[music playing] Kelly: We travel to Vigo County, Indiana, for this Paw Report Classic.

Located on the grounds of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, you'll find a unique farm with some very curious animals.

The White Violet Farm Alpacas, is a ministry of the Sisters of Providence, near Terre Haute.

On this episode, we'll learn more about this quirky creature, and its function on this special farm.

Stay with us.

[music playing] Chrissy: Finding a soluton for your pets behavior problem, can be confusing.

Dr. Sally J. Foote helps you help your pet.

Private consultation and resources are available at drsallyjfoote.com.

Foote and Friends, better bond, better behavior.

Katelyn: Fetchers Pet Supply on the north side of the Charleston square.

Serving the EIU community since 1991.

Fetchers welcomes all pets on a leash.

Is open seven days a week and offers made in the USA food.

Pets supplies for dogs, cats, reptiles, and fish.

Fetchers Pets Supply in Charleston.

Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.

You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.

Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter of the Paw Report on WEIU.

Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.

Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.

>>Kelly:Well thanks for joining us for this edition of the Paw Report.

As you can see, we're not in the studio for this episode.

We have gone on location to the White Violet Center, here on the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute, Indiana.

And I'm joined by a special guest, Robyn Morton.

And she is the associate director of the White Violet Center.

And you're probably asking: what are you doing sitting in a barn?

And we've got some creatures sitting behind us.

Tell us where we're at, Robyn.

>>Robyn: We are in Pasture 1, that is the mamas' and babies' pasture for our alpaca herd.

>>Kelly: Alpaca, so we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about the actual animal, and then we're going to get into the center and why it was established here at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

So, thank you for joining us and agreeing to spend a few moments with us on WEIU.

Let's start with the alpaca.

It's a domesticated species.

Talk about its origin and where it came from.

>>Robyn: Well they actually come from the Altiplano region, which is sort of an area in Chile and Peru in South America.

It's very similar in temperature to where we are.

It's a temperate zone.

They don't get quite the same highs and lows that we get.

But they were domesticated in that area for fiber production.

They're one of the camelid family, so they're in the same family as the llama, camels, animals like that.

Alpacas in particular were specifically bred for fiber.

So, that is why they were domesticated.

That's why they're a valuable animal, and that's why we have them.

>>Kelly: And they're curious creatures.

>>Robyn: They're terribly curious.

I joke a lot here that they're 150-pound cats.

They're very similar in temperament in a lot of ways to cats.

So, they're very curious.

They're going to head over and try to figure out what it is we're doing over here periodically.

>>Kelly: Well you told me when I stepped into the barn, I said, "What are they like?"

and you said, "Just picture them as cats."

[laughing] There are different breeds of alpacas.

Let's talk about that because they all look a little different.

Are there different breeds here, or maybe just colors?

>>Robyn: We all have one breed here.

These are called huacaya alpacas.

Sometimes they're called puffball.

Or they're the ones that have the really curly fiber.

And these alpacas have been sheared recently, so it's not as obvious.

But huacaya breeds are the ones, if you see them out in pastures they have sort of tight, fuzzy puffball looking fiber.

There's another breed that's pretty common in America called the suri.

And those alpacas have fibers that looks more like dreadlocks really.

I mean it's sort of long and hangs down in bundles and dreads.

And we do not have any suris on our farm.

We're an all huacaya, all the time farm.

But those are the two main breeds that are in America.

There are a few other breeds that are still in South America, that are sort of more the ancestral breeds.

I think there's one other called a vicuna, that we have a couple of animals that are closely related to.

But basically suris and huacaya are the ones you'll find in America.

>>Kelly: Are they popular in America?

I mean do you find very many alpaca farms?

>>Robyn: They're increasingly popular.

One of the things about alpacas is they're a smaller livestock.

They're really, very gentle animals, as they play behind us.

Those are the babies.

So, they're really, they're very gentle.

They're easy to take care of.

And what we've found is that a lot of small farmers, so people who are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and they're wanting to start a smaller farm, and a lot of times older retired farmers who would still like to have a livestock animal on their farm.

They just don't necessarily want to wrangle 200 head of steer or something like that anymore.

They will tend to go into alpaca farming.

They're really quite easy to take care of, and they're very beneficial if you're doing other sorts of like vegetable growing or something like that.

They contribute a lot to the farm with the manure and such.

So, they're easy to incorporate, and into a smaller space.

You don't need nearly as much land for an alpaca as you do for cattle or for horses, something like that.

>>Kelly: A grazing animal.

