Little did I know when I married a country boy almost 15 years ago that I would one day be the proud owner and caretaker of a small alpaca herd. I grew up in a big city and later moved to a small town where I met Rich and moved to his grandparents' homestead that he had recently purchased. Both of us are animal lovers and wanted to share our home with more than our dog companion. Our only dilemma was that we knew that we would name and become familiar with our animals and that meant that we couldn't ultimately send them to become someone's dinner.

Several years ago on spring break from school (I'm a retired 7th grade English teacher) we spent our vacation at a lovely B&B, Maplehill Manor, in Springfield, Kentucky, where they also raise llamas and alpacas. One evening, as we sipped our after dinner glass of wine and strolled down the lane past the pastures, we became fascinated with the alpacas. I casually mentioned, "We could raise alpacas!"

Rich's immediate reaction was, "I don't think so." At breakfast the next morning I questioned the owner about how they acquired the alpacas and how difficult they might be to raise. Alpacas seemed to be a perfect pairing for a farm raised man and a fiber artist.

The subject of raising alpacas seemed have been dropped until several months later when Rich suddenly mentioned them again. It seems that he had been researching them on-line. We spent the next summer visiting alpacas farms in Ohio and networking with other owners. That fall we purchased our first four females, which led to the establishing of our little store here on the farm and the etsy store. I have chronicled this adventure on my blog, www.buckeyestaralpacas.com.