From the moment we read an article about alpacas in the October 2004 issue of Costco Connection Magazine, we knew we had to find a way to become a part of the alpaca lifestyle. The article was about a couple that retired from work, but not from life. The article noted five areas that grabbed our attention and sparked our curiosity. Raising alpacas are an investment with a good return, they offer great tax advantages, you have the ability to travel and enjoy life, live in a peaceful country setting close to urban amenities and with minimal physical labor, we can continue our venture well into our retirement.
Being dog and cat people, but never having had any experience with livestock, we were a bit nervous about how we would go about figuring this all out. After doing some research to learn more about these unique animals, we scheduled visits to a couple of nearby ranches. Next, we attended a seminar in our area to learn even more. While Tammy was doing additional research on the Internet, she discovered an all-inclusive informational book called
The Complete Alpaca Book by Eric Hoffman. We ordered the book, read it and scheduled our next visit to Eric s ranch,
Bonny Doon Alpacas, located in Santa Cruz, CA. During our visit, Eric and his wife, Sherry, explained the joys of raising alpacas and demonstrated the lifestyle we were looking for. The love and pride they showed for their alpacas quickly spilled over to us and we decided that it was the time to start our adventure. During our visit to
Bonny Doon Alpacas, we purchased 3 adult females, 2 maidens and ownership in a promising young herdsire. This was to be our foundation herd for the future. As we were living in the city, our animals remained at
Bonny Doon Alpacas for a few months until we could find a new home for them. In March 2005 we moved our animals to Sonora, California, to a ranch named Valley of the Llama, owned by Dr. Robert J. Pollard and his wife Suzi. Agisting allowed us to visit our small herd a few times a month, but it did not allow us to be with our new camelids on a daily basis as we envisioned. We wanted to be more involved and more hands-on with our animals.
2005 was a turning point in our lives. Long commutes and the stress in both our jobs caused us to re-evaluate our current lifestyle. The desire to be closer to our children, and grand children, plus the opportunity to invest in our future was the catalyst for our transition into the alpaca lifestyle.