A
2005 Christmas @
Wayfaring
Traveler Ranch
Hey there.
Hi there. Ho there. It's me, Titcomb Basin 7th Wayfarer. I've been put'in someth'in the Christmas
letter since 2002 when Maggie 1st Wayfarer thought I had the stuff. This is my 4th time I've written this
letter for Mike & BJ Carlson, cuz they like the way we llamas look at
things around this ranch.
The things that have been happening around here, I
can start off with Mike & BJ have no more reason to go to that state that
is nearly surrounded by water, Florida.
They were able to unload some property down there, so no more ideas of
retiring down there, and BJ's mom moved up to Virginia to live closer to BJ's
older sister near Charlottesville.
This past winter was an iffy one for us. We only had (13) 3'x3'x8' hay bales of hay
that Mike & BJ stored for us.
That's only about 40 days of feed for all of us here on the ranch. But Mike is a shrewd human. Besides ordering some more hay, he only cut
the hay field once in early July and let it grow back. We didn't get into the hay field until
early October 2004, but it lasted us all the way until the middle of March
2005. WE had it nice. My dad, Bridger, in the NE pasture, always
had enough hay too. They had to have
Mike haul in one of those bales at least once every 3 weeks.
A bunch of us were in pack training over the winter and
spring months. Mike even took me
out. Now that I'm 3-1/2 years old I'll
be ready to be one of Mike's favorites when he goes out trekking in 2006. He says that we are packers when we get to
be 4 years old. I've been waiting for
that for a looooong time. But not all
of us are packers. Marble never seemed
to like packing. She would spit a
lot. Then one day we saw someone come
in with a trailer. BJ went and got
Marble and loaded her into the trailer.
BJ told me that she did such a good job last year keeping coyotes away
from our neighbor Shannon's sheep that these people needed some help keeping
coyotes away from their sheep. We all
hummed as she left.
Mike seemed to be gone a lot this
year. He was gone for a week in April
to some place in Colorado called Colorado Springs. He flew his plane, N5545R, down there. He attended something called Rocky Mountain Region Staff College
for Civil Air Patrol. He went down
there with 2 silver bars on his shoulder and came back with gold leaves on his
shoulder. Mike said he went down a
Captain and while there was promoted to a Major. He made some good Alpha friends.
He said that was their Flight name.
After a week at the college he tried to come home
but a BIG snowstorm was going on.
Instead of just sitting around the Air Force base he volunteered his
time helping search for a plane that went down with 2 humans in it. He spent 3 extra days helping out before
heading home.
Mike left again during the
summer months and would show up every so often. That left BJ in charge of the ranch and boy did we llamas take
advantage of it. He said he was
working in Dubois, WY, for the Forest Service as a Wilderness Ranger. He was gone for 10 days, then would be
around the ranch for 4 days, and then leave again. I talked with him about what he did. He said that he would hike back into the Wilderness areas, cut
out trees crossing the trail, repair trails, talk with 
people, and take notes for
future restoration work. So he said
he got paid for something he always likes to do. He wanted to have us pack his stuff into the backcountry but his
supervisors said that would not be a good idea, so besides having to backpack
his own gear in they let him use horses and mules to pack things for him. Mike said they did OK, but he wished he
could have us do that job instead.
While Mike was out playing in the woods, BJ got 4 of
us llamas fairly well packed trained to go out for 16 days with 2 people from
the Lander Forest Service. They took
them into the area Mike was Rangering in, but he never saw them. Groucho, Howard K, Spunky, and Radar got to
go. I complained to BJ that I should
go, but I had the same old excuse that I wasn't old enough.
Mike worked with 3 other
people, Justin, Shane, and Kasey. They
did a bunch of stuff together like repairing bridges, hauling out junk from the
backcountry, cutting a lot of trees, and hiking a lot of miles. He was in an area where there is a bunch of
grizzly bears, and I said that if he had me along I'd let him know if they were
around. Mike even got to be in the 4th
of July Parade in Dubois while BJ had to get us in order for the Cody Stampede
Parade by herself.
