From urban Sussex to rural Wales - read about our journey into becoming smaller holders and Alpaca breeders.
The Barn 2010
We bought what was literally a Barn with horses in it, 7 acres of land and a small wooded area in 2010.
As the barn was slowly turned into a home we lived on site in a caravan. We built a 30 foot polytunnel, put up a shed for our chickens and planted willow cuttings.
Dream of getting married on our own land
We had dreamed of getting married on our own land but Welsh weather being what it is, decided we couldn’t trust it, so Stu designed it and we built a 5 bay barn to house the celebration, and of course to house animals as a bonus!
We had bought a tractor, bred more chickens, added emden geese and some rare breed portland sheep, raised a couple of pigs and some turkeys and thought we were settled until a trip to the Royal Welsh show opened up the possibility of going in a slightly different direction.
Visit to Royal Welsh Show changed everything
We were enchanted by these beautiful animals in a pen at the show and started talking to the owner about keeping them. Asking all the usual questions, we realised that they were no more trouble to keep than the sheep we already had. On the way home that day we were overcome by the excitement of all the possibilities that lay ahead. In the next couple of weeks we arranged to visit the owner of the ones we had seen at the show and before we knew it we had decided to buy 2 pregnant females, attended a course on how to look after them and were awaiting their arrival!
Our very own Alpacas
Priscilla
From the moment Calida and Priscilla arrived we were smitten and realised this is what we wanted to do with our small holding. The excitement continued and turned to sheer delight when our first cria, Paloma and then Stormy were born in the summer of 2019.
Paloma at one week old 2019
From past time to business
Since then we have grown and developed our interest and experience increased our herd and it is now a business.
"Casa Macho"
We recently built ‘Casa Macho’ for the boys (above) and our large "wedding" barn houses ‘Casa Hembra’ where the girls and the cria shelter from the weather. We bought a trailer that would accommodate alpacas as our previous one was great for sheep but the long necks of the Alpacas wouldn’t fit into and developed the website to bring it to the world outside.
Stu and I are really proud of what we have achieved as we both have careers outside of Willow Barn Alpacas. Stu is a freelance Graphic designer and Illustrator and I am a Psychotherapist and Mindfulness teacher.
A thought going forward is how we might find ways of integrating our external careers and our interests at home.
Watch this space...
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