I was sitting on the back porch gazing at the dusk colors of burnt orange and gold the other evening. It was a beautiful spring night, the trees are just beginning to bud, white and yellow daffodils are in full bloom and my animals are fighting each other for the tiny sprouts of green grass trying to find life and sunshine.
As I’m watching the horses and dunkay shove each other away from the struggling blades of green, my mind floated back to 5 years ago when Chad (super farmer) and I thought it would be fun to start a little farm, with no experience and deceiving thoughts of “I’m sure it will be easy, how hard could it be”??!!
We found a cute, already established farm and started off with two Llamas (FREE), Sweetie and Violet. We had seen llamas before and even got close to one once. Therefore we had enough experience to begin with two huge animals who don’t like to be touched, are shy around humans and keep a good distance between you and them
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Sweetie and Violet were ‘mini llamas’ so instead of being 6 feet tall, they were only 5 ½’. Piece of cake! Our two full grown Llamas came with ‘royalty’ papers and a guide book that was close to an inch thick, filled with the do’s and don’ts of raising your own llamas for fun or profit. I read the book in 20 minutes and absorbed nothing! I wasn’t familiar with farm language yet and didn’t know anything about shearing every summer and clipping feet every 5 to 6 months so I underlined all that important farm stuff and handed it over to my soon to be named, Super Farmer, husband. He frowned at me as he flipped though pages of all my underling and pink high lights as I pointed to all the important stuff like ‘They Must be Sheared’ and No Dogs Should Ever Be Allowed Near Them’…which worried me since we have a small pack of hounds.
 
Chad and I learned quickly what llamas liked and what they hated, which is almost everything. We gained the trust of Sweetie who now gives kisses and have come to be experts on our girls. We enjoy Sweetie and Violet and are expecting our first set of ‘llama babies’ to be born late this summer! I’m glad we started this adventure together with Llamas! We have learned allot about farming and a new kind of commitment to animals and to each other as we do ‘rock-paper-scissors’ to see who is going out in the middle of a blizzard to feed, water and chase! Being a farmer is fun and satisfying! Especially when I can relax on my antique wicker rocking chair with a frosty glass of raspberry tea, shouting to Super Farmer who is out in the pasture with more animals than he can count on his fingers and toes, that Sparky is chasing the goat again, “GO SAVE HER!