Dear Reader:

"Honey," said my husband, "you've just gotta pick a name for that blog and start writing. Here, I've reserved ten for you. Now please just pick one, sit down and write -- you have fifteen alpacas to market!" It's that sitting down part I hate!

Now over the years, I have been asked to name many things, but the frequency of this request has really gone full tilt since we decided last Fall to acquire a new home, farm, business, lifestyle and future in the middle of the Puget Sound! All this in one fell swoop. Who knew one "simple" decision would require so much naming? Did I mention I can't sit still for such things? Ah, the "farmer's life" for me. But first, that incessant naming...

• "Jen - Can you name the farm?" - Be careful, Jen, you will have to live with this name and it will become your brand. My MBA marketing classes somehow left me quite unprepared to for this one! We selected "Orcas Moon Alpacas." Yes, you read that correctly, it's an alpaca farm. (More on that later!)


• "Jen - Can you name the baby cria?" - Be careful here, Jen, you want to select a name that you can use to market them: strong, but gentle... not silly. My children thought "Fluffy" was a suitable name; I chose "Channel" in keeping with this season's designer theme. Oh, by the way, a cria is a baby alpaca!


• "Mama - Can you name the guinea pig babies?" - Are you kidding me guys; that's what I have you, my children, for!

Well, you get the idea, lots of naming to be done. And these are the relatively easy decisions! The bare-bones of it: we have a 20-acre farm complete with 15 alpacas and eight chickens, and are now planning to move our entire family of three children, three dogs, a guinea pig, a gerbil and half-a-dozen or so Lady Gould finches some 3,000 miles westward from the northern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Northwest, Washington -- all to live the farming life. After all, I've always been a farmer at heart.. hey! How is that for a blog name? Isn't life grand?

Welcome to our Adventure,
Your "Farmer at Heart"
Jennifer Pietsch