Check Out Kathryn Blandin’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Blandin

Hi Kathryn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
YaYa’s Alpaca Farm started when Karl Blandin’s wife Angy passed suddenly with stage 4 cancer in 2011. Deeply depressed he went searching for something to occupy his mind and time and to hopefully help him get through this very difficult time. He had in the past fell upon alpacas through the internet searches and thought he would look into them as a way to get out of his depression.
He found someone going out of business and had some alpacas needing new homes so he purchased all 7.
In 2017 I met Karl through craft fairs and well thats when we started dating and eventually married December 24, 2018. People ask me all the time “Did you know alpacas when you met him?” my answer “No I had never seen them.”
In 2017 he was at 23 alpacas which I thought was a lot! When I saw them for the first time it was like the happiest crowd surrounding you with all this love and joy.
Today we now have 75 alpacas and 1 llama. Sharing all of them with people who visit our farm is pure love and joy for us. The best part is we get to help people through our four legged family, find love and joy all while learning about the amazing alpacas.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a hard journey, long days and sometimes little sleep to get our business started. We took a partially converted chicken barn and turned it into a store and auditorium.

Funny thing when Karl said he wanted to do this full time I said “well the first thing we need to do is make that bathroom pretty.” While the one we had was clean, it was old. So off we went to creating an earthy rustic charming place for people to visit.

Farming in any fashion has ups and downs. Growing our own hay and fighting a drought, Excessive cold or heat, and money to make this happen. Front Loader breaks, lawn mowers break. You name it we probably have gone through it.

We had decided early on we wanted to always make this affordable and keep it that way. We wanted to be able to pay our bills, care for the animals and not much extra to play. Most of what we get extra goes back into the farm to continue to grow.

We have built new barns with donated wood, tin. We created a Christmas event in hopes we could give people joy for the Holidays. The first year we felt so blessed to have 365 people join us. The last two years we have had over 4,000 attend. Again what a blessing it is that people want to come visit and even make this a family tradition.
We are so blessed to have found so many people donating trees and decorations to make this happen! It’s truly a home grown Holiday! Thanks to all those angels that helped us make this happen.

There are times the money isn’t there but faith and hard work we keep pushing forward and everything works out.

December 5th, 2022 was probably our biggest challenge. We were preparing for a special tour and right in front of me Karl fell and was in cardiac arrest. I started CPR and the blessing started coming. Nurses happened to be on the bus, The fire Chief happened to be 2 miles down the road, the paramedic who cared for him was the son of my old paramedic partner. All of this happened as we started our first week of the Christmas event.

With Family and friends I was able to spend time with Karl, and run the event in the evening while Karl’s kids took turns at his bedside. What most people don’t know is he coded 6 times between our home and the hospital down the road 9 miles. He also suffered a skull fracture and two brain bleeds from his fall to the ground. Hid did make it out of the hospital in 5 days, and that was just the beginning of one miraculous journey to healing. He had open heart surgery January of 2023.
To this day he struggles with not remembering even feeling bad. I explain its a blessing you don’t know and even bigger blessing, your in the 10% survival club because God obviously has something you need to accomplish here on earth.

So faith is behind this farm, we hope each person visiting can find that love, faith, joy, companionship or whatever they need when they visit us. For the people that have visited, we hope you found those blessings from our 4 legged family and the farm. For those who come we hope you too find it here.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Karl was an Insurance salesman for 32 years, selling car, home, life insurance. He owned his own business and it was run by him and his wife Angy at that time. He started out early in life building homes, and then one day took a chance to try out Insurance and he succeeded. When Angy passed he became an alpaca farmer.

I was a paramedic/firefighter, I tought Paramedic and EMT for 15 years, worked in an ER and also built software for Cerner. Then my 4th and final career as an alpaca farmer.

Neither of us knew much about alpacas when we each started but today we have learned a lot!

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
What many don’t know was Karl was adopted early in life by an amazing couple who raised him to be a hard working amazing man. He was so smart he was able to skip two grades to keep excelling in his education. Back in our day you could do that but it wasn’t easy. Karl rode his bike everywhere! He spent time at the lake fishing and campfires. When he was 13 he developed a love for playing the guitar, and collecting albums when he grew up. Most people can see this collection today on the farm. Karl is humble, he is kind, and his faith is strong. He is truly a good and amazing man. He was a city boy and grew up in Raytown , Mo.

I grew up in Fairway, Ks. I was a city girl and country girl wrapped in to one very shy person. I lived at the pool, and played in the dirt. We had show dogs growing up and dad who taught me to work hard. Both parents taught discipline and you can achieve anything you set your mind too. He also taught me to get myself out of bed early, do your chores and that has never left me. I still rise early today. My Mom Judy was the how to have fun, play, and how to cook, she was unconditional love and kindness kind of mom. A lot of time spent at Lake Stockton, swimming, skiing, campfires and just being a kid. What a blessing to have amazing parents.

Pricing:

• Age 14+ $12.00 (+tax)
• Age 3-13 $10.00 (+tax)
• Age 0-2 Free

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yayasalpacafarm.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yayas_alpaca_farm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alpacafarmyaya/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/yaya-alpaca-farm