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Kevin Gibes / Kathryn Gibes / TransSalamander / RageTreb / The Green Salamander - "Am hole:" The epitomized Twitter MtF you thought was just a myth! Donate to his Transformers toy fund today!
So they're now at about 200 Alpaca, when I doubt the demand for their yarn is that much.
possibly a dozen chickens and ducks?
At least half a dozen dogs, cats, and goats.
Around 10 humans.
This is just an animal hoarding farm passed off as a trans haven lol.
I'm sort of surprised their bad habits haven't caught up with them yet and there hasn't been any massive loss of animal life on the farm. Sadly it still feels like it's only a matter of time. Part of me thinks they would try to cover it up if the worst did happen, but on the other hand it would be a great opportunity to beg for sympathy money.
Don't know about the demand for their yarn, but I doubt anybody there has enough brains to do a decent job of marketing it.
Actually, anybody know if they've got the basic sense to sell it online? Or is offering goods in exchange for money online apparently a bit too sophisticated a concept for their troon brains?
I think we need the link if they've got a storefront.
They have an Etsy store. Second result upon Googling the ranch and pinned post on their Twitter. The Patreon is also linked on the archive post of the ranch's Twitter in the OP. They advertise their yarn on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but outside of those five platforms, I don't believe they have anything (not even a website).
Their business description says, "We set put to start producing the best alpaca fiber yarn in Colorado, then use the proceeds to help stabilize struggling trans folk and serve the trans community," but with nearly 250-300 animals and an overcrowded space with limited privacy and a questionable handling of finances, that's incredibly misleading. I found this thread when researching this ranch, and I can't find anything indicating they're a registered non-profit with tax deductions and the ability to apply for grants. It's an unprofessional shitshow of the usual "animal hoarding is okay because we rescue" excuse and presumably unpaid farm labor.
They claim to be "off the grid" but a recent photo of the kitchen shows every surface cluttered with commercially bought foods, so it's questionable whether or not they're actually using the eggs provided by the fowl and I think they said both goats are boys so they won't provide milk. Farm cats serve to fend off mice. The dogs probably don't serve a purpose because I doubt anyone on that farm is training them as working or herding dogs. They don't have enough money to upgrade housing for their people let alone provide housing for more helping hands, but keep adopting animals that cost more money and labor and don't provide anything. "Farm Sanctuaries" for rescue livestock are a thing but this 'aint it.
The etsy reviews for their yarn are positive, but I put that to the mill spinning the yarn, so with a broken clock being right twice a day, they managed to get lucky and not fuck that up.
I dont yarn, so cant speak to their price point. Perhaps another crafty kiwi can chime in.
The etsy reviews for their yarn are positive, but I put that to the mill spinning the yarn, so with a broken clock being right twice a day, they managed to get lucky and not fuck that up.
I dont yarn, so cant speak to their price point. Perhaps another crafty kiwi can chime in.
I doubt the yarn quality will be the problem, it's just that alpaca yarn is a luxury product (which is shit in these times) and even in better times not very profitable, despite alpacas being "easy" animals to take care of. I don't think getting more alpacas is a smart move, but troonbrains are superiour to mine, so...
The etsy reviews for their yarn are positive, but I put that to the mill spinning the yarn, so with a broken clock being right twice a day, they managed to get lucky and not fuck that up.
I dont yarn, so cant speak to their price point. Perhaps another crafty kiwi can chime in.
That said, I don't want Google thinking I'm interested in buying yarn off of Etsy, or Etsy trying to sell me shit from these troons--there's only a few companies I will buy yarn from sight-unseen, and this is relatively common when you yarn because there's a lot you can't really tell from a photo. Ravelry might have more useful reviews on the quality than the Etsy store, but one of the two owners is a troon and they've gone Woke, so three guesses how easy it is to get info from there without an account or a direct link, and I don't want them thinking I'm interested in troonery.
