About Us

Rolling E Ranch is located on the rolling prairie of Eastern Colorado.

We are home to 33 Alpacas and a wide variety of other critters including one snooty Llama named Dolly.

Hello and Welcome to Rolling E Ranch!

My name is Diana and I am the Boss Lady of the ranch, or so the animals let me think!  I am a city girl learning to be a country girl living on 80 acres of rolling prairie in southeastern Colorado with my Hubby and a passel of animals. I blog about life here on the ranch, my crafty passions, local history, and pretty much anything else that catches my fancy.

Stick around and enjoy the ride!

 

I grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan.  I was a horse crazy kid, like most girls I knew, and drove my parents crazy begging them to buy me a horse.  I now have two of them, a longtime dream which has become a reality.

In high school, I fell in love with John Denver, no, not personally, but with his songs about Colorado.  I knew that someday I would live there, but didn’t realize it would take me 25 years to get here.

When I hit 40, I realized that if I didn’t get up and change my life, it might never happen.  Luckily I worked for a company that let me move and then work from home, which I absolutely loved!

I met my husband, became a Christian, gained an awesome stepson, and we bought an 80 acre ranch in the country.

So now, here I am, the Boss Lady of all the animals, or so they let me think that as long as I feed them, surrounded by the quiet and beauty of the country, and loving every day of it.

Knitting and working with our alpaca’s yarn is a passion of mine.  I have been knitting for 18 years, and a couple of years ago I got the bug to learn how to design my own patterns.  I took some great classes on  Craftsy  and am now creating my own designs which you can find here and in my Etsy Shop.

We have our alpaca fleece spun in to yarn at a local mill and I then hand dye and sell our sinfully soft and sumptuous yarns in my Etsy Shop. If you have never worked with alpaca, you are in for a real treat. You will not believe the incredible softness and luster of the yarn, and if that were not enough, it is light weight, very warm, not the least big itchy, and hypoallergenic.  If you cannot work with other animal fibers, try alpaca!

I hope you all find something interesting here on our site!  And don’t forget to subscribe below to receive our blog posts every week!

Alpacas

The heart of Rolling E Ranch is our Alpaca Herd.  Starting with eight alpacas in 2013, our herd has grown to a whopping 30 animals!  Considering the gestation period is around 11 months, it is obvious that our girls have been very busy.

Alpacas are just so cute!  They look like large cuddly teddy bears, although most don’t like to be cuddled, and they have the softest most amazing fiber.

We raise alpacas for their fleece, which we have spun in to yarn that Diana then hand dyes here on the ranch – be sure to visit our Rolling E Ranch Etsy Shop to see all the sinfully soft yarns we have for sale.

We also raise alpacas for sale. When we started our herd, we purchased animals that had excellent genetics and we now have a variety of alpacas from herd improvement animals to pets.

We would love to hear from you if you are interested in learning more about our alpacas…ranch visits can always be scheduled!

Great Pyrenees LGDs

When we started our ranch, we had eight alpacas and 2 useless ranch hands, aka a Boston Terrier and a Huskador.  Recognizing that we had predators; coyotes, foxes, skunks, and that there were large chunks of land between us and our neighbors, it made sense to bring in a Livestock Guardian Dog which would live outside and guard our animals as well as our property.

Belle, our first Pyr, was a rescue dog that I found at a local shelter. She was calm and sweet and tough and would spend her nights out wandering our property as well as the neighbors barking and protecting all of the surrounding livestock.   Not long after Belle came to live with us, it became apparent that she could use a mate, and so we found Adam on craigslist.  He is a big goober who would happily be a 120 pound lap dog if we let him.

Belle and Adam, who are are pictured at the top right, went on to have several litters of puppies and today we have 3 of those pups, Boo, Goliath and Howdy, living here on the ranch.

Pyrs are naturally nocturnal, and will spend most of the day sleeping, but night time is when their protective instincts really kick in. They will bark, and bark, and bark some more, letting the predators know that they are about and to stay away.  Since we have had our Pyrs, the surrounding ranchers have told us that they have not lost a single animal to predators.

All the Other Critters

No ranch would be complete without all the other critters and Rolling E is no exception.

We have a large flock of free ranging chickens which spend the day grazing on grass and bugs, providing us with eggs and a never ending source of entertainment.

Bourbon Red heritage breed turkeys also free range the property. They are large, beautiful birds which we have bred over time for their delicious meat.

One snooty lama named Dolly, yes, I know, the Dolly Lama.  She came to us from a neighboring ranch where she was living with alpacas and a much smaller lama who humped her constantly. Dolly, who is a big girl, over 400 punds is very aloof and loves posing for photos. She is also a guardian for the alpacas.

Angus, our Happy Appy, and my mare Shasta are the horses I always wished for when growing up…is there anything that smells better than a horse?  I think not.

Barn cats keep the little critter population in check and are always happy to get a belly rub or accompany me on a walk.

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