One thing that I mention to everyone who says they want to raise alpacas or horses is that vacationing is darn near impossible. If you like to travel DO NOT own a farm.
Case in point:
This past weekend was our anniversary and boy wouldn’t it be nice if we could get away for a long weekend? Plans were set and preparations to put the farm on “auto pilot” with helpers to keep an eye on things were made. Feeling darn good about ourselves we left convinced we’d be able to enjoy our time away.
The first night away went smoothly, no calls from back home at all, we were able to enjoy a nice dinner out on the WW Durant. Earlier in the week we had shipped off some of our alpaca to the chef and he prepared us a wonderful roasted red pepper, mushrooms and alpaca pasta dish. YUMMY! It was awesome to have such a great chef prepare our own meat for us and to be able to enjoy a scenic ride on Raquette Lake too.
The next day we recovered from our excess food and drink and hooked up with a friend to go out and see a movie. Something as simple as going to a movie theater is often difficult and we hadn’t been out to a film in over 2-3 years! 20 minutes into the flick I remembered why. Ring Ring! Uh oh, it’s the farm watcher! Dashing to the back of the theater and out the door we answered the call. The foul weather had blown down some of the fence and though the alpacas were still “contained” they would easily be able to get out. I walked her through getting some grain and herding them back into the dirt paddock and locking them in. Crisis averted!
The rest of the weekend seemed to go smoothly and dreams and wishes of a vacation home in the mountains filled our head. Would it be possible to do these mini weekends away more frequently? The thought consumed us on our drive home and we had it planned out how we could manage a farm and time off and were convinced we could manage both by the time we pulled into the driveway.
As we walked through the front door we were greeted with a story of how just a short time ago, one of the alpacas managed to cram their body through a small hole under the fence and wiggled their way to freedom. The tale of how the escape artist was chased and captured retold to the delight of the farm sitter and to the realization there would never be a vacation home in the mountains for me. *sigh*