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Farm In The Meadow
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Farm In The Meadow By Craig Wanggaard Six or eight years ago, Craig returned from a business trip with an article about alpacas from an airline magazine. "How is this for an interesting lifestyle change?" he asked. He knew Jan was looking for a way to live in Maine, close to the ocean. He also knew we wanted to provide some additional income in our career change from our present work-a-day world. Jan gave him one of those wifely "Are you nuts!" looks, and he quickly filed the article away in his drawer. In October 2002, we were enjoying the Columbus Day weekend in Maine when Jan saw an announcement about Open Farm Days. "It might be fun to visit an alpaca farm," she said. "Would you have any interest?" Surprised she remembered anything about alpacas, Craig agreed to visiting a new part of Maine and seeing what such a farm would look like. Off we went for an afternoon at Andes Alpacas in Auburn. It was a life-changing moment, and Jan was smitten, hooked, and full of enthusiasm. A marathon of researching, visiting, talking, attending seminars, and thinking followed. We joined AOBA, scheduled visits to farms, and sat in on the talks given at the Empire Extravaganza and MAPACA. We talked to breeders at shows, went to Alpaca 101 at A.L. Paca, and took our adult children on farm visits to make certain we weren’t crazy. In addition, we continued to look for a place in Maine where we could establish our farm. In May of 2003, we bought land in Richmond and began the process of designing the house and energy efficient farm we needed to build. By late summer, we felt confident enough in our decision to become alpaca farmers and we bought two females from Chase Tavern Farm, our closest alpaca neighbor and patient mentors. One of the females was pregnant. We also decided to co-own a young, promising male with them. In September we attended the East Meets West Auction in Boonton, NJ. We bought our third female from Angel Wood Alpaca Farm in New Jersey, who also are our untiring teachers. The two females produced two more females and all are currently boarded at their respective farms. Our herd is planned to grow by two this spring. Meanwhile, we try our best to get our house built in Maine so we can move from New Jersey. We are eager to experience this promised "relaxed life style of an alpaca farmer." It WILL happen this summer and we are very excited. Will Craig (with a background in sales, marketing, logistics and distribution) and Jan (an academic reference librarian), who have dealt only with pet dogs and cats, be successful??? We believe so. Stay tuned! Contact us through our e-mail: info@FarmintheMeadow.com |
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