In the beginning my (Mary Jo) dream was to own alpapas, then we aquired 38 acres of raw land in 2000. Now in 2010 we (Mervin and Mary Jo) have seen our dream unfold with buildings, barns and 16 alpacas. December 2007 we were privilaged to purchase 4 pregnant foundation females, all with cria at their side, 1 Jr. Herdsire and 1 beautiful fiber male. We have learned with some hard places along the w
ay and are learning that farming alpacas has joys and sorrows. But we would not change anything about the journey. We believe in a very hands on personal involvement with each of our alpacas. Spring Canyon Alpacas is a small-acrage farm just two hours drive from Spokane WA. We started with ten alpacas and continue to grow. Mervin and Mary Jo found alpacas at the Spokane fair in 1995 and started looking for land to build our farm. We took this time to learn as much about alpacas and what was required to raise them. Attending conferences and visiting farms to see how to set up the best possible alpaca barn and paddocks. Working with Alpacas of the Palouse we purchased the first 10 animals and bought them home in June of 2008. As time has passed we continue to learn about alpacas and have found these animals are a joy to work with! Every day they bring a smile to our face! Each animal has their own personality, some love to be close and have you touch them and then there are those that never want to be close. We are a hands on farm and enjoy being with the animals each day. Mary Jo's parents, Ted and Edeline Davis help run the farm. Ted feed the boys each morning, Edeline helps in the barn each day, and continues to watch the animals throughout the day making sure the water buckets are filled. The alpacas are gentle and there is no fear having a small senior woman caring for them by herself. We have learned that the alpaca farm has been a great tax benefit for us and we are working to make our farm a profitable business. It is a small business and we want to share this experience with others that are interested in developing their own alpaca business. We are breeding for resale have a herd sire with superb qualities, and we continue to learn about and share the wonderful uses of the alpaca fiber. Edeline and Mary Jo have taught themselves how to spin and we are selling yarn and raw fiber for spinning. The alpaca fiber is so soft and enjoyable to work with. Check out our farm store to see what we have to offer. We enjoy having visitors at our farm. We like to keep the groups small so that all have a chance to pet the animals. We work with school children and have had a few tour groups visit. Please call to make your appointment to visit the alpacas. Each June we have a wonderful lavender harvest. What a great time to visit the farm see the alpacas and make a lavender wreath.
