WTR_CHRISTMAS@2002.NET
The time has come to put
some memories to the “0’s” and “1’s” of this massive machine Mike calls a
computer. If you can remember from my
past attempts at Christmas letter writing I was quite immature. Now as a 3+ year old I have matured into a
very elegant lady. Ohhhhh, I’m
sorry. I forgot to introduce
myself. I am Maggie 1st
Wayfarer, the first llama born to the Wayfaring Traveler Ranch owned-operated
by BJ & Mike Carlson. It was
Mike who asked me to write, from my perspective, this year’s Christmas
letter. I find myself a bit reluctant
because I just don’t seem to have much to say. I think it better if I act as a mentor to an up and coming cria
llama by the name of Titcomb Basin 7th Wayfarer. He is a young prodigy, like myself, who
can turn the smallest of activities into the most wondrous stories. So I introduce to you young Titcomb Basin.
Hi everyone, it’s me! Titcomb! I kind-a think this is a stupid to do this,
but Maggie is pushing me into this. She has me sitting at this machine and showing me which of these
buttons to push. Ms. Maggie says there
is something neat about the thing where it checks my spelling so you can follow
along. She also says I’m supposed to
tell about all the things that happen here.
I
can do that!
Well the MOST
important thing was ME!!! Yep, without
me you won’t know what’s going on here.
My mom, Titapa Wayfarer, said I was born on a Monday.
Yes, Titcomb.
You were born on a day the humans rejoice for the relief from using so
much of their math abilities. Mike
says this only occurs every year, at this time, in the United States. He calls it the “Ides of April”. So, Titcomb, each year you will celebrate
your birthday on April 15th with all sorts of llama treats.
Does that mean I get to celebrate
now because I didn’t know about this before?
Can I get a bunch of stuff right now?!
No, Titcomb. You will have to
wait until next year. Would you
please get back to telling all these folks about what’s been happening at the
ranch?
OOOOOk. But can I have some corn and llama
feed? Huh? Huh? Huh?
That, you’ll have
to take up with Mike or BJ. Now on
with it young cria!
Yuk,
older llamas sure are pushy. In my
short time as a Llamaaaaaa I’ve found you should never trust anyone of them
over the age of 3. They all have
different things going on other than us crias. Wellllllll, lets see.
Hey! Have you seen the ranch’s most famous mouse
catcher? Kalico is her name. She’s kind-a neat. She comes out to the 
corral
where we come in to eat and sleep. I
think she must own the ranch because she walks all over the place. She has come up to me and we’ve touched
noses. The other cats, Misha and
Searcher, don’t do that. Anyway, I
found out, from my mom, that Kallie didn’t feel too well in the month that is
real cold. Mom says that it’s called
January. She didn’t come out to the
corral for her daily visits. Mike told
me she was pretty sick. Something
called a Vet said she was veeeery sick with diabetes. I guess that’s pretty bad stuff that would require daily shots
for the rest of her life. Maggie told
me all about the shot thing. BJ said
that it would be unfair to Kallie so she mixed a bunch of different things
together like goats milk and other things called herbs. Kallie didn’t want to have any of it. So it was up to Mike to force it down
Kallie’s mouth. I kind-a had that same
thing happen to me when I was born and it’s no fun so I kind-a know what Kallie
was going through. But hey!, she got
better and that’s why we can touch noses.
Another thing
that happened was Mike took the plane he owns to a place called Mississippi in
February. Feeewww! Did I spell that “M” word right Maggie?
Yes Titcomb, you are doing a very good job. See how all that practice I’ve had you do
is paying off?
If you can keep
a secret I don’t like all that practice stuff.
I like to run and jump with my other llama buddies. Anyway, Mike has taken me to the plane and
it’ssssss bigggggg! He tried putting
me inside but I put out all my four legs as wide as I could so I wouldn’t go
through that hole opening in the side.
Mike said his trip down to that place was kind-of-fun. He and a friend, Jim Henderson, would fly
during the day and sleep out at the different airport places at night. He flew into some bad weather and had to
spend an extra day getting to that “M” place.
