Foss Mountain Farm hosts Alpaca Farm Tour

Foss Mountain Farm in Eaton will participate in the New England Alpaca Breeders Holiday Farm Tour Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 7 and 8. Owners Lana Nickerson and Dick Dole will be showing eight alpacas, which include four huacaya females, two with babies at their sides and two young huacaya herdsires, one of which has won many blue ribbons in shows around New England and Pennsylvania.Foss Mountain is spread over 15 acres on the side of the blueberry-topped mountain that gave it its name. It has been operating as an alpaca farm for slightly over a year. Keeping the alpacas company are two horses, two pet goats and three dogs, two of which are livestock guardians. In the house are a number of beautiful pedigreed Ragdoll cats that are also bred at the farm. The farm has warm and luxurious alpaca products available, such as gloves, ear-warmers, socks, sweaters and raw alpaca fleece harvested from the animals living on the farm. Owners Lana and Dick spent many years in the Mount Washington Valley skiing and dreamed of one day finding a farm and moving there permanently. After early retirement from the utility industry in Massachusetts, they realized their dream and are now living the alpaca lifestyle in a place they consider to be one of the most beautiful on earth.Alpacas were domesticated over 5,000 years ago in the mountains of South America for their fleece. They are shorn every year. Their fiber is warmer than prized wool and as prized as cashmere. Alpacas are intelligent, gentle animals that communicate with quiet expressions called humming. Many alpaca owners are weavers or spinners who make different types of clothing from alpaca fleece. New England's alpaca owners come from all walks of life but have at least one thing in common, a fondness for these charming and magnificent animals.