Such sweet faces.
We had one night in Bessie with my sister, and I wanted it to be memorable. I looked at state parks outside of Tulsa, but they required a two-night minimum on the weekends, and this was a Friday. I checked the Harvest Hosts website for a place we could park for the night and was excited to find Zena Suri Alpaca Farm not far off our path.
We’d stayed on an Alpaca Farm in Maine last fall and just loved watching these alert, expressive grazers. When I called and talked to the Zena Suri owner, she was happy to have us stay for the night. There were even a couple of pregnant alpacas due any day. If we were lucky, we could watch.
When we arrived just before sunset, Kathleen and her visiting friend met us at the gate with champagne flutes in hand and waved us up the winding dirt road to a large log cabin and barn. “Park anywhere you want,” she said, so we chose right in front, where we had a great view of the alpacas.
Three sisters.
We took a quick tour of the barn with introduction to some of the near-80 alpacas Kathleen and her husband, Tom, own – including one alpaca with a prosthetic leg. Bailey was thrilled to be able to run freely around the farm and play with their cocker spaniel, Chance. After a quick dinner, we settled down for the night, with Beth tucked in to our dash bunk.
In the morning, we kept a close eye on the pregnant alpacas, but no signs of labor yet. Kathleen gave us a more thorough tour of the place, including their beautiful log home and the in-ground tornado shelter.
Paying for our keep.
When Beth and I offered to help out with chores (an optional Harvest Host tradition), she handed us shovels. While she told us about their former lives in broadcasting (she used to work for NPR, then NBC), Beth and I mucked all seven stalls in the barn. I’m not sure this is what Beth had in mind for her Bessie overnight, and she was certainly unprepared in her white coat and flip-flops, but she’s as good a sport as they come, and it made the experience that much more memorable.