Blog

Limited time offer to receive an upgrade to an Alpaca Lovers Tour

Thank you for your support 

As a way to say thank you for all of the support our guests have shown us over the years we would like

We hope everyone has been enjoying the summer. The alpacas are looking forward to a few cooler days, we have had a real warm summer.

Cria season is over, we have 7 males and 5 females. Our smallest cria

Cria season has arrived!

This is always such an exciting time of year, it is also a very unpredictable time of year. The gestation time of an alpaca normally ranges between 340 days to 379 days, with the average being about 345 days. If an alpaca feels it isn't safe or the weather isn't right to give birth she can suspend the pregnancy, our longest here was just over a year, so that makes trying to plan anything just about impossible during cria season. Most of the females stay withi

Special on One-of-a-Kind, Custom, Handmade Alpaca Scarves, 5 days only!

25% off Laslyn Alpaca's beautiful one-of-a-kind alpaca scarves, until December 11th, sign up for the newsletter to get the discount code and notifications about upcoming specials.
https://laslynalpaca.com/collections/scarves

Still looking for that unique gift for someone special?

Want to make a fashion statement yourself?

Just need a really warm, luxuriously soft scarf?
<

Right now, 25% off fawn alpaca ribbed socks.
Quantities are limited so don't delay.

Laslyn Alpaca won't be carrying the fawn ribbed socks any longer, so they are clearing them out.

If you haven't tried their ribbed socks before, now is the time to get yourself a pair at this great price.

These are great year-round socks; they wick away moisture in the summer to keep your feet from feeling hot and sweaty while keeping you warm in the winter. Great for everyd

YOUR MONTHLY NEWS AND UPDATES

Well, where did the last 4 months go to?
One minute we were enjoying the breezy spring weather and getting ready for shearing and this morning
we had a heavy frost.
We hope everyone had a great summer and are now enjoying the colourful cooler days of autumn.
Somehow we missed sending a newsletter through the spring and summer months, probably because
those are our busiest months of the year. We are thankful for everyone who kept u

FINALLY IT'S DONE!

Our Adopt an Alpaca program is now available. This is your chance to have an alpaca without all the chores. There are 21 alpacas in the program and three different Adoption Packages to choose from. These make a terrific gift for the person who is difficult to buy for.
Please check it out and let us know what you think. www.adoptanalpaca.ca

PS. Okay we may still need a few photos of some of the alpacas. They see the camera and they either

Help Name Our Crias

Last month's Name The Cria winner was Jenna C. with the perfect suggestion of Bakwene. It is pronounced Buck-we-knee. Bakwene means smokey in Ojibwe, his fibre is steel grey but it can also be seen as smokey grey. Our FB post from February 12th tells about the meaning of his name and how it ties into his grandmother Kameyosek's roots.

This months cria that needs a name is a beautiful medium silver grey female, she is a niece to Bakwene. Her mom is

Help Name Our Crias
In our last newsletter we asked for your suggestions to name one of our female crias. Wow, we received over 50 name suggestions. Big thank you to Sherry Y. for your suggestion of Takoda. Takoda means “friend to everyone” in Sioux.
Takoda's mom, Michaa is one of our more standoffish alpacas so we are hoping Takoda will grow into the meaning of her name.

We have posted on Facebook about this cria that still needs a name so be sure to check it out. If you a

WEANING THE CRIAS

The winter months are often pretty quiet on the ranch, a good chance to try and get caught up on some paperwork and fibrework. However there are still somethings that are very necessary to do, the main one in February was weaning the crias from their moms.

Crias are usually weaned around the age of 6 – 7 months old. By this time many of the moms are already limiting the amount of nursing the cria can do, mom knows if the cria needs milk or if it is lookin

Volume 1 | January 4 2022

We wanted to let you know about we've been working on.

New tours, new programs and contests with great prizes, check them out!

You can now Book a Tour directly at www.alpacatours.ca

Help Name Our Crias
Can you believe we still have a few crias from this past summer that don't have names yet? We're looking for suggestions. If you are the first to suggest the name we choose you'll receive a free Alpaca Farm Tour as a than

It has been a very different past 20 months, but we are still here with our alpaca tours. We truly are grateful for everyone who has supported our business throughout.

We are open 7 days a week, offering 4 tours a day. (We will be closed Dec. 23 - 26th) Appointments are needed.

Each tour is just for you and whomever you invite to join you. Depending on the weather we may start the tour with a visit to the yearling boys pasture, the majority of the tour takes place in the

Well so much has happened and changed since our last newsletter March 6th, it is a different world we are living in. We hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

For us personally it has had ups and downs, all of the shows and events we attend have been cancelled. On the upside our granddaughter Emily came to visit us March 13th for the March break and she is still here with us. Emily loves spending time with the alpacas.

We are sorry to announce that we are not hosti

In this video Tyrone is 3 days old and full of energy. He is keeping his mom, Tynata and Gramma Almond pretty busy, they spend half their day just following him around the pasture. They will all be glad when the next cria arrives, which should be any day now.

Cria seaon is a great time of year to visit the alpacas. We are expecting another 15 - 18 crias.

