White Mountain Llamas - More History!

Our mom found some photos from 1998 the other day. The llamas seen below, Fabyan and Silace Bumpas were the first two llamas that Hana and I had in our yard. It was an experiment for us to see if we liked having llamas. It turned out to be quite successful - we went to our first Fryeburg Fair the following autumn to show Fabyan, Lizzy Bourne, Lucy Crawford, and Wannalancet.

We kept our first two leased-llamas in the middle of town on our small portion of property. Since we only kept them there during cold seasons they did not need a lot of space (for grazing). Hana and I would take them out for walks, pick up their feet, and trained them how to respond to us.

We would even have neighborhood children come over with their families to visit with the llamas. We took the llamas to visit the librarians regularly because they were right up the street from our house. They purchased Storey's Guide to Raising Llamas for the library and honored Fabyan and Silace inside the front cover.

Here I am, age 11, showing a the llamas to Kyle.Here are Hana and I, age 5 and 12 at our first every Fryeburg Fair!Here I am helping Hana to get ready for her first class in the show - the costume class! Hana and Lizzy are dressed as scarlet macaws.

Cross Country Skiing with Bella and Winny

Driving!

Hana and I took Bella and Winny to "the meadows" which are a series of hay fields on the edge of town that follow the Ammanoosuc River. Bella carried Hana's skis for her on the way down. What a good llama!Bella was unsure of the deep snow but Winny jumped right in!Ah, we're there!

Winny looks at our yellow lab, Sam. Sam wants to go skiing too, she's jealous that Hana is playing with Bella and not her!

Ready for the skis?After a couple tries and learning where Bella wanted to go - away they went! We learned that it helped if Winny led for Bella to follow. Bella is very good at the command "whoa" which is one of the main reasons she is so good to ski with. When Hana falls, Bella has to know to stop quickly!
Kerplop!
Bit the snow!

Here, Winny is taking notes while Hana is training Bella! I recently took my exam for a course called the History and Application of Draft Animals. Part of my final exam was to drive Green Mountain College's two oxen, Bill and Lou. VPR interviewed us and you can listen to that program here. After listening to Kenneth's explanation of "gee" and "haw" it helped Hana to remember which side is which. Now Bella and Hana are a little better at general steering and directions! We both encourage you to listen to it!

Again, Winny is leading so Bella sort of knows where to go. Bella is very calm around cars, so we were able to keep going on the snowy parts of the street/sidewalk back home.Wee!

Bella loves pulling! She goes right up the hill with Hana - no problem! One of the most important things in a driving llama is one that enjoys moving forward. In the beginning Bella did not really understand being asked to "walk on" from behind when she was used to Hana at her side. If you want a driving llama it is good to start young so you do not need to re-train their leading knowledge.

Behind Hana and Bella are the old train station and Opera Block of Woodsville. This town was built on the railroad systems that connected us to other parts of New Hampshire. Only the old railroad bed remain today - but they make excellent cross country skiing paths!

Peacable Kingdom...Continued!

Our yellow lab, Sam, is a little wary of the llamas. The llamas love to see her though!Here is Ollie again! He's looking for his escape route...

Ollie enjoys sitting in the llama pen in their hay - right next to the bird feeder.

Often Bella or Winny will visit with Ollie when he's snuggling into their hay. He likes to sniff noses with Winny, but Bella is a little more persistent about her kisses and sometimes chases him out of the pen!

Retreat!

Winny is sticking her tongue out for the camera!May and Winny are almost identical - how cute they are!

Thanks for visiting our blog and happy holidays!

Peacable Kingdom

Here our rabbit Tiger Lily and cat Ollie snuggle up during a storm. Originally Ollie went in at feeding time to get some water from Tiger, but then he decided to stay a while and snuggle. It's so wonderful living with so many animals and being able to observe how they all interact!

We have three cats. One ignores the rabbits, one pounces on and plays with them, and Ollie prefers to snuggle! Our yellow lab, Sam, also loves playing with the rabbits. The llamas like sniffing and giving the rabbits rides. What fun we are having this holiday season!

Thanks f0r tuning into the blog! Happy Holidays!

The Herd

This is Birch Tree! She is a little doe from Ethan's third litter this year. She is a fawn, like Ethan. You can identify this color by a light orange body color with white ears, nose, eye rings, and under body.
Here, Winny is being inquisitive about my camera! She followed me all around to see what I was doing and let me catch and pet her while I was visiting.

Bella is teaching Winny about neck-wrestling. Usually two males will neck-wrestle to see who is dominant. It involves biting of each other's legs and underside and then chasing each other around. May and Bella did it when they were younger and in nice cold weather! Today Bella was playing in this fashion with Winny. First she put her ears back and "attacked"!

Winny pulled back: "Ugh! Bella! What are you doing?"

"Hey, get away from my feet!""Mom! Tell Bella to stop!"

"Don't come to me! You tell her to stop!""All right! I'll get you now!""Oh yeah?""I don't know if I like this game any more." *sulks*"Hmm. Is she going to keep going?"

"Does this mean we're at a truce?""For now!"

Arethusa watches all this from the hill, grinning.

What a fun winter day! The llamas love the cold weather because it means they can play!

Ice Storm

Here are some pictures of the ice storm we had here last week! Good thing the llamas had shelter!