Buena Vista Alpacas
Below is an original post from my personal journal, describing our first ever visit to an alpaca farm:
We had seen the alpaca farm weeks ago, when we first moved to Aiken, coming across it by accident when we took a wrong turn on our way to Richardson’s Lake. At the time, we made a decision to come back later, and perhaps speak to the owner of the farm to see if he could give us some information about alpaca farming. Alpaca farming is something I’ve been meaning to look into for a number of years, something that has always been of interest to me. I was very surprised (pleasantly so!) when Libby and Leo brought it up some time ago, and again I made a decision to look into it when I had some time, and obviously that time never came.
So yesterday we made it back to the Buena Vista Alpaca Farm and found the owner in the paddock, distributing hay for his flock to munch on. He was delighted to spend some time with us, giving us so much information that we need to digest it for a little bit, but in general being very happy with what he told us. He stated several times that alpacas and kids go together, and in the end grabbed a halter to bring one of the young alpacas to interact with Jesse.
Jesse’s face when he saw the alpacas was quite indescribable, so I photographed it instead. He was not at all afraid of them, wanting to reach out and touch them, and squealing loudly several times from excitement. I had to ask him to tone it down a bit (yeah right, like he listens to me at this age!) because the alpacas may get afraid of him if he continued.
John, the owner, came back with a grey alpaca baby, apologising because this was not the one he had wanted to show us, but the only one that he could catch. He handed the alpaca to Jason, who led him around and admired him. ‘He’s only 9 months old,’ John told us proudly, ‘born right before Thanksgiving.’ Jason and I glanced at each other and Jason laughed, telling John that Jesse was also 9 months old and born right before Thanksgiving. John said that he couldn’t remember the exact date, but later threw into the conversation that it had been a Monday, because he had glaced out the door that morning and had been bowled over by the fact that his mother had given birth earlier than expected, that he had been so happy to see the cria’s (that’s the name for the young ones) colour.
How likely would it be, do you think, that of all the alpacas he could have shown us, he brought us Dominic, the only one who he could catch at that time, the one that was born on the same day as Jesse, possibly even around the same time as Jesse? Afterwards I said to Jason ‘There’s your sign!’, a lighthearted little joke between us that is somewhat mocking to show that we take such things with a grain of salt, yet a little seriously as well.
Armed with the information that John shared with us, and he was quite forthcoming with a lot of things, both good and bad, I can now look into alpaca farming a little more carefully, which I am planning to do over the next couple of days.
