A year after I (Cheryl) moved to Portland I ended up at a strawberry festival where various vendors attended. One of these vendors was an alpaca farmer. I petted the alpaca and immediately added the alpaca to my dream farm. Two years later I got married and TJ joined my dream farm...and with it inherited my alpacas!
Alpacas are from the South American camelid family (llama)and is a cousin to camels. It is bred for its exceptional fiber. "Alpacas have a very strong herd instinct and can be described as protective and stoic, yet they are also intensely curious. They gracefully spar, play, run and jump to amuse themselves as well as their owners. The intrinsic qualities of Alpaca fiber make it stronger, warmer, smoother and more supple than sheep's wool and it is considered to be similar to cashmere. Over the past few years, the U.S. Alpaca fiber market has matured from mostly a cottage industry to mostly a commercial industry which is growing with great success." These quotes are from a pamphlet from the ALPACA's of Tualatin Valley farm which we visited today.
We may not be able to have alpacas now but I believe they will be in our future! If you want more history and info on alpaca's just google "alpaca history" and you'll get a lot of sites!
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