Cliff House Alpacas

Make Hay while the Sun Shines!

Posted on September 18, 2013 by cliffhousemom

As many of you know Cliff House Alpacas is in Castle Rock, Colorado. Unlike our neighbors to the north and east of us who have had no break in the rain until yesterday; we had a sunny morning on Saturday, and in that four hours of sunshine we put up three tons of hay for the winter. Our son Jared helped close friend Donna put up one ton, and after he finished with that he helped his dad put up two tons.

In our barn stacking hay is quite the event for everyone involved, and this includes our cats. I had trouble getting a good photo of Whisper, but Squeaky was being very photogenic. I don’t seem to have a good picture of Jared. Honestly, he prefers it that way.

With thirty-some bales of alfalfa in the lower barn and two tons of Timothy grass and certified Brome in the upper barn we estimate we’ll need approximately another ton of Brome and another ton of Timothy to get us through the winter. Spring’s first cutting of hay is never the best grass.

Posted in animals | Tagged barn cats, cats, Colorado, hay, ranch life, weather | 1 Comment

Baby-What a Difference a Day Makes!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Dad and I woke up to a beautiful misty day at Cliff House. Below us the town of Castle Rock was shrouded in a soft, silver, billowy mist. The torrential rain has stopped just south of Denver where we are, but the torrent of media coverage is unending.

The subjects in the photos we’re sharing with you are not outstanding in themselves. What is truly unreal about them is their presence at all in this part of Colorado this time of year. Long overdue is our crisp, clean, clear air of Autumn.

Cliff House has only small pools of standing water left after seven days of fairly constant rain. As a Colorado native, I can say I’ve never experienced this amount of rain without the promise of sunshine. I hope our images shed a warm and bright light on all of you concerned about the folks here who are suffering through this difficult and uncertain time.

Posted in business | Tagged Colorado, Flood, ranch life, weather | 1 Comment

Baby – it’s wet outside!

Posted on September 13, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Good morning everyone. The local weatherman tells us the rain storm we’ve been living with since Monday afternoon won’t be leaving us until next week. The alpacas aren’t happy with that news as you can see.

Our hearts and good energy go out to those folks up north who are having a rough time right now. Cliff House Ranch sits on a cliff, and as we all know, water runs downhill; so we are not in trouble of flooding. Let’s pray for sunshine.

P.S.- I, Momma, want to thank Uncle Jerry, Aunt Geri, Laura, Roger, Kirstin, my mom, Bonnie, Cindy, Jared and my husband, Gordon for their hard work in making our fundraiser a huge success. I am in awe of your giving spirits and your love for all things needing a helping hand.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpacas, Colorado, rain, ranch life, weather | 1 Comment

The many faces of ACES-Artists Celebrating the Equine Spirit

Posted on September 11, 2013 by cliffhousemom

We hope you enjoy these photos of our artists, shoppers and volunteers having a great time at our fundraiser last Saturday. ACES wishes to thank Katrina from the Colorado Humane Society who shared her positive energy and lovely smile with us the entire day. Our best wishes to Jackie at Cimarron Sky Dog Wild Horse Reserve in Watrous, New Mexico. We hope we’ve made a difference!

ACES- Master of Horse-Cindy Jones. Thank you, Cindy for your time, talent and your hours behind the scenes.

ACES-Alison & Brenda Gegg with their mini horses Daphne and Apollo. Thanks, Brenda and Alison for the gift of your time, and your sponsorship of a Cimarron Sky Dog Reserve Wild Horse.

Brad behind the grill. Ladies looking at the menu

ACES-Brad Cillian behind the grill serving up bratwurst and more while he explains our menu items . Thanks, Brad for sharing your smile and your grilling expertise.

ACES-Artist, Sherry Harder, checks out after buying her niece a knit alpaca hat. Thanks to all of our volunteers and artists who spent nine hours with us. In the spirit of giving they spent their hard earned cash helping others to make a difference.

ACES- Artist Corrine Fierkens takes a break from selling her beautiful recovered horses and their ribbons in the Cliff House Tack Room Store. Thanks, Corrine for just being the loving and giving person you are.

Corrine, Marcellus and Katrina from the Humane Society

ACES-Corrine, Marcellus and the Colorado Humane Society’s Katrina watch Heidi show her stuff. Thanks to each one of you for taking your day to help hungry horses.

Posted in animals | Tagged artist show, Cimarron Sky Dog Wild Horse Reserve, Colorado Humane Society, craft show, fundraiser | Leave a comment

ACES-Artists Celebrating the Equine Spirit-Highlights!

Posted on September 9, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Our fundraiser for the Colorado Human Society & Cimarron Sky Dog Wild Horse Reserve was a celebration for all. I, Momma, want to share with you some of the special moments we experienced Saturday. Our very special thanks to each one of you who took the time to stop by Cliff House Ranch and share yourselves with us. Our visitors were very generous to our charities; I am always in awe of the human spirit.

