The Walworthians: Austin, Cynthia and Stephen

The Walworthians: Austin, Cynthia and Stephen

A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209

by Kate Chamberlin

Cynthia and Stephen Austin

October 05, 1995

What communicates with a variety of ear, body and tail postures, as well as humming sounds and an occasional spitting?

No, no. It’s not your mother-in-law!

Its tall enough to look an adult in the eye and its coat might become your coat.

Give up? It’s a llama.

I was close enough to a llama at the Wayne County fair in August to pet it. They’re not as exotic as you might think.

They have been domesticated as beasts of burden for centuries in Peru.

Their wool is popular now-a-days for its light weight and warmth. It is softer and less scratchy than sheep wool. Many people sensitive to sheep wool can wear llama and alpaca wool comfortably. The reason is because llama and alpaca wool has fewer scales than sheep wool.

Llama wool also has less lanolin on it, so it doesn’t need to be washed before carding, spinning and using.

Cynthia and Stephen Austin   have been raising llamas on their Wind and the Willows Farm since 1986.

“When we bought the farm,” Steve said. “The barn was unoccupied. We knew we wanted to raise some kind of livestock.”

He remembers the visits to the Catskill Game Farm with his grandparents.

“It was like having picture books come alive,” he said.

Cindy has similar memories of the zoo in Pittsburgh.

The only animal Steve and Cindy had when they were married in 1982, was a cat. They did some research and decided on raising llamas.

Along with an assortment of cats and dogs, they now have about twenty llamas. The llamas are gentle, trainable and make good pets.

The Austin’s two-and a half year old twins, Rigan and Brieanne, and four-year old Kaelen, are learning how to care for the llamas along with their 4-H group.

The 4-H’ers did well in the competitions at the Wayne County Fair as well as at the New York State Fair this year.

The 4-Hers adopt a llama and must do all the feeding, grooming, training and showing.

Among the many important aspects of learning how to raise and show llamas, are that they must be vaccinated and have a Health Certificate before they can enter them for competition or for sale.

The Austin’s will be hosting an open house for invited friends and associates who are interested in learning about llamas and llama raising at Wind and the Willows Farm in late October. There will be displays; grooming and spinning demonstrations; a vet from Cornell to answer your questions; tours of the barns; and a demonstration on llama housing choices. Other llama breeders from Buffalo, and Pennsylvania will also be available to answer questions.

For further information, call (315)331-4011 or the New York Llama and Alpaca Association, (518)622-8747; Lenore Whitcomb, President.

October 5, 2017 Up-Date: The number in the above article listed for the Austin’s is no longer valid and google resulted in zip results, so, I have no up-date for Wind And The Willows llama farm.