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Lumsdens love their alpacas
By Kalea Hall
CANFIELD
Tom the alpaca grabs a bite of his hay and puts his face in front of a visitor.
He isn’t camera shy.
In fact, he opens his mouth and shows off his pearly whites with his mouth of hay and fluffy top hat of hair blowing about.
You can’t help but smile along with Tom.
“It’s real easy to fall in love with them,” said Tom’s owner, Chris Lumsden of the Lumsden Alpaca Farm.
Falling in love with the cuteness of alpacas is how Chris and his wife, Lisa, ended up with 14 of them, including a baby alpaca, at their Columbiana home. For the past few years, the Lumsdens have brought their alpacas – one or two at a time – along with some yarn and other merchandise to the Canfield Fair.
“We took over for another farm,” Lisa said. “That’s where he got the idea for alpacas.”
For Chris, it was always about alpacas.
“It was three years of staring at them before I got them,” he said.
He had to first convince Lisa about getting alpacas for pets. They had five alpacas, two boys and three girls, by the fall of 2008. But before they bought them, they did their research. They learned some basic alpaca facts: They are gentle with children; they are like cats in the sense that they have to let you enter their herd; and they all have a mind of their own. Also, the girls like to chitchat.
It wasn’t hard to find the alpacas because Ohio is actually known as “Little Peru” when it comes to alpacas. Their first alpacas were purchased in the New Waterford area.
“They are so cute,” Chris said. “They all have different personalities.”
The Lumsdens were going to breed and sell alpacas, but after the economy took a dip, the price for alpacas dropped and they started to have their alpacas’ fleece spun into yarn. The alpacas are shorn in the spring and their fleece is sent off to a local mill to be spun.
In their location near the corner of Goshen and Austintown drives, the Lumsdens sell their alpacas’ yarn in colorful and natural colors. They also have alpaca fleece products such as gloves and hats. Lisa got crafty and made some wreaths and a bowl out of the fleece.
They also show their alpacas. In 2012, they placed fourth at the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association national competition.
You can visit the Lumsden alpacas – Tom, Abbie, Beanie, Iggy and a list of others – from 9 a.m. until about 9 p.m. every day at the fair. A different alpaca is brought out every day.