With the children grown, it was just us and our animals. We began searching for a larger property and home to give our four dogs and three birds more space. The land we eventually purchased was heavily overgrown with brush, thorns, and vines—so dense that after the house was built, the dogs wouldn’t wander more than a few feet from it. It quickly became clear that some serious clearing was needed.
The property is very hilly, so help from equipment wasn’t the answer. After doing a lot of internet research, we decided a pair of goats may help us out here. So we fenced in about ½ acre behind our house, now called goat hill, purchased 2 beautiful Saanen Angora mixes and off they went. They were the first livestock we purchased and we miss them terribly. Sadly we lost Clyde in 2018 and Bonnie in 2019.
Once the goats did their job and we fenced in more and more of the property, it started looking like a small farm. That’s when we thought it would be wonderful to have some livestock that could potentially give us some retirement income. When we were looking for our goats we had visited our local extension office. The gentleman there did not know of any goat farms but he did know of an alpaca farm. That was the first time we saw an alpaca and like so many, we were smitten. We started doing our research and after about 2 years of visiting farms and researching and planning, we purchased our first 2
girls.
Our farm has evolved significantly since its inception, providing us with a wealth of experiences that are truly beyond description. It has been a privilege to oversee the growth of our animals—from the arrival of newborn crias to the development of adult alpacas—while watching our goats flourish and our miniature horses age gracefully. Dedicating ourselves to the care and stewardship of these animals has undoubtedly been the greatest highlight of our lives.