Meetings Alpacas: Some New Things are Just Fun

Yes, there is a lot to be said for career and personal development. Becoming healthier, more creative and adventurous are also important. Some new things, though,  I do just for fun. 

But I did learn something valuable in my fun new thing. If Old MacDonald had alpacas, they would have a hum hum here and a hum hum there. I have now heard it myself. 

“The humming is how they communicate,” farmer Faye Glauser explained. 

Glauser and her husband Fred run TLC Alpaca in Mitchell, Ontario. We went for the farm tour and the irresistible opportunity to walk the alpacas on a beautiful fall afternoon. It was a “something new” side quest on our way to Stratford to see the Tempest which is, let’s just say it, an old thing to do, even if it is also fun. 

Faye and Fred have a herd of 17 year-old male alpacas they assembled for their grandchildren who wanted to have a different kind of pet on the farm. The grandkids have now grown up and the alpacas earn their keep as part of the pair’s agri-tourism initiative.  The herd is the same age by intention.

"When they are done, we are done," Faye explained.

“It’s become a hobby that pays for itself,” Fred told us during our visit. He developed a table and technique for shearing alpacas and once travelled across Southern Ontario to relieve almost 300 creatures of their winter coats. Prized for its lightweight warmth, alpaca wool is also hypoallergenic because it doesn’t contain lanolin like sheep's wool.

Alpacas, unlike dogs, don’t get excited when told they are going for a walk, but they are pleasant enough about it and seemed to enjoy our stroll down the country road and back. Unlike llamas, they don’t spit and don’t kick.

They also are not pack animals. Faye told us that parents often ask if they can put a toddler on an alpaca’s back for pictures, but they are just too small an animal to bear any weight. 

“Are alpacas smart?” I asked. 

“Very smart,” Faye replied. “They know their names and what’s happening around them when it’s time to eat or go out to the fields. They also gather up in a circle if something strange happens. And they know dogs are dangerous! Not our dogs here on the farm, but dogs we don’t know.” 

After walking three of the alpacas, we toured the farm and looked at the alpaca fleece used to make wool and learned a bit about farming life and all its risks.  I would, most certainly, walk an alpaca again.

I set a challenge to try something new every week for a year. In addition to meeting alpacas for the first time, I have gone ecstatic dancing, taken aerial sling classes, and tried assisted stretch among other activities. I am open to suggestions of what to try next.