Alpacas herd ready for visitors

COVINGTON TWP. — Rona, Chewpaca and Fluff ate grass freshly soaked after a summer rainstorm from the ground of their new pen.

With months-old shear tracks down their fuzzy backs, the female and yearling alpacas of Windy Haven Farm pranced around their new enclosure for the first time Tuesday, their heads to the earth, munching on clover and dandelions.

Carina and Tom Havenstrite are the caretakers of the herd of 17 alpacas, camelid mammals native to South America, who live on their farm in Covington Twp. This month, the Havenstrites will open up their farm for the first time and introduce their alpacas to community members through two events: Painting with Alpacas with Spirited Art on Aug. 14 and Yoga and Alpaca Experience on Aug. 17.

“The alpacas are beautiful and I like to share that experience with people,” said Carina Havenstrite.

She grew up in Dunmore but her husband, Tom, a North Pocono graduate, grew up farming. His family has worked the land at 153 Center St. “forever,” she said, and the alpacas’ five-acre home is the last piece of the farm.

“He had kind of always had a desire to have animals,” she said as chickens and guinea fowls clucked behind her. “There was a farm that was closing a couple hours from here that was looking to rehome their animals. … We ended up calling off work the next day and borrowing a trailer and getting our original four. It was just a total impromptu decision.”

The alpaca herd kept growing.

Months later, that same farm called the Havenstrites and the original four, Sally, Carmen, Chavelle and Moondance, got two more companions. Tom picked up another one and a friend saved two neglected alpacas for a $100 while working on farm, putting them in the back of her van to take to the Covington Twp. farm.

 

They bred the alpacas last year and another, who grazed happily with her swollen belly, has a baby on the way.

Two different breeds of alpacas live on the farm: Suris, whose fiber is longer and dreadlocked, and Huacayas, who are big and puffy, said Carina Havenstrite.

The alpacas’ coats are sheared every May and the Havenstrites collaborate with a fiber mill in Massachusetts to have the soft fiber turned into socks and scarves, which they sell online and at craft fairs.

She plans to educate visitors to the farm about the process from fiber to product. Tom Havenstrite added there’s not many farms with alpacas in the area.

“I feel like people are not very in tune with what that really takes,” Carina Havenstrite said. “To be able to say here’s a pair of socks that came from these alpacas I think is pretty cool.”

The Havenstrites, who took a class about the general welfare of alpacas, mostly network with other alpaca farms to keep current on how to take care of the pretty low-maintenance herd animals.

“We feel like alpaca people are super cool,” she said.

Windy Haven is not a breeding farm for alpacas but rather an “agritainment” experience. The alpacas, void of top teeth and with four stomachs, are essentially family pets.

 

Windy Haven will also offer appointment-only visits to the farm and educational experiences for small groups. Carina Havenstrite, program manager for the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office, and her husband, a surveyor, work full time and are parents to two young children.

“Shadow and Bolt are the two ones you want to see,” said their daughter, Fiona Havenstrite, 5, as she walked toward the pen where the three male alpacas live.

The male alpacas have to be kept separate from the females and are more enthusiastic to take selfies with visitors and eat carrots from their hands — skills the Havenstrites have been working on for the upcoming events.

“I hope it will just offer a different kind of experience to get people outside doing something completely out of the box and offer them that level of interaction with animals that many of them have never even seen before,” “ said Carina Havenstrite.

Reservations for the Paint Night and Yoga and Alpaca Experience are available on the Alpacas of Windy Haven Farm Facebook page. For more details or to view products, visit alpacasofwindyhavenfarm.com.