Chapter 14 - Going Back to the Future

Some days I wonder why I waited this long to stumble back to where I might have started?  Once set on a path by my limited choices (teacher or nurse) I did break free, attend graduate school and expand my horizons into corporate learning. 

But I never once considered that I could have gone back to my early dream – to be a veterinarian.  I guess life got in the way. I have three wonderful children and a grandson.  I’ve been married to the same man for 40 years in November.  And to be honest I have enjoyed my many years in learning and development.  I’ve traveled all over the world, met wonderful people and hopefully provided solutions to important problems..

It took turning sixty to slow down enough to dream a future that included these amazing creatures.  Now my days begin and end in the barn.  If I’m not dressed up or if I am late, the alpacas don’t complain.  They don’t argue with my opinions and they don’t cover their ears when I sing.  They don’t try to figure out how to get my job or talk behind my back.  They are joyful because I feed them and I am joyful because they tolerate me close to them.  They are peaceful creatures, ever curious, but ever cautious.  Not at all like many people in corporate America.

For now, I lead a double life.  Full-time learning executive and part-time alpaca farmer.  And of course wife, mother, grandmother and daughter.  I see this as a slow transition into what used to be known as retirement.  For me it will be another “career” but this time I will be at the helm.  I sometimes fear that I won’t have the skills to be a successful business owner, but I will surely try.   As Eleanor Roosevelt once said – “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”  I believe!

What I’ve learned since becoming a farmer:

1. Farmers have to go to bed early to get up early (at least when they work a full time day job)!
2. Farmers need muscles to carry heavy things (water, feed, hay, poop and more poop) And I am out of shape!
3. Alpacas poop a lot! But they have very nice potty habits – they all go in the same place.  This helps when cleaning up.
4. Water is heavy!  You need it piped into your barn.
5. Farmers need to wear gloves (or they cut their hands frequently)
6. Livestock Guard Dogs bark in the night (it’s their job)!
7. Farmers take joy in little things – like an alpaca kiss or watching the crias pronk around the field at dusk
8. Sitting in the barn with the alpacas and the dog is a peaceful pasttime.  No phones and no TV.
9. Riding the tractor is a hoot.  I especially like sitting on the tractor enjoying the incredible views that we have created by timbering the land.

Having these lessons under my belt, I can honestly say that I am happy to be a farmer.  I enjoy those moments when the alpacas actually crowd around me because I am about to distribute their feed; those moments when some of them will eat from my hand to avoid the crowding around the feed troughs.  I love it when baby Sapphira or baby Willow stand still and lets me touch them – and gurgle and cluck when I scratch their chest.