Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010! Someone posted this on my Facebook page, and I thought it was too good not to share: "May your BEST day in 2009 be your WORST day in 2010"!

We went to a sledding party at our neighbor's place yesterday. This is the view of our farm from the top of their sledding hill. It's a good distance away - maybe 1/4 mile? Anyway, I thought it was a neat picture.

A few reflections on 2009:

We suffered our first herd loss this year, when Willow died. Both my husband and I were having second thoughts about this alpaca business. She was the only cria we were supposed to have last year, and she died. That was a major setback.

Instead of throwing in the towel, we dove into the deep end of the pool and bought 4 more girls (Meridian, Kacie, Millie, and Roni) as well as Muireach, our junior herdsire. Check out our new AlpacaNation page to meet them. Two days after we bought Meridian, she had a beautiful female cria. We were already excited about the cria because it's out of Invicible's Brookhollow Superstar, and to have a female cria was the icing on the cake. We've named her Felicja, which is Polish for "fortune" or "luck". Thank you to Joanna Stephens from Robasia Alpaca Ranch for help with the translation!

Our raspberry crop all died too. What a bummer that was, as we should have had berries in 2010 to sell. I'm not exactly sure what happened - they were mulched, watered, etc. This year, I'm going to make a trip to the bare root room and pick out the stock myself (and plant it directly). I'm also going to plant more.

Our first peach tree (planted in the yard in 2004) died too. Maybe I was lulled into a false sense of security with the warm winters we've had over the past several years. Good thing we've got lots of other types of trees planted (plums, pears, apples, paw paws) that should thrive in Wisconsin.

2010 will be a challenging year for us. This is our third year in the business. We've been hemorrhaging money for the first two years, and it's time we start bringing in more than we spend. We are well positioned for it though - most of the major expenses like animals, fencing, and equipment are behind us. We did pretty well with our holiday sock sales, and our new redesigned website will have an online farm store added soon. We're also hoping to sell some Muireach breedings too.

After two years, I'm still glad we did this. It's been a lot of hard work, a lot of money, but it's also incredibly satisfying. I have no regrets.