About Us

Our Journey

Robby and I both grew up on and around farms. Being close to nature and caring for animals is in our blood. We’ve worked on a working horse ranch together and had our own little farm with horses in Virginia.

From City To Farm

After making the journey to South Carolina in 2007 we just couldn’t find what we were looking for to continue the farm life.

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We settled in suburbia but the itch to be rural again grew with each passing year. With our girls’ high school graduation only a few years away we started to daydream even more about a life outside of the burbs. We knew we wanted animals again but couldn’t decide on what exactly. The seed was planted in 2017 when visiting a winery in North Carolina during a girl’s trip that had a lovely llama that visited with my lady friends and I. After a little research I quickly realized it was alpacas I was envisioning for our future farm. I sat on what I thought was a crazy Idea for a while before finally asking Robby what he thought about alpacas as our livestock of choice. And in true Robby fashion he said, “Yeah, okay.” No fuss, no muss. Ask anyone, he doesn’t get flustered by much so it should not have been surprising to me that he responded as if I had said let’s get a new plant. I’m the worrier and the over-thinker, not him. As they say, the rest is history.

Preparations

Animal husbandry is important to us so we researched these unique creatures for a couple years before we took the plunge and started

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looking for the perfect property. When we pulled up to the bare bones lot on what was once part of an old Johns Island plantation, I took one look at the live oaks and declared this is it and pointed to exactly where I wanted the house. Planning kicked into high gear and mowing, weeding, clearing out ditches and undergrowth, putting up fences, and building a barn began. All the while we were continuing to research and visit alpaca farms. We brought our floof starter kit home in August of 2021, four males and two pregnant females. Six quickly became eight and we just couldn’t stop!

Following Our Dream

We are in this for the love of the animals, the love of getting back in touch with the land, being outside, getting our hands dirty, and having a job

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that we love to go to every day. It’s a huge bonus that in the process we get to provide people with luxurious fiber products. I get to fulfill a part of myself that has a deep yearning to create and to find the artist within. This gorgeous fiber that these beautiful animals have so graciously given us can be turned into so many things. Well, maybe not so graciously if you actually watched shearing day, sometimes there is much protesting. Robby too has found his inner artist. Armed with his portable sawmill and planer not only has he built all our run in buildings but he is creating amazing live edge pieces for the home. We have incorporated many of his projects in our own house.

Sharing Our Dream With You

While building our home we lived in the apartment over the barn. Once settled in the house we set to work on turning the apartment into an Airbnb. If you book a stay at Alpaca My Bag Farm Stay you will get a tour of the whole shebang. Visit all the pages here to see all the fabulous floofs, their beautiful fiber products, live edge custom pieces, and more. We can’t wait to share all that we love with you.

Danelle and Robby Routhier

Stewards of alpacas at Blackwater Acres