While both of them were down there they learned how to work with draft
horses. Mike said he needed to
brush-up on how he was going to work with Thunder & Lightening. Maggie told me that she introduced you to
them in the past Christmas letters along with that goofy Cheyanne. I guess he learned a lot because 2 weeks
after I was born I saw him trying to put these black things called harnesses
over T & L. I don’t think they
liked it much. Anyway, while Mike
tried coming home he ran into more bad weather. Thunderstorms kept them from getting all the way the 1st
day. The 2nd day he had
strong head winds. The next day I guess
it got real cold, near 0ºF. Mike said
he had to plug the plane in to warm it up before they got going again. I guess this 3rd day was slow
again because of the head winds. They
got to a place called Guernsey, WY, and slept in the hanger of the
airport. The next morning they woke up
to a lot of snow. Luckily, Jim is a
retired military type person and was able to get them into the military base
and stay warm there, because it was another 2 days before they could take-off
to 
get
home. Sounds like some kind of neat
adventure.
All my uncles
say I’ll have a whole lot of adventures as I get older. Like Zasu and Esparado went with Mike to
Los Angeles, CA, the week after I was born.
They said it took them 2 days of driving in the van to get there. And, just south of Salt Lake City, they
stopped and camped out for the night.
By the next morning Zasu said it had snowed on them about 8 inches. By the next night they camped just east of
L.A., in the desert, and it was kind-a warm at night. When they got there Esparado said there were other llamas that
they had to compete with. For two days
they trekked up and down and did all things they were supposed to do. Zasu said Esparado was the best of all the
llamas there. Mike couldn’t find any
human to go with him so he arranged it so that someone from the L.A. area would
take Esparado out on his 2 days of qualifications. Esparado said that two different people took him out, and they had
never handled llamas before. Esparado
didn’t think it was so big of a deal; he just followed them wherever they
went. Mike said that both Zasu &
Esparado had the lowest of resting heartbeats of all the llamas AND humans. I guess they did real good because they
are now the only llamas in Wyoming having a national PLTA (Pack Llama Trails
Association) rating of Advanced and Master Packer awards. Great going ZASU & ESPARADO!!!
Sometime
around Mike’s birthday he and BJ left for a week and took Radar and Bola with
them. They went to a state called Idaho
for some more llama pack trials. I
guess that Radar & Bola did OK.
They now have to find three other trials to go for their Master Packer
rating. I asked BJ if I could go along
next year. She said that if I’m a good
little cria Santa may take me to a Pack Trial. Santa! Who’s
Santa?! I want you and Mike to take
me. These humans are weird.
Mike had some
customers come and take Groucho and Harpo out on a trek to the Big Horn
Mts. Their name was Swidler. They had a son that was 6 yrs old who went
with them on a 5-day outing. Groucho
said this young boy, Griffith, was brave enough to lead them down the
trail. Harpo thought Griffy was pretty
good at hiking down the trail. The
Swidler’s said they had a great trip and Harpo & Groucho did a good
job. I can’t wait to pack!, but Mike
says I can go out with the big llama guys next year. I get to wear all the pack gear stuff, how neat!
Now Titcomb. I think you’ll be a bit too small to do
that stuff next year. Maybe the next
year would be more appropriate.
Ahhhh, Maggie! Mike said I could!
Mike will most likely let you go out with them on training runs without
the pack so you can become accustomed to walking in a string and see if you can
keep up.
But Maggie, I know I can keep
up. I know I can do it!
Did you see Turret, Tenacious, Seneca or even Sensay-Su go out with
full packs this past summer? They
were the age of what you’ll be next summer.
No, but Mike said I was his
favorite llama, and have a great future ahead of me packing!
Well, young man, just to let you know Mike says I have been his
favorite llama since I was born. I
don’t think a young cria like you can take over that most prized position in
the herd.
Hey now!
The two of you can stop right there!
Maggie, that is not appropriate behavior for an adult llama, you
should know better! You, of all
llamas, should know better after last year when Turret, Tenacious, Seneca, and
Sensay-Su were born. You even wrote
about it in last years Christmas letter.
This sounds like what I hear from freshman students when I substitute at
the High Schools. You are llamas and I
expect you to be better than human freshman.
See, Maggie. Ha!
Ha! Ha!
Now,
Titcomb. You are a good cria llama,
and BJ & I both enjoy you but no more than any of the other llamas. Speaking of other llamas, why don’t you
tell everyone about your new buddies.
