We have been here for over seven years now, 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
will be our "trekker". We also had George, a stud male, who having
covered Lima, 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.
The llamas were being covered too late in the year and so last year we had a break and left it until this year (2010)and both our girls have gone off for a short holiday to meet their Prince Charming, actually he's called Prince Charles, and so it will be April 2011 before we get to see more cria here at Ashwood Llamas.
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 4 cockerels.
Pygmy goats came next, animals with such wonderful characters, we just couldn't resist. We have 5
females, and this year we have acquired our own billy - "Titan" - and hope to have some young in August/September 2010 - we have 2 pedigrees (Frostie &
Fudge) where the horns have been left on, and we have 2 "pets" (Flo
& Fuzz) that have been de-horned, but they all get on well.These four are about 4 years old now, and they have been joined by young Bluebell, who came along with Titan, although probably too closely related to breed them. We hope later in the year that we will have youngsters for sale, and we will probably let Bluebell go at the same time, as we will struggle to have room for them all!
Next
on the roll call is Howard & Hilda, our two rescued farm cats,
brother & sister, our "organic
rodent control" system. Unfortunately, they also have a habit of
catching the odd bird!
Finally, we have just acquired a few ducks, Khaki Campbells drakes - that'll be Charlie and Francis (Drake)!
Notice that the only ones not to have names are the chickens - just too many of them!