Holiday Weekend Fun with the Alpacas

Do you remember all that yarn from Friday's post? Did I tell you what it was for? Well, I don't think I did so I will now. All that yarn and alpaca fibery things were for the alpaca display we had on Saturday.

There is this really cool place here in town (actually just south of town) on M-66 called Station 66. It was an old gas station in the 50's and it sat on the property untouched for 50 years after they closed before anyone did anything with it. Now the younger generation has opened it up using a lot of the original stuff as decorations. It's got a really cool nostalgic feeling to it.

They've opened this place up to sell local fruits and veggies plus promote local and Michigan made products. Oh, ice cream too! Now how awesome is that?? And guess who's veggies they are selling. Yup, yours truly. :o) They also carry our yarns and handmade soaps.

On Saturday, as an effort to both promote our farm and this new business, we took 3 of our boys down to visit with the visitors. Of course I couldn't go without taking product. I took everything we had done and displayed it right near the alpaca.

Now not everything is alpaca, but most people get the fact that we are fiber people who just happen to raise alpacas. A lot of alpaca products sold, but the merino sock yarns were by far the biggest seller. I sold so many I only have 3 left! I need to dye more this week.

We had a lot of people who asked tons of questions that we were more than happy to answer. The boys got tons of lovin' from the kids that came by and hopefully the grown-ups all learned something new and exciting. I even got a big custom order! People are loving our products and I can't even begin to tell you how good that makes me feel. There's not always a lot of feedback when you're getting a business going.

My favorite part of the day though was listening to some of the conversations going on around me. (I know eavesdropping is bad, but come on...they were talking about my stuff!) Everyone knew we were the alpaca people, but none knew we were also the veggie people.

Listening to the comments on the veggies "these are the best! how do they grow them so big? I've never seen them look so good!" was a great time. I loved the feedback because it was so completely honest. How could they fake it when they didn't know we grew them?

I think I've finally recovered from the day and am already looking forward to the next time!

If you are in the Battle Creek area at all, check out Station 66. The ice cream is great, the food and drinks awesome and what a super way to promote MICHIGAN!!!