Our ACES banner greeted our guests to Cliff House Ranch

Our set-up for Cliff House Alpacas-Fiber Artists

Daphne & Apollo warm up for their performance with Cindy; our Master of Horse

Cindy asking Daphne & Apollo to “join up”.

Cindy with our horses, Heidi (Paint horse) & Boogie (Quarter horse).

Our Boogie with Samantha doing some Parelli Natural Horsemanship

Posted in animals, fiber art | Tagged artist show, craft show, fiber, fundraiser, horses, ranch life | Leave a comment

It’s Christmas in September!

Posted on September 6, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Hi all! Kirstin here! The rest of the fam is out in the barn, power washing everything to prep for the big charity show tomorrow. They’ve been cleaning, cooking chili, baking cookies, knitting, and organizing their hearts out. ACES (artists celebrating the equine spirit) is going to be great fun, in addition to benefiting the Colorado Humane Society and Cimarron Sky Dog Wild Horse Rescue.

I, in the meantime, have spent around 60 hours on these two Christmas stockings. I don’t regret that, per se, but it does feel like quite an investment when there are so many other things to do.

You’ve seen the Christmas tree before, but the ribbons and ornaments really finish it off. It’s cute, fun and three dimensional. It’s nice, but the poinsettia stocking is awesome. Each of the 41 leaves was individually hand felted from a custom blend of fiber I created from recycled yarn and gold glitz.

Both are lined with cream colored satin, and attached very firmly to a ribbon that runs down into the stocking about three inches for extra strength. I’ve made cute stockings before, but these…these are classy (pats self on back).

Anyway, hope to see those of you who can make it tomorrow! It’s never too early to do your Christmas shopping.

Posted in business, fiber art | Tagged Christmas stockings, felt, needle felting, stockings | 4 Comments

A Sampling of artists

Posted on September 4, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Just a reminder to all; this Saturday, at Cliff House Ranch we are holding a benefit for the Colorado Humane Society and Cimarron Sky Dog Wild Horse Reserve. I, Momma, have taken the liberty of sharing some of our participating artists work. A portion of all art sales, and all donations taken at our Bar B Q goes directly to our charities. Please come visit the Ranch!

Cliff House Alpacas – Fiber Art

Christine Cillian – Photographer

Colleen Jepkes – Rock Artist

Denise Sokol – Jeweler

Donna Ferris – Photographer

Posted in business | Tagged artist show, Cliff House Ranch, Colorado Humane Society, craft show | Leave a comment

Meet the Minis

Posted on September 2, 2013 by cliffhousemom

It’s Monday, we thought it was Sunday, sorry we’re late. Meet the minis!

Cindy introduces Apollo to our arena

Brenda asks, “So what’s our plan for the fundraiser?”

Apollo says, “I know it’s pink, pink is the new denim.”

Both Apollo and Brenda are learning how to drive.

Cindy teaches Apollo a bit about driving.

Daphne listens intently to Cindy

The minis will be here all day Saturday for our fundraiser. See you then!

Posted in animals | Tagged craft show, fundraiser, minis, ranch life | Leave a comment

“Sugar Plum Fairy”

Posted on August 30, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Our top notch sales team sold the only shawl we had at Western Welcome Week so I (Aunt Geri) was intent on finishing another one for our Cliff House Charity sale benefiting the Colorado Humane Society and Cimarron Sky Dog Reserve on Sept. 7th. So, in between making green chili stew, we’re having a Bar-B-Q at our fundraiser, and baking and decorating the cutest cookies for the benefit sale; I whipped up this shawl. It’s a yummy hand-dyed alpaca silk blend with a polymide accent for the Fairy’s fancy! I knit it with a somewhat open stitch pattern so it won’t be too warm.

Uncle Jerry and I are off to Nebraska early tomorrow morning, and I can’t wait to see some of you on the 7th at Cliff House Ranch. I’m SO excited to see the mini horses and whatever tricks Heidi and Boogie have in store for us!

Posted in Fashion, fiber art | Tagged knitting, shawls | Leave a comment

Arena; check –

Posted on August 28, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Last Saturday and Sunday were very busy days spent sprucing up the riding arena for our fundraising event we’re holding at Cliff House Ranch to help feed Colorado’s hungry horses, on September 7th. Cindy Jones, our natural horsemanship instructor will be doing demonstrations with our horses Heidi & Boogie, and we can’t forget the minis, Apollo & Daphne.

Dad & I, Momma, took some before and after photos just for the fun of it. We must admit we didn’t the arena looked that bad. Well, there was that huge weed we had never gotten around to removing.

Dad’s reward for all of the scraping, rolling, painting and weed pulling; a ride on the tractor to grade the arena. Dad says, “It’s always more fun when you get to use the tractor!”

Posted in business | Tagged arena, charity event, ranch life | 1 Comment