004 and Dennis in July 2005, and MS was not affected by those storms. It is grueling and expensive to evacuate, and sometimes the choice to stay or go is made with a coin toss. We chose to stay during Hurricane Dennis this July. After making the decision it became a strong category 4 heading right for us in Mobile Bay. At that point it was too late for us to evacuate the alpacas and ourselves. To say we regretted our decision is an understatement. Lucky for us, Dennis weakened to a category 3 and went just east of us. We were spared. Now we realize just how lucky we are. People often don't evacuate because they do not have the resources. Many in New Orleans do not have cars (parking is an issue as it is in other big cities), and many do not have the money for hotel rooms, and nowhere to go. Essentially, it is human nature to think, "It can't happen to me". We are definitely guilty of this thinking. Our barn is extremely strong - we have great confidence in it. However, there is NO building that is a match for a storm like Katrina. She has shaken us and our communities along the Gulf Coast like nothing in our history. 

What can be done? 

In July, Alpaca Breeders in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana formed an affiliate of the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA) for breeders in our three Gulf Coast states. The new association is called the Deep South Alpaca Connection. As the President of our new Association I can assure you that all alpaca breeders in this area will receive the assistance that they need. We are working with AOBA to provide resources to those who need it the form of shelter for alpacas, feed, hay, water, etc. Unfortunately the few breeders who stayed in hard hit areas have been unreachable. We will continue to assess the damage and come to the aid of those who need it. Prevention will be a key aspect of our organization. Working with breeders before Hurricanes hit is the best way to help. If you or someone you know can offer assistance to alpaca breeders in the event of a necessary evacuation please contact Katy at 251-929-2688 or 251-583-5251. Hurricane season is only halfway over, and it is likely there will be other storms this year. In addition, our fledgling association, the Deep South Alpaca Connection, is in need of funds to be able to serve our regional farms. Contact Katy for information on any donations or assistance you can provide at alpacas@bellsouth.net 

Thanks to Magical Farms and Ameripaca Alpaca Breeding Company for their donations for over $20,000 in Hurricane Relief for those along the Gulf Coast. DSAC was able to aid many alpaca breeders affected by Katrina with these funds.

Luminescence takes the Blue Ribbon at the Southern Select in March!

January 2005

We got very behind on our autumn plans due to Hurricane Ivan, but all of our fall events went well and all of the alpacas returned home safely from their "vacations" on other alpaca farms. We still need a new roof on our house (but they have delivered the shingles so maybe soon!), and we have some big trees that still need a tree service, but overall the farm is almost back to normal. A big thank you to everyone who helped us with all things hurricane related! 

2004 was a crazy year. From Atlas winning Get of Sire in Houston, to Hurricane Ivan, and a record sales year, 2004 was one for the books!

2005 finds us busily making farm improvements. By the first of February we will have moved all of our herdsires to their new barn. Steve was generous enough to let them have his studio building for them to live in, and we will be able to have seminars in the finished portion of the building. This will be nice because it is climate controlled so no more freezing during January seminars. Hooray! This will make it possible for us to schedule educational events year round. Plus having the boys in a new spot leaves more room in the main barn for females to come for breeding. 

Speaking of breeding, we have some great news for Southern Alpaca Breeders. In early February, Accoyo Pluro's Smokey will be standing stud at Fairhope Alpacas for several months. "Smokey" is owned by John Loverde of Fleecy Dale Alpacas in New Jersey, long time breeder of top quality grey alpacas. Smokey is 1/2 Accoyo, sired by Pluro who was only in the USA for a short time. This means that Smokey is unrelated to almost all greys in this country. A gorgeous grey with awesome fleece, Smokey is the sire of the most expensive huacaya female to date, Cocha's Miracle, who sold for $80,000 at eight months of age. His offspring are fantastic. If you have a female you would like to breed to Smokey contact Katy at 251.929.2688 or alpacas@bellsouth.net Details will be up soon on our herdsire page. 

Visit our upcoming events page for more info on Spring Events on the farm, and keep an eye out for an announcement in a few weeks that will improve the selection we are able to offer our customers. 

