About Us

Hi, it’s us.  Jon & Phyllis.

Today, we find ourselves living a challenging and rewarding life that neither of us ever believed possible and for which we both had only fond dreams.  After successfully raising a herd of show quality and seed stock alpacas on 20 acres in the country, we are now in another transition.

Buying the acreage and building a working farm was the last thing anyone that knew us would have guessed we would do, but then again, they all snickered at us when we announced our engagement after knowing each other a mere 3 months, they snickered when we sold everything we had, left our families and moved to Missouri from Maine & then they snickered when we announced that we were going to buy some acreage and build a farm.  Having celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary in January of 2011, they’re not snickering anymore.  Having lived in Missouri for 15+ years now, they’re not snickering.  Having spent 8+ years breeding & raising alpacas on the farm in Lathrop, Missouri, they’re not snickering.  In fact, some were even envious and often said we were “living the dream.”  We have to admit…when we dream, we dream big and we do whatever it is we have to do to realize that dream.  The farm was a huge learning experience, one we would not trade for anything but, after more than 8 years, we decided on a change, once again.

The last several years has brought to reality for us, the frailty of life.  Aging parents on the other side of the U.S. are beginning to need more and more supervised care and family close by.  Family is very important to us, so much so, that this has caused us to contemplate and evaluate their situation (and ours) and seriously consider relocating.  Strokes, hearing & heart problems, cancer & such were some of the realities that helped to make the decision for us to sell the farm, all of the alpacas & horses and move closer to Jon’s parents in Florida.

As I occasionally do, I sit here today updating our “About Us” page as it so often changes.  We probably change just as much as it does but I’d like to think of it more about growing and not changing.  Growing older, wiser (I hope) and chasing our dreams is something that Jon and I have done, together, since day one.  Today, as we enter into September of 2011, we are still living in Missouri but now are semi-settled in an apartment in Liberty, about 20 miles south of the farm.  Waiting for the next step in this process.

People often ask what we’ll do when we get to Florida & our answer is…we’ll “live” there.  Details will be determined as we get closer to actually relocating…right now, we’re not sure if we’ll buy a house, rent a house, rent an apartment or condo, or what.  We’re still really enjoying not having a huge lawn to mow and all the other regular upkeep and maintenance that came with owning a house in the past.  Wild dreamers that we are, we have something new to dream about now and are busy studying & learning just like we did when we first discovered alpacas.  Our family responsibilities come at a good time.  Moving back near the vast ocean where both of us grew up…Jon in New Hampshire, Me in California and then in New Hampshire, seems like a natural progression towards this future dream of learning to sail and living aboard a Catamaran and cruising from island to island in the vast Caribbean waters!  Maybe the boat will be our next permanent home?  For now, we’re watching impatiently, as the Lord works out the details in perfect sequence and at His pace.

We are excited for what our future is eventually going to bring.