However, on the price point? I can provide a reference point. For a 100g hank of naturally-colored aran-weight 100% alpaca yarn (with extensive hand-processing so you actually have solid colors) from a very reputable company, it's $12.99. This is basically your choice if you need an animal fiber for somebody who is allergic to damn near everything but still wants animal fibers in a color other than 'neutral tweed,' from a company which has as its major selling point that you get good quality yarn at a very good price.
I did check Etsy to see what it'd point me at via an incognito window. Tranch isn't getting on the first page of a search for 100% alpaca worsted-weight yarn. Can't give you guys their price point. Do know I'd not buy it sight-unseen, and it doesn't sound like they're set up to even do the occasional trunk show at a yarn store so people can get a chance to touch their yarns before making a decision to buy. You will be touching it a lot if you're knitting or crocheting with it. It's got to be something you can stand working with.
But yeah, Stupid Sexy Flanders is right: Alpaca is for most people a luxury product, and the cost of feed's very likely a major factor in being able to turn a profit with alpaca. That means you want nice, green grassy fields... (And I gotta admit, I'm pretty impressed that they lost alpaca to the cold. That takes the same kind of talent that's needed to kill a pet rock--you're supposed to have to worry about heat killing 'em. These troons do know you sheer alpaca only once a year, after winter's done, right...?)
I doubt the yarn quality will be the problem, it's just that alpaca yarn is a luxury product (which is shit in these times) and even in better times not very profitable, despite alpacas being "easy" animals to take care of. I don't think getting more alpacas is a smart move, but troonbrains are superiour to mine, so...
Alpaca's are a money and timesink compared to other agriculture because of the price and production rate of their wool. If these people knew what they were doing they would have just opted for sheep, bees, or plant agriculture. Alpaca farming isn't for broke hobbyists, its for established farmers who have a suitable, stable income. Most of the money from Alpaca farming comes from breeding, not yarn sales.
Also genetics play a part in fiber quality, but mid-high quality fiber Alpacas with good lineage go for thousands. I doubt they have many in the herd that are of that quality.
They have nowhere near enough people to handle just the Alpacas alone. Pacas don't require as much work as larger animals, but are more upkeep work than sheep and need vaccinations, dental exams, and nail-trimming. They're also prone to health issues because their immune systems are delicate, which I doubt this place can suitably afford if several get sick at once. Even professional Paca farmers don't have nearly as many animals as these people do.
This whole operation is massively irresponsible and they're likely putting people at risk if they get shut down either due to running out of funds or drawing the ire of animal welfare groups, and then the trans folk they want to "save" end up suddenly homeless in bumblefuck nowhere.
With my limited knowledge of farming and livestock, I could tell that alpacas aren't the most profitable choice they could've gone for. I'm assuming that they just had to be different and pick the quirky option as their main source of income. It seems a lot of farms or ranches will have 10 or fewer alpacas and rely on cattle, chickens, or goats to do most of the money-making.
Bees are also a great choice and are a very important part of the ecosystem, but I couldn't imagine any of these troons going with that as bees are scawy and icky and what if poor Kev-Kev gets stung on his nosey-wosey?
So, guys, gals and nonbinary pals, it looks like the tranch is trying to double-dip its grifts. Intrigued? Just you wait.
BUT FIRST...
Bonnie isn't doing so great.
His husband tweets sympathy instead of or as well as walking into the next room and comforting him irl. Seems a bit performative.
Bonnie is also handing over his job managing the pacas to a new troon named Daisy. Idk if Bonnie's just going through some shit right now and can't handle the management stress of 200 alpacas on a poorly equipped ranch, or if Daisy really wants to do it instead. Or both.
Now, onto the good stuff.
I noticed a lot of the tranch residents retweeting this go fund me recently, started yesterday by a pre-hrt troon with the Twitter handle @josiebean42.
@josiebean42 mentions the Tranch in their Twitter bio, the GFM page mentions they are on a queer/trans ranch haven in Westcliffe CO (same place as the Tranch), and there are photos of alpacas on their grift pages despite the GFM being about plant sustainability.
