There's always a get-rich-quick scheme out there waiting for us, something we can do at home that will bring in so much income we can quit our day jobs and retire young, theoretically to a life of leisure.

Back in the 1950s and 60s it was chinchilla farms. People obtained these little animals that were promised to breed prolifically, and they could sell the skins for fur coats, and sell the animals to other people who wanted to have their own fur factories.



After that came ostrich farming. You could sell them for meat, you could sell the huge eggs, the skin works as leather, and the feathers must be good for something.



Around here these days it's raising alpacas.



You shear them for the wool that can be spun into yarn for knitting, and you can breed them and sell the offspring to others who want to reap the benefits for $1000 - $2500 per animal, financing available.

Today a couple of the alpaca farms near here had an event to drum up some sales. They ran a full page ad in the newspapers in the region, and considering these are just regular people with normal sized driveways and yards, a good number of people showed up. There were free refreshments, and you got to look at the animals (not pet them, they aren't tame), and consider whether you wanted to pay $18.00 for a small skein of alpaca yarn.



One thing about alpacas is that they are very social animals with their own kind, so you have to own at least two. And when one goes to the vet you have to take both of them because the one left at home will injure itself trying to get out of the pen to stay with the other one.

When the owners describe this, they refer to it as the animals being very instinctive - they follow their instincts more than other domesticated animals that can be trained to be more what their owners would expect of them, such as telling your dog 'load' and he jumps in the car. He may not want to do it, but he does it because he cares what you think. The alpacas don't care.

It was a lovely warm day, more like summer than fall. I don't know if our summer is ever going to end.

When I got home I sat on the edge of the driveway and watched the fishermen trying to entice the big fish onto their lines.