It's a boy!

A new alpaca cria was born at White Violet Farm Alpacas today. Providence Vincennes, "Vinnie," was born this morning to Providence Providentia, "Tia." He was up walking and nursing by noon.

Vinnie is light fawn in color and was 13 1/2 pounds at birth.

The Sisters of Providence have had a ministerial connection with Vincennes since the Congregation's founding years dating back to 1840 and the time of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, the Congregation's foundress.

More than 60 alpacas have been born at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods since the herd was introduced in 1998.

He sure is a cutie!

14th & Chestnut Community Center volunteers

Some volunteers from 14th & Chestnut Community Center in Terre Haute spent a couple of hours with us this morning. The 6th-grade and up girls group weeded around tomato plants in the garden, assisted with pruning trees in the John Delahaye Antique Apple orchard and assisted with the daily care of the alpacas. Thank you to the girls and their leaders, Courtney and Lovey, for spending time working and learning with us today!

Going Green with Artwork

White Violet Center participated in "Going Green with Artwork," presented by Art Totality and the Swope Art Museum, on June 26. About 70 people were pre-registered for this family event.

Upon arrival, the families participated in a self-guided inspiration tour. Then everyone participated in the activities at Halcyon Contemporary Art, next door to the Swope.

The Swope provided boxes and boxes of recycled materials where children and their parents could make sculptures. What creativity!

White Violet Center provided the opportunity to make alpaca masks by gluing real alpaca fiber to a printed alpaca face that could be cut out. "You mean I'm touching alpaca?!," said 6-year-old Avery.

Keaton, age 2, is shown in the photo at the right having fun with the mask he and his mother made.

It was fun spending time with these families who also made button bracelets with Emily Brown; sanded wooden bowls with Jeff Wilkinson and Bob Tidd; made newspaper pots for seedlings and decorative boxes from used holiday cards with the ISU Recycling Center; made banana paper note cards and newspaper hats with Art Totality; and made Origami cranes and cubes with Yoshimi Fuqua, a River City Art Association artist.

Reflection Garden is glowing!

The Reflection Garden looks awesome thanks to volunteers like Sister Teresina Grasso, who will celebrate her Golden Jubilee as a Sister of Providence this Saturday. She was found pulling weeds in the Reflection Garden near the greenhouse this morning. Did we mention there was a 101 degrees heat index? Yikes!

Seton Hill University group visits

A group from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., is visiting White Violet Center for Eco-Justice and White Violet Farm Alpacas today.

They tell us they're trying to set up a sustainability program and eco-conference center, so they came out to learn more about this ministry of the Sisters of Providence.

Part of their visit here today also included speaking with Jim Speer of Indiana State University, Mark Minster of Rose-Hulman School of Technology and Sister Mary Lou Dolan of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College to learn about sustainability efforts at those institutions.

Pictured above, from left are, Sister Maureen Freeman, director of White Violet Center for Eco-Justice, Frank Klapak, of Seton Hill, and his wife, Sharon Klapak, Sister Mary Elizabeth Lawrence, Sister of Charity, Michael Cary, of Seton Hill, and his wife, Eloise Cary.

A cleaner energy direction

The Environmental Defense Fund has a page on their Web site with a letter to Senators about leading us in a new direction with cleaner energy choices. Click here to go to the page that allows you to fill out your information and send the letter.

Also on that page, the EDF has provided a video that sends a powerful message about the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf. See video below. If you have trouble viewing below, click here.

Farmers' market

The June 5 opening day of the Terre Haute Downtown Farmers' Market at Ninth and Cherry streets was a big success. We sold out of strawberries by about 10:30 a.m. and pretty well sold out of everything else by noon.

We certainly enjoyed meeting new people and answering questions about growing this and that.
Our participation in this farmers' market is very important to us. We’ve been a part of it since its inception in 2005 and we’re proud of what it has become.

Last year we were only able to have a presence once a month. But this year we’re back in FULL SWING and LOVIN’ IT! We’ll be there 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday through October sharing our pesticide- and herbicide-free vegetables and fruit and value-added products.

With such a small staff we always welcome volunteers who can help us out on Saturday mornings. Even an hour or two is appreciated. Interested? Contact Candace Minster at cminster@spsmw.org or 812-535-2935.

Hope to see you often this season!

Our alpacas helping animals in Gulf of Mexico

This week, about 50 pounds of alpaca fiber from White Violet Farm Alpacas of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, IN is being shipped to Florida to help with the devastating oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.

Our alpacas are sheared annually in May. That fiber is used in our fiber program to make hats, scarves and other items to be sold at our center and on the Internet.

As we watch footage and read the updates of the BP oil spill disaster we try to think of ways we can help. One way is to donate some of our fiber to clean up efforts through A Matter of Trust, a hair for oil spills program.

“We want to do whatever we can to help the eco-system down there,” said Sister Maureen Freeman, CSJ, director of White Violet Center for Eco-Justice. “This is a step we can take to help stop the oil from ruining precious marshland and destroying native species.”

Last minute Mother's Day giving ideas

It’s now two days before Mother’s Day and simple is the best way to go. Here are some last minute giving ideas if mom is nearby:
1. Fair Trade chocolates, coffee or tea
2. Give mom a hand in her flower or vegetable garden with or without her—her choice!
3. Go to church with her (if you normally don’t).
4. Take her to a local museum or gallery. (Some are free.) It’s the time together that counts.
5. Visit her on Mother’s Day and take a photo of the two of you together. Mail or e-mail it to her within a week.
6. Swing by the local used bookstore and see how many books she would love. Tie it or them with a pretty bow.
7. Recycle one of your own flower containers or repurpose something as a flower container and fill it with something beautiful for her.
8. Pull 10 or 15 of your favorite recipes (or of the entire family) together and give them to her tied with a ribbon or pulled together in some unique way.

Some ideas if mom is at a distance:
1. Don’t have a card yet? Take 30 minutes to sit down and write her a note. Even if it doesn’t make it to her by Mother’s Day, she will cherish it.
2. If you know of a locally-owned restaurant in her town that would take your order and credit card payment over the phone or online you could have lunch or dinner delivered to her this weekend.
3. Call her on Mother’s Day.
4. If you know what radio station she listens to call them and see if they’ll put you on the air wishing her a Happy Mother’s Day! Even if she doesn’t hear it others might and tell her about it.
5. If your mom is into online social networking send her a special message that way. Dig up an old family snapshot to add to it that her friends can't resist commenting on.

Happy Mother's Day!

Alpaca shearing 2010

We’ve had a busy week of shearing more than 60 alpacas at White Violet Farm Alpacas.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were long days as the shearing crew began early in the morning and worked well into the evenings. At our place, this happens once a year in May and usually takes three days to complete.

As each alpaca is sheared, the fiber is gathered and labeled with the name of the alpaca and the level of the fiber, such as “blanket,” “seconds” and “thirds.”

The shearing takes place at the barn, but the fiber room back at White Violet Center for Eco-Justice was also busy with staff members and volunteers skirting the raw fiber.

Skirting is a process that involves picking out all the bits of straw, hay and other materials from nature from the fleece before the fiber is sent off to be cleaned and carded. After it is cleaned and carded the fiber is ready for the fiber artists to spin into yarn and make fabulous hats, scarves and shawls.

A big thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help! The staff is ready for a weekend!

Click here to see lots of shearing photos from this week.