It’s been another busy week, and I’ve had to concentrate on work stuff almost 24/7 (except for a few hours sleep here and there). Because of that, I haven’t had much time to post on most of my more “personal” blogs.

So to catch up, here’s a few pictures from the past week. This first one is from last Saturday, when The Farmer was busy working on the peafowl pen. The chicken wire on top was getting old, and something tore big holes in it. I think that “something” was probably raccoons. They like to eat the dog food. In fact, I pretty much know to start looking for holes when I go to check the peafowl’s bowl of dogfood and every morning it’s totally empty. They don’t eat that much on their own!

You can see some of the big holes.  Obviously, The Farmer is standing in one. :-)  He decided instead of putting more wire there, he’d make a wood roof.  That will give the peafowl a little more shelter in that area, then they have the aviary to go into for lots of sunlight and fresh air.

Some of the peafowl like to search for even more sunshine, and run through the grass with nothing but their feathers on.  Then they tantalize their mother by standing just outside the aviary.

This, of course, puts the mother peahen in a fowl temper, since she can’t reach them to peck them into good behavior.  She clucks at them, and paces up and down on the other side, and they just continue to merrily run all around on the outside.  Some day they will get a rude shock when they can no longer fit through those 4-inch holes in the bottom wire panels of the aviary.

Toby and I continue to take a morning walk in the bottom pasture. Most of the time it’s a fairly short time, just walking once around all the trails. But there’s usually something interesting to see.

I’m not sure what kind of bug this is, but it was enjoying getting a drink from the dew on the weed.

Yesterday morning while walking in the pasture, I was thinking about writing on this blog and that I’d mention all the hummingbirds seem to have left, when I almost ran smack dab into one!  The little hummer was enjoying some nectar from jewel weeds (Impatiens capensis).  I don’t know which one of us was more surprised, but it didn’t stick around long enough for me to take a picture. (They rarely do!)

Then this morning when I was coming up on the front porch, there was another hummer checking out some of the wire bugs I have hanging along the top edge.  That one didn’t stay around long enough for a picture either.  I don’t think these are the regulars, but hummers on their way to points further south.

We’ve been enjoying some excellent weather this week with cool nights (down in the 50’s), and warmer days (up in the 80’s).  I love this kind of weather!  In the mornings, the llamas and Neffie (our Maremma LGD) like to stretch out in sun on the shorter grass in the main pasture. The Farmer keeps it mowed down so I don’t have to wade through wet weeds to get to the well house in the mornings (Thank You Farmer!). 

Keira was stretched out too, but every time I’d try to get close enough to take a picture, she’d sit up. I guess it must feel good to soak up the sunshine on a cool morning. 

While they’re soaking up the sunshine, the guineas are foraging for seeds and bugs. I think as they get older they get stupider. I say this because as you can see here….

… the half-grown keets still have enough sense to just fly up and go over a fence. The adults, however, run up and down the fence looking for a way through. It’s only about 4-foot tall, mind you, and these birds can fly to the tops of some very tall trees around here! They just seem to forget what phenomenal fliers they are when confronted with fences.

The chickens seem to use their brains a little more, and they like to do things with a little more flair. We still have one chicken sitting on eggs in her bright purple bucket. We knew there was also one of the hens sitting on a nest under The Farmer’s work shed.  She came out this week with four little chicks.

She’s taking them out to forage around today, so it won’t be long until they’re running around all over the place too!

I’ve always got a bunch of pictures and it’s hard to choose just a few, but I reckon that’s pretty much the highlights for this week.

Like I said, it’s been another busy week on the farm!

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It’s been a busy week on the farm, but I guess that’s pretty well normal!

The first group of keets has been reduced from 22 to 11. It doesn’t surprise me. The adults wander all over the farm, and don’t slow down just because babies with very short legs are trying to keep up. I’ve found keets peeping for their mama in the bottom pasture, the back pasture and the main pasture. I’ve found them in the back yard, the front yard, and by the driveway.

I don’t think these guineas will win any parenting awards. And there’s a second batch of keets now. This group had 18 keets, so if they lose half, guess we’ll end up with 20 more guineas. I think The Farmer is going to have to give up his “let’s see how many we can get” attitude and sell some.

We also have a few peachicks.  The hatch rate in the incubators isn’t too good.  We got 10 this year, but the first five died after we put them outside with some chicks. There are 4 outside now in a pen by themselves, and one in a brooder box that’s pretty sorry looking due to spraddled legs.