The GFM beneficiary is listed as J Stanley, and as @josiebean42 claims the GFM is theirs, their name must be Josie Stanley.
Unless there are two trans ranches in Westcliffe CO, both with alpacas, and only one has an official Twitter account despite all the tranch residents being on Twitter themselves... well, I think it is safe to say Josie Stanley is part of the Tranch and running a separate but intertwined grift.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Josie's GFM doesn't mention Bonnie Nelson or Penny Logue, avoids talking about animals beyond needing to feed them, and steers away from mentioning Tenacious Unicorn Ranch by name.
None of the retweets by other Tranchers disclose that this is a gfm for a project based on the Tranch. They just retweet it.
If you were a random Twitter user, and you weren't paying as close attention to all the details of the Tranch as we are, one could easily mistake this for the idea that there are two Colorado-based queer/trans farming collectives out there, loosely supporting one another but remaining separate. How does this misconception help them? It lets you ask for more money because people believe they are giving to two separate entities, not one.
Is this just an accident? It is plausible, but considering the Tranch has more branding power than some random no-name ranch, why not use it to gain more traction? Why has nobody else from the Tranch visibly mentioned that they are part of this project or that it is happening on the Tranch when they retweet? Why have none of them stopped to think "hang on, we don't want people to think they have to give twice when the money is going to the same location, that's not fair" and done something to remedy it?
Or, if this project was simply done on Tranch land leased by a non-Trancher, why doesn't Josie say so? It is easy to make that perfectly clear. In fact, there is more incentive for woke ppl to give if it is in support of a trans person leasing off of a trans organisation.
No, these are two GFMs for the same place, created in an attempt to grift a little bit more. Otherwise they would have combined both the animal help and the plant stuff into one GFM.
The Tranch might be running two separate projects but they're under the same umbrella organisation. If GFM only allows one GFM per beneficiary they are on very shaky ground right now. Even if GFM do allow this, they are still ethically doing the wrong thing by their fellow queers and trannies.
Tl;dr - this is some juicy shit.
I would appreciate some help screencapping and/or archiving the tranchers' retweets of this project as I've already spent forever doing the mostnecessary stuff and writeup on my phone and I'm a bit over it right now.
With my limited knowledge of farming and livestock, I could tell that alpacas aren't the most profitable choice they could've gone for. I'm assuming that they just had to be different and pick the quirky option as their main source of income. It seems a lot of farms or ranches will have 10 or fewer alpacas and rely on cattle, chickens, or goats to do most of the money-making.
Bees are also a great choice and are a very important part of the ecosystem, but I couldn't imagine any of these troons going with that as bees are scawy and icky and what if poor Kev-Kev gets stung on his nosey-wosey?
Alpacas became really popular around the middle of the last decade because of those Alpacasso plush. It's like people who latch onto the doge meme and adopt Shibas without knowing how ornery they can be.
No, these are two GFMs for the same place, created in an attempt to grift a little bit more. Otherwise they would have combined both the animal help and the plant stuff into one GFM.[/spoiler]
The Tranch might be running two separate projects but they're under the same umbrella organisation. If GFM only allows one GFM per beneficiary they are on very shaky ground right now. Even if GFM do allow this, they are still ethically doing the wrong thing by their fellow queers and trannies.
That GFM mentions they do the recycling for their county. Its definitely the same place. Their other one looks like its been up for months and hasn't hit remotely close to the goal (8/100k), so they're probably trying again with a smaller cap and clearer goal.
They're relying so much on GFM. All this place needs to do is sell all their unnecessary Pacas (if they're even worth anything), and get someone who actually knows how to run a charity business and be professional.
That said, I don't want Google thinking I'm interested in buying yarn off of Etsy, or Etsy trying to sell me shit from these troons--there's only a few companies I will buy yarn from sight-unseen, and this is relatively common when you yarn because there's a lot you can't really tell from a photo. Ravelry might have more useful reviews on the quality than the Etsy store, but one of the two owners is a troon and they've gone Woke, so three guesses how easy it is to get info from there without an account or a direct link, and I don't want them thinking I'm interested in troonery.