We did GREAT this year. We llamas got 1st place this
year. We beat out the Forest Service
guys, FINALLY!!! We got $300 for 1st place, so I asked BJ if
I could spend that money. She said
we'll have to see how much hay will come off the hay field. Well Mike had the hay field baled and we
got (90) 3'x'3'x8' bales. My mom told
me it's been 5 years since the ranch has seen so much hay, that's been a loooong
time. So now I'm thinkin' of ways to
spend that money. Maybe I can have some
professional shearer come in next spring and cut my wool. I'd be so nice and let the other 18 llamas 
have a professional
cut. Mike keeps reminding me to talk
to my mom about the 1st year when us llamas where on the ranch and he had a
professional shearer come in. Mike
thinks he and BJ do a good enough job.
Well that's me in the picture and you can see I'm not too likin' what
they did.
Then Mike takes off again in October and flew 45R to
Montgomery, Alabama, and attended another Civil Air Patrol college called
National Staff College at the Maxwell Air Force base. It took him 2 days to fly down and 14 hours of flying time to
get there. He started out on a Thursday and
got to the Montgomery area on Friday afternoon. On Saturday he only
had to fly 10 miles to where he was to be picked up. On take-off
45R just didn't want to get off the ground. 2/3's of the way down
the runway the wheels finally lifted off. Mike kept pulling
the yoke back. The end of the runway came and he just cleared the
trees. But looking ahead there was a hill with more trees on
it. Mike banked right and the stall horn started going
off. He tried to stay above the trees and have a chance of making
it back to the runway. He looked to his right for the runway and at
the same time Mike saw the tach meter thing was showing 2200 rpm and it should
be at 2700 rpm. Mike got the nose of the plane pointed back at the
runway again and quickly put 
it back down, taxied back to
the parking spot from the previous night, and shut the engine down.
He took the engine cowling off and removed the spark plugs thinking that it was
just a fouled plug, but they all looked OK. Mike then taxied over
to a hanger where there was a plane mechanic. He found that
(1) spark plug was not operating at all and 3 more were marginal. I
don't think he would have made the 10 miles. Mike said he had flown
1400 miles and nothing seemed wrong with the plane. So I
guess he was veeeeeery lucky. Mike's return trip I guess is
another adventure and you'll have to talk to him about it. All I know is that it took him 5 days and
18-1/2 flying hours to get back. I
bet'cha it wouldn't have seemed so long if I were his co-pilot. He would have had someone to talk to.
Then BJ had some type of vacation without Mike this
summer. She took a bunch of Civil Air
Patrol cadets from her squadron (She's got the position in her Cody Cadet
Squadron kind-a-like Lilly of the Valley or Manderin Chocolate has in our llama
heard, in other words you don't want to mess with her). BJ drove these cadets over to a place
called Rapid City, SD, for someth'in called an Aerospace Encampment. They stayed at a National Guard camp for 10
days before going home. THEY got to
see both the inside and out of an Air Force B1B & B29 bomber, and saw the
inside of Delta Rocket launch facilities.
But BJ said that it wasn't all fun and games. She had to get up before the cadets did at 5:00am. The majority of the cadets were in bed by
10:00pm but because she was a senior member officer she had to perform other
duties well past 12:00am, so she was pretty tired when she got home and told us
llamas not to bug her or we would suffer the wrath of a school teacher. Is that bad???
Ya-gotta come and visit our
ranch. BJ & Mike have been working
on fixing a bunch of fences around here; from the NE pasture to the post/rail
fence around the future 2nd Guest House area.
Just lately those two are replacing the fence around the W garden 
area because those horses,
with their big necks, finally managed to lean on it toooo much while trying to
eat the bean plants and broke the fence with their big weight.
Hey,
Hey, Hey, Hey. I almost
forgot the biggest news of all. The
ranch finally hit the Big Screen. This
spring while Mike was show'en us llamas to a pre-school group from Burlington
there was this camera crew that came out and filmed the activity. We got a full 40 minutes on our local
cable company. I was a bit
disappointed that Mike didn't pick me, but he said that if I hadn't been so wet
from the rain I'd have been the star of the show. In any case Magnus got the starring role. Now, I'm pretty smart, but I can't figure
out how to put clips of it on our website.
Maybe this winter I'll work with Mike on it. I'll supervise for a change and let Mike do all the work.
