Eagle Eye Farm brings alpaca farm magic to River Falls

[bright acoustic guitar music]

Kerri Harting: When people drive onto the farm, there is something magical.

Kerri Harting: If I wouldn’t have the farm… Do you wanna give me a kiss? … I know I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

Kerri Harting: I’m Kerri, and I’m the owner of Eagle Eye Farm. I was working as a radiologist in St. Louis, Missouri, and Dawn, my wife, had been working in health care for about 32 years. And we just decided that the monotony was too much for us.

Kerri Harting: In August of 2018, we went to an alpaca farm. We had just wanted to go do something fun with the kids. It was pretty shortly after that, I’m talking like a day or two, that Dawn and I decided we wanted to get into alpacas.

[bright acoustic music]

Kerri Harting: We’re right between Hudson, Prescott, and River Falls in western Wisconsin. It’s a great area.

Kerri Harting: So we had 20 alpacas, we had 2 pigs, and we had chickens. [chicken clucking] We brought in the Valais Blacknose sheep. We also purchased two llamas. We added goats, and then we added prehensile-tailed porcupines. And then you have to have the Highland cattle because they have the gorgeous horns.

Kerri Harting: Dawn had always known that she had wanted to do agrotourism. Agrotourism is simply the act of having people come to your property and showing them about agriculture. So Dawn was very adamant that she wanted people to know where food came from. We do not eat any of our animals that we have here, but she wants kids to know that you don’t just go to the grocery store and pick up your food from there. There’s really a whole process that happens before that.

Kerri Harting: I think everything just kind of, just fell into our lap. It was just as if it was meant to be.

[pig snorting]

Kerri Harting: In 2023, Dawn was at an alpaca show in Michigan. She told me when she was there that she wasn’t feeling well. The feeling did not go away. And I just said, “So I’m gonna meet you at Hudson Physicians,” and she said, “Okay.” And at that point, I knew that I was in trouble.

Kerri Harting: They determined that she was having a heart problem. Ended up eventually at the university on life support. Was on life support for three and a half weeks, and then passed away.

Kerri Harting: This farm was really hers. So she was in charge of all of the animal care, taking care of the animals day by day. I would take care of the finances, I would take care of the website, I would take care of the store. And she did everything else. And so then, we’re stuck with, I’ve lost my wife, I’ve lost my best friend, I’ve lost my business partner. I am like, “What am I going to do?”

Kerri Harting: So I have two kids, I have the farm, I’m still working full time. How am I gonna manage all of this?

Kerri Harting: I looked at downsizing, and really, the only decision that made any sense was to stay here. There you go, bud. C’mon, let’s go get some food. I knew that my time here wasn’t done. I still have a purpose here on the farm, and I wanted to make it work. [laughing] It’s the best decision that I’ve ever made.

Kerri Harting: I’m still in the grieving process. It’s been a year and a half, almost two years. It’s, I don’t like to think about it a lot, so I just keep myself busy.

Kerri Harting: What I do is I wake up somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00, and I have two kangaroos that live in the house, and so I feed them. By 7:30, we’re out here doing chores. So we pick up all of the poop. You have to make sure that they have food, so we give our alpacas pellets. They have free choice hay, so we have to refresh their hay. And then, of course, fresh water. [water splashing]

Kerri Harting: And so, the chores take anywhere from two, two and a half to three hours to do. We do them as a group. Hopefully, we start having some visitors that come and we start doing tours. And so yeah, it stays pretty busy.

Kerri Harting: I could not do this without my staff. So I have really great staff that work here that I trust immensely. I am so appreciative for the fact that they’re supportive of me.

Kerri Harting: You know, I can’t see myself moving. I just honestly can’t. You know, I think I’ll probably be here until I’m no longer here on Earth. I truly enjoy the experience of having people around me. I love the animals. I find this very fulfilling. [laughing] That’s good video!

Kerri Harting: It’s all about love. It’s all about caring for each other and caring for nature, and really doing the best that we can for people and animals and the Earth.