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How's your Health Insurance?
I won't even attempt to discuss the political aspects of the question, but I bet you will agree that it is more important than ever to BE and STAY HEALTHY! 
Here are 5 reasons why I believe alpaca breeders have health insurance included with their chosen vocation! Health insurance to me is staying well, taking responsibility for my own health and doing what I can to eliminate risk of illness and disease.
#1 If you do something you love every day of the year, your immune system will be stronger and you will be better able to fight infection. It's called lack of stress! Stress opens the door for all kinds of disease in humans as well as in our animal friends.
#2 Being outside every day is a great bonus of alpaca farming. You will automatically get a healthy dose of Vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D is needed for optimum functioning of the immune and cardiovascular systems, increases white blood cell production and supports the prostate as well as healthy skin and bones. Read more here
#3 Sitting in a herd of alpacas for 30 minutes will lower your blood pressure. Want to test this theory? Bring you blood pressure monitor to Blue Moon Ranch, I'll provide a chair and in 30 minutes or less you will see a difference!
#4 After shoveling beans, dumping a heavy cart and walking all over your farm, you won't need to go to the gym.
#5 Having a reason to work every day is healthy for your mind and spirit. The world of alpaca breeding offers everything from animal husbandry to fiber arts and so much in between. Therapy animals? Alpaca transporting? Designing web sites? Find your passion inside the alpaca industry.
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Win a whole Alpaca Fleece!
Yes, its true. You can win an entire alpaca fleece from our herd. The fleece I have chosen for this contest belongs to Paris, a sweet brown baby girl with fabulous fleece. Yes, this is a cria fleece, so there will be some vegetaion, but Paris (pictured at right) is quite dense and at this time has one of the cleanest cria fleeces in the herd.
Why am I doing this? To get more traffic to my Etsy site! I am starting to create alpaca batts with my new Big Tom electric drum carder. I will be blending alpaca with silk, bamboo and merino to create one of a kind batts for handspinners. I decided the best way to atttract spinners would be to give away somethihg that a spinner would love!
But what if you don't spin? No problem! Several options. You might want to learn to spin! It is an ancient art that is relaxing as well as productive and there are classes offered in most areas. Or you can send it to a processor to have roving or yarn made. Our favorite is Spinderellas. Read more about them here. Fleeces do not have expiration dates if stored properly, so you can take your time to decide what to do if you win the fleece and are not a spinner.
OK, so How do I enter? You can enter as many times*or ways as you like. Each method of entry = 1 entry into the contest. Here's how: 1. Visit our Etsy shop, then come back to the giveaway blog page and leave a comment telling me about something you like in the shop. 2. Leave a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. You must however link to the bluemoon blog. Leave a comment that you tweeted with a direct link to your tweet. *Limit of 4 tweets per day. 3. Write a post on your own blog about our giveaway. You can write whatever you want, just link back to the blog. Leave a comment that you did this with a direct link to your post. Each comment gets an entry number on this blog. You may enter as many ways or times as you like!
When and how will a winner be chosen? The winner will be chosen at random after we toss all the numbers into a hat on May 1, 2010. The winner will be announced on our web site. The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win. Shearing is not yet scheduled for 2010 but will probably be in late May, you will be sent your fleece within a week of shearing.
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Save the Date: Open Barn Days 2010
Yes I know it's early, but you might want to put the date on your calender now. Then you won't have to worry about missing our biggest and best Open Barn days ever. It will be held Saturday and Sunday Sept 25-26, 2010 right here are Blue Moon Ranch.. Hope you will join us!
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is out. Ed and Linda went to Africa! It also explains why the March newsletter is a wee bit late. For the safety of our herd we never announce when we will be away and this time it was impossible to keep in touch via the internet. If you might like to read details of the trip or why we went, check out the 