Just click the link and book your Private Alpaca Tour right now.
http://www.kickinbackalpacaranch.com/pages/8242/

We are so happy to announce that we are reopening for The Alpaca Tours. Just in time for cria season, we are expecting 15 - 18 crias this season.

We are now starting to accept bookings for tours again.

To ensure the safety of all, we have implemented the following changes:
- All common surfaces are disinfected between groups,
- The maximum number of guests per tour will be 9
- We request that all guests please wear a face mask, a home made cloth mask is ac

Hope everyone that is able to is staying home and staying safe.

As the government allows we will be reopening our Farm Tours. At this moment it is possible we will be able to reopen June 9th. Any bookings made for June 9th and beyond are with the understanding that we may need to reschedule them or cancel them with a full refund depending on how things evolve.

We will update this blog and our Facebook page as soon as we have good news.

UPDATE MARCH 15TH.

Due to Covid 19 we will only be offering Private Tours & The Alpaca Lovers Tour. We will continue to monitor the situation and make changes as required. We have hand sanitizer in the barn and the store, all items - pens, door handles, etc. , credit card equipment are cleaned between each tour.




Sorry you haven't heard from us in quite a while, we have been busy working on our new business, Laslyn Alpaca.  We would like to know what wou

Looking for something unique to change up the home decor a bit ? To give a warm and welcoming feel?

This is our last beautiful 5' X 7' hand woven rug made from our own alpacas fibre. Alpaca is very warm and hypo-allergenic. Think how wonderful that will feel under your feet.

We also have one beautiful 3' X 5' rug in the same pattern.

We will not be having any more of these woven rugs made. As you may know we have changed our direction of making rugs now c

What's missing from this picture?

Tiffany is.

As happens in life things change and it was time for Tiffany to change direction, so we are looking for a new farm hand. This is a permanent, part time position, five mornings a week. Responsibilities include feeding alpacas, cleaning pens, cleaning up manure in pastures.

If interested please email Doug at [email protected].

A big thank you to Tiffany for always being here and takin

Looking for that unique gift?

This is your chance to get everyone something warm and cozy for Christmas. Come to the ranch on Dec. 7th & 8th, 11 - 3 each day.

We'll have all of your favourites including alpaca socks, insoles, mitts and dryer balls along with lots of unique OOAK shawls, scarves, hats and rugs.

There will be hot apple cider simmering away for you while you do your Christmas shopping and visit with the alpacas.

Jenny Lees Bees Wax Wraps

Sorry, I missed posting about a few of the events we have attended recently. We have been busy creating more shawls, mitts and some really awesome hats.

As with everything we create each hat is one of kind. We are always open to suggestions for new items or styles to create, send us an email, send us a doodle or sketch of what you would like us to create and we will see what we can do.
We love creating custom orders.

For the crafters and fibre artists out there don'

We are packing our store up and heading out for fall festivals and fairs.

Our first stop is the Apple Harvest Craft Show in Meaford at the Community Centre & Meaford Curling Club.

This has become one of the largest fall shows in southern Ontario, attracting close to 200 artisans and crafters and spread out over two buildings. It is a great event to start your Christmas shopping, there is something for everyone on your list.

We will be there with our latest shawl

Today was one of those days where the visitors just made me so happy. The kids were so excited to be up close and able to pet and feed the alpacas. I think the parents really enjoyed it too.

We still have times available for appointments on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, book on-line or phone.

Grey County has so many wonderfully talented people, Jamie of RockToGem is another talent we are glad to have with us on Saturday.

Here is a bit about her:
- I moved to Beautiful Ontario in 1989 and am lucky to have a beautiful property in West Grey.
- You will find Natural Healing Crystals,Quality Gemstone Jewelry,and Fun Animal paintings at my booth.
- I have always Loved nature and all that comes with it, I started collecting stones as a young child
- My passio

We are happy to have Malcolm Marshall of Vandeleur Organics join us this year.

Malcolm will have a variety of micro-greens including peas, sunflower, wheatgrass, salad mix, basil, radish and red cabbage.

Here is a bit more from Malcolm -
Vandeleur Organics is a small scale indoor micro-farm located in Flesherton, ON specializing in micro-greens. At Vandeleur Organics, all our products are sustainable and organically grown using non-GMO seeds.

Micro-greens ty

Today's vendor is our youngest vendor, Will of Timmerwerk is just starting to get into the craft shows and markets. We are very happy to welcome him and his one of a kind wooden jewelry.
Will can introduce himself:

About Me:
My name is Will Daize. I am a 17 year old student and the creator of Timmerwerk. I made Timmerwerk as a way to express the desire I had to not only create, but to share something unique with others, and to do it with woodworking makes it perfect. This is

Christine of Rocky Hill Hideaway Peppers and Herbs has been a vendor at local farmers markets for 10 seasons and this is her 11th of selling her products. Her plan is to continue to grow her market business and successfully develop new products while maintaining high quality and value to her customers.

Here is what Christine has to say.
-I moved to the Flesherton area 21 years ago
-I live with my husband, Brett, and have one son, Mason
-I have worked in the area and als

Another first time vendor joining us is Tanya Ellacott.
She loves taking old and used items and making them into something useful and new.

