Alpacas & Apples

Sept 7 was la journée Portes ouvertes sur les fermes du Québec. Basically certain farms in Quebec open their doors to the public for tours and info sessions and whatnot.

I heard the announcement for it on the radio one morning while I drove JF to work and when I came home I decide to look it up to see if there was anything that I'd be interested in visiting. At first I was thinking a sheep farm, but then I realized that most sheep farms in quebec are mainly for meat. I didn't particularly like this idea, especially considering I find mutton and lamb to be utterly disgusting. I kept looking and I discovered that there was an alpaca farm not too far from home and just down the street from that was an Apple Orchard. I love alpacas and apple picking so this made for the perfect outing.

Our first stop was the alpaca farm where we got to interact with two male alpacas. (they're so soft). The farm is Alpagas des hauts Vents. The older one was really not happy he stood in the middle of the pen the whole time and wouldn't let anyone touch him.

This is Romeo.
This was Romeo's son, I don't remember his name. I got to touch him and feed him.
The females and babies were in a seperate area.

There was a small boutique on site where they sold mostly items made from alpaca but they did have a small selection of yarn. Some of it was from North American alpacas but I chose the yarn that is spun from the alpacas on this farm (very local). Here's what I got:

Two skeins of 100% alpaca lace weight
100% alpaca worsted.

After the visit with the alpacas we headed for McMillan Orchards. I got some really nice pictures.

We got a big bag full of beautiful apples which I'm sure will be used for deliciousness.

On the way home I happened to see a flock of sheep by the side of the road. JF turned the car around so we could see them, there were apple trees near by so we decided to see if they'd be interested in some apple:

JF feeding them apple.

One of them got really close to check us out.
JF took this one as we were leaving. I just thought it was neat.

Overall a pretty good day. I really enjoyed the two activities. I will be sure and check it out again next year.

Farm Visit

So I realized that I forgot to blog about my day at JF's aunt's little farm. His mom visits her sister at her small farm from time to time and she had mentioned that they'd recently acquired 3 agneaux (lambs). I got quite excited and so she decided to invite me one day to "les nourir aux biberons" (They are being fed with bottles, biberon is baby bottle in French. Needless to say I was quite excited at the prospect. They also have a few horses and a cow. Here are a few highlights from the day.

First we fed the little guys


Then we took them outside for a little sun


Then we visited and fed some horses


I took a really neat picture


And met Mrs. Cow


the geese were apparently coming back for summer


We also met a very friendly barn cat


She wanted me to take a close up (Taken upside down while she was walking through my legs)

I really enjoyed my day, and the feeding of the lambs was awesome! It totally made my week!

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm leaving for Newfoundland on Thursday and will be staying until May 8. Hopefully I will score some nice stuff like I did last summer!