Banana Ears
April 14, 2019
Banana Ears
Banana Ears is a term that I admit that I had never heard,
but after visiting the Windrush Alpaca farm in Clovis, New Mexico, I now know
that it is a term that is usually applied to the ears of Llamas because of
their large banana shaped ears. This is one of the features that one can use to
distinguish between llamas and their cousins the alpacas. Kathy and I had the
good fortune to visit the wonderful Windrush Alpaca farm during our time in
Clovis.
We consider ourselves fortunate that we happened to be in
Clovis during one of the limited days that the farm is open to the public and
at the suggestion of our friends Dakota and Andy, we made sure to add this to
our must see list while in Clovis. We were a little concerned that the very
chilly, damp somewhat rainy weather might close the farm, but thankfully a
little chilly weather is nothing to the average alpaca.
In fact we were greeted by a warm fire, burning in a fire
pit where we met the owners of the farm, a super friendly, knowledgeable and
welcoming couple named Ric and Rosemary Metcalf. Ric gave us an introduction to
the tools of the trade and explained about the methods used in raising alpacas,
which was really fascinating. He even brought a single alpaca up for a close-up
where we could get an up close explanation about what raising these adorable
creatures entails.
It is immediately obvious that this is way more than just a
job for Rosemary and Ric, alpacas are their passion and you can feel their real
excitement about sharing their knowledge and love of these animals as soon as
you meet them. I must admit that I did not know much about alpacas prior to the
visit but found myself immediately intrigued by them.
The highlight of the visit was a trip out into one of the
alpaca enclosures where guests are given food and the alpacas gather around to
eat the provided food right out of your hands. There were about 30 alpacas and
a couple of llamas, which are slightly larger and have those banana ears, in
the enclosure and they were super friendly, soft and of course hungry.
The diversity and individual character of each animal is
readily apparent, as they look remarkably different and exhibit very distinct
individual personalities. We were able to spend about thirty minutes
interacting with the animals before concluding our visit with a stop in their
wonderful small gift shop, where we spent a bit of money on cozy alpaca socks,
hats and stuffed alpaca toys we will be giving as gifts. If you can’t make it
to Clovis, and really I know most of you never will, you can still order their
wonderful products and support the farm by visiting their website, which I have
linked below. And if your travels happen to bring you to Clovis, you should
certainly arrange a visit, it is a really wonderful experience.
In addition to our alpaca farm visit, we all had the
opportunity to check out one of the newest additions to Clovis when we visited the
newly opened tap room of Red Door Brewing. Red Door is brewery based out of
Albuquerque who had what seems like the inspired idea to open a tap room in an
existing bowling alley in Clovis. I believe it is the first craft beer taproom
or brewery to open in Clovis and if the crowds packing the place are any
indication, it was a brilliant move.
The beer and food were really good and as everyplace we went
in Clovis, the people were incredibly friendly. We had a great evening hanging
out, eating and sharing a few beers with Dakota, Andy and Sloane. (Well Sloane
didn’t have any beer). It was a fun evening in advance of the big first
birthday party that was the reason we came to Clovis in the first place. And
while Kathy and I would have been content to just hang around their house playing
with Sloane, our explorations of Clovis were fun indeed.
posted by Michael and Kathy @ 9:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home