Odd scraps and balls of yarn will find their way into a new project. Clothing, quilting, housewares and décor items from reclaimed, recycled and new textiles and fibres , each piece is unique.

We love the reclaimed and recycled items the best, I especially love the denim purses, such a great way to use those old torn jeans.

We are happy to have Kathleen Cairnie-Sorensen of Spiritual Health Arts join us again this year.

Kathleen's fine art is of a Spiritual Nature and is very unique.

Labyrinths are an ancient form of meditation, going back over 4000 years. They are different from mazes in that there is only one way in, and one way out - no tricks. The purpose is to use your creativity while engaged physically in order to solve problems, de-stress, or simply reach a deeper level of meditation. T

We are happy to have Jenny Lees Bees Wax Wraps join us this year. We all need to be more environmentally savvy and these wax wraps are a great way to go. I'll let Jenny tell you about her wraps.

My wraps are a fun way to express yourself while reducing your use of single use plastic wrap straws and baggies. Each wrap is specially handcrafted with 100% Cotton Fabric sources from all over the world to bring you the finest prints I can find, Locally Sourced Beeswax & 100% Jojoba Oil, mak

Today we have two vendors working together.
Caddyshack Creative & Scarlet Thread ~Creations~

Lori's items are always unique. ...Superhero's, characters, animals and mobiles. Hand crafted golf head racks (for hats or shoes), plus her very original golf head covers. All have her own personal touch of whimsy.

I'm always waiting to see what her latest creation will be.

You can check her items out on http://etsy.me/2tzgeXU

Scarlet Thread ~ Creations~

This year we have another local bakery joining us with some wonderful tasty delights - Browns Family Bakery.

Here is their story:
"We are a mother, daughter baking team but we also get the whole family involved when it's market day etc. We are 3 generations living and working on our family farm. We recently built our house on the property and have started making amazing treats out of our farmhouse kitchen.
We specialize in butter tarts, but pies, scones and cinnamo

We are thrilled to have Big Mama's Kitchen Creatives join us this year.

Big Mama's Kitchen Creations is a locally recognized custom producer of fresh artisan made, gourmet foods: BBQ sauces, spice rubs, hot sauces, marinades and more. They produce great tasting products, using the freshest, local (when available) and most naturally produced ingredients available. Big Mama ensures that all of her products are made without any added chemical preservatives, artificial colors, flav

There is nothing as relaxing as reading a good book. It is even better when you cuddle up and read to a child.

We are so happy to have author Carolyn j Morris joins us.

Carolyn will showcase her seven Railfence Bunch children’s books. Chick and Duckling are always on an exciting adventure in her books!

Also Carolyn’s four Spruce Valley novels will be available. The whole family will enjoy these short fictional novellas that are set on a farm in southern Ont

Sister Acts, Linda & Phyllis Caswell create quality crafts for all occasions. Sister Acts has been creating quality quilting, sewing and knitted items in the local area since 1998. All of their creations are 100% handmade and include full size pieced quilts, runners, placemats, aprons, potholders, dishcloths, scrubbies, baby quilts, along with a full range of baby essentials such as bibs, burpee pads, receiving blankets. They also do custom orders.

These talented ladies aren't on face

There is nothing sweeter than honey, so we are glad to have Hunking Honey joining us again. Another true family business right here in Grey Highlands.

They have wonderful raw honey in various size containers but they also sell bee keeping equipment. If you are interested in having your own hives these are the people to talk to.

HUNKING HONEY
We are the two of the three Hunking boys. Matthew the oldest, lives in Richmond Hill working as a Funeral Director for Marshall F

We would like to introduce you to a new vendor this year Blue Mountain Catering.
They will be with us all day so bring your appetite and have something yummy to eat.

Bacon and egg on a bun or wrap $5.00

Bacon,lettuce&tomato on a bun or wrap $5.00

Halibut and fries $14.00

Cheeseburger $5.00

Beyond meat burger $5.00

Hotdog $4.00

French fries $4.00

Poutine $7.00

Gatorade $2.00

Pop,cof

Today we will start highlighting the vendors that will be at the Open Barn & Country Market. Please visit their Facebook page to see what they have to offer.

Our first vendor: Farm Away, by the Featherstone Family was established over 40 years ago. We are glad to have them join us again for our third year.

Farm Away embraces an old-world approach to farming. Their small herd of Old English Shorthorn cattle and gardens of rhubarb, seasonal vegetables, and wild foraged herbs

Back by popular demand !

We would like to invite you, your family and friends to our 3rd Annual Open Barn & Country Market on Saturday July 27th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

We are excited to have many of the vendors from last year returning to join us as well as several new friends.

We hope to have a few crias playing in the field by July 27th. Be sure to bring your camera.

Here is a look at some of the vendor's that will be here.
Please che

Be sure to mark Dec. 8th & Dec. 9th on the calendar for our Open Barn & Christmas Sale with the Alpacas. From 10 - 3 both days.

This is your chance to do your Christmas shopping and visit the alpacas.

