We were first introduced to alpacas in 1996. We instantly fell in love these huggable creatures--it is not hard to do! Having just assisted four of our kids with their college expenses, we were in the process of examining our financial portfolio for the immediate future.

After attending our first Alpaca Show we proceeded to look for a piece of land that would have good access to a freeway, an outstanding panoramic views and be out in the country. After searching for five months we finally found a fantastic piece that met all of our criteria and then some in the view department! Our spread is 24 miles north of where the I-5 freeway crosses the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington at about 1200 feet above sea level. It is only three miles off of the freeway, has a territorial view of over 50 miles of the Columbia River, downtown Portland, mountains and other towns along the River. It is teaming with wildlife ranging from Roosevelt elk to bobcat.

By the next year (1998) we had installed a 1/4-mile of perimeter no-climb horse fencing on 4-5 inch treated log rounds set in gravel tailings in pre-drilled holes to keep the wildlife out. We also bought our first alpaca, Misty Rose, a three-month-old female cria. Her sire was El Moustacio, a well-known national champion. Buying a three-month-old was within our budget. By agisting Misty Rose, we were able to buy a very high-quality alpaca for the money while gaining time to develop our farm. Incidentally, we had just named our farm Columbia Mist Alpacas from a large list of names we had brainstormed. Misty just seemed to fit into our farm milieu.

We spent the next six months planning out how to make the 15 degree sloped land work to our advantage. We excavated for two centralized barns and worked with engineering to develop plans and wind and hay loads for county approval. We also purchased our second female alpaca, High Fashion, and agisted her.

In May of 1999 we began building our multi-purpose 2,000 square foot barn to house a heated shop and a tractor and farm implement storage area. We increased the number of work hours to include 3-4 evenings per week and were able to finish the barn in May of 2000. We moved our motor home up permanently to save travel time and take care of sleeping and eating needs.

In July of 2000 we started our 3,500 two-story alpaca barn. Although we knew that alpacas only required a simple three-sided shelter protected from the wind, we wanted to have a centralized barn to feed out to all of our grazing fields. We also wanted our barn to provide space for hay storage, a vet room and supplies, feed room, shearing area and just a great place for people to come and enjoy our alpacas. We also purchased a purebred Great Pyrenees dog from an alpaca farm that raised dogs. We boarded him on the alpaca farm giving him the advantage of adding training by his parents to his already great instincts. We started visiting Pierre every chance we could get.

Due to some health problems of our dear alpaca friends we were given the opportunity to select animals from their herd of 70 as they sold their farm. We were not expecting to be able to expand our farm this fast. All of a sudden we had a herd of eight alpacas, a half-finished barn and a house for sale. We had to move our alpacas to our farm on 12/31/00 and move into our motor home--ready or not!

Our house sold three months later as we put the final touches on our barn. We moved our furniture into our heated shop and began the process of finalizing our new house plans and applying for building permits. In May 2001 we won our first national alpaca championship with Duncan a brown huacaya with a Camilio heritage. We were shocked as we thought it would take many years of smart breeding to attain this achievement. By 9/2001 we broke ground and began to build our dream home. Daryl's dad was our contractor. After 50 years of building he announced that this would be his final masterpiece- and that it is!

By August of 2002 we moved into our new home after 20 months of living in our motor home. It was great to be able to move around in more space. We especially enjoy living at the high point of our property and be able to look down on our alpacas in the fields, with crias running and jumping, and over distant panoramic views! It just does not get much better than this!