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2020 has really been a doozy, hasn’t it. I am not going to wade into the political quagmire in this blog because it would make my head hurt.

As I write this blog this morning, I find myself waking up in the live quarters of our big horse trailer. It is pretty darn comfortable, so not to bad. Seems that I may have some kind of allergy to something in my house and every morning I wake up the an allergy head ache. The bright side of this is that I get to figure out what is botherin

Wednesday March 18, 2020 we started our day by feeling a 5.7 magnitude earth quake. Seriously? As if we don't have enough to deal with. Today also marks one month since the W.H.O. declared Covid 19 a pandemic.

So how does that impact our small farm business? For one thing all farm visits have been halted until further notice. No farm visits equals, no visitors, no sales in the store. That is a big kick in the teeth.

On the bright side the farm and it's daily activi

This blog has nothing to do with farming, but everything to do with the reality of where I find myself in society. I am a moderate. I believe in the good of all human beings. It appears that the extremes is where the true injustice seems to occur.

Certain people call me political names designed to humiliate me or try to make me feel ignorant.

Ive never seen myself as far left or far right, I think extremes fail us all.
*I think there are more people out there j

You know that period of time when you are waking up in the morning and you drift in and out of awareness? This morning my mind was stuck thinking about the word ACCEPTANCE.

I decided that this word is the most dangerous and dividing word I know. Why?

At first blanch one thinks, what a lovely and inclusive word, but then the reality of the word flows in.





The lovely side of this word is;
-I love and accept you for who and what you

2019 is coming to an end. I had a 5 big things I wanted to try to improve about my self last year.
Here they are;
My big 5 that I need to work on!

1. There are things I do too much. This stems from being insecure I think.
2. I sometimes come off as an insensitive know it all in a moment of try to help someone.
3. I can be super pushy and don’t really consider what other people have to tell me.
4. Too many excuses.
5. I have a hard time seeing past my ow

TO DEHAIR OR NOT TO DEHAIR, NOT A BLACK AND WHITE SUBJECT.

Let’s talk dehairing. Let’s explore all sides of this process. There are many different trains of thought on dehairing. So I think it would be beneficial to hear from YOU on both sides and talk about, what people think, what people have experienced and why people think what they do.

Some questions I would like to explore are;
Does dehairing work on alpaca?
When is dehairing needed?
When is dehai

So 2 weeks ago, my husband called me to the barn to see what he had found. It was a hen that had hatched out 3 chicks.

IT’S JANUARY! What is this hen thinking? We are in Utah and we are experiencing single digits for Pete’s shake. Well we decided to see what would happen.

We set up an infrared heat source with a thermastat in the corner of one of the horse stalls set water under the heater and food near by. AMAZINGLY hen and chicks are doing great. I guess this must

While cleaning the nursery this morning I spied with my little eye some runny poop spots. None of the crias will claim it. I wandered around for quite a while and can find no evidence of who is the owner.

No mess on anyone’s legs, no mess under anyone’s tail, nothing to give me a hint to who the little plops belong too.

Now what? I guess I become a super duper poop detective. Not my idea of fun! With 12 little crias running around there are lots and lots of suspects.

As I worked through my chores this morning it dawned on me that there is no end to the AND THENS. I love Alpaca farming, caring for my flock and doing farm chores. Being outside working is my happy place, but the AND THENS can get out of control sometimes.

My day usually goes something like this;
First, at dawn I start by letting the moms and crias out of the barn, where they have been safely tucked away for the night.
AND THEN, I clean and tidy up the baby barns, as I

People ask me all time, Why Alpacas? I always think in the back of my mind, Why Not?
I thrive on working with animals, I thrive on working outdoors on the farm.
And you have to admit they are UNIQUE, curious, darling, funny, gentle, MAGICAL, SPIRITUAL, challenging and rewarding.

When I stand in the middle of my farm with visitors I tell them to listen. Listen to the silence or sometimes the sweet humming sound they make. I tell them to feel the atmosphere that permeates

We all have been required to take a company up on their guarantee from time to time. How often is it a complicated mess that leaves us frustrated and dissatisfied in the end.

Have you ever guaranteed something, an item you produce, a breeding animal, a live birth? What happens when all does not go well and you need to honor that guarantee. We all have been in this situation I think.

My question is how do we handle it and in what spirit do we honor it?

I ha

I heard something today that really resignated with me and I have been thinking about it non stop.
“It doesn’t matter WHERE we live, but HOW we live.”
That statement hit my heart and stuck.
How do we live, how do we move through our lives?
Does it matter if we live in a shack or a mansion?
What kind of person are we?

What about our space? Whatever our space is, how do we fill it? Do we live with purpose? Do we fill it up and make it our home, m

Today I was very excited to have 2 ranch tours scheduled. I always look forward to these visits because I love sharing our passion for alpacas and natural fiber farming with others.

Today turned out a little differently however. Not only did one tour fall through but both of them did in the form of no shows. We put a lot of time and effort getting ready for these tours. We have hot coco and cookies ready for our guests and a fire in the fire pit since it is chilly.

We have so much energy at the beginning of a new year. We have identified the things we want to work on, set our goals and taken our first steps toward our goals. I found myself in an interaction with a person today and since I am trying to develop my listening skills I sat and listened........ I found myself just telling myself to shut up and listen, to just listen, to not interject. To be patient, on and on. NOW I don’t really remember the conversation very well because I was trying so

Well it’s a new year. With that brings new opportunities and new challenges. One thing I want to try is writing a blog. So here we go. I don’t really even know where to start. I guess maybe looking back a little bit and getting real about some realizations I have made. This blog will be a mixture of my wonderful, crazy farm life and my journey to improve short comings mixed in. We always see ourselves one way and the people around us see us another way. I am so thankful for my true frie