In the song New York, New York, Frank Sinatra said if you could make it there, you’ll make it anywhere, so Bob and Norma Silverstein put that theory to the test.

Bob Silverstein left his successful business career behind to become an alpaca farmer with his Norma in Albert Bridge, N.S.

Silverstein, who was born in Manhattan, lived and worked among the skyscrapers of North America’s most populous city. There are 23.7 million people living in New York, while Cape Breton Island has 132,000.

“It's very different, but I love it up here,” Silverstein says in the trademark Manhattan accent.

A career businessman and executive, he and Norma decided to move to a rural farm on the Mira River for a change of pace during their golden years.

“I had my own company in New Jersey and then I moved on to Nikon Canada -- their instrument division,” Silverstein said. “I was selling microscopes and all types of things in the executive role as a national sales manager. After that, I was a COO for a biotech company.”

Now, he's the boss of 17 alpacas.

Although with their personable demeanour and natural curiosity, it doesn't take much for them to start running the show.

“We had an open house this past Saturday, and the children just love it,” Silverstein said. “You should hear the giggles, the laughing and everything that goes on while they're feeding the animals. And the animals love it as well.”

Right next to the farm is a shop that sells “all things alpaca,” including plenty of winter wear, which of course comes in handy at this time of year.

“I have people coming to me at the market all the time, telling me how they bought an alpaca sweater 20 years ago or so and it's still in really good shape,” said Norma Silverstein.

Norma’s main role is making and selling products woven together from the animals' wool -- anything you'd need to withstand winter in Cape Breton, or the Big Apple.

“It wicks water, it's hypoallergenic, it's warmer than wool by five to seven times,” Bob Silverstein says.

It was an unusual career change, but Bob says at this stage of his life it works for him.

“It's a much slower pace up here and the big thing that was nice, is I enjoy this,” Bob Silverstein said.

The Silversteins are proving Sinatra was right, and proving that where there’s a wool, there’s a way.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.