Shady Alpaca Ranch

Welcome to Shady Alpaca Ranch

So we had this weird idea to get alpacs. No farm, no plan, just a funny little idea that having alpacas would be awesome. Gardening and knitting with alpaca yarn was always wife Justina's favorite, while animals are husband Chris' favorite. It was our favorite future scheme, getting super excited after seeing a few alpacas in a field. Alpacas were always a five-year plan away.

We moved to Colville, WA in 2021 and lucked out to find a home with a few acres with some infrastructure already in place. The clock started on a three-year plan for alpacas. We took an intro class to alpaca care in September 2022, fell in love with alpacas, and drove away concocting a three-month plan for alpacas. Six fabulous alpaca boys arrived in November 2022 after some action-packed fence-building, field-clearing, and barn addition-building weekends. Marriage has survived the fast pace of our alpaca growth and we now are up to ten alpacas with the addition of four ladies in the fall of 2023.

It's now 2024 and we are just starting to try out breeding these lovely animals and navigating all the challenges of jumping in head first to farming side-adventure. We absolutely love having alpacas and there is never a dull moment. The learning curve can be steep, but it's worth it and the alpaca community is full of support and good advice. If you are thinking about alpacas there are a million ways they can add to your life and so many directions they can take you.

As we get up and running we have some things for sale as we try to get these 'pacas to earn their keep. Support your local farms! We have hand-spun yarns made from 100% suri alpaca and yarns blended with sheep; yarns are available in natural colors and fun dyed colors. Our yarns are available by contacting us directly or at Annie's Oak Street Market in Colville, WA. We have some other fiber products like roving, straight fiber, and dryer balls for sale and plenty of alpaca poop fertilizer. We have males available for local breedings so please reach out if interested.