2000 a WTR Millennium Christmas
Hi
there!!! My name is Maggie 1st
Wayfarer. I’m what they call a cria
llama. That means that I am a baby
llama. My mom is Lilly of the Valley. She is a really neat mom. Mom told me I was born on July 29th
of this year, and I was one of those hard births. She said the humans that take care of us, Mike & BJ, had to
help her to deliver me. I remember
that I kind of small and scrawny. My
right front leg didn’t feel right. I
couldn’t stand up, nurse, and recover.
Mom says she wasn’t too happy having Mike & BJ milk her so I could
have that good colostrums. But
hey!!! I found out that goat’s milk is
great!!!!!
Now I’m 4
months old and I’ve experienced a lot of things. It’s been as hot as +105 and just a few weeks ago it got kind of
cold. Mom said it got –9 below, but
with my wool and a bunch of aunts and uncles around me to keep me warm it’s
OK. I’m also an aunt already. Another llama mama, named Mandarin
Chocolate, had one like me, only brown.
Her name is Tymico 2nd
Wayfarer. She’s neat to be around and
play with. I’m acting like a big
sister to even though she is bigger than I am now!
There seems to be a bunch of us on
this ranch. Mom has been helping me
learn my numbers and I’ve counted 28 of us.
There are some big furry things called St. Bernard’s. One is called Meiko Wayfarer and the other
is called Koncho Wayfarer. They kind
of keep track of us. I like to play
tag with them when they come out to the pasture. Mom gets upset that I do that but my Uncle llamas put a stop to
things when it gets out of hand. But
we have fun anyway.
When I was born there were 2 smaller
furry animals around. Mom calls then
cats. The one they call Searcher came
to see me when I was only a few hours old.
Mom was concerned, but Mike & BJ said it was OK and I wouldn’t get
hurt. Then a week later I saw this big
fat cat called Misha. I tried to sniff
her, but she got scared of me. My
uncle Radar said that Misha generally doesn’t’ come around and visit like
Searcher. When I was 2 months old we
had a big snowstorm here. On the 3rd
day of the storm there was a strange sound coming from the llama trailer. It was another cat. Mike & BJ took it in because it was
cold and hungry. It’s been with us now
2 months and is a real neat friend. It
comes out and climbs the fence of our corral and lets me sniff it. She said her name, given her by Mike &
BJ, is Kalico Wayfarer. 
So, I
figured that all our names were “Wayfarer”, but Kallie straightened me
out. She said the Mike & BJ had
the last name of “Carlson”. They own
the ranch, which we live on, and it’s called the Wayfaring Traveler Ranch.
I’ve been
listening to my uncles, like a good little cria should. They have told me some stories of why we
are on this ranch. My Uncle Magnus,
whim I was named 
after,
told me BJ & Mike use us to pack stuff.
Uncle Magnus said he took a trip to an area called the Big Horn
Mountains. He said that it was a neat
place; lots of tree and bigggg meadows he could eat in. All he had to do was carry about 60# of
stuff. He was able to go with some of
my other uncles. They’ve told me they
play games with BJ & Mike, by acting like they don’t’ want to be caught and
go on these trips. But, they really
think it’s neat to go there and see new things. I hope, when I grow up, I can go along with them.
The other
ventures BJ & Mike are trying to do are use our poo-poo to fertilize the
crops they grow. They say its called
organic way to raise crops, and I’m glad I can help. They say I do a good job.
If I eat weed seeds I can digest it so the weeds will not grow again,
and when they apply my poo-poo directly to plants it doesn’t burn the
plant. Soooo I help out the best I
can. Mike says his official job title
is Waste Management Engineer.
We have a
guesthouse for people to stay at. BJ
& mike treat humans to a healthy life still, and use the setting to show
people how to work with us before they take us on trips to the mountains and
desserts. My youngest uncle, Bridger, said there have been some neat humans
that have been to the ranch this past summer, before I was born. There were 2 young humans that worked with
him and Dinwoody Glacier, another uncle of mine. They thought they were the neatest ones.
My mom’s
boyfriend, Zasu, said that back in February another llama, Zorac, injured
BJ. He said BJ had llama trauma. My other aunts said that BJ had to go
through a lot of physical therapy to get her knee back in shape. But, I heard Mike say that it was “ranch
therapy” that got the knee better.
This happened all before I was born so I’m relying on what others say.
Mike &
BJ like to talk with me. They seem to
like being here a lot. Mike says it’s
like “Shangri-La”. He wanted me to
tell you he retired January 14th of this year. He took a class in Farm/Ranch Management at
Northwest College in Powell last spring.
He did it to make a business plan for the ranch so he would know how much
he was going to be in debt. He seems
to be doing a lot of things. I see him
working a lot in the field that the rise crops. He also has a bigggggg field that he does something called bale. Whatever he does to it I’ve found out that
it tastes goooood. So I hope he keeps
doing it. I did see him bring a in a
big trailer. He piled a bunch of these
bales on it and took it off the ranch.
There have been some people who come to the ranch and pick up the bales
for themselves. I get worried that
there might not be enough for me to eat, but my uncles tell me there are some
big round bales in the front part of the ranch that they go past when Mike
& BJ take them for training walks.
I see BJ
once in a while. She seems to be
around only on weekends now. During
the summer she was here every day. She
goes to Cody, WWY, and helps out kids, who are a bit older than me, learn how
to talk right. Mike says she brings in
the money to pay for all the llama feed.
I like that!!!
Mike says
I’ve got to show our newcomers in the small corral how polite llamas are, and I
can’t spit at them. There are 2
things called horses there. They are
just 2 months older than I am and they are big!!! Mike calls them Belgians.
They look kind of like me but they have bigger faces and legs. I’m supposed to give them time to get
adjusted to us before I can go over and visit with them. Mike says they will get bigger then 4
llamas put together. I think he’s
kidding me, nothing can get that BIG!!!
He wants to train them to pull something called a plow. I
don’t think that’s something I would want to do.
If you get
a chance to come out west, and plan to visit Yellowstone Park, Mike & BJ
want me to tell you it’s OK to stop in and see us. I would like to meet you, and, if you have kids, I’d especially
like to be with them; we could be friends.
There is
something really nice out here I think you should see Most warm nights I’m up near the main house and I see BJ &
Mike with the dogs and cats on the screened porch. They are there to see the beautiful sunsets. They are really neat, and I think you’d
enjoy them too. I hope you can stop
by, I’m sure Mike & BJ would like to see their old friends, and I can show
you the new barn 
we are
going to get!!!!.
From the Wayfaring
Traveler Ranch
(Me) Maggie Lilly Mandarin Chocolate Tymico Jenny Tenacious
Dark Rain Seneca Katarina Spit Turret Nichaja Titapa
Zasu Bridger Mt. Osborn Radar George Esparado
Ethan Bola White Knight Coco Man Sinara Chico
Harpo Groucho Black Knight Spunky Magnus Howard K
Meiko and Koncho.
Kalico, Misha, and Searcher.
Thunder and Lightening
And the
two humans that got this menagerie together
BJ & Mike
P.S. - Hopefully
soon you will be able to visit with us on our website. Look for something with llamas and
guesthouse I WY when you do your search.
It’s amazing how fast crias’ pick things up. Maggie was able to type this Christmas letter with her for
toenails. Se Ya!!! -
Mike
Happy Holidays!!!