But the big news is…. TA DA! One of the peahens hatched out a couple of peachicks! This is the first time that’s happened. She had about half a dozen eggs under her. A few didn’t hatch, one was DOA, and two are running around after her now.

You can only see one of the peachicks here, but another is hiding underneath Mama Peahen.

We’ve had some pretty weather this week. Down by the pond we have not only blue dragonflies, but red ones.

All we need now is some white ones, and we could be quite patriotic!

There are also some pretty flowers nearby.

There are lots of flowers blooming.  We even have a blooming idiot.

Toby may be a bit crazy, and without any herding instinct, but he’s sure good company.  As for the flower, that’s Sedum ‘Matrona’ blooming. It’s a big favorite of the bees around here. It’s usually covered with little bumblebees and lots of other insects.

The Farmer has been busy on various projects. He put the new door on the bathroom last weekend. Here he’s using the old one for a new project.

Bet you can’t guess what it’s going to be!

And for the last picture in the Friday’s Farm Fotos group, here’s Redneck Samson, with his bit of grass hanging out of his mouth.

And that’s a glimpse of the past week here on the farm!

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Putting Things Right

Yesterday I got a little mixed up with names to people pictures. The young lady getting the llama out of the van wasn’t Holly or even her friend, it’s her daughter, Hannah. They’re probably friends too, but you know what I mean. :-) And I went back and edited that goof, so if you go back you won’t see what I done wrong!

Here’s a picture of HOLLY driving around her handsome llama.

One Spotacular Cria

Almost every kind of baby animal has a special name. Guineas have keets, peafowl have peachicks, foxes have kits, bats have pups, bears have cubs and a whale has a calf. And llamas? They have crias. And this lovely llama lady, Tiger Lily, has one SPOTacular cria!

Oh wow! I wish we lived closer and I could see this little guy in person. With those markings, he looks like he should be in a jungle or even better, out on a savannah plain in Africa.

Look at him run!

Most animal babies are cute, and I surely do love crias, but this spunky little guy is cutest of the cute!

I’m sooooo cute, and don’t I just know it!
Thanks Holly, for sharing those pictures. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not closer, or you might go out in your pasture one morning and there would be no Spotacular cria!

Cause I’d love to see that little guy on MY farm!

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I’ve been chatting back and forth via email with a nice lady in Milan, Ohio, who wants some wool.  When I visited her farm’s website, Windy Hollow Farm, I was enchanted to see pictures of two of my favorite critters - Belgian Draft Horses, and llamas with their cute little crias.

Well, it seems yesterday Holly and her daughter, Hannah, took a funny big “dog” to one of the metro parks for a nature hike.

Yes, the “dog” they took on a nature walk is in fact one large llama!

Here Hannah is getting the handsome fellow out of the van…

And here they are, all ready to set out on their nature walk.

Holly said, “The park ranger flipped when we got there. She  asked us to put him back in the van so she could take a picture , because NO ONE would believe her !”

Next they need to do the drive-through bit at McDonalds or somewhere, and see what kind of reaction they’d get when they hand out the food and see a llama looking back at them!

Everyone needs a llama in their van!

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After a summer of few keets, a nesting trio decided to show up their peers and produced a HUGE bunch of keets. I counted a couple of dozen running around that first day.

They sure were fun to watch running along after the adults, trying to keep up on those very short little legs!

Once they get in the grass, it’s impossible to see them. Once in a while a little head bobs up, or you can see the grass moving.

Other sights in the back 40 (actually, it’s probably more like 5), include our matron ewe, Coconut, lazing in the shade of the trees on a hot southern summer day.

Not far away, our female llama, Keira (aka Miss Crankypants), is also taking advantage of the shade. When your wool is black, it really soaks up the heat from the sun! At least she now has a lot less wool to soak up the warmth.

What are YOU lookin’ at???

Down in the bottom pasture, we’re not mowing this year, or allowing grazing. We’re just letting it grow wild.

We have more than enough pasture for the animals without it, so it’s good for growing wildflowers and butterfly grazing.

I love the nice bright red of these Cardinal Flowers. They like the bottom pasture as it has a spring keeping part of it wet.

Of course, the hummingbirds love the Cardinal Flowers too. Those tube-like flowers are just made for hummers to sip some yummy nectar.

There is also a lot of Ironweed with purple flowers, and Joe Pye Weed with lovely dusky pink flowers. The butterflies really go for these!

The Farmer mows walking paths through the weeds, so Toby and I enjoy checking things out in the mornings, and looking at spiderwebs glistening with dew, bees buzzing around the flowers, and butterflies flitting about.

