It all started as a 4H Alpaca Project..

Looking back on it, this 4H project for my daughter had been quite an odyssey. It all started back about 2 years ago in January of 2004. My neighbor suggested we 'adopt' a little alpaca down the road. Since we have plenty of space on our 7 acre ranch, I thought it would be a good idea for my daughter to raise one for the upcoming county fair. My wife, daughter and neighbor went down the road to look at the alpaca, and fell in love with them, especially a little boy (cria) who was just 3 months old. His name is Lightning and he was our first alpaca. Turns out, you can't just have one alpaca (they are herd animals and will die from stress if left alone) so we also brought home another little boy name 'Keeshon'. Actually, we had to wait about 2 months to bring them home since they were still nursing. Our daughter was required to ride her bike up to the other peoples ranch and check her alpacas and begin the bonding process. In the meantime, we built temporary fencing (5 Ft. Non-climb) and began the educational process of learning everything there is to know about alpacas. During the 'bonding' process, my wife came to me with a twinkle in her eye... She said, you know honey...I've been looking for something to do with all my nursing knowledge (she is a retired RN) and these little alpacas could be a great way to use our property AND teach the kids about raising animals! I said I'd give it some thought...and she went shopping (for alpacas). Within a month we had purchased 3 more 'show quality' alpacas and now had begun the journey into alpacas...