We will have all of our wonderfully warm alpaca products available; socks, hats, mitts, scarves, shawls, insoles. Many new items from our new line - Laslyn Alpaca will be available.
Plus rugs, dryer balls, adorable stuffed alpaca toys.

Our guest vendors are

The weather has turned cool and before long winter will be here. Are you prepared?

We have everything you need to keep you warm while you are outside this winter, socks, hats, mitts, scarves, shawls.

Looking for a perfect Christmas gift? How about a stuffed toy made from alpaca, or the ever sensible dryer balls, we also have beautiful needlefelted area rugs.

The following is our upcoming events and locations, please be sure to check us out.

Novem

Miners Maple Products, more yummy sweetness.

Russell has been making syrup for over thirty years. In 1996 he moved to our current location in Kemble where we have a 220 acre 6000 tap operation.

We fire our evaporator with wood chips and have a reverse osmosis. Our evaporator, sap holding tanks, and syrup barrels are food grade stainless steel. We have a certified kitchen and our main goal is to bring the highest quality that mother nature gives us to our customers.

To make room for our new products from Laslyn we are going to have some great sales at the Open Barn & Country Market.

All Peruvian sweaters are 25% off, if you buy 2 sweaters 30% off. Once the stock on hand is sold we will not be ordering any more.

Machine washable alpaca socks for only $25.00 a pair, for the person who wants warm toes but doesn't want to hand wash their socks.

We have a small selection of XL Hiking Socks for $29.95 a pair.

We have a

Something totally unique to our area, Dark Morning Designs. Dark like an overcast sky when you want to stay in and be cosy.

We are glad to welcome Jen and her alternative fashions to our event.

Here is Jen's bio:

I started sewing by working with Black Orchid Designs in Cambridge Ontario. I took classes and also sewed for the shop. She suggested (Kerri Mercer) that I create my own brand!
I still supply teach and have two teenagers to look after but fashio

We are thrilled that we are able to have a food vendor for this year's event, and we are happy to support the Rotaract Highlanders. This new community service group started last year and have already hosted a few events, but received their official certificate from the Rotary Club of Markdale in March 2018.

Rotaract is an international community of people aged 18-30 (35 in the Highlanders) working together to promote community involvement both in our local community and the inte

Another great addition to our event is author Carolyn j Morris.

Carolyn will showcase her seven Railfence Bunch children’s books. Chick and Duckling are always on an exciting adventure in her books!

Also Carolyn’s four Spruce Valley novels will be available. The whole family will enjoy these short fictional novellas that are set on a farm in southern Ontario.

The illustrations for the Railfence Bunch books are by local artist Richard McNaughton.

Maybe

Grey Highlands is very fortunate to have a hospital and to be building a new one.
Our guest in the Community Booth is the Centre Grey Health Services Foundation. It takes a whole community to support the hospital. Stop by their tent and see what is happening.

The mission of Centre Grey Health Services Foundation is to raise, manage and disburse funds to support and enrich quality health care for residents of and visitors to our community. The government provides less and l

Today's Featured Vendor is our new business – Laslyn – Fabulous Felt, Sustainable Fashion.

Using the fibre from our own alpacas we are now creating everything by needle felting it using a FeltLOOM. Each piece is a unique handcrafted original.

We have created several wonderfully light weight but soft and warm shawls, scarves, hats. We are also creating area rugs, we have several available now but we can also do custom orders to suit your home décor.

For needle fel

Welcome to Frank Duyvelshoff.
We met Frank recently at an art show in Grey Highlands, I loved the peacefulness of his work, and that it was of local places people might recognize.

Frank is a born and raised in Oakville. He recently retired from a senior corporate position and decided to try his hand at Art. He is currently attending Sheridan College in the visual arts continuing education program. He and his wife, Carol have a cottage on Lake Eugenia.

Frank's current

The youngest and one of the newest entrepreneurs at our Open Barn & Country Market is Olivia.

We are happy to welcome Olivia and her new business Finn's Fabulous Bandana Collection. Olivia is a participant in the 2018 Summer Company Program offered through the Business Enterprise Centre - Grey County. This program offers young people a chance to run their own business, The Centre offers so many helpful workshops, great mentors to help the students get off to a great start.

Shpurshire Farm is a 100 acre century farm using old world farming techniques and holistic medicine. Farmer Marni has been a holistic practitioner and Herbalist for over 3 decades with most of her initial training coming from her Grandmother and Great Grandmother at a very early age! Marni was a preteen before she realized that most people went to the in town Pharmacy for their medicinal needs!

She now uses the same approach in her farming . All the animals raised on the farm are old

Hello Again,
It seems there was a computer glitch or user error on the original post of our vendors, so I have re-done the post.

Please check out their FaceBook pages, we are fortunate to have so many talented people joining us for the day.

Abbey's Sweet Treats
Annanda Chaga Mushrooms
Blue M

We are happy to have Kathleen Cairnie-Sorensen join us for her first show of Spiritual Health Arts.

Kathleen's fine art is of a Spiritual Nature and is very unique.