>>Robyn: Yeah, typically for alpacas if you have good pasture, if you have, you know, nice, high quality pasture, you can have four to six alpacas on an acre, which is very unusual.

It's very dense, as opposed to, you know, horses or cattle, which is more like one or two acres per animal.

So, they're a lot more manageable for smaller farms.

And smaller farms are increasingly popular.

>>Kelly: You have a fairly large herd here at the White Violet Center.

We are in the female house.

Why don't you talk about the herd here on campus, and how they're split up?

>>Robyn: Okay, well we have about 40 animals on the ground.

And that actually odes not include the three new babies, which are called crias.

So, I guess 43 animals on the ground.

We board a few animals.

I think we have three animals right now that are being boarded.

And then we do have another couple.

We will bring animals out onto our farms for breeding, for example.

So, we have a couple of animals that are over in the conjugal visit pasture.

So, we have the mamas' and the babies' pasture is this one, and this is the big barn.

It's the nicest area.

We actually have sort of a medical isolation facility, just in case the moms or the babies need it.

But then we do have other pastures for the males.

Certainly we don't want them, you know, commingling all the time because we only want so many alpacas at any given time.

And we do breed fairly carefully.

We breed primarily for fiber quality and for things like that.

The boys are, they're in pastures further up north.

And they're managed a little more in terms of if they're herd sires, if they're being used for breeding, or if they've been gelded and they're not really being used for breeding, maybe primarily for their fiber.

And whoever happens to be fighting with each other at times, do they need a time out, do they need to be in separate pastures.

So, that's the main management strategies that we use here, as far as where they're actually living.

>>Kelly: What are their characteristics?

I mean being a non-expert of alpacas, I can tell right now they're very inquisitive, and some of them seem kind of shy.

Like they're interested in knowing what's going on with us, but some of them will come up behind us.

What are some of their other features, characteristics?

>>Robyn: Well honestly, those are some of the main ones.

So, they're very inquisitive, they're very curious.

They can be a bit standoffish.

Again cats is really a good way of thinking about alpacas.

They tend to, I like to say that they think of humans as television.

They sort of watch us, and they're like, "Oh, what are you doing now?

I don't actually understand what's happening."

They are herd animals.

And that's one thing that's really important for a lot of people who are interested in alpacas to understand, is they need to have many of their other fellows around.

They do not do well on their own.

So, for example, just by policy at White Violet Center, we won't sell one alpaca to someone unless we know that it's going to a farm that has multiple alpacas.

They need to have two or three.

>>Kelly: Hi!

Interested.

>>Robyn: And some of them, they're very individual personalities too.

Some of the alpacas, they're very skittish, for example.

They won't, they don't want to come near us.

You know, they're fine 10-foot minimum distance.

Other ones, Brittany for example, who's in the pasture behind us, up in your face all the time, wants to know what you're doing.

I am convinced in fact that Brittany knows what a selfie is and poses for them.

Because, we have tourists come through all the time, and it's people, they have their cameras and they're taking their selfies.

And Brittany is just right there, posing, you know.

>>Kelly: Which one is Brittany?

>>Robyn: Brittany is, let's see if I can... She is the brown one that's just walking back through there.

Brittany was the first cria born on our farm.

She's well aware of this.

She's always had a sort of special place in everybody's heart, so.

And they're really individual like that.

Different alpacas just have very different personalities.

Some of them are great for tours.

There are two or three alpacas that we sort of consider mascots for tours.

They're the ones who will come right on over, they'll let the kids touch them, they'll you know, put up with being fawned over and things like that.

And then there are other ones who are like, nope, I'm not coming near you, I am never coming near you, you can't make me come near you.

>>Kelly: I'll stand and look at you.

>>Robyn: Yeah, exactly.

>>Kelly: Are they, you know, it may sound like a strange question, and I ask it just because they're a larger animal.

Are they dangerous?

Are they aggressive in any sort of way?

>>Robyn: They're really not.

They're not dangerous.

The one thing I could say there is the boys especially, they will fight.

And the only real danger you would be in is if you were trying to help manage that, if you're trying to, you know.

It's just like trying to separate a fight in the school hallway or something like that, and you can get caught in the crossfire.

As far as alpacas themselves, they're really not very dangerous.

They're larger, so they can be a little bit difficult to manage and sort of manhandle if you need to.

But they really don't attack, they certainly don't attack people.

They might kick, but they can't kick very high.

So, you're in danger of a bruised shin as much as anything else.

