Las Flores del Altiplano…A Work in Progress

How it Began

The day I fell in love began just like any other. It was early spring 1996. My husband, Patrick, and I awoke in our comfortable two bedroom apartment overlooking the verdant "park blocks" in downtown Portland, Oregon. Prepared for work, I kissed him good-bye and joined the other commuters, picking my way through the crowded streets to my sedentary job. Unaware that this was no ordinary day, I continued on as though it were. The day drew to a close and on the way home I picked up the latest copy of Sunset Magazine. Leafing through the pages, THEY jumped out at me; the sweetest smiling faces! Delighted, I laughed out loud. I was smitten, I was IN LOVE. I was determined that anything, anyone, that made me that instantly happy had to be part of my life.

Alpacas? ALPACAS!

How to seduce my husband, the urban warrior? As it turned out it wasn't that difficult. Patrick is one of those incredible people who can crouch quietly in the woods and in just a few minutes little furry animals scurry up to say hello. It's amazing! So a couple of weeks later, on a watery Saturday, we took a drive to a local alpaca farm. A snow white hembra had just given birth. The cria hadn't even found its legs. We stood and watched the miracle as this little life found its beginning. Patrick was smitten. He was IN LOVE.

In the months that followed, our homework convinced us the alpaca industry was sound. I had raised French Alpine dairy goats in my "urban-girl-with-newly-minted college-degrees-goes-'back'-to-the-land" hippy days. We felt we weren't entirely green in the ways of herd management. Taking deep breaths, we purchased our first pregnant female.

The Las Flores del Altiplano Story

We christened our herd Las Flores del Altiplano. The Altiplano is the Andean home to alpacas and other camelids. Of all that comes out of this harsh terrain, certainly the alpaca, clothier to royalty, is the flower. Following this theme, we've named most of our females for flowers and our males for trees. In the sweet little book, The Language of Flowers, the author treats us to the meaning of many flower names. We've passed this along to you in the story of each herd member.

For three years our herd was agisted as we continued to live in the city. In that time we grew to nine animals. I'm still not sure how that happened. But, as they say, this isn't just a business. It's an addiction.

Making our dream a physical reality was past due. We needed to move to the country and get our hands on the poop scoops.

Months of searching found us 5 acres in Clark County Washington, in the town of Yacolt. Yacolt is the scene of the famous chicken wars. Ah! A story for a different time and over a cup of coffee, do get in touch and let me tell you. But, I digress… On this land, there was a house, a huge back deck, a garage and trees "clear up to there." It was barren of barn, pasture and fencing.

We had found a piece of paradise. It was so quiet that we could hear the birds' wings flapping as they flew by. We didn't want to call in the cats to shatter this peace. We're committed to right stewardship and wanted to leave the ground itself as whole as possible. We called in the horses! Our land was cleared the old way using two huge draft horses in harness. It was slower going, but in the end, it was worth the trouble.

There was some necessary ground leveling and we were lucky to locate an artist with a Deere. Patrick and John had a wonderful time looking through triangulated fingers, shooting whatever you shoot and doing all of that stuff that we non-engineering types can only guess at.

The barn was another matter. We designed a structure with a second storey for hay and three stalls on north and south sides. The idea was to eventually run cross fence from each of these stalls. I was adamant. I wanted straight line fences so that in an emergency or a senior moment I didn't have to stop and try to find the gates. What a sensation we caused in the pole barn building world! One would have thought that we were requesting the Taj Mahal. But, as the saying goes, "perseverance furthers." Eight months later, (we'd been assured it would take only one) we had our barn. In the following months we completed our perimeter fencing.

With fanfare and a bottle of champagne, we finally brought the boys home. About a month later, on Patrick's birthday, in November of 2002, the girls followed. After two years of living on our alpaca ranch, we were finally alpaca ranchers!


Love that Herd Sire

After five yeas we grew large enough to add a herd sire, Patagonia's Usuahia. He's a gorgeous true black son of two true black parents. What an amazing animal! In the morning at breakfast, there he stands, head over the stall gate, piece of straw stuck in the side of his mouth or his top knot, lopsided grin. Then in a flash, this "aw shucks" guy pulls himself up into the incredible presence you see in the picture in this article. I call the transformation, "from Fudd to Stud." Usuahia is a sweetheart and a blue ribbon winner! His crias all have wonderful conformation, fiber and style. As a bonus, this guy puts deep color on white females with exclusively white backgrounds. He's a prize.

We have added a second herdsire, Premier's Rubio. We co-own him with Premier Alpacas of the Palouse in Uniontown, WA. Rubio is the son of Snowmass Black Legend and is a grandson of the famous Pperuvian Bueno. His mother, Premier's Jolie, is full sister to Premier's Absolute, the stand out 2003 "show pony." Rube's rosegray fleece remains at 18.8 microns (99% comfort factor) after his second shearing. This incredible fiber has won blue at both winter and summer AOBA nationals, at Alpacapalooza, AWE, PNAA and Alpaca Affair. Rubio began settling females at two years of age and to date, he has settled 13. We can't wait to see his first offspring in 2005.

Anatolians - Our Other Passion

The herd needed protection, so we went to the dogs… Anatolian Shepherds! This ancient breed of herd guardians is intelligent, bold, and huge. They've been clocked at 35 miles per hour and a pair can take down a cougar. And, they're not for everyone. These dogs believe in their own judgment. So, if a prospective human steward feels the need for 100% compliance, then this would not be a partnership made in heaven.

We purchased Michael, (the Archangel) as a puppy and have never looked back. A second generation camelid guardian, Michael was a natural from the very first. He attended our first birth and called us to the barn. The cria had just been born. We found Michael sitting at a respectful distance with a quizzical look on his face. He wasn't quite sure how there were now two alpacas when just a minute ago there was only one. But he thought maybe he should call for help. After just a couple of hours this first time mom let Michael into the maternity stall. You could hear him thinking, "This baby's dirty, she needs a bath," and licked her clean while mom placidly looked on.

To round out this passion, two female Anatolians, Turkay's Gabrielle and Turkay's Angelica arrived from Florida in 2002. In future, look for third and fourth generation camelid guardians here at the farm.

A Work in Progress

Our herd has grown, and today we own 15 colorful Huacaya and three Anatolian Shepherds. We've had some very exciting births and sadly some deaths. We've won ribbons and not won ribbons. We've added to our herd and herd management knowledge. We've made more purchases and made some sales. We've met some wonderful people and some others. We've made mistakes and had some wonderful successes. There's still a lifetime of enjoyment and work.

****This is an updated version of a piece written by Marit for the 2002 Herdisire edition of Alpacas Magazine.