#145 Harvest host Susan & Glenn Kacsh Alpaca farm Hesperus, CO

I want coffee now !

The ad read like this in Harvest host: Contact: Susan & Glenn Kacsh

Address: 4128 County Road 129, Hesperus, CO 81326 Located: 16mi SW of Durango off Hwy 140, ½mi of graded dirt road, parking is on gravel

Telephone: 970-259-3384 or 602-762-5399 Website: www.pleasantjourneyalpacas.com

GPS Coordinates: 37.173031 -108.092138

Hours: Daily year-round by appt, some dates may be unavailable. Learn about alpaca ranching, shearing, births, Natl Alpaca Farm Days. Guard dog on-premises, pets must be leashed, water & elec avail.

We left Chaco culture in the morning and drove towards the next Boondock and found a Methodist church up on a hill and joined in on the service. We parked the RV in their parking lot and after the service, we asked about a diner. India and I went for lunch I had a nice time and then headed back and went towards the boondock.

It was a harvests host alpaca farm. It felt weird because when I emailed the owner and asked them if we could stay a couple of nights, they responded, you may stay one night.

When we got there they were all very friendly. They said they had been up half the night birthing a new baby alpaca. I think they were pretty exhausted. They showed us where to park and made some water available. It was close to their barn and their house. If I could have done it differently I think I should have parked down in the grassy field where we both would have more privacy. They were saying that since they had such a long day and night that maybe it would be better if we did all the getting to know you the next morning.

We settled in had a nice meal and so forth and just messed around. The next day they gave us a tour. As we started the tour of the facility I noticed Savannah was kind of slow to get going. I don't know if she stayed up late or needed to eat but as we were heading over towards the barn she seemed like she was very lethargic. The next thing you know she was kind of kneeling and I went over there to see if she was what the heck was going on. Sure enough, she had fainted and did a face plant right in the dirt.

All we could do with her is just put her back to bed and kiss her on the head. After that and we enjoyed the tour as best we could.

The nice lady took us around and showed us all about things and pointed out that the alpacas have a communal manure pile. This seemed like a complex society of alpacas for them to be like that.

I thought livestock just pooped whenever and wherever without ever giving it a thought. Alpacas have this communal area where they all intentionally go to the bathroom. That seemed so human-like to me.

There was a difference between the way they were raising their alpacas and the guy in Socorro New Mexico. His way was to let him run out into a grassy pasture and eat all day and just graze around with no rules. Here in Colorado, they had them feeding out of controlled netted bags of feed which is kind of a special diet blend. The netting slows them down so they don't overeat. It makes them have to work for it a little bit. He said that they don't let him out to pasture because they want total control of their diet. After all, this is how to the best wool. It was more like our feedlot but they are beyond pampered. Feed Lots for cattle is to be inhumane. It seemed like they were taking care of them and they were more like pets.

It was nice to see the newborn baby alpaca and we learned about how they get paid a lot of money for the males to be studs.

They go to big alpaca shows and prance their alpacas around. When they do win the big contest you get a blue ribbon but they don't win any money. They do all this to get potential customers to buy a breeding session. They sell wool and finished products and all but the big money is breeding.

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We also learned that that certain lobbyists don't like alpacas. They think government funds that go to livestock should be only for cattle or sheep and alpacas are just toys. The owner countered that they are raising them and they are making money so why does it matter whether they are toys or meat. I don't see how you can say one type of livestock is worthy and the other livestock is just because of the quantity of them. I don't agree with the naysayers and we bought a pack of alpaca socks. It was a great visit except for Savannah fainting and it was on the next stop.