for an expansion of their family – the fourlegged kind. “We certainly weren’t looking for a new house. But I had dabbled in horses long ago and Joel said maybe this could be a place to do that again,” Brooke says. “Girls like horses, you know. He sold me and here we are.” The farm now hosts a community of eight horses, seven alpacas, and two dogs. Most of the horses and all the alpacas came from Wisconsin via Craig’s List (“the lady made me promise that we’d keep them all together as a family”). Brooke has rescued the other horses from “kill pens” as well. “People sometimes end up with older horses, often in bad health, that are difficult to re-home,” she says. “They don’t want to keep feeding and supporting them so they offer them for sale online. If the horses don’t sell in a week they end up in a kill pen to be shipped off for slaughter. We bought three including one that looked very overweight. A few months later she surprised us with a foal. They’re all doing well and we love them.” Alpacas and horses are part of the Why alpacas? “I like alpacas,” she community at the Pfeffer family farm. says. “They’re different. They also can present some challenges. For
one, they need to be sheared at least once a year. I knew nothing about that. I figured it must be like bathing a dog, right? I ordered clippers on Amazon and watched YouTube videos to learn about it. I gave it a try one summer afternoon but after an hour in 100-degree sun with cranky alpacas and crying kids I realized it was not like bathing a dog. I called a local sheep shearer who did all seven in about an hour. I plan to call him next year, too.” Are there new communities that Brooke plans to build? “My daughter wants chickens but I’m not sure about that. We might expand The Peddler so we can do more there. I’d like to offer more support to other business-friends in town.” As a busy mom and business owner, there’s much to keep her busy. “I need to keep my head down and not get distracted,” Brooke says. But it happens. “On a recent Saturday morning I went for a walk to get some coffee and passed by an Amish family selling quilts and things. They had a crate of puppies. One had a broken tail. What can I say?” Steve Harris, a freelance writer and the author of “Lanesboro, Minnesota,” has given serious consideration to the theory that alpacas are actually life-forms from another planet. Contact Steve at sharris1962@msn.com.
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