About Us

Red barn at old farm — Red barn at the old farm with the quilt trail maple leaf. View from the flower garden.

Walnut Ridge Llama Farm is located in a small farming community just outside of Greeneville, TN in the northeast tip of East Tennessee, near the North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia borders. The owners, Jerry and Carolyn Ayers, are at the final stages of building a Barndomenium on approximately 26 acres with a million dollar view of the Smoky Mountains in full view.

Jerry was a high school principal for 25 years and retired June 2017 to spend more time on the farm & open a new campground on the farm called the “Lazy Llama Campground.” They realized that the campground was way too much work, so they sold the campground in April 2021 and then sold the attached 16-acre llama farm in Chuckey in October 2024.

Barndondominium under construction — Barndondominium at the new farm Fall 2024.

They purchased a new 26-acre farm right outside of Greeneville and have been building their dream Barndomenium and llama farm for the past two years. Most Barndos are actually a metal building with a lean-to porch & garage. Jerry & Carolyn’s Barndo is a house attached to a real barn to house their momma llamas & crias. They built a new 42′ x 48′ herdsire barn with six 12′ stalls. Each of the six herdsires have their own stall & paddock. The adult females are housed in a large 36 x 72 barn that was on the property when it was purchased.

Carolyn is a fiber artist & high school art teacher. She retired from teaching high school June 2021.

The Ayers have raised a variety of animals on their small farm for many years, including goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, horses, etc. They purchased their first llamas in 1998 which changed their lives forever. Carolyn, who is originally from Jacksonville, Florida, was a city girl and rarely came to the barn unless baby animals were being born. The running joke around Walnut Ridge is “before llamas, Jerry couldn’t get Carolyn to go to the barn, but now he can’t get her to come back to the house.” Carolyn has definitely turned into a farm girl and would spend 24/7 with the llamas if she could.

Jerry and Carolyn have spent over half of their married life of 45+ years raising llamas. According to Jerry, their shared passion for llamas has allowed them to find each other again, especially now that their two children are grown and both have retired.