16Th. For a regular household, this was a difficult move to make in such a short time. To move a farm with 2 kids, 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 27 alpacas it was an enormous task.
Our first challenge was to find a home in South Carolina. We quickly discovered that it was going to be very difficult to sell a house in Michigan in the current economy. We also discovered that Aiken, SC is polo country with many million dollar ranches in the area. This meant that we were faced with selling our home in Michigan at a very low price and purchasing a farm in Aiken at a much higher price. At the beginning of July we still hadn't found a solution to this problem. Luckily, my clever husband put an ad in the local paper searching for pasture land. This lead us to a wonderful 12 acre property in Vaucluse, SC.
Our new home in Aiken, SC
Vaucluse is a very fitting place for an alpaca farm and fiber arts studio. It is a former textile mill town. The only establishments in the town are a post office, the abandoned mill, and 2 churches. Surrounding these are tiny houses built buy the mill for workers. Most of these homes have been well maintained, making the village a quaint community.
Finding a place to live was just the beginning of our moving challenges. Although the property we selected was a former ranch with a barn, many improvements had to be made to make the farm habitable for our alpacas. In July we had workers replacing the barbed wire fence with 2 x 4 fencing, adding power to the barns and out buildings, adding hydrants and automatic waterers, and constructing an additional run-in shelter for one group of alpacas. To complicate matters, I had to manage all of this from 800 miles away in Michigan. I am happy to report that all projects were successfully completed before our move date!
In addition, finding a mover and an alpaca transporter was also not so easy. Moving companies do not usually move farms. The typical Mayflower moving truck that you see going down the road can hold about the contents of about 3 normal houses. We managed to completely fill the truck with the contents of our house and farm! Moving also entailed a complex plan for transporting the various animals at the farm. 
We needed to hire a transporter who could safely transport 27 alpacas in the August heat. The vet had a big job to do ensuring that all of the alpacas had the proper health tests to be allowed into the State of South Carolina. The cats and chickens all needed carriers to safely ride in (tip- your local animal shelter has lots of extra pet carriers).
We finally began our journey on August 3rd. The moving truck arrived and loaded all of our belongings, including a custom made chicken coop (shown getting loaded on the truck above). On the 4Th of August the kids, myself, my mother, and the 2 dogs left in 2 cars to make our way to South Carolina. My husband, Victor, stayed behind to load the alpacas, cats, and chickens.(Our dogs at the Holiday Inn - This was quite an adventure for them!)
On August 4Th he and Eddie our transporter spent an entire morning loading the various animals into trailers and carriers. I am thankful that I was not present for this job! They started at 7 AM and were finally on the road by 1 PM. To minimize the stress on the animals, they traveled without stopping and arrived at the new farm at 3:30 AM the following day.
Unloading 27 alpacas into unfamiliar pastures at 3:30 AM is not an easy task! We managed to get everyone in the proper pastures and only let 5 escape due to an open gate!
Luckily they only wandered across the garden area to be near another pen of alpacas. A little grain encouraged them to go back into their own pasture.
I am happy to report that everyone is settling in to the farm nicely. 
The alpacas are enjoying their new pasture land, the chickens love the dirt floor in the new barn, the cats barn have not run away, and the kids have started their new school. I have even begun putting my looms back together and plan to begin a few projects soon! Although the summer has been exhausting, we are very happy at our new farm!
Roosters Showing Off
Mom, Dad & Annelise
