We are Nancy & Terry Ricketts.
We spent the first half of our lives on the coast of Central California. Terry was an Electronics Engineer working for the University of California designing telescope instrumentation. Nancy was a school teacher dealing with children who needed special help in school.
In 1993 we took early retirement while still in our early 50's to join Wycliffe Bible Translators in support roles. We moved to the Dallas headquarters where Terry became a Computer Network Administrator and Nancy became a Career Counselor.
In 1996 we met alpacas for the first time at a wool show in Colorado while on vacation. Nancy fell instantly in love with them. We thought the heat in Texas would be too much for them, so Nancy set a goal of moving to Colorado when we retired the next time so we could raise alpacas.
But while on a trip in the San Antonio area in 2003 we spotted some alpacas there. Maybe we did not have to wait so long! After lots of research, visiting lots of ranches, and attending several seminars, in 2004 we took the step of selling our home in the city and buying a 13 acre farm about 20 miles south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It was mid 2005 before we could move in and begin the process of putting up fences and shelters.
The picture shows Nancy hand feeding two of the alpaca boys.
We are now in our mid 60's. Nancy has retired now from Wycliffe so she can devote full time to raising the alpacas and angoras. Terry still commutes to work each day and helps out on the farm on weekends.
Nancy decided to raise Angora goats as well as alpacas to better diversify the farm, and concentrate on fiber animals. We now have a core herd of 9 alpacas and 16 goats.
In the picture one of the young goats wants some attention.
Our children (2 sons) are grown and are now living in California. We have two grandchildren (Corban & Quinn) at present, but don't get to see them much because of the distance.
This is our third career and we are loving it.
