Sherman and I have been married for over 30 years. We have two beautiful grown daughters. Now we live on a 150 acre alpaca farm. We used to have a life.

We used to work in Austin, fight growing traffic problems, worry if our dogs might bother the neighbors.... yeah, we used to have a life.

Sherman is a commercial electrical contractor. A few years ago we found this beautiful Central Texas acreage, and we dreamed of having to let that old life go, the hustle-bustle, the workaday bureaucracy, the ringing phones, the client demands, the kill-a-fella pace. That was indeed the life that was living us.

When we first moved here we thought how fun and idyllic to have a few horses. After all, a horse corral and tack house came with the place. We soon came to know that you cannot have your money and horses, too. And with all things equine, if it can go wrong, it will, and so the horses became a part of the old life too.

And on to the new... Charli Girl and Juliet, Marcia and Charmer, and all the girls and boys who have filled our barns and our hearts. The breakneck pace has been replaced by calming evening humming in the pens. We now have over 200 Alpacas!  The alpacas with their gentle spirits and huggable necks were the answer when our prayer was for peace.

What a fun way to go into retirement, actually looking forward to new daily adventures of our pacas. And to think... we used to have a life.