In 96 Brutus was 14, getting arthritic and had gone into retirement. We lost our beloved Brutus that Fall, but he'll always be a part of our life and farm. There will be no replacing him, but we hope Mandy will give us another son like him.

Let's see...what shall I tell you about Bob and I? We met when I joined Western Airlines in 1968 as a Stewardess. He was a Captain at the time. We were married in 1971. He has a daughter, Teresa, whom I adopted, so that makes her ours. She's now grown and married.

I flew 18 years for Western. I retired in 1986 when we moved to Valleyford. A year later Delta Airlines bought Western, so Bob now flies the MD-11 (a Big DC-10) to the Orient for them. He'll be retiring soon. He's flown for a major airline since he was 19, made Captain by the time he was 24. He started flying when he was 14 and bartered flying lessons for odd jobs. He went to work for an airline the summer he graduated from High School. I come from an aviation background, Dad was an engineer for Douglas Aircraft Company. I think I was destined to join an airline.

I like to spin, but only llama and mohair. I like the way it draws. We sheared one year and I spent the winter hand carding, teasing and spinning 16 pounds of llama wool and 8 pounds of mohair given to me by my neighbor. It was great fun to start from scratch, clean, card and spin the wool. The bathtub didn't survive the cleaning of the fleeces very well, I clogged the drain numerous times. Bob graciously fixed it for me. I have three beautiful sweaters made from Mandy, Bonnie, Muggs, and Molly. And a great coat from the mohair. It was alot of work! I can't believe the wonderful people who do all this work and then sell their wares. By the time I finished, I had too much time and love wrapped up in the garments and couldn't sell them. I recently sent fleeces to a professional mill to be cleaned and carded into roving. It came back like a large ball of thick rope and I'm very impressed with the results. I can't wait to get started spinning again. I have a new wheel from Australia and it spins like a dream.

On Bob's days off (when he is not recouperating from major jet lag) he spends his time fixing toys (which, in truth, are my tools). A 57 dump truck, 56 fire truck, 42 road grader, a couple of tractors, a gator, lawn mowers, weed eaters, etc. There are always repairs to fences, waterers, downed limbs, and all the other things that make a farm the work it is. We do most of our own llama maintenance, like trimming toenails (400 of them every 3 months), shots, worming, weaning, training, breeding, all the normal stuff needed to maintain the llamas in a healthy manner.

If you don't think you want a llama, then you just haven't met one yet. Because once you have, you'll know why so many people can't live without them. They are one of the most responsive, loving, intelligent, creative creatures God ever made. A llama is the mirror image of the attention they receive. If you put the time into them they will return it 100 fold. They are smart, curious and can tell a bad guy a mile away. I always trust my llamas, if they don't like someone there is normally a very good reason. They are great with children. We have a young man who visits quite often with his three year old, Christopher. The other day the whole herd peacefully wandered out into the field with him. In the middle of over 45 llamas of all sizes was this three year old with his arm wrapped around Peaches, a yearling. (There are two pictures of Peaches and Christopher on our photo pages.) They walked all the way to the end of the field together. Not one of the grown females made any attempt to overrun this child. They just sniffed his head as they walked by. We wandered up into the pasture about 10 minutes later and found Christopher and Peaches sitting side by side under a tree. Do that with any other large animal!!! If everyone took the time to get to know llamas, the world would be a more peaceful place.