Eastland Alpaca

This weekend, last minute, thanks to my friend Anne, we took Audrey to an alpaca farm. Oh, the things we do with our children. It's sort of cliche to say, but it's fun to see and experience all these things through Audrey's eyes, to experience things all over again with pure joy.

Alpaca

The Eastland Alpaca farm in Mt. Joy was having an open house. Having never been up close and personal with an alpaca, James and I figured we'd go. It was much larger (the farm) and busier than I had expected, but their open house was put on pretty well. You could lead alpacas...which Audrey wasn't too sure about initially.

Leading Boomerang

She did finally carry the tail end of the rope, mostly because she saw her friend doing the same. It worked though, I was happy to be leading. I felt like I was taking both Boomerang and Audrey out for a walk.

Boomerang

Then our not-so-appropriately-named alpaca, Boomerang, decided he had had enough of this walking thing and just laid down. Plop, just all at once. Then he started eating. Now, not knowing much of anything about these woolen animals, I wasn't about to force the thing to get up. Do they kick? Bite? SPIT??? Our animal in repose was funny to many other alpaca-walkers, but it did give Audrey a chance to touch him. Oh my how soft they are (yes we ignored the hay and food and probably poop in the wool....it's clean poop, right?).

Really, she did touch Boomerang.

And you could feel the alpacas. We were hard-pressed to find an alpaca to take the 'paca-pellets (yes, I made that up) from our hands. I think, after having been fed by visitors for the last 8 hours, they were probably stuffed to their alpacan gills. Perhaps they should have swapped the leading alpacas with the feeding alpacas? Poor Boomerang could probably have used a snack, and the ones being fed could have used a little exercise I'm sure.

Feeding it 'paca-pellets.

We found our way to what looked like a dog's agility course, where a presentation was about to happen. We pulled up some grass and patiently waited.

Waiting

The presentation was some 4-H members showing their alpacas. A little interesting I suppose. I learned 2 things about alpacas. One, they have no top teeth. Two, they can delay giving birth so their offspring are born on a sunny day. I like that.

It was time to head out, and Audrey was not ready. We agreed to let her pet one more 'paca, and we found a two-week old white fuzzy cutie. It was amazing, and I think Audrey enjoyed it. I did too. James, thanks, as always, for taking great pics. :)