After a few years of hard work we were invited to join the California Ranchers Club (this club was by invitation only) this was a great honor.  Another meeting to attend and many very experienced ranchers to learn from.

 In the 1960’s & 1970’s the shows & field days were published in the newspaper classifieds.  There was a lot of activity.  We attended everything we possibly could, be it a show or workday or field day.  There is nothing like first hand knowledge.  We concentrated on mutation colors and over the years have taken many top awards at shows through out the United States, Canada, Germany& the offspring of our animals have taken top awards in Chile, Brazil & Argentina.

In 1972 Pete became a sanctioned Empress judge & Sue became a sanctioned judge a few years later.  We’ve judged through out the United States, Canada, Germany, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil & Mexico.  Attending shows in other countries has been a great experience and we’ve met many great people all over the world that we would otherwise never have met. 

In 1978 with the encouragement of Willis Parker we moved the ranch to Tehachapi, California.  This area is very similar to the area of Chile that Mathias Chapman originally trapped the first chinchillas that he brought to California.  In fact he established a chinchilla ranch in Tehachapi in the 1920’s.  This ranch lasted about 10 years.  It was too inconvenient for Mr. Chapman to run his business in Los Angeles & maintain the ranch in Tehachapi.  So he moved the animals back to Inglewood.  Tehachapi has 4 Seasons, which is good for the coat. 

In Tehachapi our ranch has grown to about 800 breeding females with males on average to every 6 females.  At any time we have about 2000 plus animals on the ranch.  We still specialize in the mutation colors of White, Beige, Violet, Ebony & Blacks).  We have a large standard herd to support the mutation colors since this is necessary to maintain the quality we must have to raise a good mutation. 

We have both served on the local Empress Branch Board of Directors and Pete is on the National Board of Directors for Empress as well as being the Vice Chairman of The International Chinchilla Industry Council (CIC). 

The CIC is comprised of Furriers, Ranchers, Directors from Organizations from all parts of the world, Dressers and Marketing Agents representing all facets of the Chinchilla Industry.  The purpose of the Council is to promote Chinchilla.

Chinchillas have been good to us and have taken us all over the world.  We have many friends in many countries and have a different view of the world due to our first hand experiences in the many places we’ve been invited to visit.