We've got llamas in our backyard.
No, seriously! We've now got llamas in our backyard. The lady to whom we've let the horse paddock because we don't have a use for it, is now using it for her llamas. Her horses grew too fat on the lush green grass of our horse paddock, so they're not allowed to go their on their own. The obvious solution to this problem is, apparently, llamas.
This doesn't actually come as the surprise I'm pretending it is, because she asked us in advance. It's a ten-year lease, of which 7 years are over next Easter, and in order to put llamas on the paddock, she had to renew the entire fence. Horses you can keep in check with some sticks and a bit of wire (well, more or less), but you need something more substantial for llamas. The sort of fence you need for llamas costs quite a bit of money, which she wasn't going to invest if we planned on not renewing her lease in three years' time. (We were sort of planning to maybe use the paddock ourselves, but she and her husband - a plumber - are not only really pleasant people, but also saved our butts repeatedly when we had problems with our heating in the past, up to and including welding a broken pipe shut on an outside wall, five meters up on a ladder, in the middle of a blizzard. On a Sunday. So we really want to keep them.) I've been sort of dreaming out loud about Mangalica pigs, but we currently don't have the resources to think about that. So we OK'd the llama fence. Actually, we were looking forward to the substantial fence, because hikers keep using the paddock for shortcuts. Our tenants from hell even deactivated the old electric fence - while the horses were in the paddock! - in order to drag building materials for their illegal hut into the forest, rather than carring it around. They're gone, but it's still satisfying to see a fence where that sort of shit won't be possible anymore. Good fences... etc.
The llamas are very good-natured, which llamas apparently tend to be, and these four are especially good-natured because they're trained as therapy llamas. Their workplace went bankrupt and horse paddock lady, who runs a sort of private shelter and pet hotel, took them in. And now they're living, more or less, in our backyard.
( Here, meet the neighbours. )It's absurdly funny how happy Jörg is about them. I mean, everybody seems to love llamas, but he's over the moon. Seems to run in the family. When his American cousin was visiting us back when we'd just bought the house, he said that if he had a paddock like that, he'd keep llamas. Felix also finds them really interesting and wants to visit them three times a day. Of course, this may have to do with the fact that I often say "Let's not have a drama, my little llama" when he threatens to throw a tantrum.
It's also hilarious to watch passers-by. The first one we saw was the lady who lives down in the mill. She came driving down the hill and hit the brakes when she saw the llamas, stopping with her tires squealing, just to make sure she'd seen correctly. All horses are completely confused so all riders are forced to stop by the fence until the horses have wrapped their mind around the llamas' presence. "Alien animal on paddock. Danger? Enemy? Not sure. Deer? Goat? Horse? Friend? Not hostile. OK. Moving on." Hikers, bikers, people who walk their dogs, everybody is puzzled first, and then delighted. Llamas! The most awesome thing ever!
Here!Apparently, you can shear llamas and use their wool, just like with alpakas. (Actually one of the llamas might be an alpaka. Not that I know anything about llamas, or alpakas for that matter.) I wonder whether I'll get a chance to try that next summer?
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