Hurricane Ivan Rips Through Southern Alabama - September 2004

The Evacuation

I have often said that our hurricane plan was to ride out the storm, "unless, of course a category 5 was headed right at us." On Tuesday, September 14th that's just what Hurricane Ivan was doing. With Bonnie, Charlie, and Frances hitting Florida recently we had been tweaking our hurricane preparations on the farm. Hurricane Ivan was scary, but I thought that he would surely hit somewhere else or weaken. I moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL the week before Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida and have been through some minor hurricanes since. We built our barn in Fairhope to withstand hurricanes, but I have to admit I wasn't ready for what Ivan threatened to throw at us.

With Ivan to make landfall on Wednesday pm, Steve and I decided to make our decision to stay or go on Tuesday am. On Monday night when we went to bed the 11pm NOAA advisory had Hurricane Ivan coming up Mobile Bay (4 miles away) as a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour and gusts of up to 205 miles per hour. Who could sleep after that report! At 3am I gave up trying to sleep and checked the NOAA website again. The 4am advisory was exactly the same. Ivan was still a category 5 and still headed right for us! I felt sick at my stomach and started planning how to get the alpacas out of harm's way. I posted on Alpacasite that I needed help! We had 44 alpacas to evacuate and one trailer.

At 6:30am Nance Sturm from Creekwater Alpacas called and told me that Joe Fowler, Creekwaters' manager and long-time friend, was on his way with their trailer to pick up some alpacas to take back to Georgia for safety. Relief began to spread through my body. Juanita and Bill Crake of Ridgeview Farms Southern Suris were coming with another trailer to transport alpacas to Caroline and Del Mixon's Farm, Carodel Alpacas. Ingrid Welch, of Honeybee Alpacas in Mississippi offered a place  for some of our alpacas and two of the livestock guard dogs to stay. Later in the morning I got a call from Callie Dennig in Louisiana offering to come and pick up animals and take them back to her farm. That was the last piece in the puzzle! I eagerly took her up on her offer. She and her husband would be on their way shortly and at our place by 6pm. We loaded our trailer with all of our males and sent them with our right-hand man, Jeremy Sharp, who drove them to Mississippi. It took him 3 hours to get out of Mobile. Our dear friend, Carolyn Dulke, of A Pronk in the Park, came over to help me get everyone out safely. While we waited for the trailers we wrapped vet wrap around the necks of most of the alpacas and wrote their names on it. I also made notes on who was going to what farm, owner's name (a few of the alpacas were boarded by customers), color, and due dates if applicable. Luckily, the only medical problem we had was one alpaca that was being treated for an eye infection. The vet showed up to re-check her progress and I was shocked to see him with all the chaos going on. He offered to write health certificates for all of the alpacas.I was so glad that we have all different color alpacas so that they could be identified easier. I sent the two fawn girls that look almost identical to two different farms so save some confusion. 

Lucky for me, my babysitter was at the house watching my 21-month-old twins and my three-year-old son. My seven-year-old daughter helped here and there. Around noon, Joe Fowler arrived. We loaded 16 alpacas into his trailer and he offered to take 2 of the livestock guard dogs. Tears welled up in my eyes as Joe drove off with the alpacas, whisking them to safety. It had taken him 6 hours to get to us and it would take him until well into the next day to get back to the Atlanta area with them. At some points the traffic was moving one mile per hour and the sun beating down on the trailer of animals was nerve-wracking.

One hour later Bill Crake arrived. My son is very into "Rescue Heros" toys. As Bill drove up, I thought, "These guys are real Rescue Heros!" I will have a special place in my heart for them all of my life. At that point we had heard that I-65 was turning all lanes North. We began to get concerned that if Callie couldn't get to us we would still have some alpacas left behind. We had already heard that there was no way that Jeremy could get back from Mississippi with our trailer. The roads were too packed and all going out of here now. Bill, Carolyn, and I squeezed the rest of the alpacas into Bill's trailer and watched them leave with amazement. We called Callie and told her that we had evacuated all of the alpacas and that she could turn around. We worked quickly worked to batten down the empty barn.

Steve had worked all day putting up plywood on every window on our house and barn. He had to do it alone and was exhausted. I knew that he had never been to Home Depot to buy plywood so I wondered once where he was getting all that wood. I then assumed that he had brought it from our Florida hurricane days. Later he told me that he had dismantled the bathroom walls in his studio to board up our windows! We laughed as the bathroom became less and less private as the day went on! Too tired to leave that night our plan was to leave in the early am on Wednesday...

