athletic adventure: walking with llamas

Back in spring, I saw something on one of the news magazines about a farm that allows you to walk llamas.  I was immediately smitten and contacted the farm. So did a lot of other people. Since they don't walk in the summer heat, we accepted a reservation for Wednesday.

It took nearly two hours to get there. I should have hairbrained ideas closer to home. When we made the reservation Lydia was working retail. Now she's back to social work. She told them she needed the day off when they hired her. They said send pictures. She did.

We arrived a half-hour early. But she didn't mind. Another family was joining us.  While we waited, we met the chickens. They were growing their winter feathers. It was kind of cool to see them. I know now more about chickens than I ever need. Their chicken coop is a palace.

After the other family arrived, we met the llamas. We were allowed to choose, but as you can see here with Bonnie and Carbon, they kind-of picked you. They were mostly laying down when we arrived, but as soon as they hear the barn door they were on their feet. We met each llama. Included was their name, age, breed, and because we asked, what kind of fiber the llama yielded. It's amazing—the age and the breed determine the fiber. Some are course, some are fine, some soft ...

After learning the commands we spent some time practicing in the pasture with cones and logs. And then we were off to the woods.

Lydia's llama, Eduardo (Eddie) is the biggest and usually leads the walks. He was pissed that he was second. Lydia had her hands full. He kept stopping. Once he pooped he was actually better. What was really interesting is when one pooped, they all pooped. Bonnies was last. We were ready to head out from the poop-stop and Carbon decided he'd poop now. Llamas pick one place to poop. There are three places on the route. In fact, at the barn, they have a "litterbox".

We walked against the fence rail and into the woods. I got the lyrics to "Into The Woods" stuck in my head. Crossing into the woods trail was a bit tricky because neighbors use ATVs. Or else there is a huge erosion issue.

On the way back we stopped for a "candy" break. Pine needles. They couldn't eat too much or they'd get a belly ache.

We walked to the lake, and then came back to the barn.

My llama's name was Clemente.  Here he is with Bev, the owner.

Was it exercise? Probably not. Maybe more of a saunter. Was it fun? Yes.