However, on the price point? I can provide a reference point. For a 100g hank of naturally-colored aran-weight 100% alpaca yarn (with extensive hand-processing so you actually have solid colors) from a very reputable company, it's $12.99. This is basically your choice if you need an animal fiber for somebody who is allergic to damn near everything but still wants animal fibers in a color other than 'neutral tweed,' from a company which has as its major selling point that you get good quality yarn at a very good price.
Everything on their Etsy store is at $20, but some of it is sold by weight (100g) and other by length (185/200/210/220 yards). A lot is also sold as part Alpaca/part wool. They're adding a massive mark-up for the "made by troons" label. Even so, only 452 people have bought some, so that's a whole $9,000 income in a year. I don't get why they don't swallow their pride and go and do that extra 3 weeks work for $11,000 that they claim they were stiffed on. It's a better hourly rate than alpaca farming.
That said, I don't want Google thinking I'm interested in buying yarn off of Etsy, or Etsy trying to sell me shit from these troons--there's only a few companies I will buy yarn from sight-unseen, and this is relatively common when you yarn because there's a lot you can't really tell from a photo. Ravelry might have more useful reviews on the quality than the Etsy store, but one of the two owners is a troon and they've gone Woke, so three guesses how easy it is to get info from there without an account or a direct link, and I don't want them thinking I'm interested in troonery.
However, on the price point? I can provide a reference point. For a 100g hank of naturally-colored aran-weight 100% alpaca yarn (with extensive hand-processing so you actually have solid colors) from a very reputable company, it's $12.99. This is basically your choice if you need an animal fiber for somebody who is allergic to damn near everything but still wants animal fibers in a color other than 'neutral tweed,' from a company which has as its major selling point that you get good quality yarn at a very good price.
I did check Etsy to see what it'd point me at via an incognito window. Tranch isn't getting on the first page of a search for 100% alpaca worsted-weight yarn. Can't give you guys their price point. Do know I'd not buy it sight-unseen, and it doesn't sound like they're set up to even do the occasional trunk show at a yarn store so people can get a chance to touch their yarns before making a decision to buy. You will be touching it a lot if you're knitting or crocheting with it. It's got to be something you can stand working with.
But yeah, Stupid Sexy Flanders is right: Alpaca is for most people a luxury product, and the cost of feed's very likely a major factor in being able to turn a profit with alpaca. That means you want nice, green grassy fields... (And I gotta admit, I'm pretty impressed that they lost alpaca to the cold. That takes the same kind of talent that's needed to kill a pet rock--you're supposed to have to worry about heat killing 'em. These troons do know you sheer alpaca only once a year, after winter's done, right...?)
Their yarn is all undyed, around $20 a skein (a pretty standard price, surprisingly), and most of it is mixed with sheep wool. It's absolute bogstandard basic stuff that very few people will be interested in unless they want to buy in bulk to dye and sell on - and that's usually arranged with a seller at a reduced price rate.
As noted, alpaca yarn is somewhat a luxury fibre, being incredibly warm and yet silky rather than wooly. However, it's warmth is offset by it being pretty unstretchy, so it's next to useless on its own for things like socks and mittens, and you need a fucktonne of skeins to have enough to knit a sweater. They don't have more than a handful of skeins in stock of each yarn.
Yarn quality is partly dependent on genetics, yes (how terfly!), but mostly on the health of the animal its grown on. A shit diet, stressful living conditions, animals too cold/underfed etc means hair growth is stunted, leading to weak spots in fleece. Think of how, when you have an illness, you notice a few weeks later that all your nails have a ridge right the way across them from where your body's growth systems were slowed by illness. Same thing happens to fleece-bearing animals. You can't put weak fibres through the rigorous process of carding and spinning in a commercial machine and expect them to make good yarn (or even any yarn at all). We'll see come springtime, just how much yarn is available on the tranranch etsy page. (Places like etsy and ravelry are fully cucked and take no negative reviews, especially ravelry, where a negative review will get you dogpiled and even banned, so relying on yarn reviews is always next to pointless).
