I had never really thought too much about how we got into Alpacas, but looking back, we were probably the least likely to ever get into Alpacas.

My husband Chris and I (Christi) started our journey in Los Angeles of all places. We were both hard driving young professionals on the fast track. I am a bit on the “high maintenance” side (just being honest!!) and Chris is, well, Technical. So city living was for us, as a matter of fact we lived in a condo as to avoid yard maintenance in our busy lives.

To save time we will skip the exciting details (trust me, they’re pretty exciting) and jump from Los Angeles, to San Diego. We had started a family and thought that our fast lives needed to slow down a bit, and get the heck out of LA (but I brought the high maintenance with me)!!! We bought our first house in Poway, which is basically one of the many suburbs outside of San Diego. We were stoked to say the least; we just got a house with a pool and a huge yard!! We were very happy in our track home doing the stuff…

Skip ahead two years, Rancher Alex is 3 now and we are getting an itch to set down some roots, but wait, Chris “wants a bigger yard” before we can really start setting down roots. Well, living in the suburb this posed a bit of a problem, so we started looking “over the hill” in the (comparably) small town of Ramona.

When we first drove down Mussey Grade Road, I remember the pure awe of the scenery only 15 minutes away from where we lived in Poway, the towering oaks, the density of the woods, the creek running along side the road, hawks swooping down in open fields. We had already looked at several other homes before we made that drive, and when we pulled up at the house, we didn’t even care what was inside, we just knew that this “scene” was where we wanted to be.

So after we moved into our new house, we suddenly had just less than 5 acres of yard…and my husband started sweating the yard work that came along with 5 acres. We had two dogs who loved the transition, but the place felt so empty. We thought we needed some sort of animal to help fill the space.

First we thought of goats, Chris thought that would work out so he wouldn’t have to ride the mower as much if they chomped it all down, but I was a little more skeptical. Then one night I saw a commercial for Alpacas, naturally my first reaction was “what is an Alpaca” of course we never hear that in our industryJ, anyway, I went online and began to do some research. After about 15 minutes my jaw hit the floor, they cost HOW MUCH?????????????????

After the sticker shock settled I began to look more and more into why Alpacas are so preciously priced, to say the least. After I dropped the bomb on Chris about Alpacas, and after much discussion and research, we decided that we could start small and work ourselves up to something to retire into. We get the animals, lawn care and an investment all in one!!

Keep in mind, the most exotic animal we have ever owned would be the dog…

Well, here we are, one and a half years later, Alpaca Ranching and LOVING IT! We bought our first 3 Suri girls September 2004, a couple of boys (non-breeding) came along side their moms and a Jr. Herdsire (Jimmy as we affectionately call him) and we were off and running…Jimmy’s first cria is due to hit the ground in December! At this time we are all Suri, we just love the draping silky locks and Rastafarian hairdos!!

Our first girl came along in April 2005, “Venus”, a true black female!  This year Venus had a “twin” sister Aphrodite!  Two true blacks in a row…and yes, we re-bred to Red Shogun of All American Alpacas to see if we can get a three-peat!!

This year we also added two new “babies” to our herd, of course their value is not in fiber, they are Italian Maremmas.  These two boys “Shazam” and “Zoinks” will live with and protect our herd from anything that comes their way!  They are usually a “fuzzy” puppy, but in the climate and the vegetation, it was prudent to give them a haircut. In this picture they just had a bath, so they are a little weepy…poor babies!!

Right now they are bonding with the two Llama girls who were responsible for herd protection, and are now protecting these two (not-so-little) boys until they come of age. 

We have high hopes for Alpaca Oaks and love both the challenges and rewards that come along with being an owner of such a beautiful and graceful animal.

Alpaca Oaks offers Breeding, Boarding and Sales of Alpacas and Alpaca product.