When three brothers re-unite after being apart for a while, crazy things often happen. In our case, the desire to do something business-wise together without at least 2 having to uproot themselves, coupled with an Alpacas Magazine, went from "Hmm, looks interesting" to... "Let’s do it!" So, Kem, a middle school teacher from Orange County, California; Mike, a painting contractor from Saratoga, in northern California; and Jon, owner of a diversified farm called Rainbow's End in Stanton, Michigan, banked a few bucks together in the spring of 2002 and created Heart of Michigan Alpacas, LLC.
Rainbow's End houses the herd in an old barn built in 1912. On 100 acres producing a variety of fruit and vegetables with a primary focus on 11 different conifer species mostly grown for Christmas trees, wreaths and garland, we set 5 acres aside for the initial pastures and corrals, which we can easily expand as we grow. A package deal and a high-quality single purchase created our starting herd; and those breeders’ willingness to share information and “teach us the ropes” gave us confidence to keep going during the nervous early days of the "learning curve."
It's now 2019, and times and attitudes have changed. We are getting older. It is time to step away from the business of raising alpacas. We have birthed 48 crias. Most of them were healthy, but we lost our fair share. We won a purple banner, several blue ribbons, some reds and whites, and a bunch of the other colors. We realized after some unfortunate circumstances that the show part of the business was not for us. Now it is time to focus on the fleeces, and concentrate on making and selling products from our fiber. Our store is getting bigger and better each year. Stop by the "The Coop" when you come to cut your Christmas tree, and take a look at what our alpacas have produced for you. Extreme alpaca socks will keep your toes warm!!