While it may be possible to take the person away from the country, it is not possible to take the country away from the person. We were both raised on dairy farms about 700 miles apart, one in Iowa and one in Pennsylvania, when we met through a 4-H trip. So we were both used to waking with the chickens and the joys and the hardwork that comes with family farming. After many years experiencing life free of farming, we realized that we both wanted to farm again. And so it goes that Mockingbird Hilltop Farm was founded in 1992 on 20 acres in Braselton, Georgia, thirty minutes northeast of Atlanta. It was 20 acres of forests, a creek and lots of Georgia red clay. As a family, our log home was built in five months in 1995 with a lot of blood, sweat and laughter with the major ingrediant being sweat. The first animals that arrived were two Mustangs rescued from the Bureau of Land Management. Unbeknownst to us, they were pregnant so before the year was out, we had four horses: Ruthie, Ruby, Nicki and Prince. After visting the Sunbelt Expo for three years in a row, we decided our interest was in alpacas and we visited several farms. It didn't take long for us to fall in love with their cute face, their inquisitive eyes and their soft hum. And running our fingers through their soft, silky hair. We did the research and using the AOBA website and other farm websites, we decided we wanted Suri alpacas and bought six females and two males.

Over the last few years, we've come to enjoy watching them run in the fields and the feel of working with the yarn made from their hair (especially when I'm busy making the sweaters for the grandchildren). Shearing time is certainly a family affair with grandchildren holding bags for the shorn fiber to go into and the children helping to hold the alpacas still. We started doing some local festivals, selling yarn and alpaca products, homemade jams and other crafts. And our children got involved there, too--making things and helping to tear down and setup our booth. Eric and Chelle wanted to get some animals of their own and decided that mohair would make a nice complement to our alpaca yarn so three pregnant angora goats journeyed across Atlanta to join our farm. That was more than a year ago. Since then, we've bought some Angoras of our own. Now we have 12 suri alpacas and 14 angora goats with more on the way in the spring. It is always an exciting day on the farm.