Tl;dr: there's no way these larpers are making a living from alpaca fleece. I'd be surprised if they were breaking even from sales of yarn -v- cost of alpaca upkeep, shearing and spinning. Like the unicorn it's named after, the tran ranch business is nothing by a fairytale.
Etsy shows the number of sales; given the average price of their items I think it's been concluded that they've made less than $15k since starting their Etsy store.
It's all been archived previously in the thread. But ultimately the alpacas aren't even generating enough cash to cover their feed. And then add milling fees to that, in addition to god knows what else.
The "herd" is operating at a loss. That's why they're chasing the recycling bullshit... which will also operate at a loss. Thus the GFMs.
Some corrections +additions to the previous post about the animals.
The dogs are supposed to be raised with the herd and trained daily. The only photos of them, they're inside lounging, or in a fenced yard separate from the herd. The newborn pups also weren't quaratined before they're old enough to have shots done. https://archive.md/FJfcB
I counted four more adult cats in old posts. (Archimedes, Midna, Takkun, and Hobbes)
It looks like the goats are female not male like I thought I remembered reading. Strange that they have cashmere goats and all those sheep and the only thing on their store is the Alpaca yarn. Maybe they sell other stuff locally?
Who doesn’t think it’s a good idea to beg for money to buy food for your animals one week, and then double the size of the amount of animals you have the next? This is just good business.
So again I’ll remind everyone that Pennywise is currently crippled, Bonnie is dealing with “muh mentalz” and Kevin is a lazy faggot shitting himself and talking about pregnancy and having “a litter of pups”. That ranch is literally the personification of hell.
Who doesn’t think it’s a good idea to beg for money to buy food for your animals one week, and then double the size of the amount of animals you have the next? This is just good business.
So again I’ll remind everyone that Pennywise is currently crippled, Bonnie is dealing with “muh mentalz” and Kevin is a lazy faggot shitting himself and talking about pregnancy and having “a litter of pups”. That ranch is literally the personification of hell.
I know it's worrisome that they didn't know about their pregnant alpacas, but at the same time it's probably better that Kevin doesn't know that there's pregnant animals nearby...
Some corrections +additions to the previous post about the animals.
The dogs are supposed to be raised with the herd and trained daily. The only photos of them, they're inside lounging, or in a fenced yard separate from the herd. The newborn pups also weren't quaratined before they're old enough to have shots done. https://archive.md/FJfcB
I counted four more adult cats in old posts. (Archimedes, Midna, Takkun, and Hobbes)
It looks like the goats are female not male like I thought I remembered reading. Strange that they have cashmere goats and all those sheep and the only thing on their store is the Alpaca yarn. Maybe they sell other stuff locally?
I just noticed these are all imgur links. This is all good info and we don't want to lose it so please upload the images directly to KF via the "attach files" button (available once you click edit post) and then insert them directly into your post. If they are phone screenshots choose the insert thumbnail option.
Tl;dr: there's no way these larpers are making a living from alpaca fleece. I'd be surprised if they were breaking even from sales of yarn -v- cost of alpaca upkeep, shearing and spinning. Like the unicorn it's named after, the tran ranch business is nothing by a fairytale.
I don't even think they're close to breaking even, I think they're actively throwing money into a volcano. I don't think any of them have ever mentioned being knowledgeable about the process of prepping fiber to be spun, nor do they seem to have the equipment needed - which means they're paying someone for all of it. And mills will charge more if you bring them a dirty, unskirted, poorly sheared fleece to spin.
They'd probably just be better off shearing and taking the full fleeces to local fiber festivals to be graded, priced, and offered up for sale to crafters and handspinners. Cuts out the labor/travel costs of getting fiber to the mill and spun; and even if the fleece isn't great, it'll be priced accordingly and will at least probably be picked up by someone who either doesn't know any better, or doesn't need top of the line fiber for their project.
