Living the Dream Avalon Farm began in 1995 as the response to my mid-life crisis. As the Vice President for Student Affairs at Northern Michigan University, I felt my work had become my life. More and more often I found myself lamenting the way life seemed to be passing me by. I believed that my childhood dream of living on a farm and having horses again would never come true. The die was cast My longtime friend, colleague, and current business partner, Carole, had resigned from her position as Counseling Center Director at NMU to go into private practice as a psychologist. She patiently encouraged me to take an early retirement and pursue my dreams. In the meantime, Carole's daughter had married and moved away with her husband and their young son. The die was cast! We decided to buy a farm together and find our hearts' desires in country living. We found a lovely, private, 80 acre property covered with beautiful mixed hardwoods and laced with riding trails for our four horses. There were even approximately 5 or so cleared acres dotted with apple trees. "Avalon Farm" was born.   We were hooked! After discovering how much the IRS expects from the self-employed, Carole recommended that we launch a search for the perfect product to turn the farm into an income sheltering investment and income producing business. After researching various animal and crop options, we recognized that alpaca breeding was the ideal means to achieve our goals. Breeding alpacas offered generous tax advantages, held excellent income potential, and involved working with gentle, adorable animals. In addition, making a profit would not require that we harm the animal. We were hooked!   Over these past 14 years Becoming alpaca breeders has truly been the adventure of a lifetime and has opened up a wonderful new world. Over these past 14 years, our herd has grown to include over 85 wonderful huacaya alpacas from Peruvian, Chilean, and North American lineages. Our breeding program, which was originally designed to assure genetic diversity by breeding our carefully selected females to the best quality herdsires around the country, is now centered on our own award winning herdsires. Our "machos" offer the genetic diversity and high quality gene pool we prize, in addition to providing a range of natural colors for which alpaca fiber is so well known.   Award winning herdsires We are proud of the crias that have resulted from our breeding decisions. You will be able to recognize these offspring by the inclusion of our reserved ARI herd identifiers ("AFA", "Avalon", "AE", and  "Aliccoyo") within their registered names. Crias by award winning Avalon Farm Alpacas herdsires, including AFA Royal Peruvian Aristocrat, AFA Peruvian Nevar, Avalon's Peruvian Tri-star, Lace's Peruvian Black Lance, Avalon's Peruvian Impresario (Rio), and Peruvian Black Jag have gone on to win in the show ring themselves and, in some cases, to win Get-of-Sire recognition for their sires. We are excited, too, by our newest herdsires:  Avalon's Flash Fire and Avalon's Black Jack.  Taken together, our herdsires bring to our breeding program genetics from some of the world's most respected and recognized males.   The future looks promising "NATURAL COLOR AT ITS FINEST" is our goal and our commitment. Avalon Farm Alpacas, now covering over 220 acres of mostly wooded land, will continue to be based on a breeding program which emphasizes excellence in conformation and produces fiber with fineness, brightness, crimp, density, and, of course, NATURAL COLOR. The future looks promising…. Come visit us for a preview of the wonderful lifestyle and business opportunities that alpacas can bring to you, too.                                                  Donna