Do you know what these critters are?
If you guessed Llamas - you are close but - no cigar! These, my friends, are Alpacas. Originally native to mountainous countries in South America (like Peru?), these ruminous (meaning they can chew their cud like cows and can spit at you stuff from their stomach - sounds nice, doesn't it?) beasts are now spreading across our fine nation. Yes, that is true. There are even commercials on television promoting Alpaca farming.You haven't seen the commercial yet? Maybe you don't watch enough television!
Anyway - these particular animals are owned by my sister-in-law. The younger sister-in-law. Not younger than me but younger than the OTHER sister-in-law who also owns Alpacas. Not to be confused with my brother-in-law, also older than me, who owns Alpacas. Are you getting the sense that the entire family owns Alpacas? I am not sure if my mother-in-law owns any but I wouldn't doubt it!
My husband and I have gotten some subtle pressure to purchase some of these animals but, we don't really have room for them and, while either sister-in-law would surely house them for us - what exactly do we need and Alpaca for?
That, my dear friends, is the entire question. What does anyone need an Alpaca for? Their fur can, and is in some places, used for knitted goods and is quite expensive to purchase in a finished product. However, the products are not really taking off in the US. Also, you can sell the offspring of these things to other people who farm Alpacas. And then they have more Alpacas and you have less but what do they do with more Alpacas? What do you do with fewer?
I am still not too clear about just how you earn money by farming these critters. Doesn't it all sound a bit weird to you? You don't get food stuff from them like milk and, from what I hear, they are not good to eat. So, what is the deal? Do you just make money selling Alpacas? Don't you ever have to buy Alpacas? Wouldn't that cancel out the selling of Alpacas you just did? Why Alpacas?
Do I even want to know?
Trisha
Voice Update: Still good. I was a bit ill yesterday so I ended up sleeping pretty much all day. Didn't use my voice too much but, it was sounding okay in the evening when Hubby came home. I did have a period of time where I was straining to be heard over ambient noise and then my voice was "breaking" a bit. When I backed off the volume it was much better.
4 comments:
Trisha! I laughed out loud reading this. I don't get it either, but they are kind of cute. The spitting thing would be the deal breaker for me.
It's like a really funny pyramid scheme. "We'll buy some Alpacas, and then you buy some from us and sell them to someone else and we'll all be buying and selling Alpacas!"
Oh boy I hope my kids don't ever see that commercial. They have over indulgent grandparents and the next thing I know I'll have a flipping Alpaca in my back yard eating my trees. Do they even eat trees? Nevermind, I don't want to know. :)
I knit with alpaca yarn sometimes. It's warmer than sheep wool. Softer, too. And warm and soft is good for Wisconsin winters :).
Just some random thoughts - if you had alpacas - they would love your voice no matter how it sounded. I'm not sure alpacas need walking/exercising like dogs go, but you could do your voice exercises while excercising them. Wouldn't that be a great visual - Trisha walking her alpacas down the streets in the suburbs of Dallas!!!!
That is all I need to complete my "crazy" profile! To be walking Alpacas down the street while doing voice exercises! Tee-hee!
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