Christmas Thank You

Thank you to everyone who supported us throughout the year. Your support helps our farm grow and keeps dollars in the local economy.

Merry Christmas!

Definitley not within baseline....

I have just finished a program on chronic pain and one of the main pillars in pain management is you can do whatever you want as long as you do it within your baseline. Baseline = intensity & duration without causing the body to scream "stop it, stop it NOW!"

So, my task for today was to bring some firewood to the porch. No problem it say, half hour tops.

Then I realized the most efficient thing to do would be to use the trailer. Oh, wait! The trailer needs to be emptied.

Step 1 - Dig out the barn doors after the snow/rain that fell on Sunday.

Step 2 - Hook up a full/heavy trailer to the tractor.
Step 3 - Drive tractor to the access to the field.
Step 4 - Assess the snow situation, should be OK after all I have the snowblower attached.
Step 5 - Blow my way into the filed and fling manure out of trailer while wondering where my baseline is.
Step 6 - Attempt to blow my way out of the field. Not so easy...no chains on tires.
Step 7 - Detach trailer, shovel snow from under tractor. Apparently my baseline was quite a while ago.
Step 8 - Back tractor all the way out of the field.
Step 9 - Tractor is stuck again, damn the baseline, shovel the tractor out again.
Step 10 - Pull the trailer across and out of the field by hand through the snow.

Finally I got the empty trailer attached to the tractor.

Now to haul and stack the wood!

Latest creation

I know, I know - Christmas creep is getting worse every year. As an artisan & crafter we do have to plan ahead though.

Here's a shot of our latest market & website offering, hand knotted Christmas wreaths.

Wild Goose Chase

This morning we took off to find a couple of errant geese , a  Barnacle Goose and a Pink Footed Goose.

We had great success, the birds were there in a bunch of about 2000 other geese.

Barnacle Goose

 Pink Footed Goose

A Masterpiece!

Check out this masterpiece created by the balloon artist at the Truro Farmer's Market.

A balloon alpaca!

Durty Boyz Soap Collection

We love making soap at Rocaro Alpacas and have developed a (mostly) men's line called Durty Boyz.

We have crafted Pub Crawl Beer Soap, Gone Fishin' Atlantic Kelp Soap, Borning Buzz Espresso Refresher Soap and not to leave the Ladies out, a Luxury Lavendar Shea Butter Soap.

Available on our website.

Another season ends

Another busy season with the helpers draws to a close.

It was great meeting you all; Dirk, Terry, John, Caroline, Sophie, Nicole, Margaret, Alvero, Rebecca, Selina and Zoe.

Your help was amazing and we hope each of you had as much fun being here as we did hosting you.

Finally finished!

The new barn and pasture area is finally finished and the guys are on it until the weather is too cold to supply water. There were a lot of hands involved in making this happen, many thanks to you all. It's wonderful to see the critters from the sunroom and the kitchen table.

Welcome new critters

The new animals handled the trip from Ontario to Nova Scotia easily, but they were glad to get out of the trailer just the same.

Opulence, Caleigh, Rosalee, Prairie and baby Fresca

Atemu, A junior herdsire

New housing project

With a growing herd we find we need to open up some new pasture space for better rotation. This means     an additional structure to house animals away from the main barn. At 20 x 40 it will be versatile enough for some time to come.

Open Farm Day - Sept 15

Nova Scotia Open Farm Day is Sunday September 15th.

Rocaro Alpacas is participating this year as usual. Come visit us between 10am and 4pm

We will have a couple of animals available for touching so you feel the soft luxuriousness of this fiber. There will also be some displays on the caring for the animals and the processing of the fiber.

Additionally the shop will be set up so you pick up this years pair of socks or treat yourself to one of our unique hand woven scarves or rugs.

Rustic Magazine

Here is an article about our farm in Rustic Magazine

Final Cria of the season

This cute little fellow and his Mom Rocaro's Alteza will be off to Arriba Linea at the end of August.

More construction

The summer shed for the guys is a bit on the small side so we decided to add a covered "porch" on one end.

Rob with Helpers Caroline and Rebecca

Bird Baths

This summer the birds are missing the pond that we filled in last year. We had a couple of sheets of copper hanging around and thanks to Rebeca and Caroline they became artistic hammered copper bird baths.

Additions to the herd

Bacio and Sweet Dreams have both delivered healthy cria.
Bacio has provided a beautiful brown male for our herd.

Sweet Dreams has delivered a charming young lady. This pair will be off to Arriba Linea in August.

Sexy and I know it!

Here's a shot of the less glamorous farming chores.

We had a little trouble with the pasture vac and I was literally up to my elbows!

Cottage renovation

We have a wonderful pair of helpers with us now and they were tasked with creating a sunflower on the front of the cottage.

The results are spectacular!

More great pictures of Rocaro Alpacas

A professional photographer, Emma Rose captured some outstanding images of shearing day.
Check out her work at http://www.emmarosephotography.ca/blog/2013/06/non-wedding-photojournalism-alpaca-shearing-in-nova-scotia/.