Labyrinths are an ancient form of meditation, going back over 4000 years. They are different from mazes in that there is only one way in, and one way out - no tricks. The purpose is to use your creativity while engaged physically in order to solve problems, de-stress, or simply reach a deeper level of meditatio

Christine of Rocky Hill Hideaway Peppers and Herbs has been a vendor at local farmers markets for 9 seasons and this is her 10th of selling her products. Her plan is to continue to grow her market business and successfully develop new products while maintaining high quality and value to her customers.
Here is what Christine has to say.

-I moved to the Flesherton area 20 years ago
-I live with my husband, Brett, and have one son, Mason
-I have worked in the area and a

This is the third time this young artist has joined us.

Mykel, the Blue Monk Arts, is an artist focusing on fluid acrylic pour painting. Currently Mykel is exploring abstract expressionist painting, emphasizing colours and movement.

By moving away from strict images and focusing on flows, hues, and shapes it allows the paintings to be more subjective in their expressions of patterns, rather than realist images. Mykel, as an artist, is often stifled by perfectionism. Focusi

So many health benefits to be found with Annanda Chaga.

Annanda Chaga is a small family owned and operated company in Collingwood Ontario . We believe that the Chaga Mushroom is truly a gift of nature to be enjoyed by all. We hand pick, clean & sort and air-dry our wild harvested Chaga Mushrooms with loving care.
Inspired by his own health recovery and that of his wife, Heather and immediate friends and family, Blair started Annanda Chaga to bring an honest and pure Canadian so

During shearing season we are always looking for volunteers to help and Brenda came to help shear on Mother's Day. We are happy to have her join us now for our 2nd Open Barn & Country Market.

Brenda Hudson of Georgian Jewelry Creations designs and hand makes a variety of gemstone jewelry including aromatherapy jewelry. With extensive knowledge of gemstones and their metaphysical properties, and using carefully chosen top quality gemstones, Brenda creates bracelets, necklaces and acces

There is nothing sweeter than honey, so we are glad to have Hunking Honey joining us again. Another true family business right here in Grey Highlands.
They have wonderful raw honey in various size containers but they also sell bee keeping equipment. If you are interested in having your own hives these are the people to talk to.

HUNKING HONEY
We are the two of the three Hunking boys. Matthew the oldest, lives in Richmond Hill working as a Funeral Director for Marshall Fune

Need a yummy dessert or just a sweet treat? Be sure to check out Abbey's Sweet Treats.

Abbey Johnston has been a pastry chef in the Clearview, Collingwood area since 2002 . She has just recently started Abbey's Sweet Treats. She sells her pies, tarts, cupcakes, cookies and other sweet treats at the local Farmers markets on the weekends.
Abbey likes to use as local and fresh ingredients as she can in all of her baked goods. All her yummy desserts are made from scratch.

Our next vendor is Eco Tabs Canada - perhaps not a typical farmers market product but it is definitely something that is needed in our rural area.

Eco Tabs Canada offers a natural solution for your waste water. Everyone in rural country has a septic tank and perhaps a pond on your property. Eco Tabs boosts your septic tank and pond with natural occurring bacteria.
Our modern day lifestyle adds detergents and anti-bacterial soaps to the septic tank making it operate less efficie

Sisters Acts, Linda & Phyllis Caswell create quality crafts for all occasions. They have been quilting, sewing, knitting & crocheting beautiful handmade items for many years; they have been part of the local craft show scene since 1998.

All of their creations are handmade and include full size pieced quilts, runners, placemats, aprons, potholders, dishcloths, scrubbies, baby quilts, along with a full range of baby essentials such as bibs, burpee pads, receiving blankets. They also do

We are glad to have our friends Fred & Jan from Opa's Workshop join us again for the Open Barn & Country Market.

Fred is a 6th Generation Cabinetmaker, using a scroll saw since age 9, retired and now a hobbyist, (a very busy hobbyist) selling amazing bowls and scroll work at markets and craft shows year round.

Fred creates very unique jewelry boxes, yarn bowls, serving or just beautiful decorative hand crafted bowls. Wooden puzzles of dragons, elephants and more. All from

Today we will begin highlighting the vendors that will be at the Open Barn & Country Market. Please visit their Facebook pages to see what they have to offer.

Our first vendor: Farm Away, by the Featherstone Family was established 40 years ago. We are glad to have them join us again this year.

Farm Away embraces an old-world approach to farming. Their small herd of Old English Shorthorn cattle and gardens of rhubarb, seasonal vegetables, and wild foraged herbs, berries and

Everyone had so much fun last year we are doing it again !

We would like to invite you, your family and friends to our 2nd Annual Open Barn & Country Market on Saturday July 28th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

You will be able to watch up close our new crias playing or just napping, we should have at least 10 crias by July 28th. Be sure to bring your camera.

We are excited to have most of the vendors from last year returning to join us as well as several new frie

I think, or at least hope we are finally done with the snow. We are behind schedule with many things this year, including setting up our shearing schedule.

We are coming into our busy season, we have alpacas that need to be halter trained, time to start shearing our alpacas and our clients alpacas. The most excitement of course is that we are expecting 19 crias this year and the first one is due on May 28th.
Most farmers bring in their harvest in the fall, for alpaca farmers s

We were very happy to have Ayngelina Brogan of Bacon is Magic visit our ranch a few years ago. The following is an updated version of her article.
There are so many wonderful things to see and do in Grey County. We often are part of tours for Grey County Tourism.

