Today we’d like to introduce you to Carey DuRand.
Hi Carey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
After we bought our property, of now ten acres with a barn and fields, we realized that we should probably think about what animals we wanted. My husband added that he now has a lot more acres to mow and a full-time job, so to consider that these critters would be physically and financially more my and kid’s responsibility. So, keeping that in mind I knew that these animals would need to give me something I could sell to make money to buy their food. Having no idea what that would be, we decided to go to the farm show in Harrisburg to research all the different animals. We saw some alpacas and walked over to learn more about them. The owner gave my one daughter, who is very crafty, a drop spindle and a bunch of roving and she started making her own yarn. My entrepreneurial brain started going. We could get alpacas and make yarn, dye yarn, sell yarn, make things with yarn, sell the things we make with yarn, and so it began.
We luckily found an alpaca farm nearby and volunteered every Friday for several months to learn more. Christmas morning Santa dropped off 3 alpacas with one pregnant and that started our journey. It was wonderful, momma dream, doing alpaca life and chores with my younger children; however, my kids got older. My oldest got married, second went to college and I wasn’t homeschooling my two younger ones anymore and it became the ‘momma show’. They went to visit my daughter in college and I was stuck staying home and taking care of animals. They went camping and I was stuck taking care of alpacas. Family meetings, pity parties, “Physically and financially, I just can’t do this anymore. I think we need to sell the animals.’
‘But mom, we can’t imagine living here without the animals. They are like family. We will help.”
It was awesome….. for about a week, then it was the momma show again. So, finally, I gave a prayer up to the Lord and told Him that I couldn’t do this anymore, physically and financially this was killing me, but that I didn’t know what He had for my life. Was this a blessing or a ministry to anyone? Surely this wasn’t what He had for my life to not get to spend time with my family. So I laid it at His feet and it was within 1-2 days that I got a call from the alpaca farm that we volunteered at years earlier and she said that the farm she had been leasing is selling, could she move her alpacas to our farm? The next sentence was, ‘that means we would help with chores and pay you to be there.’ This was not the way I saw this going, but it was an obvious answer to prayer, even if it wasn’t what I thought the answer would or should have been. We went from 7 alpacas to 37 alpacas almost 4 years ago.
We became a farm with 5 alpaca owners that split the chores and I was able to visit my daughter in college the next month. We now have 11 boarders and we offer interactive farm tours, field trips, take them to events (even dressed up) and offer 4H to the children and also craft and educational classes. We are getting to bless people and all be blessed in return with providing a unique experience and by the joy these alpacas and llamas provided for those that visit.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It isn’t easy work, but rewarding. It’s difficult when an animal gets sick and can be physically demanding as it seems everything animal related comes in 50 pound bags or bales. I do learn things everyday. Having so many boarders is a blessing, but we’ve had to learn effective ways to communicate. Instead of communicating the same thing everyday with different chore helpers/ boarders, we created a communication wall and that has been very helpful. I’m still working on learning ways to inform the community of our opportunities and tours. It is a process, but I am grateful for all the people I have in my life from this venture and those I get to meet.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are an alpaca/ llama farm in south central Pennsylvania. We specialize in providing a unique experience with our educational and interactive farm tours. Our farm tours are inexpensive so families and individuals can come multiple times with other family and friends, visit new babies (crias), see them fluffy and newly shorn and even participate in the annual shearing event. We love taking our animals to weddings, nursing homes, birthday or graduation parties and other events, even dressed up in top hats, bow ties and flower crowns and pearls. We offer boarding for those that want to own their own alpacas, but don’t have the property to do so and sales to those who have or want to start their own alpaca farm. Lastly, we offer craft classes, educational classes, 4H and Adult Alpaca University.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I would like to be able to increase the number of people that know about our farm and increase our farm tours and field trips/ group tours and class attendance. I may offer summer camps next year.
Pricing:
- $10 adult, $5 kid for farm tour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shearheavenfarm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shearheavenfarm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shearheavenfarm/