Now we are pasturing in the hay field once again and
this year the grasses are really looooong.
BJ & Mike are really rascals.
They opened the hay field for us but didn't tell us they opened the South
gate. If it wasn't for Sir Rado, just
taking a stroll down to that area, we wouldn't have known it was open. I was up in the Big Corral when I noticed
that nobody else was around. I ran out
and just caught a glimpse of my mom Titapa running past the haystack area. Boy, did I take off like a flash!!! Everybody was jump'in in the field. We had to get out of the way of the horses
because they came steamboat'in, and if you've ever been around Lightening, when
she runs, the earth shakes. You don't
want to get in her way.
Let me tell ya that the newcomer to the ranch,
2-Socks, has made himself right at home.
If ya 
visit the front page of our
website you'd see the story of how he came to the ranch. He knows his way around the ranch. When I go out hikin' with BJ & Mike he
comes along. He trucked along for 5
miles once. He especially likes our 2
barking hippos Meiko and Koncho, and regularly takes trips out to the barn and
visits with Gertrude. 2-Socks has
really grown-up in the last year.
Even Misha, the Fat Cat, puts up with him, and that's a major
accomplishment!! Koncho said he and
Meiko were out walking with Mike and some other llamas when they spotted a
rabbit. Meik and Konch took off run'in
after the rabbit and chased it into a hole.
They told me that 2-Socks came over and checked out the situation. Seems he crawled down into the hole and
dragged the rabbit out by the rear end.
That's one tough CAT!!! Or were
they just pullin' my leg!?!
Yes, Titcomb, I think they were teasing you. Two-Socks just likes to pretend he is one
"tough" guy but he really is a marshmallow at heart. He and I spent a lot of time together this
past summer when Mike was gone. He
would "help" me in the 
garden and keep me
company. As you know Titcomb, the
garden did really well this year. We
had a bumper crop on most everything and I am still picking lettuce and chard
as I write this in November. The guest
house refrigerator is packed full of carrots to savor this winter. We had plenty of water this summer so I
spent a lot of time irrigating, weeding, irrigating, weeding - a never-ending
vicious cycle. Why do weeds have to
grow so well with so little encouragement???
If I wasn't watering and weeding I was doing volunteer service for Civil
Air Patrol. As commander of the cadet
squadron in Cody I have plenty to keep me busy. It is worth it as the cadets are great people even if they are
teenagers.
Hi to all.
It's me Mike. Titcomb does a
good job and BJ got in a word also, but it's my time to write.
It
was an interesting summer for me. I
didn't know I was going to work for the Forest Service until just 3 days before
starting, and I started on my birthday, May 31st. Had fun in the backcountry working with a
bunch of great folks. Turned out to be
the old fart. There was a 20-30 year
difference in our ages. Yep, I can
still hike at a 3 mi/hr rate, but their legs and lungs were a bit newer than
mine. I only wish I could have used my
llamas to pack in all our gear. Had I
not worked for the Forest Service I would have been traveling to a lot of Civil
Air Patrol activities. Flying is still
a passion that CAP helps curb but I find myself spending more time on the
ground with ground search & rescue.
From the two of us (the Civil Air Patrol humans, Cpt BJ & Maj Mike) have a joyous Christmas and a safe but adventurous New Year for 2006.
Now it's my turn again (Titcomb).
From us guys (llamas) at the Wayfaring Traveler Llama Ranch
(Me) Titcomb Maggie Tymico Jenny Tenacious Mandarin Chocolate
Dark Rain Seneca Turret Nichaja Stroud Peak Titapa (my
Mom)
Zasu Mt. Osborn Sinara Radar Esparado Klondike
Ethan Bola White Knight Coco Man Bridger (my
Dad)Harpo
Groucho Spunky
Black
Knight Magnus Howard K Sensay-Su
Zipper Shasta Torrey Creek Chinar Wing Breeze Boy Granite Peak
Tony Llama Zorac Lilly of the Valley
From the barking Hippos: Meiko and Koncho
From the ranch manager Kalico and the ones that lay around all day Misha and Searcher
(she had her 24th birthday). Then there is that newcomer 2-Socks, who keeps bring dead mouses up to show me,
Yuk!