Our Story

We moved to Cartersville, GA, in 2019. Our story began with loss, the death of our youngest son Corey who took his own life in 2016. Priorities and perspectives changed, and we decided a complete change was needed. I put my PhD in political science on hold and Stuart changed companies to reduce his travel time...and we packed up two large dogs, two regular sized cats, and headed to the country. 

Having been raised in farm country in rural NJ and among various farm animals, I had experience with "typical" livestock, but alpacas would be a new adventure for both of us. We had wonderful mentors in the folks at Good Karma Ranch in NC, and purchased our first alpacas from them. The incentive of getting to know and love these funny, unique creatures was strong.   

The chickens and rooster were the first to arrive (Jersey Giants, of course!), followed by our girl alpacas, OG Maremma livestock guardian dog Nashee, and our barn cat Patty. Once we started breeding, our first cria (baby alpaca) “Rio” joined the barn family. We then created space for male alpacas and currently have three, Rio, Bodhi and Nirvana. Our girls include Quinn, BeeBee, Lane, Pearl and newest addition Harley Quinn, born May 14th of this year. BeeBee is expecting her first little one in Spring of 2023. We have added another Maremma, the sociable “Rocco”, and two recent barn kittens (Tora and Taro), and another house pup, Kahlua. Kahlua joined Karma and Khal on house duty.