Introduction to Rainbow River Alpacas

Welcome to the Rainbow River Alpacas blog! We are so glad you’ve joined us on our adventure. We are currently in the really early stages of turning our piece of paradise into a fully functioning alpaca farm! We purchased our new home and 3.7 acres of land in Pembroke in August 2021 and closed in October.

Since October we’ve been steadily planning our next steps ranging from taking farming classes to figuring out how to use quickbooks on the business side all the way to gutting our garage and home and starting renovations.

The home on the property is a quaint 2 bedroom 1 bathroom bungalow from the 1960s and as such it’s in need of some major facelifting even though it has good bones. We will probably share some updates on that journey once they’re finished, because let’s be real, we know you’re here for the alpacas!

ALPACAS! We have just finished a crash course in alpaca rearing put on by Oak Hills Alpacas in Stirling, ON by Heather Candler. These workshops were wonderfully done and really left us feeling capable of starting this journey. Since we are still new to all this, we really encourage anyone reading to check out Oak Hills for more Alpaca content, and if you’re interested in starting a farm yourself, we couldn’t recommend a better mentor than Heather.

Farm Timeline

Our plan to start Rainbow River Alpacas all began back in March 2021 when we were a little pandemic crazy and purchased our land in Pembroke, ON. Our timeline from building the farm and to having guests come to stay is below (though as we all know, plans are always changing). We are hoping to be open for business by mid to late 2023!

• March 2022 – MOVE!

• April 2022 – Well planning and adapting to life in the country

• May 2022 – Greenhouse Build

• June/July 2022 – Forest Conservation and Tree Removal

• Winter 2022/2023 – Planning for Alpacas

• Spring 2023 – Barn, Yurt and Pasture Build

• Summer 2023 – Alpaca Arrival

• Fall 2023 – Open for visits!

Blog Schedule

Our goal with this blog is to provide you timely updates on the events going on at the farm and to share a detailed look at some challenges and how we overcome them along the way. We will have three different types of blog posts: Regular Posts, Sylas’ Segments and Farm Fails. I’ve detailed these below.