How it all began

While sitting on a plane, waiting for take off, I happened to see an Alaska Airlines Magazine and decided to thumb through it. Funny thing was that this was NOT Alaska Airlines! Was it divine intervention??? :)    Anyway, I saw a picture with 3 of the cutest animals’ faces I had ever seen, and the “slogan”: “Why not have an investment you can hug?”  Those faces and that idea haunted me and after convincing my husband I was simply curious,<innocent grin> I called a 1-800 number at the bottom of the page and soon received an AOBA breeders guide in the mail. 

By this time, my husband got a glimpse of the prices and said NO WAY!  OK, I agreed, but why not just go look?  Most of these ranches welcome visitors.  After much pleading he agreed that we could arrange a day to visit some nearby ranches.  I was so excited, and I knew I could do this!  Convincing husband (Ed) was not as easy.   But I was persistent , to say the least, and in 1998 we bought one female. Of course she would be boarded. We had no property, kids happily settled in their schools and we are not about to move.   So now I am in love with a brown Chilean pregnant female named Petora, and I visit her whenever I can.  I spent many hours making the trip when the ranch owner thought Petora was in labor.  Looking back I understand how hard it can be to predict and I know she just didn’t want me to miss it. The actual birth happened at 5 am, so we got a phone call and raced right over. It was a GIRL!!  A healthy wonderful girl!  She was racing around the pastures shortly after we arrived and we were BOTH enjoying this more than we ever thought!  We thought our new cria was amazing, and I loved Petora more than ever. It wasn’t long after that Ed said; maybe we could look for another one.  OK, tell me when!! We found a small herd for sale in a nearby state, and would look them over and choose one.   Somehow, we ended up buying the whole herd and increased our herd from 2 to 12!  We were still boarding and used a PO box for our ranch mail.  We joked that we were the only ranch ever to exist in a post office box!

Soon the boarding fees grew to an amount that could pay for a chunk of land so we started to look for property. 

Fast forward to 2005…..55 alpacas grace the pastures at Blue Moon Ranch, including our original female Petora.  I promised her she would not be sold, and I will keep that promise. She has given us beautiful crias year after year.  Business is good, the alpacas are healthy, many customers can count on Blue Moon Ranch for support and the 17 crias due to arrive this year will be the best ever!

   My Petora