Located in central Virginia, just 20 miles west of historic Richmond, our family farm is home to an award-winning herd of consistently high quality huacaya alpacas. Here you will discover quality, colorful, friendly alpacas, raised with individual care and attention in an atmosphere of trust by full-time breeders. Ten of the 25 show-age alpacas in our foundation herd are Champion/Reserve Champions and 24 are blue ribbon winners! You can meet our award-winning herdsires and our beautiful dams and cria here on our web site. Then come on over, handfeed carrots to our herd and discover why alpacas are so much more than a valuable investment - every home should have some! You will find outstanding alpacas at reasonable prices, with favorable payment terms and the support of caring mentors, celebrating 10 years as full-time alpaca breeders in 2010. Come and see for yourself - we look forward to welcoming you to our farm.

Fall 2011 Event Calendar:

24th Annual Fall Fiber Festival of Virginia, Montpelier, VA - October 1-2, 2011. It's looking like another beautiful weekend at the Virginia Fiber Festival this year - the weather forecast is promising sunshine and and cooler temperatures. We look forward to seeing many of you again and plan to bring along some beautiful young male alpacas for sale, plus a selection of our natural fiber products, all grown and processed entirely here in the U.S. For directions, times and more information about this event, please visit www.fallfiberfestival.org

Folklife Festival at Adams International School, Goochland, VA
Saturday 8th October, 2011 - 11.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. 
Come to the Folklife Festival at Adams International School for a day of fun for the whole family. We'll be bringing our alpacas, and showing children 8 years and up how to needle-felt a pumpkin! There will be other arts and crafts, apple pressing, wood turning, chair caning, heirloom plants, games, food & drinks. For directions and more information visit www.AdamsInternationalSchool.org

Alpacas at the State Fair of Virginia at the Meadow, (next to King's Dominion), Doswell, Virginia: 
Sunday 9th October , 2010 - 9.00 a.m. - 10.00 p.m. 
Come and see alpacas, fireworks and a parade on the last day of the State Fair this year! We look forward to spending the whole day Sunday in Young MacDonald's Barn. We'll be bringing alpacas and if they can handle all the attention, we hope to walk them in the parade!  Experience the luxury of natural alpaca fiber and purchase craft kits, socks, yarn and rovings, all made from fiber grown and processed right here in the U.S. 

Goochland County Fall Festival, Goochland Sports Complex
Saturday 29th October, 2011 - 12.00 - 4.00 p.m.
Rain Date: Sunday 30th October, 2.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m.
Come join the fun at this FREE Fall event for Goochland families. Ever seen an alpaca in a Halloween costume? Well, this might be your lucky day! This wonderful event includes a free concert and Meet & Greet with Michelle Nixon and Drive, plus a petting zoo, bounce rides, pony rides, pumpkin painting and other "make and take" activities, a scavenger hunt, the Little Screamers haunted hayride and a costume contest at 1.30 p.m. So grab your Halloween costume and come and join in the fun!

5th Annual Thistledown Alpacas Open House & Sale, Manakin Sabot, VA:
Saturday 5 November, 2011 - 12.00 p.m. until 5.00 p.m.
Sunday 6, November, 2011  - 12.00 p.m. until 5.00 p.m.
Rain Date: Saturday 12-Sunday 13 November, 2011 (same times)

Come visit our 5th Annual Open House to get "up close and personal" with our beautiful, friendly alpacas here on the farm. Take advantage of this great opportunity to make an early start on your Christmas shopping - we offer craft kits, socks, yarn and roving made from our own alpacas, which make unique and environmentally- friendly gifts, each for under $20! We may have a couple of young males available for sale as fiber animals or pets, without their ARI registration papers, plus we offer show-quality colored alpacas for your breeding herd. As always, you are welcome to call and arrange a personal farm visit at any time to learn more about alpacas. NO DOGS PLEASE. They scare the alpacas, plus we have working Great Pyrenees livestock guard dogs, who live with and protect our alpacas 24X7 and do NOT welcome other dogs! 

5th Annual Thistledown Alpacas "Champion Production Sale" - begins November 1, 2011 and ends November 30, 2011. Announcing our 2011 Champion Production Sale Pricing! Every alpaca offered is a Champion, or the offspring of a Champion, or a Champion producer. This sale runs from November 1 -> November 30, 2011. Don't miss this opportunity to add quality colored genetics to your herd at a fair price! We are celebrating our 11th year as full-time alpaca breeders in 2011. Check out our "Sales" page today to see the alpacas available this year. We have a selection of fiber males available as well as show-quality colored alpacas for your breeding herd. Scroll through our "Sold" page, if you can bear to see what you missed! Thanks so much to all our customers - we truly appreciate your confidence in our breeding program over the past 10 years and remain committed to breeding quality, colored alpacas for the future. 

Check back soon for updates to our sales list!

6th Annual VAOBA Expo, Doswell, VA - December 3-4, 2011
For more information about the largest alpaca show in Virginia, please visit www.vaobaexpo.com.

Visit our News page to read about events in 2010 and previous years!

Spring 2011 Event Calendar (work in progress :) :

CABO Alpaca Show, Concord NC - February 13-14, 2010. Heather won a first place in her first ever juvenile halter class at this Level IV show, and Raspberry won first place in a large spin-off competition, with Meli placing third in the same class. We also brought needle-felting kits and yarn to this show, held over the Valentine's Day weekend. We were just beginning to see the grass again in VA after three major snowstorms, then drove right into another blizzard in NC, which made our alpacas look at us a bit sideways!

16th Annual Virginia Classic, Lexington, VA - March 13-14, 2010.  Meri won a blue ribbon in halter at this Level III show and the judge raved about the density and uniformity of his fiber. There was no Championship class, but Meri went on to win second of eight in the breeder's best bred-and-owned male class, beaten only by the white Champion at this event (who went on to win Judge's Choice of all the Champion males at MAPACA this year)! Heather won a second place in the Walking Fleece Fiber Futurity, judged by Cathy Songer, and our daughters won numerous performance ribbons with their alpacas, and our vet's llama, including first place costume and Reserve Champion Intermediate Youth.

37th Annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, West Friendship, MD - May 1-2, 2010. We enjoy exhibiting at the Maryland fiber festival every year, offering our colored french angora rabbits for sale, and selling natural fiber yarns, rovings and craft kits made from our own fiber animals. For more information about the largest fiber festival in the U.S., please visit www.sheepandwool.org 

Virginia Renaissance Faire, Lake Anna Winery, Spotsylvania, VA - May 29-30 and June 5-6. The RenFaire takes place every weekend from May 15 - June 12, 2010. We brought four of our alpacas along over the Memorial Day and Pirate weekends, plus alpaca yarn, socks, roving and craft kits for sale. Our "long-necked sheep that fell off the back of a Spanish galleon" are a very popular attraction, and we enjoy meeting all the patrons at the Faire. Come and meet the dedicated cast and crew at this wonderful family event - learn to dance around the maypole, make Elizabethan rag dolls, stamp leather bookmarks and bracelets, try your hand at archery, enjoy wandering minstrels, acrobats, magicians, theatre productions and the progress of the queen and her court, dressed in magnificent period costumes. Visit http://www.varf.org to learn more about this unique Virginia event.