To Norway, with love.

Amidst all of the craziness of the past month, one of the coolest things we got to do, was to host the Sjøli family of Alpacajoy of Norway here at the farm during the first week of April! Laila we had met for the first time briefly last year when she and her colleague, Rolf Barbakken from Knapper Alpaka, had made there way over to the US looking for animals to import into their respective herds. Though we had never met Laila’s husband, Ole Erik, in person before he hopped out of their rental car here on Tuesday 4/1, he and I had kept up a steady online chatter over the past 10 months or so, so I at least felt like we already knew each other quite well in some respects. Along for the ride with their parents were the Sjøli’s three lovely kids: Matilde, Ole Emil, and my newest buddy, Jenny, who is just shy of her 4th birthday. You know how every now and then in your life you meet certain people and just feel like there is a really great and almost instant connection? Well, it was like that with the Sjølis. For our part, we’re already looking forward to our next visit together whether it be here in the States, or perhaps a trip to the land of the Vikings!

Of course they weren’t over here visiting us just so that we could hang out at the house, eat, drink beer, shoot pool, play foosball, and have a week of extended Kumbaya moments, as great as those times were!  The Sjølis and Knapper Alpaka (Rolf and his wife Nina Bergerud), had ended up purchasing several alpacas, including 4 CCNFers, from various farms here in the US last year. Now Ole Erik and Laila were back in force to meet some of the folks involved with all of that, most notably our friends from A Paca Fun Farm in Maryland, whom had hosted the US quarantine last fall at their farm (Bari Padgett claims she has the grey hair to prove it), as well as to get a feel for what our farm’s operation was all about during a more extended visit. While in the area, our new Norwegian friends also spent a night up in Quebec visiting the animals that they and their colleagues had purchased. The critters in question are all currently in the 4th month of a 6 month Canadian quarantine at the lovely Ariya Alpacas, as they make the long, arduous, and it must be said bureaucratic journey, that will end  — all things being equal — in Norway some time in June of this year. Though even then, the new arrivals will still have an additional Norwegian quarantine period to go through before being free to move about their new country unfettered. Regardless, we’re obviously very excited that our farm’s genetics will soon be represented over there!

Also on tap (by design) the week of the Sjølis’ visit, was the alpaca show that is nearest and dearest to our hearts: the North American. The NAAS always takes place the first weekend of April, a relatively short hour and 45 minute drive straight down I-91 in Springfield, MA. Ole Erik, Laila, and their kids got a full dose of show silliness and spent a lot of time just watching the show itself (for which they deserve a medal, I find it as interesting as watching the grass grow), looking at animals, and meeting lots of different breeders. We even managed to send them into the show ring several times with some of our critters. We were also able to connect the Sjølis with Jared Johnston and his better half, Meyla, who are the publishers/editors of Alpaca Culture Magazine and who were in attendance all weekend long at the show as well. Anything to help spread the message of international alpaca love (get your head out of the gutter, by the way: that is not what I meant)!

After all coming back here again to the farm for Sunday and Monday nights after the show, we parted ways with the Sjøli clan at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning. They headed first to Logan Airport in Boston but were really off for a little family R&R on the island of Curaçao. For my part, my friend Dave Serino and I would be headed off to Kansas City and the Futurity just three hours later with 31 animals in tow. Though it took a little longer than they might have wished for (insert your own joke here about US airlines and their amazing, yet eerily consistent, lack of customer service), in the end they and all of their luggage, ended up safely at the same place in the Carribean, leading to days of slightly snarky pictures of pools, beaches, and tropical drinks, etc…on my phone while we walked in circles in KC! Though that of course, is a whole other story… 😉

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