It’s a nice, serene way to start the morning.

We usually end up at the pond. There are droves of dragonflies dancing through the air above the pond. They stop for a rest on a weed now and then.

They fly around so much they kind of beat their wings ragged!

Then it’s one last glimpse of serenity before going back to work.

“The Mirrormere”

If you’re a “Lord of the Rings” fan, you might recognize that reference. Anyway, the pond has lovely reflections, even though the water is way down due to drought conditions.

And that’s a glimpse of the past week here on the farm!

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For years I had the greatest shearer. Joel was so young when he first started, his mother drove him to jobs. His brother, Matthew, was his assistant, and my good friend, Sharron, also assisted on shearing days. The four of us made a good team. We each had a job to do, and most of the time everything went smoothly.

Joel always complained about how hard my little Shetlands were to shear, and he and Matthew always commented on how easy Keira, our llama, was to shear. She haltered up fairly easily, and stood still while Joel sheared her, with only an occasional flick of the ears when he did her legs or neck.

He and Matthew should have been here today. They wouldn’t have believed it was the same llama.

We sheared Samson first, figuring he was bigger and a bit of an unknown. He’s always been pretty laid back since we got him, but still won’t allow us to pet him or get too close if he can help it, so we didn’t know how he would react to being sheared.

Once The Farmer caught him, and we finally pushed and pulled and got him over to our shearing station, he was as easy-going as ever, and allowed The Farmer to shear all over without getting too upset. The Geek held Samson’s head and said nice things to him, telling him not to worry, he wouldn’t lose his strength just because we were cutting his hair.

I hemmed him in on one side while The Farmer sheared on the other. We may not be professionals, but he got sheared without a nick, and he’ll be cooler now, so that’s what counts.

And he didn’t kick. He didn’t fuss. He didn’t spit. Too bad I couldn’t say the same for Keira.

While we were shearing Samson, she made the mistake of going into the shed to get further away from us, and I shut the gate. Good thing, or we might never have caught her. She knew what was up, and she wasn’t having any.

Even in that small space we had a devil of a time trying to get hold of her and put a halter and lead on her. Just take a look at this video and you’ll see what I mean!

I’d never heard her make such screams, whinny’s and spit so much. And not just that polite little “I spit in your general direction” with a little saliva from her mouth. Oh no, this was the “I’m hocking up some fermented green goop and showering you in a spew of stench.”

It was nasty.

She never let up the whole time we were shearing her. She fussed, she spit, she kicked, she spit, she tried to bite, she spit, she reared up, she spit, she screamed, she spit, she sidled around, she spit, she tried to kush down and then rear back up, she spit, she jumped around, and oh, did I mention she SPIT???

I’m afraid I called her worse than “Miss Crankypants” today. She was the worst-behaved little brat we’ve ever sheared. So what happened to our sweet, friendly, I don’t mind what you do to me llama?

She got pregnant.

Man, those hormones must be rough on a llama! I hope she goes back to her old self after she has a cria, cause I’d hate to think she was going to stay this cranky from now on!

11 and a half months gestation is going to seem like forever to all of us.

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Here we are, another Friday, and it’s been a BUSY week as usual! With school, work, farm and household chores, who has time for photography?

Okay, I confess, I just about always carry my camera with me when I go out to do morning chores. So here’s a few of this week’s snapshots from the farm.

I’d never seen such red wasps until I moved to the south. I think they blend in better with all the red soil, ha! (As opposed to Iowa or Canada, which both have some of the blackest soil I’ve ever seen!)

This is our male llama, Samson, before getting up in the morning. He has a couple of hitchhikers…

It’s bad enough they think the llama is their own personal roosting place, but then the rooster has just got to crow about it…

At least one of the sheep thinks he’s really baaaaad.

Later that afternoon he figured a nice fluffy sheep in the shade made a good roosting place.

Our female llama doesn’t care how many chickens sit on Samson or the sheep, as long as she gets her afternoon session in the sprinkler.

To really get the full effect of that picture, be sure to click on it so it enlarges and you can see the drops of water more clearly!

We have some new guinea babies running around the farm.

I’m not sure why it takes half a dozen adult guineas to take care of four little keets! Last year they were having 12-14 keets hatching at a time.

And lastly, I just know you’ve been wondering what I did with all the scrap wool I skirted off all those fleeces. Well, here’s your answer:

Bet you didn’t know we grow wool in our flowerbeds here in the south!

And there you have it, a glimpse of life this past week on the farm.

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