As much as it feels like life has ground to a halt, life on the farm is flourishing. The grass is growing, the dogs need walking, the herd needs feeding, the llama babies (cria) need training, and the spring projects have begun. The routines and the normalcy have really helped me to maintain my sanity and I am thankful for the busy-ness of the farm, and for these animals that bring me a special kind of therapy every day.
Without the farm tours, birthday parties, yoga sessions, photo shoots, paint classes, and group llama walks, I would have thought that I would have been left with a gaping hole and a lot of time on my hands. Granted, Kevin and I are still working our full time 'day jobs', but to my surprise, my time on the farm is still joyfully full and abundantly productive.
As much as I truly miss meeting new friends and sharing this peaceful place and these magical creatures with all of you, I have to admit that this 'pause' in activity has really helped me to evaluate the balance in my life. What is so hard, is that I truly enjoy doing it ALL! I love a full social schedule! I love farm events! I love taking care of the animals!
I love photography, and learning to garden, learning to spin yarn, weaving scarves, I love visiting other llama farms, taking Conswala to schools, sprucing up the gift shop, planning new events, and I even love mowing grass and scooping poop! But the problem is, that sadly there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it all. Boo! And the things that are really important, like spending quality time with Kevin, visiting my parents and sister, sending care packages to my kids, nurturing old friendships (and the not so fun but necessary things like grocery shopping and cleaning my house) were getting pushed to the side.
So after all of this careful reflection, I have a plan! Yay! A plan that will bring me more balance and will slow things down a little bit, while still giving us a chance to have fun together. And I have to say, the herd desperately misses your smiling faces! When we are able, I'll start by offering some limited private farm tours. You'll be able to book these on the Events page on our website. Available dates will be shown on the calendar. Another priority will be to get the Spring Photo Shoot rescheduled. It may end up being a Summer Photo Shoot, but I am anxious to get this back on the calendar for all of you who already paid for the Event and are graciously and patiently waiting. Next we'll add in some outdoor alpaca yoga sessions. What a perfect way to get some fresh air, meditation and stress relief! And I'm so excited to show off our newly renovated gift shop and all of the really fun alpaca and llama items that I've been collecting to offer, including many specialty items made by local vendors. Finally, I'll add some 'Small Group Tours' to the calendar, which will replace the Open Farm Day. So that is it in a nutshell! We're just going to slow it all down, keep it fun but simple, and make it a priority to provide a safe green space with adorable fuzzy creatures for all of you to enjoy too.
In addition to that plan, we also have some exciting things in the works. I am most excited about the prospect of adding a new fuzzy face to the herd. We are looking to purchase Ellie's half sister! They share the same Dad and this adorable silver girl is a month younger than Ellie, celebrating her first birthday in July. Eeeekkkk....so excited!! We are also moving forward with the plan to breed our 3 alpacas this Spring. The baby daddies will be moved onto our farm in late May to take care of business! So hopefully alpaca babies next Spring! We are also preparing to replace fencing around our front field, planting my first garden, and working on some general 'sprucing up' projects.
So lots of fun stuff in the works! In the meantime, I sure appreciate all of you following us on Facebook and Instagram. You make it a lot of fun for me and your comments bring me endless chuckles! I hope to see you later this year, but until then...as Conswala would say, "Make good choices!"
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