Adopting Alpacas
Our family adopted Chasca almost a year ago now, and we couldn’t imagine life without her.
We named her after the Inca goddess Chasca, the goddess of dawn and twilight who was described as a beautiful wavy haired maiden. Chasca fits this description perfectly!
Chasca gets along great with our other Alpaca, Ostara. They do everything together – graze, sleep, play. They have become the best of friends.
We have two young daughters, ages 3 and 5. Lilly and Emma can’t wait to go out to visit with Chasca and Ostara first thing in the morning. We can barely get them to eat their breakfast and put their clothes on before they are clamoring to get out the door.
Our lifestyle here in the country has been good for all of us. We both had busy careers as software engineers and were feeling very burned out. The decision to sell everything and move to the country was not an easy one, but is one we have never regretted.
How much simpler our lives have become! Instead of getting up every day and rushing just to get stuck in traffic, we arise to the musical sounds of birds chirping and our Golden Retriever, Max wagging his tail in anticipation of breakfast.
We owe this wonderful new life in part to our Alpacas. They graze on some of the weeds I might otherwise need to use a Weed Eater on. We use their wonderful manure to feed our vegetable garden, which has seen amazing growth. We even entered our tomatoes in the fair and took a second place ribbon! We have already been able to earn extra income from the sale of vegetables and fleece at the local farmer’s market.
My wife has purchased a used spinning wheel and is learning how to use it. Both Alpacas have lovely fleece – and someday soon she hopes to start knitting with yarn from our own farm.
Both of us wanted a different lifestyle for our family than the one we had previously. We love nature and the outdoors, and our Alpacas have helped us to realize the dream of raising our kids in a wholesome and enriching environment.
It was easier than I thought to learn about the basic needs of Alpacas, from shelter to nutrition. We found that we didn’t need to make a huge investment in our farm once we learned how to design it efficiently with the needs of the Alpacas in mind.
I’ve become far more attached to Chasca and Ostara than I ever imagined possible. They are family members who also contribute greatly to our joyful lifestyle. Someday soon, we plan to add to our herd and perhaps even begin to breed our own Alpacas!