Jim Morris is an Alpaca Farmer and Co-owns Diastole Alpaca Farm with his wife Sandy. They Started the Farm in 2007 on 22 acres of land with the desire to spend more time working outdoors. They love what they do and hope to do it for the rest of their lives.
WFDD radio camper Elliott Rodden recently spoke with Mr. Morris.
We sat down at a green table on the Wake Forest University Quad and, I instantly started asking him some questions. First, how he came up with the name Diastole (dye-as-toe-lee) Alpaca Farm.
We named our alpaca farm diastole alpaca. And if you think of your blood pressure, Systolic is your upper number, like 120 over 80 and diastole is the lower number. Disatloe is the period where you heart rests and when it fills. Our feeling when we were around alpaca is that your blood pressure would go down about 20 points or so…you sort of (sight) and relax.
Then I asked how Alpacas were farmed.
They are sheered once a year, for us it's in the middle of April each year and their fleece starts growing back. They'll have about 4 inches of fleece when you sheer them, the fleece is about 4 inches long, then you sheer them and it's down to about half an inch. So, we are now about three or four months out from that, their fleece is up to a couple of inches.
This is what an Alpaca sounds like.
(alpaca sounds)
Mr. Morris explained that their fleece is used for rugs and coats. He also said that he has become much more physically active since he retired from his medical career as a heart surgeon to start farming. He said he chose to run a farm that didn't kill animals. Most of their animals have names and he couldn't kill an animal that has been named.
For WFDD Radio Camp, I am Elliott Rodden
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