But other than that, one of the reasons that the Sisters actually decided on alpacas when-- They had their farm and they wanted to bring an animal out onto the farm because that's an important part of having sort of a sustainable small farm ecology.

One of the reasons that they chose alpacas, from a long list actually, is because they're very gentle.

They're not aggressive, they're easy to handle.

You're frankly just not in much danger from them.

So, they could have, you know, 60, 70, 80-year-old women taking care of these alpacas safely, which is an important part of, you know, deciding you don't want to have horses, for example.

>>Kelly: Sure, sure.

So, besides watching them, loving them, what can you do with an alpaca?

I mean obviously we know what you do here, and we're going to get into that a little bit more.

But if somebody is, you know, for whatever reason like you said, maybe not into getting bigger cattle, what can you do with them?

>>Robyn: The main thing you do actually is fiber production and integrating into the farm.

Other than that, they are livestock.

So, I know that a lot of the Sisters actually just very much enjoy coming out and watching them.

We do have a 4-H program here, and they do a lot of sort of show routines and things like that.

As far as sort of training, they'll train them in an obstacle course and things.

So, that is the sort of thing you could do with an alpaca.

But in the main, what they are is they're livestock animals.

they take care of themselves pretty much, with a little bit of maintenance everyday, making sure they have hay and food.

And then we just sort of enjoy having them.

And then we get the benefits of their fiber and manure for our farm.

>>Kelly: Can we get into the fiber?

It's talk about the fiber production.

How often do they get sheared?

What is the fiber production manufacturing process here?

Because, I know that that happens.

A lot to get into as far as the fiber, so let's get into that.

>>Robyn: Well the first thing is alpacas are typically sheared once a year.

And it's usually right at the end of April or beginning of May.

It's sort of, you want to hit that sweet spot where it's now warm enough that they don't really need that fiber anymore to stay warm and healthy, but it's not already cracking 90 degrees.

Because, alpaca fiber, it's a luxury fiber and it is very warm.

We actually like to say it has all of the benefits of sheep's wool, with none of the downsides.

It's very, very soft.

It wicks moistures just like wool does.

It's substantially warmer than wool.

It's lighter than wool, physically lighter when you hold it.

And so, we try to shear those animals right when it's crossing over into warmer temperatures.

We do that in one day.

We actually hire a shearer.

And most people would.

Most people would hire a professional to come and shear all the animals.

As part of our ministry, this isn't something that you have to do by any means, but it's an important part of our ministry, we track all of the fiber that is sheared.

So, as the fleece is coming off of the animals, it goes into a specific bag that has a tag in it, that has the name of the alpaca and the year that the clip is from, and everything like that.

And that way as we then go through and process the fiber, we know exactly where that fiber came from.

And the end result is when you come here and you buy say, a skein of yarn, you know it came from Georgiana, for example.

Or you know that that hat was knit by one of the Sisters, and we give you the Sister's name, and it came from fleece from Cecilia, or somebody like that.

So, you really have a personal connection with them.

But once we have the fiber and we have it all designated by alpacas, there's a couple of different grades of fiber.

There's blanket or first, which is the highest quality.

That's going to be the softest, the longest.

It's what you'd want in a scarf.

It's what you'd want up against your neck, that kind of thing.

Seconds are going to be the next quality down.

They might be a little too short, they might be a little too course, something like that, for whatever reason.

It's not going to make particularly good yarn.

And then there's also thirds, which is sometimes called compost.

And everything is used, everything is absolutely used here.

And in fact one of the really cool things we do now is we will bundle up a lot of the higher quality thirds.

It's just, it's very short, it's very course.

And we send that to a mill in Texas, and they process that into rug yarn and then weave rugs for us.

And you can imagine you wouldn't want really soft, high quality fiber being in a rug.

That would be a terrible use, and it would probably fall apart.

But that course stuff, that's a great use for it.

So, whatever isn't actually going on the compost pile, we will send to them.

We take all that fiber up to the center.

We do what's called skirting.

We clean the fiber.

It's just separating good stuff from bad stuff.

Whatever is the high quality, clean.

It's got the straw out, you know, all the dirt that they rolled in right before we sheared them, that kind of thing.

We have enough animals that we can't really process that on our farm here.

It's too much.

So, we bundle all that up and then we ship that off to a fiber mill.

The fiber mill then does the cleaning, carding, which brushing it basically, and then spinning it into yarn.

And they send that back to us.

Once we have that, we will either bundle it up into skeins and we'll sell it at our gift shop to support our ministry, or we will give it out to volunteers, who will then knit, weave, crochet various things for us, and then those items are sold at our gift shop as well.

