Photo by Sam Yu This sign announces the Peaceful Hollow Farm on Albert Rill Road near Westminster. Purchase this photo

So what are they doing on a farm near Westminster with 19 alpacas, three llamas, four barn cats, three house cats and two dogs?

Living the country life.

Eighteen months ago, the Clarks said adios to their hectic urban life. Mary quit her job as a counselor at NIST and the family packed up their belongings in their home north of Kensington and headed to rural Carroll County to raise and breed alpacas.

Barry still commutes four days a week to his job at the Department of Energy in Germantown. The other three days, he's Barry Clark, alpaca farmer -- cleaning the barn, feeding and, yes, talking to the animals.

The Clarks did not have a "Green Acres" moment, like the TV characters Oliver and Lisa (Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) who moved to a ramshackle farm on a whim. Theirs was a thought-out plan that evolved over time -- one that began when Mary met Barry.

"I fell in love with Barry first (and he with her, he adds), then we fell in love with the farm, then Barry fell in love with alpacas," Mary said.

Finding Peaceful Hollow

Mary was a single mom with two teen girls, both adopted from Peru when they were infants. Barry also had two children. When they married six years ago, life was fast-paced with work, kids, caring for Mary's ailing mother who lived with them and visits to Syracuse to visit Barry's parents.

"There was a lot of stress. We were like the typical two-job corporate family," Mary said.

"We literally had to make an appointment on the calendar to have a game night with the two kids at home," Barry said. "It was pretty hectic."

Living in a house with a "postage stamp" size lot, Barry wanted to realize a dream of owning land. "We started looking for property in the country to retire to and to visit on weekends and vacation. Then we saw this place and fell in love with it," he said. The farm has an 1820s brick house, a bank barn and 16 rolling, peaceful acres down a gravel road.

That was five years ago.

"The farm was the stimulus to start thinking about what we wanted," Mary said. "We wanted to keep our income up and the stress level down. We wanted more enjoyment in our life, more family time. We wanted to relax and have fun and do something that would be a stable investment." They considered traditional livestock, miniature horses or a greyhound rescue.

Mary suggested alpacas. She became familiar with them through her visits to Peru.

Barry wasn't convinced. So he did some online research and found there were several farms in the state including one near their farm, which they visited. The Maryland Alpaca Breeders Association lists nine member farms in Carroll County, 18 in Frederick County and seven in Washington County.

"It's not like a dairy farm, where you work from sunup to sundown. Basically it's a couple of hours a day, in the morning and in the evening," Barry said. "And hanging around them just makes you feel good. They have a gentle nature. They are curious like cats.

"It's relatively easy to have a sustainable income" from breeding and selling the animals, their fleece and yarn, Barry said. A good fleece can recoup the annual cost of regular care and feeding. A "pet quality" alpaca costs about the same as a good dog, around $500 to $1,000, Mary said. A breeding female, depending on her lineage and fleece quality, can cost $10,000 and up.

"Breeding males are $10,000 to the sky's the limit," said Barry, noting that a recent male sold for $750,000. Breeding fees can run from about $1,000 up to $10,000.

Making the leap

About four years ago, they bought their first alpacas. They boarded the alpacas at another farm while they learned about their care hands-on from experienced farmers, and connected with the "alpaca community." Mary quit her job 18 months ago. The family and their alpacas moved to Peaceful Hollow Farm full time.

The transition was an easy one. "You learn by doing with other people and learn what the alpaca lifestyle is like," Mary said.

The Clarks are offering three free seminars at their farm on Albert Rill Road to introduce people to the alpaca lifestyle. The free seminars are from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on two Saturdays: May 16 and June 13. Another seminar on May 31 costs $25 per person and will cover showing and skirting alpaca fleeces.

The Clarks raise huacaya (wa-ki-a) alpacas. They are "like teddy bears," said Mary, and have fluffy fleece. Suri alpacas have long, almost dreadlock-like fleece, she explained. They show their alpacas and enter their fleeces in competitions around the country. A wall in the barn crammed with ribbons and banners tells of their success. "It was a binding factor for our family and it meant a lot to us," Mary said.

Their herd is at 19, with five cria due by early summer. Three llamas serve as "guard dogs," protecting the alpacas. "They eat the same food as alpacas, bed the same and they're not looking to come into the house," Mary said.

Mary's commute has been reduced from 35 miles to about 200 yards, Barry said. In the morning, Mary feeds and lets the animals into the pasture until late afternoon. "I get out more hay and grain and let them back in. I make sure I see each one of them. I look at their faces and talk to them every day and sometimes hand-feed them to make sure they're eating. And I play with them. Then I'm done," she said.

In between she does volunteer work, manages the business side of the farm and serves at a local soup kitchen once a week. She belongs to a spinning and knitting guild and recently learned to knit. With her youngest daughter set to graduate from high school and her oldest readying to move out, Mary said this new lifestyle has given her the time and energy to help her daughters "in a way I could never have done if I were still in a corporate position."

Barry starts his day visiting the alpacas, and that's often where his day ends. "Each one has a different personality. Mary knows if I've had a tense day at work. I stop at the barn first and just, ahhhh, unwind."

Mary said their new life is happier. "It's like the day is pleasant all the time. It's like a natural meditation. I didn't give up a job I didn't like. I loved it, but I love this even more."