“We had made the decision to move a while ago, but finding the right piece of land, at a price we could afford, took a little longer than we had anticipated”. Finally, an 8-acre piece of land came onto the market that ticked our boxes. Pasture land, woodland and a beautiful view. Nick recalls viewing the land and calling the agent to put in an offer before he had called Amanda. A bit of a gamble.

Our offer was accepted and we started thinking about what changes would need to be made to the land and what we were going to farm. This is where Peter from Amazing Alpacas comes in, although he didn’t know it at the time.

The farm idea was born, we would set up an alpaca farm. Knowing nothing much about alpacas, Nick made a visit to Amazing Alpacas and spent a very informative day with Peter, or Peter Alpaca as we call him. Amanda attended on a separate day, just in case Nick forgot to ask a particular question. This is where things got serious. During her visit, Amanda decided to purchase 10, yes 10 alpacas.

We now had a target date to aim for and we really needed to press on and get the land ready to accept our new animals. After sorting a local company to create hardstanding, sort site drainage, widen gates and erect lots of fencing, the land now looked like the start of a farm. Next came storage sheds, animal shelters and a spring was found that would give us water on the farm. Our mini solar farm was created to give us plenty of renewable energy, and a compost toilet was built in case we were caught short. Finally, with the help of Peter Alpaca, we received our new herd.

This is where we are currently at. We have created a new mini farm from a piece of land that had really gone to ruin. It was full of weeds, stones and tree stumps. The land was saturated and would easily flood and was left looking very sad. Now it is starting to become an asset to the local area.

We plan on planting a new hedgerow along a 90-metre fence line, plant 20 new trees creating a new orchard. Introducing pigs, chickens and bees somewhere on the land and breeding new life in to the existing woodland by creating a new Woodland Management Plan.

Another big part of our plan moving forward is to give back to the community and create a cooperative with local spinners and weavers. “It would be great if we could create fine blankets and throws from the alpaca fleece, all being created locally. These could be sold with proceeds going back to the local people”.

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