Dale and I both grew up in Wyoming. Two avid animal lovers, we had raised or owned large and small creatures of all kinds.
One day in 2004, on a lark, we stopped at an alpaca farm to see a creature we were unfamiliar with. We were impressed with how easy they were to raise and left smitten with the soulful-eyed, gentle creatures.
Four months later we had sold our house in White Salmon, WA and moved just a few miles west down the Columbia River, across from Hood River, OR to a small acreage near Underwood.
With majestic Mt. Adams in the distance, we jumped into alpaca farming with a post hole digger in one hand and a paintbrush to fix up the house in the other. We’ve never looked back. Our lives have become happily immersed in these animals and all the directions owning them have taken us.
Four years later, we have a herd of around twenty that fluctuates as we sell, cria are born and we find one we “can’t” live without that would improve the quality of our herd. Our original dams have produced consistently healthy cria that, with planned solid breeding practices, have produced improved offspring.
We now have a Hemingway Accoyo stud to offer rebreeds to and one of our first boys, a fine black boy became a breeding stud this year. Our first cria born on the farm, Sweet Wonder has become our PR gelding and attends many events to promote our farm and the industry. He knows he’s an alpaca, but loves people and many have stopped at the farm to just get a “Wonder kiss”.
We started selling alpaca clothing at Christmas shows two years ago and had a small farm store. The reaction was so great; it led us to opening The Enchanted Alpaca retail store. People not only fall in love with the animals on the many farm visits we do, but the luxurious, functional clothing their fiber makes.
Alpacas are so photogenic, seems everything they do is cute. I found myself taking tons of pictures of them and finally decided to start a line of greeting cards. Nothing cheers up a friend like getting an alpaca in the mail!
I taught school for many years and watching one of our particularly curious, yet somewhat clumsy girls when she arrived at our farm, led me on another adventure. She was so unique and approached things so differently than the other animals, I wrote a children’s book about how differences are good in all of us, animal or human. Anik the Unique Alpaca, published November, 2008.
Certainly our most unusual adventure has been “the Progressive Poop Pile”. My husband decided we would not have a useless poop pile. He started using red worms to compost and sells the castings at local feed stores and markets. Folks are amazed at the efficiency of this virtually week-free organic fertilizer,
We know we are in a special business, a special place in our lives that alpacas have made possible for us. We can’t wait to see what comes next. We welcome farm visits from the just curious to people who are looking at the lifestyle that has brought us so many smiles and wonderful people into our lives.