Summer at last!

Summer finally hit us as we took Django, Jelly Roll and Bing out to Chatsworth. We met sheep, horses and dogs today, as well as the usual parade of walkers, but the llamas behaved impeccably under the confident control of the family that led them. A dream come true for their youngest apparently, who has adopted llamas in the past. He was certainly at home with ours today!

Back to Chatsworth

Yet another great trek to Chatsworth today, with Sharon, Andy and their family demonstrating great llama handling. Quote of the day came from their young daughter, who asked if Nick had been gelded or if he still had all his bits! Stunned silence followed as all the adults tried to answer that one...Thanks must go again to Chatsworth, for letting us on their estate. Judging by the amount of pleasure the llamas gave every single person we met on this busy day, it was a very good decision!

Shearing time!

An essential part of the welfare of llamas is managing their incredibly complex and advanced fleece. As well as regular grooming, every two or three years they need to be shorn to prevent overheating. The only problem is that they look like a different animal when they've been done, as you can see by comparing this picture with the others on the website. They still retain their fabulous character though! Ben Wheeler, our amazingly talented shearer, did a great job!

Radio Llama!

Peak Llamas hit the airwaves this morning with a spot on Radio Sheffield's Toby Foster - Bigger at Breakfast Show. Roving reporter Dan Johnson visited us as part of their 'interesting and unusual days out' feature and built up a surprising affinity with Django, whose career, we thought, was destined to be TV. Listen again on the BBC iPlayer, and we're 1hour, 33 minutes and 47 seconds into the programme.

Off to school

Django and Jelly-Roll had a great time at school today, with every pupil having a good stroke of them both and learning lots about llamas. Some of the reception children were smaller than Jelly-Roll's legs but he was his usual calm self, whilst Django enjoyed being surrounded by children stroking him. We had monsoon conditions at one point and had to retreat to the trees, but it gave us a chance to talk about llamas' incredibly advanced protection against the elements. Well done to all the pupils too!

Heading for home

Django leads the way back home after a short trip to Great Hucklow to see some of his friends. It's a really nice trek, walking straight out of the farm, into the village and back. Watch this space for news of our visit to our local school this week.

Out and about!

Three of our llamas had a great day out in Chatsworth recently (here's Bing and Jelly-Roll ) and behaved impeccably. Once again , they were the centre of attention wherever we went and no doubt were the subject of many conversations that night!