The Name Game

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!

Luxury Llama Transport

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!

Parrot Pranks

Parrots are entertaining and lovable. They have to be or you’d wring their necks when once again you discover something they chewed up they weren’t supposed to have. African Grays are amazingly destructive little terrors with that 5-year-old intelligence and 2-year old’s emotional level. It’s like having an extra smart tot around perpetually in the Terrible Two’s.

Take the other evening for instance, when I was busy working on my desktop computer in the office while The Farmer was watching a movie on tv. All of a sudden I heard him exclaim, “Where did you come from?”

When I went to investigate, it seems my parrot went walkabout and had walked from one side of the house to the other, crept across the floor of the den, then crawled up the side of his recliner without him ever knowing she was anywhere close.

I snapped this picture before I returned the parrot to her cage. She and the Farmer have an ongoing love-to-hate-ya relationship, so I felt it best to separate them.  (You notice he has his arm put down away from the bird!) 🙂

Then just yesterday, at the same time I was pulling my hair out over a messed up blog, I was bombing our basement. Got to take my frustrations out somehow, right?

Well, actually, we’ve had some trouble with little spiders in the Cave Geeks space. We tried glue traps and spraying, but that didn’t have much effect. I figured a bug bomb ought to do the trick, and would not only get rid of spiders, but any other creepy crawlies that found their way in. So when the guys left for work Monday morning, I got bombed. Oh wait, that’s not quite right…

Okay, so what I really did was set off the bug bomb in the basement. Now that space is right under the parrot’s cage, with a couple of vents nearby. Since birds are sensitive to air pollutants (think miner’s and their canaries), I figured I’d better move her outside for the duration.

I set her travel cage on a table on the back porch, carried her out there and locked her up.

There’s a dog door to the porch, and Toby the Wonder Dog comes and goes as he pleases. He decided to come up on the porch and investigate. The parrot took exception to this.

Just in case you didn’t realize it, that is NOT the dog growling in the first half of that video. That is the PARROT growling at the dog, then saying, “What?” a couple of times.

How’s that for a turnaround? I’d never heard her do that, and have no idea where she learned it or how she knew to growl at the dog…

But it sure was funny!

Shearing Llamas

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.

Chick Flick!

When I went out yesterday to do the morning chores, I saw Team Mama Hens out with their two little chicks. They were ready for some nice scratch grain for breakfast.

However, they did NOT like the roosters getting close to their little chicks, and fluffed up their feathers the way Mama Chickens are wont to do…

It really is a hoot to see the little chicks already pecking at corn like they see the Mama Hens do.

When you watch the video, be sure to watch for the little chick stretching his wings. So cute!

Miss Peepers was also out with her two chicks. They’re growing up fast!

The one furthest behind looks like Peepers, and the other one more like our red rooster.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the chick flick!