Copy the link and paste into a browser to see what Ayngelina has to say about Kickin' Back Alpaca Ranch and some of her favourite spots in Grey County!
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ayngelina-brogan/ontarios

Come join us and all of the moms and their crias (babies) from this year in the barn.

For your convenience the store will be setup in the barn with all of our products made from our warm and luxurious alpaca fibre.

Come check out our incredibly warm hats, scarves, cowls, sweaters, mitts and shawls. For snuggling and relaxing we have alpaca throws, duvets and rugs to keep you warm. The adorable soft stuffed toys will warm your heart. If you want to create your own hats and m

Here is our upcoming schedule, if you need more details please contact us or check out our Facebook page .

Ancaster Lions Club
29th Charity Craft & Gift Show
November 4th & 5th
at the Ancaster Fairgrounds

Paris Optimist Craft Show & Coffee House
November 11th & 12th
at the Paris Fair Grounds

Christmas Craft & Gift Market
November 18th & 19th
at the Grand River Raceway, Elora

Blue Mountain Christmas Gift Show

Be sure to check out these vendors, we have a real variety of products.

Today's Featured Vendor is our youngest vendor and he has the brightest smile and a heart of gold.
Meet 6-year old Oliver, a philanthropist-in-training. Working hard to make the lives of kids in hospital better. Since 2014 Oliver has been selling lemonade to raise funds for the Child Life department at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. To date he has raised over $5000 to help sick kids.
Please

We would like to introduce a few more of the vendors that will be attending our Open Barn & Country Market on July 29th.
The Featherstone Family will be at the market. Their small herd of Old English Shorthorns and gardens of rhubarb, seasonal vegetables, and wild foraged herbs, berries and flowers make up the beauty of their sustainable farm.
They have grass-fed beef, assorted birdseed, jams/jellies/preserves/vinegar's, seasonal fruits, veggies, honey, woodcutting boards & spoons.

We are glad to have Opa's Workshop at the Open Barn & Country Market.
Fred is a 6th Generation Cabinetmaker, using scroll saw since age 9, retired and now a hobbyist selling amazing bowls and scroll work at markets and craft shows. Jan is the organizer of the business and Fred's biggest fan.
https://www.facebook.com/opasworkshop/

Karen of Forgar Creations makes delightful wire work in copper and artistic silver wire. She also uses beads crystals and semi precious stones. K

Be sure to mark July 29th on the calendar, you won't want to miss this event !
You will be able to watch the new crias up close, be sure to bring your camera.

We are excited to have the following vendors join us, please check out their pages.

Opa's Workshop

Farmaway

Forgar Creati

Offkiltertourist

Click to see what the OffKilter Tourist has to say about Kickin' Back Alpaca Ranch!

Come celebrate Family Day with us and the alpacas at the Markdale Recreation's 4th Annual Family Day.
Stop by and meet Meringue and Kit Kat, they will be outside in their tent, then go inside where we will have our wonderfully warm alpaca products. Everything you need to keep warm from head to toe, socks, scarves, hats, head bands, we will also have our duvets, rugs and super soft stuffed toys.

Come spend the entire day there are so many things to do starting with pancake breakfa

Looking for something a bit different to do over the Christmas break?
Why not come out and visit the alpacas? We offer family farm visits for $20.00. You get to be up close with the alpacas, learn a bit about them and how and why we raise them.

Our cozy store will also be open if you are interested in buying some wonderfully warm alpaca products. We have everything from socks to hats, sweaters, shawls, rug, duvets and stuffed toys.

We are open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:0

We have everything you need to be warm this winter all made from luxurious alpaca fibre. Come check out our incredibly warm hats, scarves, cowls, sweaters, mitts, shawls. We have alpaca throws and rugs to keep you warm while relaxing inside. The adorably soft stuffed toys will warm your heart. If you want to create your own hats and mitts we still have yarn available.
We are fully stocked with alpaca socks and insoles, they make the perfect gift.

For the first time we have alpaca

Well it was a great summer but winter is on the way and time to move indoors.
Our farm store will be open Saturday Oct. 29th & Sunday Oct. 30th.

We are attending several new events away from Grey County this season and hope to see you there.

Saturday, Nov 5th, Sunday Nov. 6th 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ANCASTER LIONS CRAFT & SHIFT SHOW, at the Marritt Hall, Ancaster Fairgrounds.

Friday, November 11th, 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Saturday, November 12th, 9:00 a.m. t

We are busy halter training our crias for the Alpaca Ontario Show. This year we are taking 3 males and 2 females to the show.
It is one of the largest alpaca shows in Canada at the Orangeville Agricultural Society Event Centre.

200 alpacas are registered for the show both huacaya and suri alpacas. There will be two rings of alpacas showing at the same time.

There will be vendors selling wonderful alpaca products, plus three of the fibre mills from Ontario will have boo

Wow, December already! Not much time to finish your Christmas shopping. We only have three more events this month.

