About Us—Aubrey Oaks Alpacas

Where it all began...

"...where we're NUTS about our Alpacas!" is a byline that tells you about our passion, not our state of mind as we go about building what we believe to be a fine model of a vibrant Alpaca ranch.

The Country dream began in 1985 when Charles & Debbie made a down payment on the land now known to us as Aubrey Oaks. We had lived in the city all of our lives, but Debbie's parents had always owned land in the country. And that dream became theirs when Debbie's father passed. Everyone knew him has Dick, but his given name was Aubrey Jr. Darden. A small inheritance from his estate provided that initial down payment, and our dream of living in the country began a long pathway with a number of detours. But we finally made it when we began planning our dream home in early 2000. The foundation was poured in August of 2001, and we finally moved into our new home in March of 2002. Our homestead was named Aubrey Oaks to honor Dick's longstanding desire to live in the country along with the magnificent native Post & Black Jack oaks that dot our pasture.

Our Alpaca dream began in February of 2009 when Debbie read a newspaper article about an Alpaca ranch in North Central Texas, and the people that raised these magical creatures. We knew that we couldn't raise cattle on such small acreage, nor were we horse people. After all, we're from the city with little prior experience with livestock. So the Alpaca story began to burn in Debbie's heart while the fire blazed beneath our home's mantle on that cold February Sunday. We did our due diligence and investigated the Alpaca industry, finding out that it fit our desire for not only the lifestyle, but also for the resources we already had in place. After doing all that we could here at our country home which would become our ranch, it was time to call, visit and analyze the endeavors of other successful Alpaca ranchers.

Company origins...

We're smallish as ranches go—just over 6 acres of rolling terrain that is dotted with just enough trees to provide shade, and enough native pasture for the light grazing of these gentle creatures. After visiting a number of ranches, researching the internet and books on the subject, we put our dreams to the test by planning our initial animal pens & sheds.

All the while, we were looking at available Alpacas. It's not like going to Home Depot and buying a package of seeds to plant a victory garden. After all, we didn't have money to burn. We considered our situation and determined the best way to finance our endeavor with careful, cautious steps. It took planning, wisdom, and a fair amount of God's providence to make our initial herd selections.

We determined that we would invest in four, no make that six Alpacas the first year, so that our ranch would have the ability to quickly grow and provide us both enjoyment and the potential for a fair return. We picked out some beautiful animals and set about making their arrival here at Aubrey Oaks come to a reality.

Having a daughter that is a CPA was advantageous, but we still took time to visit ranch seminars throughout our state. Gaining knowledge from others in this industry we felt was not only enjoyable, but essential to our plans for success! Definitely not a hobby—we chose this avenue of adventure for the long haul! And as each day passed, we gained confirmation of our plans.

December, 2010 & March, 2011 brought our first crias—and what marvelous ones they are! You will need to come see with your own eyes and touch the fiber that we are striving to produce here at Aubrey Oaks Alapca Ranch!

Where we are today...

We feel that we have progressed in a timely, yet prudent manner. There are now four carefully constructed pens that guard our investments. With our first isolation pen as the latest addition to our master plan—and a second in the works, we are ensuring the biosecurity of our existing pens and herd.

We've built two shelters that are functional for both Alpacas & humans, yet pleasant to the eye. Both have storage areas to keep our hay, feed, tack & supplies out of the elements. Electrical power & water have been brought to the sheds to ensure our animals a ready supply of water & fans to keep them cool. Additions were made in the summer of 2011, and a new shelter for our isolation pen was begun in October, 2011.

And with Abe, our Great Pyrenees, we have a mature and trained deterent to preditors both large & small. He's a loving animal to humans, but we have seen evidence first hand that he knows his job is protection, and he has already performed admirably!

So he deserves the 1st class home that we provided—an insulated two room doghouse, complete with his own "patio! "

Please be sure to see our slideshow here on the website. It takes you through our first moments to some detailed progress pictures... We're sure you will enjoy them! We try to update them regularly! The most recent ones were added on 9/16/2011!

Eyes for the future...

Breeding for outstanding fiber fineness while maintaining density is our stated goal. Desirous of broadening our herd's geneology, our herd is blessed to have a resplendent True Black Alpaca whose fleece was a 1st Place winner in the 2007 TxOLAN Level IV show:

• Snowmass Nova's Pluro.
And our finest fleece Herdsire that is still under 20 microns:

• Reiling's Royal Flush's Electricity also with Snowmass heritage placed second in his class at the Mid-America Alpaca show in Topeka, KS in October, 2009.

Our foundation herd is solid with four dams with high end sires used in breeding:

• Premier's Prestigious Cameo who is one of the limited number of dams that was bred to the late Snowmass Porteus who's sire was Snowmass XXXtreme;

• Reiling's Midnight Medina who will be bred to Bellagio Of PVA;

• Lilly's Daisy bred a to 5 time color champion Snowmass Velvet Royal;

• And our true black WHR Sweetpea Midnight who is bred to our own true black Snowmass Nova's Pluro.
• Our most recent additions are Porteus' Perfect Cadence (Cady) & Pluro's Premier Concerto (Conni), exciting crias that dazzle the eye! Building a herd that will be beautiful, productive and competitive market products is our goal as the months pass.

We're carefully researching the barn that will need to be built as our herd grows. It will need to be large enough to handle the 30+ Alpacas that is our aspiration. And attending a reasonable number of Alpaca shows, continuing our education into the industry, all the while as we sell fine alpaca products imported from Peru are activities that portend an active lifestyle.

One moment we're working on a website, and the next we're outside filling water pails, scooping poop, filling hay buckets, feeding hungry alpacas and continuing to gain a friendly familiarity with some of God's most beautiful creatures. Then we're sending in fiber samples and planning the shows we will be attending, and determining our marketing opportunities for the upcoming season. All in all, we have tremendously enjoyed our experiences thus far, and look forward to a bright future in an industry that has much upward growth potential!

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