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When last I blogged on March 2, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be where we are today. Covid-19 has changed how we do everything! Today is the 1st day of basically the total shut down here in CO. I hope you are all safe and healthy and stay that way.
During this uncertain time, I hope your fiber arts will be a source of pleasure and comfort.
Needless to say, classes are postponed til further notice. We will be scheduling again as soon as we get word that it is ok t

Well, it's been a long while since I posted! Don't know where time goes!
In the last almost 2 years, we've just been cruising along. Babies born, alpacas sold.
But there are a couple of constants. Blazing Star Ranch, the store is alive and growing! Come see us for beautiful yarn, classes, spinning wheels, looms and all things fiber!

And BSRA Snowmass Enlightenment's Patron and his offspring are continuing their winning ways.
At almost 8, Patron keeps taking blues a

We got a chance to take a couple of alpacas, Argos and Cisco, down to a local tv station to talk a little about our alpacas and our store! The boys were ready for their close-up!
https://kdvr.com/2018/07/17/blazing-star-ranch/

People often ask if alpacas spit. I'll let you be the judge. This is a mother/daughter pair that just had a disagreement. Both are pregnant, which definitely adds to their aggravation with each other. Mom, Diamond is the spitter and daughter, Elizabeth is the recipient of the spit!

Just realized how long it has been since my last blog--time flies! Our 6th year in business was very busy and the best one yet. Our store continued to grow and we added lots of new yarns, roving, and fiber equipment. We had 5 babies in 2014 and they hit the show ring the spring of 2015.
At ABR Fall Fest, we took 5 animals and took Royal took a First, a Color Championship, and a Judge's Choice at halter and a First in Fleece! Emmy Lou took a 2nd and a Reserve Color Championship, Patron to

We welcomed Buttercup's little girl on 7/14/14 at 12:08. I don't think I have ever seen a stronger cria! She was on her feet in 5 minutes and never looked back! Way to go, little one! Now--a name!

Part of the business of alpacas is selling. It's a bittersweet thing! Just sold 2 of my boys--the first that I've sold that I made the breeding decisions myself. One I even delivered myself. So, off they go. I'm sad, but happy because I know they have gone to a great new home.

Every year, shearing day rolls around. Our great shearers and their helpers arrive and then the organized chaos begins! We had 2 shearing stations going all the time. Several farms were participants in the shearing and in 2 days almost 200 alpacas and llamas were shorn!

I never get tired of seeing all that wonderful fleece come rolling off the alpacas.

Now, on to skirting the fleece and turning it into soft, luxurious yarn and rovings!

On September 6, two weeks to the day after we lost our Shawnee and Moonshadow, Loreal showed us that life does indeed go on. After one of the hardest things that can happen in this business, the best thing happened--Loreal had a little boy. A big, feisty boy! His name is Iceman.

Following him on the 17th, Margarita presented us with a beautiful little fawn girl. A no drama birth--the way it should be. She's our last cria for this year.

The circle of life.

We had been anticipating the birth of Shawnee's cria. Instead, tonight, Aug 23, we lost them both around 11pm. It's almost never a good thing for labor to become obvious at night. Tonight was no exception.

She started showing obvious signs of labor around 8pm. When no progress was made, our vet was called just after 9. She got there about an hour later.

At first, it seemed all was ok. Feet and nose were present, so she pulled them out. But nothing else would come.

Day 361--and we're still waiting. This picture of Shawnee is from today. We were spying on her with the maternity run webcam. She is one ornery girl right now!

Shawnee is now at Day 356. She's been fooling us for over 2 weeks now. She'll cush and sigh. Then she'll grumble a little. Looks pretty ready--but no, back to eating like a horse. Well, it's gotta come soon!

Back in April, two of our alpacas came to visit our yarn store. Twitter and Socks were an instant hit. Imagine the surprise of folks who came in the other part of our store just to get a vacuum fixed!

"Lawdy, Miss Scarlet! I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!"