With little if any sleep we headed out on Wednesday to go to Houston, over 9 hours away and the closest place we could find hotel rooms. We knew that I-10 was a parking lot because they had evacuated New Orleans, putting hundreds of thousands on the road. My nightmare was to be stuck in stopped traffic in the car on the highway with my children and a category 4 or 5 hurricane going over us. We took the back roads through Mississippi and Louisiana. It was eerily sunny and almost deserted. The crowds were much further South and we actually drove through a few towns with antebellum homes enjoying the sites while the monster that would destroy my parents home was just a few hundred miles away. 

When we got to Houston we stayed with an aunt the first night as there were no hotel vacancies. She did not have cable tv so we craned our necks at the local Houston news for information on the storm and its consequences. Without the weather channel or news from our area we only got snippets of information about the storm and its fury. I will never forget listening in frustration as the Houston news reporter interviewed people who had fled the storm to a shelter in the area. The focus was on how the refugees had never eaten a Kolache before (A delicious Czech bakery item popular in Texas). They discussed how it was a new food for the refugees, but they loved the kolaches! As a UT grad who bleeds burnt orange, I too, love kolaches, but please tell us if the people have homes to go back to! Impatience gave way to resignation. The experience was surreal and bizarre.  Packing the things most important to you - with 15 minutes to decide what they are, hugging your children close and telling the cat goodbye and good luck, and seeing your parents faces as they view a picture of a neighbor's house that is simply GONE... all memories from Ivan etched in my brain. 

Aftermath

Once home, we found dozens of trees down, some on fences. The roof of our house has significant damage and will need to be replaced. We have tarps on it while we wait at least three weeks to get an estimate from roofers. The debris when we returned was unreal. There were piles of pine needles, pine cones, and leaves that were knee high for yards. The evergreen tress like the oaks were stripped of their leaves, leaving a stark contrast with the green grassy pastures. The effect is a bit surreal, looking like a war zone. 

We are still getting our alpacas back from where they were evacuated. We missed them while they were gone and are looking forward to things getting back to normal. The place is still a mess, but it gets better every day. All of our events will continue as scheduled. 

Spring Show Results

Fairhope Alpacas in Summer 2004

Our summer started off with the Alpaca Owners and Breeders National Convention in Louisville, KY. It is always a wonderful time, like Disney World for alpaca enthusiasts. The Auction saw high-quality females selling for $29,000 up to $80,000! This is a great trend that we are seeing with the highest quality alpacas prices going UP! The record for highest selling alpaca was set this May with the sale of Dom Lucillio for $400,000. (This July we had a male Dom Lucillio cria born, 49er, look for him on the sales list and in the show ring next Spring) The National Show had some amazing alpacas and the competition was fierce! We won some red, white, yellow, and pink ribbons. Then we said goodbye to Rose Point and Pink for the summer as they went to Maine to breed to the famous Greybeard. 

Fairhope Alpacas in Spring 2004

During the twins (human) first year we took the year off from going to alpaca shows, or anywhere else for that matter. This Spring we were ready to get back into the swing of things. We started with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This show is a remarkable experience for adults and children alike. The alpacas were ready and so were we! The kids loved the tractors, cowboy hats, and pig races, and they came home with a pet rabbit.

Spring brought many new cria. We saw the first cria from Sundance and Tre. We were blessed with several grey cria this year. Nemo and Phantom are producing a lot of grey, which can be so hard to get! We also had a successful shearing day on April 20. Thanks to Jodi Nash, Nancy Gaylor, and Carolyn Dulke for all your help that day! Thanks to The Boones of Cornerstone Alpacas and The Dulkes of A Pronk in the Park for purchasing alpacas from us this Spring.
 

Show Results in 2004 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo
The Bishop	MFI Thor	Ameripaca's Atlas
First Place Light Yearling Male Reserve Champion Light Male	First Place Multi Yearling Male Reserve Champion Multi/Grey Male	First Place Get of Sire MFI Thor, Georgy Porgy, & BAMA
BAMA	Val-N-tine
First Place Dark Yearling Male	First Place Light Yearling Female (Now owned by Willow Glen Farm Alpacas)

Not Pictured:

Tre
First Place Light Adult Male Fleece

Fairhope's Avalanche
3rd Place Light Yearling Male
(Bishop was 1st in same class)

Georgy Porgy
4th Place Dark Juvenile Male
(His superfine fleece wilted with the extreme humidity that day)