Hello Dreamers,
I hope you are having a good week, its been pretty great for me. I just love the new friendships I have been making with my artisan suppliers and supporting each others business. You know, I believe we should all support each others small business by networking together instead of compete against each other. If you are interested in just one item I carry, I will encourage you to go directly to my supplier and buy from them. And I hope they send some friends looking for gift basket ideas my way at times too. Part of my business passion is to provide an exposé on my artisan, indigenous suppliers and entrepreneurs. Today is my very first monthly exposé and I'm excited to tell you about my first artisan supplier.
I'm sit back and think about how my ideas all came together to work directly with fellow entrepreneurs, artisans, indigenous people and communities to provide a market to sell their goods, while providing my customer with top quality items and a simplified shopping experience. Not to mention my passion to support Canadian Made products. After all, it has been quite the year and I think it is time to support Canada and our fellow Canadian small businesses first.
While planning, purging, setting up, and getting ready to launch Dream Chaser Custom Gift Baskets, the first person that I reached out to was Josee Kirk from Dennis and Josee Kirks Alpaca Farm. I did not even have my website set up yet but I starting shopping the artisan markets and looking for some great items that would fit and sell in my custom gift baskets. I wanted to have artisan items ready for sale for my Grand Opening and I saw these beautiful alpaca socks on one of the many markets I shop. I thought they would be great gifts for my customers and so I contacted Josee Kirk.
I laugh sitting here because I didn't even have a website for Josee to confirm my story that "I was starting my own business". LOL, With the scammers today, I was grateful that Josee believed me. She was willing to talk to me and then she was will to give me a bit of a cut off the price for those beautiful alpaca socks, to see if I could sell them in my business. And so, Alpaca socks and dryer balls were my first purchase from Dennis and Josee Kirks.
And so, I bring you my exposé on Dennis and Josee Alpaca Farm.
Josee and Dennis and have 6 children altogether and one son in law. Their children range from 3 to 21 years old. Dennis has been trucking for over 20 years and he loves it! He had his own trucking company for 19 years with his cousin and that came to an end over a year and a half ago. They say they have seen God’s hand move in many ways since then and many doors have opened for their family. They have been able to expand their garden to approximately 2500 square feet and enjoy their 400 square foot greenhouse. They have also enjoyed raising meat birds (now enjoy eating them 😉) and they have laying hens.
Then they found out about their four-year-old son having autism. He needs consistency in his life. As many of you know, It’s hard to not be too busy with so many kids with Dr. appointments, speech, OT, sports and life in general.
They kept asking themselves how do we use the land that God has blessed us with and create a calm environment for our children for years to come. We’ve had many ups and downs over the years but we try to not give up.
Josee says she was scrolling through a farm page one day and came across a heard of alpacas for sale. Dennis is used to cattle and grain so the thought of alpacas was not really on his mind. They went to see them (cause Josee has a great husband 😁) and says "we both loved them!
It has been challenging at times. They have fixed there barn, learn how to shear them, how to breed them. Their heard has grown to 54 animals and they are excited to have baby crias in the spring.
They welcome all of you to follow them on this new adventure! They hope you enjoy, not only the warm products these animals produce but that you enjoy their cuteness!
Thank you @dennisjoseekirksalpacafarm for working with me and allowing me to feature you today on my BLOB.
Love Michelle
