Alpacas From Eighth & Mud

Location: Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada
Address: 232 Eighth Road East.
Date: May 2015
Website: store.alpacasfromeighthandmud.com 

  During Hamilton's Doors Open 2015 we went to visit an alpaca farm.  Alpacas are a domesticated species similar to the llama and are most often kept for their wool. We have always loved alpacas as there is something special about them.  The group of alpacas at Eighth and Mud is no exception, as each one has its own look and personality.  Below are just a few of the alpacas that greeted us as we arrived.

  Actually, the first one to greet us was a Canada goose that was protecting its nest by the side of the driveway.  It even tried to take a nip out of the man directing traffic when he ventured too close.
 

  We parked our car and carefully walked past the goose on our way to the farm.  It was a very busy day as the Doors Open event had drawn more of a crowd than anticipated.

 After spending some time with the alpacas outside, we decided to head into the barn and see what was going on.  Inside was a group of younger, fluffier alpacas.  They have been trained to only relieve themselves inside a wooden square area on the floor of the barn and they all took turns using it.  They all kept making sounds like they couldn't come to a decision. Such as "What would you like to do today?"   "Hmmmm? I don't know."  You can hear this in the video below.
 

  Attached to the barn was an area where they prepared the alpaca fibres so that they could use them to make the clothing and gifts they sell in their store.  The fibres are combed and sorted and finally spun into wool.  You can see the blue machine for spinning the wool in the corner of the picture below.  They also had a giant calculator for adding big numbers.

 

  The alpacas come in all sorts of patterns and colours.  We were told that some people request wool from a specific animal and when they spin the wool they keep each fleece separate.  We were also told that we could come back on alpaca shearing day in a few weeks time and see the first step of the whole process.  Actually, the real first step is that this colourful group of alpacas works on growing their coats.  We planned to return again and pay them another visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Map of Our World
Alpacas From Eighth & Mud

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Post # 75

Secretary Birds

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address: 2920 Zoo Dr.
Date: Feb 2014
Website: www.sandiegozoo.org

  Take a memo.  File these reports.  Cancel my 10 o'clock.  These birds have nothing to do with this kind of secretary.  In fact these days someone performing this type of work would be an administrative assistant.  Also, more and more, these tasks might be performed with a cellphone.  Anyway, having one of these almost four feet tall birds strutting around the office would probably freak people right out.
  We have seen secretary birds at the Toronto Zoo as well as at both the San Diego Zoo & San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  In the wild they can be found in the savannahs of Africa. If you see them up close they have some wonderful eyelashes and red and yellow around their eyes. 

  You can tell from their beaks that they are a bird of prey.  You can also tell that they are very strong.    We enjoy watching them walk around on their extra long legs.  (See the video at the bottom of this post for a bit of walking, but mostly standing, by one of these impressive birds). In fact they prefer not to fly, but capture most of their food by stomping it to death.  Their food usually consists of small mammals and reptiles.  They appear on many stamps, flags and emblems across Africa and after seeing a few of them for ourselves we can understand why they are so admired. 

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Map of Our World
San Diego Zoo (Secretary Birds)

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Post # 74

I Promise It Will Always Be This Way

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: Lamport Stadium 1151 King Street W.
Date: Oct 2008
Website: www.jonsasaki.com
 
  Nuit Blanche is an evening of art and performances which started in France but is now popular in cities around the world, particularly in Europe.  Toronto is one of six Canadian cities that have held Nuit Blanche or White Night.   We attended the event in 2008 with close to one million others.
   One of our favourite performances was “I Promise It Will Always Be This Way”.  This piece consisted of a group of mascots rallying the crowds at Lamport Stadium.  Nuit Blanche runs from about 7 PM until 7AM the next morning.  As the evening wore on the mascots would get to test their endurance.

  We heard the music pumping as we headed towards the stadium. We walked inside and came out in the bleachers.  Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol was cranking out from the sound system and a group of mascots were keeping the crowd going.  There was a snowman, a cat playing a guitar, a bald eagle and many more.  We were instantly caught up in the excitement.  It's funny how if a group of University students were trying to get the crowd going by jumping and dancing around you might get into it, but dress those same students up in animal costumes with over-sized heads and they can easily whip the crowd into a frenzy.

  We arrived about midway through the evening and there were already a few mascots in dire need of a break  Just as we walked into the stadium, a bald eagle went and lay down on a bed and did not move for the rest of the time we were there.  Some of the performers may have been wondering why they got involved in all of this in the first place.  That was the point of the art experiment.  To see how things would evolve as the night stretched on.  To challenge both the performers and the audience.  We are not sure what we ended up taking away from it all, except that it was a memorable bit of fun. 

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Map of Our World
Nuit Blanche (I Promise It Will Always Be This Way)

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Post # 73