As I sit here writing this, there are probably fifty American Goldfinches fighting over the thistle-seed feeder outside the window. Acorn Woodpeckers, Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, and House Sparrows are also at the feeders. The maple in the front yard is a busy place with all the birds.

The winter rains have set in here. For those of you in most of the country, Western Oregon is a strange place. For five to seven months in the winter, it rains almost every day. The other five to seven months – summer – almost never rains. We get about 35 inches of rain per year here – similar to much of the midwest. The difference is that instead of getting our water as summer thunderstorms, we get it as winter drizzle.

And the winter drizzle has begun.

The snow level in the area will drop to 2500 feet tonight. Those of you in and near mountains will be familiar with the concept of “snow level". If, however, you are from the Wisconsin as I am, the concept is totally foreign. You see, snow in the Pacific Northwest is a function of elevation, not location. This isn’t like Wisconsin where if it’s snowing in Madison it is either snowing or about to snow in Milwaukee. Where we live, it can be raining where we are, and snowing on top of a mountain just a few miles away. It can snow all around us, but because we are at low elevation, we will get rain.

Our alpacas have very different opinions about the rain. Some don’t like it. Some don’t seem to mind it, much. They’ll all go inside when it’s raining heavily, but most of them will graze outside if it’s raining lightly. Anna tends to run to the barn at the first drips, although she has plenty of fiber and she could probably stand in the worst downpour without getting wet at the skin. Georgia, Anna’s mother, doesn’t seem to mind the rain and if she is in the mood to graze, it will take a hard rain to drive her from the pasture. Georgia’s son, Sindre is known to endure the worst rain rather than seeking shelter, although we can tell from his posture that he’s clearly uncomfortable. Little Maggee (who doesn’t have her own page yet) was playing and splashing in a water puddle in the pasture yesterday. They all have different personalities and different reactions to rain and it is interesting to watch.

And that’s enough about alpacas in the rain.

Since alpacas and alpaca fiber are a business for us, I feel it necessary to market our products from time to time in this blog. Today’s topic: Alpacas for sale!

We have a wonderful, soft, gray, bred female alpaca for sale. You learn more about Shepherd’s Pasture Chloe by visiting her sales page on our website or her AlpacaNation listing. Chloe’s soft, gray fleece is always among the first to sell at Black Sheep Gathering. Alpaca fleeces get coarser and usually shorter as the animals age. This is particularly true of breeding female alpacas. At four years of age, Chloe’s fleece is still 22.2 microns, meaning she will probably have soft fiber for much of her life.

Our other alpacas for sale can be viewed on our sales page and on our AlpacaNation listings.

If you are interested in purchasing alpacas, please let us know. If you’d simply like to visit to see the animals, that can be arranged as well.

End shameless marketing of alpacas. Begin shameless plug for the on-line store.

We sell alpaca fiber, handspun yarn, and other goodies in The Alpaca Merchant, our on-line store.

End shameless marketing.

On the spinning wheel: A light fawn, huacaya alpaca fleece. Singles are in progress. One bobbin is full. The other bobbin is half full. I can’t wait to ply this yarn up and be finished with it, but it’s looking like I’ll have more fiber than space on the bobbin.
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