Shearing day again

We are a little later with the shearing this year, June instead of May. Given the chilly weather in May this is not so bad.

The expectant moms are now in the nursery pasture awaiting the arrival of their cria, the boys are back in their summer pastures and the barn is back in order.

We required fewer helpers this year and things still ran smoothly. Now I have another mountain of fleece to prepare for the mill.

Some of the guys "before" (courtesy of Emma Rose)

And the boys after shearing. Handsome, eh?

Hummingbirds return

The hummers have returned right on schedule.

Our friend Chantal took these amazing photos.

Dog Tired!

Our dog Sultan is getting old and tired. He often will lie down wherever he happens to be and fall fast asleep for long periods. This can be a bit of a problem as he will fall asleep in the middle of the kitchen or in a doorway. He is deaf and cannot hear us asking him to move.

Recently I found him fast asleep with his head in his water bowl. Needless to say the bowl was empty and the water was all over the floor.

Oh to be able to sleep so soundly!

Turtle Time

It's early June and we have seen the first of the Painted Turtles on the property laying eggs. They wander onto the gravel trail near the lake, dig holes about the size of a Twoonie and deposit the eggs. We counted 9 turtles the other evening.

Two things I have recently learned about Painted  Turtles: they live in every province (but not Territories) of Canada and although they are a bit smaller than a dinner plate in size they typically live up to 50 years.

Cold, wet May

We are suffering through a cold, wet May in Nova Scotia.

We were fortunate here at Rocaro Alpacas to have two wonderful helpers from Australia this month. While we are not able to get much of the outdoor work started, let alone completed we are making great headway with inside chores. We have labelled all of the new shipment of socks and yarns, felted over a hundred bars of soap, made rope wreaths and made soap too.

We are having a great time - here the gals are enjoying some time in front of the woodstove.

New residents

This past week we started to see Tree Swallows hanging around the farm. We hurried off to get some Swallow houses and the birds were moved right in the next morning.

The tent went up and the tent came down!

We spent most of last Sunday constructing the 10 x 20 tent to provide our growing male herd with some additional shelter in the summer pasture. The wind was howling and the day was an exercise in futility.

Eventually we got the thing in place and well anchored down, or so we thought.

On Tuesday we came home after a dat in town only to find the wind had taken the tent down again.

Safely back from the trip

We returned safely from the trip to the show in Ontario.

We placed as suspected, with a third and a fourth in the highly competitive white class. We had a great time connecting with old friends and doing some wheeling & dealing with respect to alpacas.

Oreo went to Arriba Linnea, and we brought home his replacement Naycoyo to introduce some new bloodlines into the herd.

Spring fever!

The guys and the girls lined up along their respective sides of the fence to check each other out.

Spring is definitely in the air!

Extreme eating

The girls are out enjoying a spring day.

Off farm adventure

There is a rare bird (for these parts) hanging around. A Crested Caracara, native to Mexico, and points south. Somehow it has arrived in Nova Scotia and naturally we had to take a trip to see it.

On the run

We introduced 2 teenagers to the male herd today. There was much chasing around as they settled out their new pecking order. It's established now and all is calm.

It's Spring

Finally it feels like spring.

We are busy training the alpacas that will be travelling to the Ontario show in April.

As part of the preparation I took a radio to the barn to get them used to some new sounds.

I tuned it to what I thought was a middle of the road station, turned it up and left it on for the day.

Later in the afternoon when I returned for evening chores, I notice that the radio is blasting opera music and the alpacas are all laying in the barn looking very peaceful.

Quite the cultured bunch!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Partric's Day!


A different version of the traditional blessing which I personally love;


May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be at your back

May the sun shine soft upon your face

May the rain fall soft upon your fields

And may you be half an hour in Heaven

Before the Devil knows you're dead!



And for the true Irish among us - Chocolate Guinness Cake. Yum!!

Market Day Sunday Feb 10

Caroline has been busy weaving rugs and scarves. The mill has made us some more socks. The knitters have provided some new items as well.

So just in time for Valentines Day we will be at the Halifax Seaport Market on Sunday February 10th.

Hope to see you there.

Winter So Far

The winter time is a quiet period for us on the Alpaca Farm. We were virtually sold out of all our product after a busy November and December so we took a break from the markets. Thank you for your support of our business.

I am about to go into my busy time at work so we did escape to Costa Rica for a week at the beginning of January. We did an ecotour with Air Canada Vacations. Recommend it to anyone who enjoys warm tropical places and the opportunity to see variety of birds wildlife and scenery.

Since then Caroline has been busy weaving rugs and scarves and I have made a few hats. The animals do not mind the cold and snow but the waterers do sometimes freeze and moving the snow and disposing of the manure becomes a challenge. This January and now February has had more day below -10 than normal for Nova Scotia.

Keep Warm!