Wild Oak Llamas

Our trip with the Juarez and Greene families to Wild Oak Llamas in Grass Valley was truly delightful.  Upon arriving at the beautiful farm off Greenhorne Rd we were greeted with a warm and welcoming hug by the owner Mary Adams.  Mary and her husband Rick purchased the property about 7 years ago and moved up from Benecia in the bay area.  Their hard work is evident in the well groomed grounds and lovely home which sits at the top of the property and looks over the farm.  Mary and Rick created this farm so that their grandchildren could come and experience nature and the animals.  It is apparently by their very nature that they love kids, human and llama!

Llamas are raised to breed, compete in national shows and produce a very soft fiber

used for making blankets, hats, scarves, sweaters etc.

Here is a basket of fiber that was sheared from the llamas on this farm.  It is cleaned, brushed and spun into yarn.

 You can see the skeins of yarn here.  These are all natural colors with no dye.

They let the llamas up into grassy lawn area.  Here you can see the two babies, the silver one is only one week old!

A baby llama is called a cria. A mama llamas is called a dam.  They are pregnant for 11 1/2 months before giving birth.

They explained that llamas are generally friendly and nonaggressive.

We learned that llamas are part of the camelid family.

They weigh between 280-450 pounds and live for 20 – 25 years.

The llama’s gentle nature makes them non-threatening and safe even around small children.

When we sat quietly on the ground several came up to the children.

Llamas have a delightful habit of coming close to sniff you.

This one is quite curious about Sophia

Gracie and Brooke make a new friend:)

Mary and Rick hold this one still long enough for us to feel how soft the coat is.

We watched as the llama enjoyed eating the leaves from this apple tree.

This one enjoyed leaves from a nearby cherry tree

Another interesting thing we learned was about hydroponics.

Hydroponics is growing plants in mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.

Here they sprout barley to use as part of the llamas nutrient rich diet.

The first tray shows how the barley seed has sprouted and began to grow after about three days.

The bottom tray had been growing about 5 days.  It was about 6 inches tall!

Mary let each of us pull a blade out and taste it.

Not a big surprise but it tasted a lot like grass 🙂

The way it works is that a water solution is fed into each tray every four hours for about 15 minutes each time.

This is done on a timer.  The room is keep at a temperature around 72 degrees and dark.

You can see here that there is no soil.  The bottoms are a weaving of roots.

The llamas are fed a strip about 18 inch long.  In addition to this they are fed a “slice” of hay.

Rick was nice enough to offer those both tired and curious a ride to the lower portion of the ranch in his golf cart.

No one wanted to be left out.  Who knew a golf cart could hold one friendly llama farmer and 9 happy kids! 🙂

More curious and friendly llamas to meet.

Llamas reputation for spitting is highly exaggerated.  Spitting at people is rare in most situations.

These are some of the sires, male llamas.

Several of us wondered what the difference between a llama and an alpaca was.

Mary explained that alpacas are generally smaller.

They also have shorter pointy ears whereas  llama have bigger ears often called banana ears.

Mary showed us how llamas do not have upper teeth.

Did you know llamas give kisses?!

Kristen wanted a kiss too 🙂

Rick got this guy to stand up nice and tall for us by offering him snack from a willow tree.

Llamas weren’t the only animals here.  This is a not so friendly African goose.

They also had a cage of doves

This one was a Eurasian Collared dove (according to our ornothologist,
Brayden) named Colfax.

We even learned a little about composting.

Llama beans (no, they are not really beans!) are watered and turned and eventually become nice rich soil for planting.

Mary and Rich’s sister in law Carol even made us some delicious cookies that we sat by the pool and enjoyed along with some cool drinks and apples.

What a fabulous afternoon!  We can’t say enough about this wonderful couple and their beautiful farm!

They welcome vistors, just call ahead.  You’ll be glad you did 🙂