We moved here in late 2002 and when we first moved here we had 3 dogs already, two Samoyeds (Tasha & Cookie) and a lovely black rescue collie-cross (Polly) – town dogs, used to being walked on leads and taken for rides in the car to get to a field where they could stretch their legs, imagine the joy of just being let out the door and to have a field within 50 yards and you didn’t need a lead to get there.

Sadly Polly & Tasha are no longer with us, the years catching up with them, but Cookie still loves digging down where the molehills are in the hope that she’ll catch something, never has done. Pepper has joined us, a cross between a Springer and a Jack Russell – adorable but mad as hell!

So, our first foray into the “farm” animal world was the pigs, but they have been and gone, and so our first llamas were Inca & Lima, two big “Roseland” llamas – we didn’t realise how big, until we got Clara, who joined us with Wilbur, a young gelded male who is one of our “trekkers”. We also had George, a stud male, who covered Lima and we had our first cria (Cusco). So, 6 llamas, but sadly both Inca and George have left us (a story of its own), so we were back to four. 2009 saw the arrival of Nazca, full brother to Cusco,another product of Lima & George, and such a different young llama, more colouring like his mum, but quite a woolly sort, unlike both parents.

In 2010 a big change here at Ashwood Llamas as Clara & Lima went off to Cornwall to meet Prince Charles (a stud llama from LlamaLland) and we were joined by 4 more breeding girls from the same place and we decided to take breeding llamas seriously. We also invested in our own stud male Pepsi.

In 2011 we were lucky enough to acquire two 3.5 acre fields from our neighbours and so we are now an 11 acre smallholding!

Chickens were a must on a smallholding, and I can honestly say that we have not bought an egg for over 6 years since the laying of the first egg. They are fed layers pellets, and get a handful of mixed corn to peck at in the late afternoon. The maize in the corn adds a wonderful golden yellow colour to the yolks and they taste just great. We now have 20+ chickens including several cockerels.

Pygmy goats came next, animals with such wonderful characters, we just couldn’t resist. We have a variety of females, both pedigree & pets, and also have two billy’s – “Titan” & “Galloway” – two very different animals. We often have kids for sale so please check our “For Sale” page.

Next on the roll call is Hilda, our rescued farm cat, our “organic rodent control” system. Unfortunately, she also has a habit of catching the odd bird!

Notice that the only ones not to have names are the chickens – just too many of them!