Thank You Priority!

We arrived home at midday today to find that all was more or less calm on the farm. This after being away at the Priority sale in Las Vegas since Wednesday of last week. I’m now sitting here contemplating the weekend that just was while the snow quietly falls outside (they’re saying we could get about 5″ or so before we’re done) and occasionally luges down off of our house’s metal roof with a satisfying “flump” sound as it hits the ground in our back yard.

We were fortunate that our friend (and our kids’ former nanny), Jennifer Esposito, was able to come and stay with our boys here on the farm while we were in Sin City, even if she was by now mostly relegated to the dual roles of glorified cook and chauffeur. Though I have to say that having traveled to most of the alpaca events over the past couple of years now with Sam and Max in tow, that we have become rather spoiled. Neither of us was terribly fond of the idea of leaving them for 5 days, which is odd given that we used to do it all of the time over the course of the spring and fall show seasons. Of course I might have also been carrying with me the scars of having had my 14 year old look me in the eye last week just before leaving for our trip and say completely deadpan, “so, how was your day…abandoner?” Though he then proceeded to cackle gleefully, pleased at having pushed his father’s buttons, he does surely know how to twist the old knife! You just can’t teach that skill, that’s innate. So even though we had no worries about how the kids were doing in our absence and were able to (mostly) concentrate on the task at hand while at the auction, the abandoners are nonetheless happy to be home once again.

The Priority was a huge success and as people who have run (or at least organized) both shows and auctions before, we really appreciated the job that Silver Penn Sales and TnT Farms did in pulling it all together. The energy and just the general vibe of the event  (it must be Debbie Harden-Vigus’s new mantra that did it!?) were all really positive throughout the entire weekend and it probably didn’t hurt at all that the charity auction Friday night for the Quechua Benefit raised just over $40,000. Not a bad warmup. Momentum is a funny thing after all.

For our part we sold all three of our females at the auction, sending each of them to wonderful established breeding programs. We left Las Vegas yesterday afternoon as very happy — if slightly sleep-deprived — campers! Valencia was sold to our friends Sue and Wayne Robinson of Emelise Alpacas in NJ (with whom we already co own our black Futurity Champion, Cameron), Tulip was sold to Deborah and Dwight Bailey of 7 Springs Alpaca Farm in Lebanon, VA, and last but certainly not least, Solara was sold to Nancy Ogan of Look At Me Now Alpacas in Gainesville, VA. Thanks so much to all three farms for putting their trust in our program (again). We know that all three girls will do great things in the future for their new owners and in the case of Valencia and Solara, we also look forward to hearing about their show exploits before they then come back here for their first breedings later this year. Tulip, on the other hand, is already due with what may well turn out to be Invictus cria #1, so we will be watching and listening for news of that baby’s arrival with great anticipation as well.

We also wanted to pass along thanks and greetings to all of the other wonderful alpaca folks we met at the Priority. It was especially gratifying to put some faces and names together of some west coast breeders that we wouldn’t otherwise get to meet in person were it not for an event such as the Priority. Though we do all theoretically meet up sometimes at events like the Futurity or AOBA Nationals, we’re often stretched kind of thin at those shows. This on the other hand felt way more relaxed and we were able to take some time to actually get to know some breeders that would otherwise just be names from a farm ad, an email, or a posting on Facebook. The bottom line being that the Priority sale was all time very well spent!