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When we began our relationship with Llamas thirteen years ago, our three kids were six, four and eighteen months of age. As former 4-H beef project leaders for one of the local clubs, it came as no surprise that my wife, Viola, mentioned to me in passing that it was about time to begin thinking of the kids getting into 4-H. I remember grimacing at the thought of repairing or replacing the fence posts and wire around nearly eighty acres. As the dutiful husband, I “sucked it up” and said “OK, I’ll talk to our neighbors about getting some feeder steers.” Viola said “no, not beef.” “Ok,” I said. “What, Sheep?” “No,” she said, “not sheep.” Goats? “No. I was thinking of Llamas.” Llamas?!! I thought that you had to have an exotic licence or permit or something. Ordinary people can’t raise them , can they? Viola told me that she had already visited several llama farms around the area and no, you don’t need any special permits. “Do you want to go visit a farm with me?” I told her that I didn’t. So she went without me! She told me which farm she would be going to and how to get to it and, after awhile, I decided to go--I didn’t want her making any rash decisions--like coming home with some of them. After looking at these animals and asking all the right questions (you know, “So, what do you do with ‘em?--I didn’t ask the owner about the, you know, “S” word--I don’t believe I even knew that they could, at the time), I began to be intrigued with these athletic-looking critters, especially when I found that they could be used for backpacking. Backpacking was an activity that Viola and I did a lot of before we had kids and before an old knee injury reared its ugly head. Hummmmm, could it be that we could do that again and take the kids to our favorite destinations? Perhaps I was being gnawed on by the same bug that had “bit” Viola. Anyway, it wasn’t too long afterwards that we came home with a female and her “companion.” Today, we have a herd that consists of around twenty llamas and that seems to be the limit of what we can raise on the fenced five, or so, acres.
As far as the fun stuff goes, we have, indeed, gotten back into backpacking and have included the kids. We have seen some of the old places we used to go to but have also gone to a lot of other beautiful places as well and out for a lot longer period of time than we could do when we sported our own backpacks. We get out as much as we can in the spring and summer.  We are the co-founders of our counties’ 4-H club--Llamas-n-More and Viola was very instrumental, along with a few other folks, to get llamas recognized as a national 4-H project and Washington State was the first state to be recognized. Pretty cool! We have been involved with our state llama association, LOWS (Lama Owners of Washington State) for as long as we have owned llamas and Rick is now serving on the Board of Directors.
People raise llamas for a lot of different things-- packing, fiber, sheep guards, lawn mowers--we originally got into “it” for our kids (well, Viola did--Rick thought that he could get rich quick!!). The 4-H experience has really been great for the kids! They have learned public speaking as well as doing demonstrations and have learned, for the most part, what is involved in taking responsibility for the care of their animals. Owning llamas has been fun and rewarding; I don’t think that we could be away from these beautiful, graceful, marvelous creatures for long. |
