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Barnett's Creek farm is small family owned and operated farm in South Central Kentucky.
We began our Alpaca adventure in May of 2007 with the purchase of two females from Canada. In November 2007 we began construction of our home on the farm. During 2008 and 2009 we planned our pasture layout and barns. The main barn structure was begun in July 2009. With just Paul and I as the construction crew and him splitting his living arrangement between KY and Florida while we attempted to sell our home there, the barn construction took nearly a full year. In November 2009 Paul became a full time alpaca farmer and KY resident. It's been a very long road with plenty of hurdles, but we were determined and focused. Life is good !
About Us
Paul was a Navy brat and traveled the world during his youth as his parents helped defend our country through their service in the Navy. He moved to Florida in 1983 after completing his own tour of service in the Coast Guard. He worked at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for many years as a computer engineer in the weather station. This gave him the wonderful opportunity of working for every single Space Shuttle Liftoff and Landing as well as many Rocket launches throughout the year that deployed satellites of varying uses. Paul retired from that position in November of 2009 to become a full time Alpaca Farmer.... he's loving every minute of it ! Margie gave Paul the title of "Chief of Field Operations" on the farm. He manages and does all the construction including barns, fences, compost bins, hay feeders and a variety of other "inventions". He's also the chief pooper scooper.
Paul has 2 children from a previous marriage. Kimberly who is married and living in Pennsylvania and Michael who was married in June 2007 and lives in Palm Bay Florida with his wife Anastasia.
Margie grew up in Massachusetts in the rural towns near Cape Cod. She moved to Florida in 1991 as part of a job move with AT&T. In 1999 she was outsourced by AT&T to IBM. She works from her home office and is currently assigned to multiple accounts in several job roles. On the farm Margie does all the financial planning, marketing, web development, social networking, shows and halter training.
Margie also has two children from a previous marriage. A son, Joshua who lives in Longwood Florida and works in the commercial set up and staging industry. A daughter Lindsey lives in Massachusetts.
Paul and Margie are raising Lindsey's daughter who was born in January 2005. Alexis is an active little girl who loves Alpaca's and helps out on the farm !!!
Our Alpaca Story
As with many who get into this business, we found that we were at a time in our lives where we wanted to slow life down a little bit, get away from the hustle and bustle and find our place in the country. In 2005 we found our property in Kentucky and plans to sell our home in Florida began. We had NO IDEA that finding our 60 secluded acres would lead us to raising Alpacas....but it did, and we are very excited about it.
It all began one day in January 2007 when we were living in Palm Bay, Florida. I read an article in the paper about a local alpaca farm, The Marsh Menagerie, and I immediately thought, THIS is what we can do. So I called the farm and arranged for a visit. Alexis and I went that very afternoon before Paul got home from work. When he got home I said. "Honey, I know what we are going to do with the property in Kentucky" !
Before we decided to start raising Alpacas we visited many farms from Florida to Kentucky and attended several shows including the Kentucky Classic and the Florida Alpaca Breeders Show. We decided early on that we preferred the fuzzy faced Huacaya breed over the Suri. With that in mind we continued our search for a pair of quality females to start our breeding program.
We eventually found our first two girls, Sonatina and Chardonnay, in Kentucky at Alpacas of Cedar Ridge where they had come from Agassiz's Alpacas in Canada to be sold. Sonatina was bred in Canada before export and in July of 2007 she presented us with our first male cria, Dreamweaver, who is now our breeding herdsire. You can read more about the girls and their cria on their individual pages.
Our herd grew slowly in Kentucky as we renovated our home in Florida and put it on the market. In May 2008 Alexis and I moved into our new home in Kentucky, while Paul stayed behind in Florida to work and sell the house. It was not until November 2009 that he was able to join us and became a full time alpaca farmer. During that time Paul traveled back and forth between the states spending time with us during his vacations and holidays. It was in April 2009 when we began building our barn and putting up fences on the property. On March 15, 2010 we finally welcomed home our small herd.
We plan to add a female or two or three every year. Our intention is to keep 25 - 30 breeding females with several herdsires in a variety of colors. Our goal is to continue to breed our girls to the best herdsires we can find and afford that will compliment their strengths and enhance their weaknesses and continue to raise the quality of our herd. In addition we will be looking to add other genetics to our herd yearly by making purchases or trades with other farms.