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Welcome to our farm in the beautiful east central Iowa countryside.
We are a small operation of 10 acres near
Van Horne, Iowa. It is here we have found our version of heaven after 20 years of searching.
Our wonderful old farm home was built in 1890 on an Amana stone foundation.
It is so solid; you can really tell how bad a storm is by whether or not you can
actually hear it.
Even though Iowa is a state of rather rolling terrain, our farm sits on one of the
most flat sections in the area. On a clear day, you can literally see for
miles and miles.
We hope you enjoy your visit to our farm, and if you’re in the llama business, we
can't wait to make your acquaintance and swap some stories.
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What's in a name?
Our farm, Aulds' Lluminous Llamas, is named for the wonderful sunsets and celestial
lightshows we get to witness on most nights. Even our children in their pre/teens
know when a sunset warrants a "sunset alert" where everyone stops what they're doing
to watch. Add to that the countless stars, frequent shooting stars and meteor
showers, millions of lightning bugs and the occasional northern lights show; we
knew the word luminous had to be part of who we are.
Therefore, all llamas born at the farm will carry the name of a "lluminous" celestial
body.
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If you'll notice, on closer inspection
of our home, Sandy has created our logo in stained glass window (paint) form.
This is the same logo you will see adorning the top of our web pages. |
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Why llamas?
We get asked this question all the time, especially by the local crop and cattle
farmers. Well, the answer is very easy... uncle Buzz.
Buzz (Chuck) Kraft used to raise llamas near
LaPorte, MN under the farm name Hartland Llamas. From about 1985 -
1999 Buzz ran an operation of approximately 15 - 20 llamas on his 80 wooded acres.
We visited Buzz, Grandma Helen and the llamas several times a year from 1992 - 1998
at which time we relocated to Charlotte, NC. It was on these many trips we
became acquainted with and fell in love with the wonderful world of llamas.
Buzz has since retired from the llama life and now lives in Minneapolis, MN.
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What do you do with llamas?
Another very common question we get from our rural neighbors. This one is
a little bit harder for us to answer as we have them mainly for our own
enjoyment. However, llamas are most often used for packing, cart driving,
livestock guardians, livestock and wool production. Llama wool falls just
one rung down the ladder from alpaca wool in its fine quality. But anyone
who's priced the two species out lately knows there is a big difference in purchase
price.
Our plans are to use our llamas as 4H animals for our two children, possibly develop
a cart driving team and even work them up for obstacle competitions at the regional
fairs.
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How we started
Our first llamas came home to Aulds' Lluminous Llamas on August 12th, 2006, only
5 months after moving into our new country home. We had planned on waiting
a full year after moving in to bring home our first llama, but after 8 years of
being away from them and finally having the space to handle them, we just couldn't
wait when the right opportunity came along.
Around the first of August, during a trip to the groomer for our cocker spaniel,
the subject of llamas came up. During this conversation the groomer mentioned
seeing an ad in the local classifieds selling llamas for a VERY good price.
Well, THAT got our interest piqued.
We called the number and made arrangements to go meet the
llamas. Near the conclusion of our 3 hour meeting, the previous owner, so
enamored by our llama knowledge and passion about the animals begged us to take
all the llamas she was selling as she knew they would be going to a great home.
After politely explaining we were just not equipped to take on that large of a herd
to start, she relented and instead made us such a good deal, she practically gave
them away. Long story short, or maybe not, 2 weeks later we brought home "our
first herd".
We have since made a couple sales and acquisitions to build a herd to match our personalities.
Come on inside and meet them.
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