Robert was still working and I was retired. We had a couple of acres and I wanted to do something with it. Horses were out of the question, way to much work. Robert had seen some alpacas when he was on a fishing trip. I explained to him that raising alpacas had some major tax deductions. So I called my cousin, she worked for a large ranch, and she told me what ranch to visit. I went to visit a ranch and was so impressed with alpacas that I took Robert. We hem’d and haw’d about alpacas in general, which ones should we buy and then we went home. We discussed what we would need in fencing, shelters and water. We didn’t take much time before we were the proud owners of 2 pregnant females and a male offspring. Then we put in the fences and a shelter. We had a girl a short time later, now we had four. About 6 months goes by and it show season. Now we planned on going to our 1st show with help, but as it turns out we are on our own. So we went. We didn’t do well but we had a great time and learned a lot.