So, all of that is to help support the ministry.

And then the seconds, that sort of middle grade, we keep that here.

We skirt all that, we clean all that here.

And then we use that for a variety of different projects around here.

So, when summer camp comes through, for example, and they need a project to do, maybe we'll do needle felting.

So, I'll get out the seconds, and they'll make little needle-felted alpacas or hearts, or something like that, that they can take with them.

We sell those at the gift shop as well.

And that's nice because alpaca fiber, it is a luxury fleece, so it is a bit pricy.

It's on the higher end of the cost spectrum.

And having those other items made out of seconds lets us have a lower price point, so somebody can walk out of the gift shop with an eight-dollar handmade item, like a small alpaca ornament or something.

So, that's really nice.

>>Kelly: And there's different colors, I've noticed too.

How many different...

There's browns, and whites and grays, blacks.

>>Robyn: I honestly, I wish I could remember.

I want to say there's 23 or maybe even 26 recognized specific colors.

So, in fact like right behind us is Georgiana.

Georgiana is what's called a rose gray.

Tat's probably the most prized color that there is.

But there's a wide variety.

And the way that they, you know, they get processed into yarn actually brings out a lot of sort of beautiful traits.

So, one of the reasons rose gray is such a valuable one is because what you get out of it at the end of all the processing is a yarn that is gray, but it's warm and it's got this sort of a reddish hue to it.

It's really, everybody latches onto it.

As soon as they see it, they go, "That is beautiful."

And it doesn't hurt that it's a pretty rare color to come out.

It's not a common color to be born.

So, it's also a rare commodity, as opposed to the white ones, which we have more white animals than we know what to do with here.

Wish that would stop, but oh well.

>>Kelly: Let's talk about here, the White Violet Center in and of itself.

How long has it been on the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods?

And maybe the brain person behind bringing this center to campus.

>>Robyn: Well in 1995 Sister Ann Sullivan, she's one of the Sisters of Providence she brought a proposal to the general chapter, that's their like every five years, they have a large meeting.

She brought a proposal to start an eco-justice center, one funded by and supported by the Sisters of Providence.

And that was passed at their general chapter.

So, in 1996 is actually when White Violet Center was started.

So, this is our 20th anniversary, for example.

And that's a pretty big year for us.

We've been around for quite a while.

And the main focus of the ministry, and of the Sisters of Providence, is really education.

You can look around our farm, and you see we do all kinds of things.

We take care of alpacas, we have an organically grown garden, we have organically managed row crops, we have extensive certified, classified forests and things like that.

All of these things are ultimately being done for educational purposes.

And what they do is they afford us a lot of different ways for people to come and interact with the farm.

And we're trying, and I think this is Sister Ann Sullivan's, I think what part of her vision was and certainly what we're trying to carry forward is the legacy of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

And she was the woman who founded the congregation in the 1840s.

And what we would like to do is carry forward that legacy of care for creation.

While she was here, it's very apparent in her writings, it's very apparent in what other people recount of her that she was very, very affected by the beauty of nature.

She loved the woods, she loved to be in nature here in this area.

It was a difficult start for her, but it really transformed the way she approached the divine and the way she approached her own basic theology.

And part of our mission is to try in as many ways as possible to give people different ways of coming here and thinking again about what, how do I care for creation, how does this affect my faith path.

Do I have a faith path, what does it have to say about how I am treating the earth.

And that might be coming and volunteering with us for a day with the alpacas.

It might be coming to a cooking workshop and learning a little bit more about how to cook whole foods.

It might be joining the internship program and dedicating three months, or six months or a year of your time to really learning the ins and outs of small farming, and living with the Sisters and learning about this on a day to day basis.

We have retreats, we have all kinds of like small celebrations.

And again it's all just to give people as many different avenues as possible to learn what they can about caring for creation.

>>Kelly: Speaking of creation, you have a very interesting and a funny story about one of the day camps that came through here.

Let's share with the viewers that funny story.

>>Robyn: Oh, that was great.

This was actually very recently.

And I don't know if you can see her, but it's one of the crias that's behind us.

We had a very large field trip here.

It was 60 second or third, no, it was 60 third graders, which is a huge field trip.

We couldn't actually let them into the pasture.

There were just too many of them.

But they're all standing along the fence, and there were probably, you know, for every two students there was a chaperone.

So, lots of adults, lots of kids.

