Today we’d like to introduce you to Kara O’Brien.
Hi Kara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I thought it would be fun to challenge my creativity and build a treehouse in the middle of the bamboo forest–a little elevated she-shed. A place of escape from the busy life of the city to sip a little wine and immerse myself in nature. Also a fun little spot to hang out with friends on the weekend.
We are a rescue farm and we had begun rescuing alpacas, which expanded to llamas, bunnies, chickens, dogs, cats. And a friend suggested that we could put the treehouse on Airbnb to help fund our massive vet & feed bills. We agreed that would be incredibly helpful. We had major imposter syndrome because we didn’t know what we were doing at first. But dove in anyway and learned quickly and the rest is history.
Today, we’ve done several Netflix shows, primetime shows, been featured on the cover of Atlanta Magazine and hosted a slew of celebrities. It’s truly been a dream. And helping people and animals at the same time has been the most unexpected reward.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Whenever you rescue animals, you deal with a lot of health issues and we’ve had just about everything, I think. One of our llamas broke her leg in several places, last year, and that was a lot of back and forth to Auburn’s teaching hospital, and a lot of rehab with our queen llama Dali. Another rescued llama, named Pienza, had 9 amazing months with us and a lot of vetting. She ended up diagnosed with a fatal parasite and her gut had been ravaged by total neglect (before we got her) and she ended up passing away. That was absolutely devastating for us.
This winter was pretty brutal to the bamboo forest. Many inches of snow and inch damaged it and bent it over dramatically. Spring has sprung though and now it’s shooting back up in recovery.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Alpaca Treehouse LLC?
I am proud of the fact that we did something that hasn’t been done before. We paired rescued alpacas, llamas, and guanacos with bamboo and a treehouse made of reclaimed materials into a very unique experiential stay for people.
I think that what I’m most proud of (and we didn’t see this coming) is that we really are able to be helpers, thanks to the Alpaca Treehouse.
People love staying in the treehouse and they leave incredible written notes about connection and rejuvenation. And our llama yoga (Sundays at 11:30 am.) really helps people as well. We do free classes for palliative care children and their parents. We also do free yoga classes for grieving parents and separate classes for first responders. We are able to donate 15% of our proceeds to another charity as well that helps people keep their pets in their homes.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I learned to not panic, after initially panicking and wondering how I was going to feed & vet my animals.
I finally settled down and everyone booked with us for a staycation and my gratitude was off the chain.
During that time, I had more free time and so I donated my llama Figgy to take part in Zoom calls with schools and day cares, etc. That made me feel like I was doing something to help a bit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alpacatreehouse.com
- Instagram: alpacatreehouse
- Facebook: Atlanta Alpaca Treehouse in the Bamboo Forest
Image Credits
Joy Cannis Photography
