Raising alpacas had seemed like a brilliant idea at first.

Part 1 – having the brilliant idea

We sat around that Saturday morning, with a real pot of tea, a fresh apricot and date loaf, and a blank piece of paper.

“Start with goals” Aunt Peonie said.

“Or is it better to call them objectives…?” Uncle Stan butted in.

You wrote ‘Things we want’ at the top of the page and looked at both of them.

“Well?” you queried, taking a gulp of nearly tepid tea, “Ok then I’ll start. I want more followers”.

Uncle Stan rolled his eyes. “I’ve always wanted to grow vegies and have a few chickens or goats or smthin. We haven’t tried that yet”.

“Will that make us money?” Aunt Peonie rejoined, “we’ve only got $300 for this year’s project, this has got to pay for itself.

You googled: hobby farms that make money….

“Ok so it’s either chickens or alpacas”. Silence.

“38% of people love the eggs and 24% of people rate being able to get rid of their kitchen scraps” you read. Scanning you go on to summarise the high points of hobby chickens “You can sell the eggs and eat the chickens if you like…you’d have to do that bit Uncle Stan…they’re small too and we don’t have tons of room…” you look around expectantly.

“I vote alpacas” says Aunt Peonie and I watch as Uncle Stan raises his hand too. “I’ll spin and knit…and there are tons of cute posts about them….”

to be continued in

Part 2 – the shine starts to wear off