Yeh!!!!
I kind-a got a new bother to play with. There’s this llama called Mandarin Chocolate who had a baby
cria. Mike & BJ named him Granite
Peak 8th Wayfarer. His
dad is Zasu. That’s him standing next
to BJ when he was just a few days old.
Compared to me he is kind-a tall and skinny. He was born June 16th.
Now he’s my height and I’m two months older. He and I get along real good. Our moms and the other llamas are always
getting after us for being so crazy.
We run and jump around and bug Seneca and Sensay-Su. I found out that our moms told them that it
was their job to look after us. They
are kind-a neat. They play games with
us.
Then, later I got a sister. Her name is Torrey Creek 9th
Wayfarer. Her mom is Dark Rain;
that’s Seneca’s mom too. Her dad is
Zasu. She sure looks like me only she
has her right leg white while I have my left leg white. I guess Mike got a little confused when he
saw 
Torrey.
He thought she was me only smaller.
I thought it was a great day when she was born, but Mike said it was
kind-of a sad day. He said that a lot
of humans died a year-a-go in New York on this day. I guess some goofy humans flew planes into 
some big towers that had these people in
it. I told Torrey about this and she
is sorry that it happened.
We
got some newcomers to the ranch this summer.
Zipper is kind of a big guy who stays with the guys in the NE
pasture. Then there are Shasta and her
daughter Marble. Shasta and Marble
stay with us. They are kind-a off by their
selves, but are being accepted by the rest of us. Heck! I don’t
care. The only time they get mad at me
is when I try to get some hay or corn in their area.
There
were some things called parades that a lot of the ranch llamas went to this
past summer. I guess the guys that
where born last year got to go to a bunch of them. Mike said he wanted to take me out to the Meeteetse Parade, but
BJ said I wasn’t quite old enough and still had to be with Titapa my mom. I think she was wrong, but BJ promised me
that next summer I can go to every one. There was this guy named Jordan that came
out and helped BJ & Mike at the parades.
He and a friend would lead a string of us
down the street. I guess Breeze Boy,
he’s a white llama that is about the same age as Seneca, saw his former human
owner at the parade, but didn’t recognize her right away.
I guess there are a bunch more things I
could tell ya, but Maggie is kind-a clearing her throat. I guess I’ll have to take the hint.
Titcomb I was not hinting
anything to you. I just think you
should wish everyone a safe Christmas and look forward to a unique New Year.
That’s OK, Maggie. Mike says I can save up all my stories for
next year’s letter. I haven’t
experienced this Christmas thing yet, but maybe that Santa guy might come and
bring some cool things. Neat! Until next year, unless you come and
visit us, I’m done writing.
From us guys at the Wayfaring
Traveler Ranch
From us, the Llamas:
(Me) Titcomb Maggie Mandarin
Chocolate Tymico Jenny Tenacious
Dark Rain Seneca Katarina Spit Turret Nichaja Titapa (my Mom)
Zasu Mt.
Osborn Bridger (my Dad) Radar George Esparado
Ethan Bola White Knight Coco
Man Sinara Chico
Harpo Groucho Black Knight Spunky Magnus Howard K
Sensay-Su
Zipper Torrey Creek Shasta Marble
Breeze Boy Lilly Granite Peak
From the BIG Birds:
Gertrude and Heathcliff
From the barking
Hippos: Meiko and Koncho
From the mouse
catchers that lay around all day: Kalico, Misha, and Searcher
From the BIG
duo: Thunder and Lightening. And, the goofy Cheyanne
Ohhhhhh
yyyyyah, can’t forget those two human beings that keep us in llama feed: Mike and BJ
P.
S. From
BJ and I, may you all have a happy and joyous Christmas & New Year. Well, do we have some pretty smart
llamas? Don’t you wish you could have
smart llamas like ours? Visit our
website www.tctwest.net/~wtr and you
can see much more of the insanity at the Wayfaring Traveler Ranch. Bye!
BJ & Mike Carlson • Wayfaring Traveler Ranch • PO Box 98, 1100 Lane 38 • Burlington WY 82411-0098 • 307-762-3536 • Website: http://www.tctwest.net/~wtr
• E-mail: wtr@tctwest.net