Dec. 5th we are at the Meaford Hall from Noon till 4:00.

Dec. 6th we are opening up our barn and having a sale there. You will be able to see the alpacas up close while doing your shopping. We will have some warm apple cider and candy canes. In the spirit of Christmas we will be accepting donations for the Markdale Food Bank .

Dec. 12th is our season

The farmer's markets and fall fairs are all done for the season, time to move indoors.
The following events are all confirmed and we are ready to meet you there.

Saturday, October 17th, 9:30 to 4:00 FALL COLOURS CRAFT AND QUILT SHOW at the GNE Fairground- 2220 Fairgrounds Road N. ( 1 km south of Highway 26) Clearview Twp.

Saturday, November 7th .- 9 to 4 COUNTRY CHRISTMAS CRAFT SHOW , Goderich District Collegiate Institute (Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving)

Where has the time gone since my last update? It has been busy as usual around here.
This winter was much colder than last year but not as much snow. With the constant freezing temperatures our pipes in the girl's barn froze in February and remained that way until mid April!

Carolyn completed the Certified Classer course and received her certificate at the Alpaca Ontario Annual Meeting. What does this mean to our customers? It means that our fibre will be better classed, graded a

Our store will be closed Monday Dec. 22nd. We will be open again on Tuesday Dec. 23rd for any last minute shopping.

Remember the blizzard just before Christmas last year?
Don't wait till the last minute to do your Christmas shopping this year.

We have lots of wonderfully warm hand knit hats, cowls, scarves, mittens all from our own alpacas, plus lots of other carefully chosen alpaca products from Peru.

We are open this Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 13th & 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Through the week by chance or appointment.

Come join us at the Meaford Hall Saturday December 6th - 12:00 till 4:00 p.m..
This is our last Christmas market. We still have a great selection of wonderful alpaca products to keep you warm this winter. We received more hand knit hats, cowls this past week. Alpaca makes a wonderful Christmas gift, it wears well, it is very warm and very soft. We have hats, scarves, cowls, socks, gloves, sweaters, shawls, blankets and rugs.

Get your Christmas shopping done early this year. Remem

Here it is Nov. 20th and we are in the middle of a blizzard, the school buses have been cancelled for the past 3 days, roads are closed. We could barely see our barn this morning and it is cold.
We hope you can come and join us at one of the last 4 Christmas events we will be attending. We have lots of lovely warm hats, scarves, socks, headbands, sweaters and blankets all made from alpaca.

Saturday, November 22nd, 10:00 – 2:00 CAMBRIDGE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL MARKETPLACE, 229 Myers R

Please check the post below for all of our upcoming events, we have added two new events this year.
We have just received another batch of lovely handknit hats, leg warmers and mitts from one of the local ladies all made from our own alpacas.

Saturday, Nov. 8th we will be at the Collingwood Leisure Time Club for their Annual Craft & Bake Sale, 100 Minnesota Street, Collingwood from 9 - 2. They have a great variety of crafters there, lots of baking, a silent auction and a 50/50 dr

The farmers market season is winding down, only two left. We will be in Meaford Friday, Oct. 3rd & Friday, Oct. 10th. Saturday October 4th we will be at the Flesherton Farmer’s Market. Saturday October 11th will be our final market event of the season and we will be in at the Collingwood Farmer’s Market.
We are now lining up our Christmas Bazaars and Craft Shows schedule. The following events are all confirmed and we will update the list as we sign up for more shows. If you know of an e

This Saturday, November 1st we will be at A Country Christmas Craft Show at the Goderich District Collegiate. Sponsored by Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving.
We will be there with lots of wonderfully warm and soft alpaca products: hats, scarves, socks, fingerless gloves, sweaters, blankets and rugs even some stuffed toys. Give the gift of warmth for Christmas this year, give alpaca.

Over 95 vendors selling jewelry, knitting, pottery, cards, reborn dolls, stained glass, wo

This Saturday, Oct. 18th will be the last event we attend where we bring two of our alpacas - Blizzard and Hayley. The Fall Colours Craft & Quilt Show is indoors at the GNE Fairgrounds, (2220 Fairgrounds Rd. N, (1 km south of Hwy 26 Clearview Twp). After that all events will be inside and for some reason the facilities don't want livestock inside .
Come say hello to the alpacas and start your Christmas shopping - we have lots of wonderfully warm and soft alpaca products available.

Happy Thanksgiving! Sadly this is the last weekend for our outdoor markets.
We will be at Meaford Farmers' Market Friday from 3:00 to 7:00. Come have a piece of apple pie and check out all the great vendors.

Saturday bright and early you can find us at the Collingwood Downtown Farmers' Market.

Another new exciting event for us on Sunday and Monday we will be at the Erin Fall Fair http://www.erinfair.ca/

We now have some wonderful 100% alpaca boucle yarn, han

The year 2013 has been a very busy one for us but we have met so many nice people that we wouldn’t have met if not for our alpacas. We have seen the smiles and laughter that our alpacas bring to others and that makes it all worthwhile. We want to thank our friends and family for their support and encouragement.
This year we regularly attended the Shelburne, Meaford and Flesherton farmers markets. Weather permitting we would have two alpacas along with us, we now have 12 trained alpacas that

We had a very busy summer attending three farmers markets each week. It is always exciting to share our alpacas with people.
Time to start thinking about Christmas shopping. Give the gift of alpaca; it is very warm, soft and hypo-allergenic.