Well, last Sunday I felt just about like Prissy in "Gone With the Wind"!

We had just finished a day and a half of shearing and I was cleaning runs, all the while keeping an eye on one of my girls, Tweeter. She had looked uncomfortable all day, so we had checked with our vet and found that she was out of town. I had about given up on the baby being born that day, when all of a sudden there was a water

Well, GWAS has come and gone--now on to Nationals.

For a little farm, we did ok. Two thirds, two fourths, one fifth, one sixth, and one got the gate (a white juvie boy in a huge class) at halter. In fleece, we took a 1st and 2nd in Spin-off (two half-sisters against each other), 2nd for Loreal in Produce of Dam Fleece, and a fourth in the white D & E fleece combined class (only two E's out of 13 entries--and she was one of them--so not too bad up against animals a year younger than

Boy, does time fly! Our new fiber store is up and running! Many of you have been by, and we thank you! We keep getting more and more stuff in (not fast enough for me--but that's another story!) Every week is kind of like Christmas--getting in new rovings, new yarn, new spinning wheels! In rovings, we now have 15.5 micron merino, 50/50 yak-merino, beautiful dyed merino/silk, bamboo, tussah silk, alpaca, and much, much more.

We have yarns from Misti, Plymouth, Pagewood Farms, Ash

Just went to ABR Fall Fest this weekend and had a great show!

EON White Diamond's Elizabeth brought home our very first blue ribbon at halter and our first Color Champion--in white, no less. Thejudge said she has amazing, amazing, AMAZING fleece!

Then our little juvie, FRA Snowmass Enlightenments Veritas brought home a blue (now , he was in a class of his own as a juvie appaloosa--but--it's still a blue!)

Our 2 year old dark siiver gray girl, Twitter, brought hom

I don't know how a month can go by so fast, but it has! Since last blog, 2 babies have been born to join Socrates. Last Wednesday, Margarita had a beautiful little rose gray boy, but he wasn't acting quite right. So watching and waiting. The next morning, sometime before 6:15, Diamond had a little white or beige boy (not sure yet). Strong as an ox. He was running before he was 6 hours old. The little rose gray boy, however, was not doing well. We started antibiotics and our vet came out F

Clara's little baby boy was born at day 352 on 7/25. He's a good looking little fellow! His dad is the the wonderful black herdsire, Aladdin of KPR and mom is, of course, Santa Clara. I bred Clara to Aladdin since she has some color in her background and got this delightful little brown boy with white knee socks in the front! He looks to be very fine and has tight curls under his cria fluff.

The fiber store is coming along--will probably take me another week to be fully operationa

Well, all I have to say is, this business of alpaca breeding does allow for the practice of patience!

Santa Clara has decided to make sure this cria is fully baked. She's at day 351. That's all right with me, as her last one was a little early and not strong. Star was a beautiful little girl who never grew well and I lost her at 5 1/2 months last year. She was very sweet and adorable. I still miss her. That's the hard part of the business.

In the meantime, though, a bla

We're anxiously awaiting our Aladdin of KPR baby out of Santa Clara. She's due July 15. We've already had 4 babies at lazy Daze Ranch where I agist, but this is our first of the summer. Then we have a month to wait for more! We have 3 due in One week in August!

Thankfully the heat has broken some. We'll be at the Parker Farmer's Market this Sunday, July 15 at the Pacabuddies booth. We'll have alpaca socks, yarn (both millspun and handspun), caps, scarves, felted rugs--all manner

There are exciting things going on at Blazing Star Ranch! Our first cria of the year is due around the 15th of July, with 4 more to follow. We do already have 3 new ones at Lazy Daze Ranch where my animals agist! I LOVE crias.

We are adding a bit more to the mix at Blazing Star. Coming soon, I will be carrying a line (or two) of spinning wheels. It seems logical, since we produce fleece (and I love to spin). I will have them in the fiber room I'm opening at Anderson's Vacuum and