Our Story

Nestled in a small mountain ranch in North Western Colorado, Living Water Fibers and Alpacas was founded out of our passion for alpacas and a joy of high performance products, crafted by hand. The ranch is owned and operated by John and Laura Ilko. John oversees all ranching operations and ensuring our alpacas are as happy and healthy as possible. Laura manages all fiber aspects of the business. Not a single product leaves our door without having been inspected by us first.

All our alpacas and sheep are of the highest quality. We perform laboratory sampling of our fibers every other year to ensure our animals are still producing the best fiber possible.  

Looking for alpaca yarn? Please visit our sister site Selah Yarn Co. 

Desiring to Honor God in All We Do

Our story begins and ends by honoring God in all we do. In this life we all have a calling, and this is part of ours. We met in college, and were married after graduation. We had worked in a broad spectrum of jobs, yet our desire was ministry and to own and operate a family business. We wanted to work together in a business and ministry. We prayed and searched out the options of what business we could work together in and strike the balance with in our ministry. 

In May of 2015 we moved back to Johnny's home town and family ranch in Craig, Colorado, and started the church that Johnny is now pastor over. Shortly thereafter, we had the opportunity presented to us of finally having our dream; a family owned business we could both work in. In November of 2015, we purchased our first seven pregnant female alpacas. We were so excited for our little herd to arrive in June of the next year. In between we bought our first seven and when they arrived, we had an opportunity of additional six alpacas and two sheep. As of July 2016, Living Water Fibers and Alpacas was officially launched! Johnny grew up raising and helping his parents raise a flock of about 100 sheep. So for Johnny, it was a small step into the unknown, as well as the rest of the family of how to raise alpacas, but with prayer and step of faith, we begin our adventure. Our story begins and ends with God and glorifying Him. For further information about the church visit our website. https://www.cccraig.org/

John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."