A Brief History

Jeanne and I have been on our property in Queen Creek, Arizona for about 9 years. We always wanted to do something with the property but it took us 7 years to decide what to do.
We had been looking into the Alpaca Business and after attending the Southwest Regional Alpaca Show in Phoenix, and meeting several Breeders, we made the decision to cautiously enter the business.... We met The Folks from Second Wind Alpacas, and after several E-mails, settled on the Male Alpacas we presently have. We have Avenger (a Fawn colored 1 year old) Magnum (a true Black 18 month old) and Bruto (a Rose Grey 2 year old). So, in addition to the two little Goats we had adopted, we now had the Three Amigos..... Things settled into a routine, and soon we heard about a White Female at a ranch in St Johns AZ. that needed a home. Now we have China Doll ( a 3 year old pure White female). China Doll was the opposite of the 3 Amigos... where they were the gentle friendly pets, She was wild as a March Hare.... She had been out in a pasture with little attention from humans. So, we have worked many hours with her to get her to be the gentle little lady she is today.
Then it was Shearing time in May and what a day that was.... We had helped Twin Star Alpacas with the shearing of their 30+ animals, and 7 more animals at a neighbor's ranch. Then it was our animals turn. They were the biggest crybabies, and carried on like they were being murdered instead of getting haircuts.
Well, that is over for another year. I don't look forward to that again next year.
We got into this endevour simply for the companionship of the animals, and the Fiber that Jeanne and our daughter Becky use in their Spinning and Crocheting.
We had received 2 bags of fiber with each animal when we got them, and Jeanne and Becky had finished all of that in projects and were looking forward to this years batch of fiber.
We got 8 bags of wonderful fiber in 4 different colors, plus the folks at Twinstar gave us a bag from one of their Crias we had helped shear. Jeanne has already made sweaters for the Granddaughters from the Crias' wonderful cream colored baby fine fleece.
Well, that should catch you'all up on our activities. I hope to fill this Blogspot with current events in our busy little farmlife.
As you can probably tell, I do the gruntwork, while Jeanne does all the artistic stuff. I am the tractor and wheelbarrow driver and get to play in the poo pile, while Jeanne has the critters wrapped around her little finger by feeding them treats.
So in addition to the Herd Guardian Dog "Ben" (a White Great Pyrenees) who lives in the Swamp cooler cooled Barns with the Alpacas, there are the two Goats Tinkerbell (the Doe) and Nibbler (the gelded boy) in their own pen. There is of course the indoor dog Wonder (a weimaraner) and Gob (the new kitten) It's a busy feeding time around here........
I'll post more as things of interest come up. Bob