They're looking at all of these alpacas, and I'm trying to explain to them why some of the alpacas are up front and some of them are in back, because the ones that are up front, they're not good aunties, they're not going to be good with babies.

And the girls that are in back, well there are a couple of alpacas that are due with babies soon.

So, we want to make sure that they're separated.

And they said, "Oh wow, when is she due?"

And I said, "Well one of them is really, honestly she's overdue.

We keep waiting."

And I look over in the pasture and I say, "Oh, well I see David out there now.

Maybe something is ha-- Those are feet."

[laughing] >>Kelly: So, she was in labor at the time.

>>Robyn: She was in labor.

We watched the alpaca being born.

I lost the field trip completely at that point.

It was over.

Everybody had, you know, their cameras out and they were trying to zoom in, because it was a good distance away.

But 60 third graders actually got to see a cria being born.

And I'm like, you're never, ever going to forget this field trip.

>>Kelly: And that's one of the educational missions.

>>Robyn: Yes, very much so.

This is life in action, so it was really cool.

>>Kelly: Robyn, we have a couple of minutes left here.

And you know, volunteers are a big part of the White Violet Center too.

Tell us how important they are.

Maybe somebody out there watching is thinking, "I never knew that was a possibility.

I'd like to share my talents with somebody."

Talk about your volunteer program and how somebody can get involved, and how important it is to the center.

>>Robyn: Sure, we really, we would not be here if it weren't for our volunteers.

There's no doubt in our minds.

We thrive on having volunteers.

It's very easy to volunteer with us, and there are a few different options.

People can come-- We try to just customize according to whatever somebody's schedule is and what their availability is.

If you can only come out one time and you really want to hang out with the alpacas and learn a little bit, that is great.

We will accommodate that.

And we have alpaca regular duties where people take you around, and you can learn about, you know, how to feed them, how to clean the pastures and all of that.

If you really want to work in gardens, for example, we have lots of opportunities to work in the garden itself with all of the harvesting, cleaning, seeding, transplanting, everything you would normally do in a garden.

You can help with the farmer's market.

We staff a farmer's market on Saturday mornings, and we always need a hand with that.

So, there's really a lot of opportunities.

And we try to be very flexible.

So, if people want to have a long term commitment, they want to come out, you know, once a week for the rest of their lives, that is great.

We are happy to have that.

If they really only have one or two days they can come out and they want to, you know, just get that experience, that's great.

We can even do sort of longer term options, where maybe you have a week you could come out.

And that certainly only requires some setup because I would like to find a place for that person to stay.

But that's a really nice opportunity too.

You really get to experience what it's like to live on a farm and help us out, which is very appreciated.

>>Kelly: And the last message that you could give to the viewers.

Somebody that doesn't know alpacas, is not familiar with Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, what's one last encouraging message you could send to them?

>>Robyn: You know, the honest, best message is come out.

The Sisters welcome the public to come out to their grounds.

This is a beautiful space.

It's a peaceful place, it's a tranquil place.

It's gorgeous.

And the Sisters want to see people coming in and enjoying this land.

They don't want to keep it for themselves.

It's not something that they don't want to share with others.

They want families to come and picnic on the lawn.

They want families to come and sit, and watch the alpacas.

They want people to do their bike rides and their dog walks, and things like that.

Come out, visit, chat with us, stop by the center, and just have a really good time.

They want to share this space because it's blessed.

It really is.

>>Kelly: Well we've had a really good time, Robyn.

Thank you so much for inviting WEIU into the White Violet Center.

And Stable 1, right?

>>Robyn: Pasture 1.

>>Kelly: Pasture 1, we're in Pasture 1.

And you know, they've behaved themselves behind us, and that's been a good thing.

>>Robyn: They have.

No spitting, no spitting.

>>Kelly: We haven't been spit on yet.

We still have a little bit more work to do.

But thanks again.

And we sure appreciate you coming on the road with us here on the Paw Report.

We'll see you next time.

Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter of the Paw Report on WEIU.

Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.

Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.

Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.

You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.

Katelyn: Fetchers Pet Supply on the north side of the Charleston square.

Serving the EIU community since 1991.

Fetchers welcomes all pets on a leash.

Is open seven days a week and offers made in the USA food.

Pets supplies for dogs, cats, reptiles, and fish.

Fetchers Pets Supply in Charleston.

Chrissy: Finding a soluton for your pets behavior problem, can be confusing.

Dr. Sally J. Foote helps you help your pet.

Private consultation and resources are available at drsallyjfoote.com.

Foote and Friends, better bond, better behavior.

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