Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Looking for a New Farm

Steve and the kids explore Tennessee

I cannot tell you how much I love my farm. I adore our location. We live in the cutest town in the world. If you have never been to Fairhope, Alabama you must plan a trip! It is the greatest place to visit, and to live and raise a family. It used to be the best place to have a farm, but times they are a changin'. Since everyone is discovering how adorable it is, the farmers are getting squeezed out by suburbia. I try not to be resentful of this occurance. I do enjoy the Super Wal-mart that is down the street from me.

Another contributing factor to our current restlessness is the fact that I am running out of room to grow the alpaca herd. With only 10 acres, single family homes beginning to dot my fenceline, and big alpaca plans, last year we had to start looking for a new farm. Since moving a farm with 50+ alpacas, several dogs and cats, and four children will be quite an undertaking, I thought I would record the journey in my blog.
I had to do some serious soul searching about how big of a farm I really wanted. Okay, I suffer from bigger is better -itis. I'm an American, it's in the blood. So I worked up a business plan for the next 5, 10, and 15 years. I determined that I would like to have the ability to have 150 alpacas on the farm. Once I picked hubby up off the floor, we started to discuss location. At first I insisted that since I was the President of the Deep South Alpaca Connection, I had to live in the states we served. Since my husband was voting for West Virginia (I am severely allergic to winters that cold), and I began to realize my attachment to DSAC could be considered a bit unhealthy, I knew I'd better compromise. We found a gorgeous piece of property in Crossville, Tennessee. Seemed like a good compromise on locations so we took some time during Spring Break to drive up there to look around.
Heaven on Earth. This is one of the views that enticed us to consider this piece of land.Gorgeous views. But can you see how steep this is? This stunning piece of land was on the side of a mountain! We could barely walk it, much less drive a tractor over it. Alpacas are used to mountains, but the severe grade was an insurmountable obstacle for the humans involved.

It sure was pretty, but it was back to the drawing board. On the way home we happened to spend the night in the up and coming city of Chattanooga...

(to be continued)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

very pretty place... love your blogs keeps me occupied

Alpaca Farmgirl said...

Thanks JBK! Always glad for you to stop by!
-AFG