We now have a lot of hats, scarves and headbands that have been locally knit using our own alpaca yarn. Be sure to check them out carefully, each item is labeled as to which alpaca’s fibre was used to produce that item. Perhaps you would li

Sunday October 6th, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

An event for the entire family- come visit our adorable, soft alpacas.

-Come see what all the excitement with alpacas is about; get up close and personal with an alpaca.

-Learn more about the wonders of alpaca fibre.

-Bring your camera, we have over 60 alpacas.

-Watch the fibre demonstrations.

-Needle felting craft for the children.

-Be sure to stop by our store and che

Another wonderful cria season “we had 3 dark fawn females" Zoom Zoom, Bonnie Blue and Halley, 1 white fluff ball female named Zemma and two silver grey tuxedo males, Sheridan and Khan. All have done very well and are growing so fast. Three of the crias arrived on a shearing weekend, so that slowed down the process a bit, but our helpers loved being able to watch the first steps of the crias.
Shearing in May this year was a bit more challenging thanks to Mother Nature's mood swings. One week

A group of seniors from the Adult Day Program in Dufferin County had the opportunity to visit the Kickin' Back Alpaca Ranch near Markdale in June. During their tour of the ranch they not only saw the 65 alpacas and their newborn babies, they also were introduced to art of spinning yarn from the alpaca fleece which is used for fine woolen products.
Shelburne Free Press Photos by Lynn Codd July 15, 2013

Remember to check out our facebook page, it is updated with photos more often t

Well by the calendar spring is here, by the weather it doesn't feel spring like yet.
The second weekend of April we attended the Alpaca Ontario Annual Spring Show in Orangeville. We had four entries in the Mary-Ann English Spin Off Competition and we won 4 “1st place ribbons with scores of 89/100 for Rosebud, 91/100 for Kanata, 92.5/100 for Shadow, plus 1 ribbon for Highest Score in Colour by High Plains Elvis with a score of 98.5/100. We are very pleased with these results. We also receive

If you are still looking for the perfect Christmas gift “give the gift of warmth" Alpaca.

We will be open daily 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Dec. 23rd. We are now accepting VISA and MasterCard to make your shopping even easier.

We have something for everyone! Warm cozy alpaca socks, gloves, mitts, scarves, cool chullo hats. Beautiful alpaca shawls, sweaters for men and ladies. Needle felting kits, alpaca hand puppets, super soft alpaca stuffed bears, lions, horses. For the k

We would like to thank everyone who came out to our first Alpaca Farm Day and Open Barn. It was a great success; we had a steady stream of guests all afternoon. There were many local neighbours and friends, others not so local, we especially would like to thank the other alpaca farmers who came out -your moral support is much appreciated. Of course a big thank you to Peak Builders for your support and the great barbecuing and our friends and family who all helped make the day such a success.

Sunday September 30th, 2012. Noon - 5:00 p.m. Click the link below for complete event details:

The saying “Time fly’s when you’re having fun!” is true. We have had a busy few months, but have had a lot of fun too.

In June we became vendors at The Flesherton & District Farmers Market every Saturday. We take two alpacas with us, they certainly are attention getters. The first two months we took yearlings, Yazhi and Strawberry Moon. The last two weeks we have taken Raven and her three week old cria Shasta. Everyone loves babies.

In July we went to Career Day at two of

Things have been pretty busy for the month of May. It seems that fencing on a farm is an endless job. We put up more fencing by the females barn so they now have a huge, lush pasture with shade. We video taped the girls racing about the new pasture, it will soon be posted on our facebook page.

We spent a couple of busy weekends shearing our herd, thankfully we finished before the weather got really warm. We really appreciate our family and friends who came to help us shear, our young

Come join us at the Alpaca Ontario Spring Show at the Orangeville Fairgrounds on Saturday April 14th. This is the largest annual full fleece alpaca halter show in eastern Canada, there will be over 350 alpacas attending. Free admission! We are taking three of our young alpacas to the show.

Judging of the alpacas takes place in two rings, all day Saturday, the grand champions will compete on Sunday morning. The young alpaca farmers will demonstrate their handling skills in the Youth Sh

We recently volunteered to man the Alpaca Ontario booth for one day at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. What a great experience! There was a lot of curious interest in the alpacas, and others who were serious about alpacas and the fibre. We never had more than a few minutes of quiet time. Thanks to Henry Mengers of Andre's Alpacas for allowing Cido and Bota to stay at the Royal, they are both very "personable" alpacas.

Carolyn took her spinning wheel and was amazed at t

Welcome to our brand new website. Thank you to Tyler and everyone at HerdSurfers for their patience as we worked through designing the logo and website. We still have a few things to add and will get to that soon.

This site will allow us to keep the information on our herd up to date, and include as much information as is available for each alpaca.

Please look around, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail or call us.

If you would like t