Snow fun!

We're completely snowed in here and having great fun, although it's taking some time to sort the animals every day. Icy conditions and pasture under deep snow has meant that we've had to give extra feed and make sure that water isn't frozen, but as you can see, thigh-length snow has made this an interesting job! The goats are keen to stay inside, the ducks have found a new home in the trees and the hens are huddling in the tack room or under the trampoline, but the llamas are still their usual happy selves. They're used to tough conditions and are probably laughing at us falling about as we deliver their hay!

Trekking landmarks

We'll start to include some favourite landmarks we see when we're out and about. See if you can guess where they are. Here's one from today, a couple of trees that have been grazed. Our little girl said they remind her of a ballerina's skirt as she spins around. Let us know by email if you think you know where they are. We'll post each person's suggestion on the blog until someone gets it right!

Django's fabulous fleece

The llamas are getting a nice covering of fleece as we go into the colder weather. Here's Django with his stunning silver coat. We brush them all regularly, which helps keep the fleece from getting matted and also gets the llamas used to being stroked and touched all over.

PL on YouTube!

Almost forgot to put this on the blog. Many thanks to Andy, Sharon and the kids for taking this video and posting it on YouTube. It shows our newly-shorn llamas on a trek at Chatsworth, with Django taking a well-earned break and doing the thing he likes best! He's a great character and always tries to convince new folk that they should let him munch grass whenever he likes. He very quickly gets the message though and walks like the true professional he is.
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Llama love?

Hello to Mark and Debbie, two of our avid Llamablog viewers, and to their respective families. Just to let you know, we're still thinking of 'dating with llamas' - a singles trek followed by a meal. What better way to size up a prospective partner than by checking out their (llama!) handling ability? Hello to everyone else at The Clifton Partnership too. Hopefully we'll see you again very soon.

Feeding time

Llamas are incredibly efficient grazers and, on the whole, shouldn't need much in the way of food supplements. Ours have constant access to good, dry hay and their pasture is more than a match for their appetites. Due to the history of lead mining in the area, however, the grass has a copper deficiency. Because of this, every now and then we give our llamas a small amount of specialist camelid supplement, usually as a reward when they've been out. They really enjoy it and here they are, behaving very calmly and politely!

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!