After working and living our entire lives in the city, we decided to retire to a more rural area. While looking for property we did an alpaca tour on a Friday morning in 2017 the following Monday morning I surprised Valerie of our first purchase on an alpaca. She knows how I jump into things. With no experience in livestock let alone the unique alpaca, we started this adventure. We quickly realized there was a business opportunity in alpacas, and we went from wanting a few pets to a breeding stock ranch within a month. We now produce and recognized as a top quality and competitive breeding program nationally. My favorite thing to do is mentoring new people successfully start their own adventure with alpacas at all levels from pet owner to a national breeding program. Some of my duties at the ranch: tour guide, mentoring, breeding decisions, buy and sell alpacas, shows and basic upkeep of farm and animals.

I'm a retired county employee that moved to Arizona 4 years ago. I went on an alpaca tour 3 1/2 years ago (and they like to say I never left). I'm one of the primary tour guides providing alpaca educational information, and I travel with Brian handling alpacas at the alpaca shows. My wife Stacey and I spent 15 years in the holistic show circuit selling essential oils, healing crystals and other holistic products. We've since opened the Trinity Healing Connection store at the ranch, providing holistic merchandise to visitors who come for tours.

We started this Journey in September 2017 with no experience of livestock. Every day is a new adventure, meeting new people in our tours with their reactions with the animals, personalities of the alpacas especially our pregnant girls can change daily. My husband, Brian is the "Master Mind" behind all this. I enjoy the hands on experiences such as assisting in the deliveries of the new crias. I love gaining their trust & learning all the different personalities. With a gentle nudge from a neighbor, I have learned how much fun it is to spin my own yarn. From there, I can create my own products. When Brian is traveling to alpaca shows, you will find me here at the ranch. I keep things running smoothly here & making sure our mommas-to-be are getting the royal treatment they deserve. If you haven't met Mink yet, you are in for a treat. She is the "Matriarch" of the ranch. On a good day, you might even get a kiss!

We started this adventure with the parents. We helped turn 10 empty acres with only a perimeter fence and a well, into a working alpaca breeding ranch. We built pens, shelters for the alpacas and landscaping. We have learned basic care, shearing, breading and birthing. In 2019, our son Irie was born and joined us on this journey. His first word was "alpaca" and his first chore was to hold the hose to help fill water buckets. Papa looks forward to Irie joining him at the shows in the future. We all have enjoyed helping in putting together fun alpaca days for the kids, as well as partaking in tours. Who would have thought outside the working world we were used to, that we would be enjoying the alpaca world.