Friday’s Farm Fotos

Another Friday, and I think I’ll share some of the pictures I took around the farm this week to make it another Friday’s Farm Foto’s Day!

This first one is of Samson, our male llama, out in the main pasture grazing.

All the animals seem to enjoy the medium length grasses in the main pasture, although the llamas like to browse the taller weeds along the fenceline too.

However, they don’t stay there all the time.  They have a routine, and part of the day the sheep and llamas and goat are in the back yard.  This particular picture is of one of our shyer Shetland sheep, Valrhona.

Of course, our farm collie, Toby, can be found in the backyard almost any time, along with some chickens, plus the peacocks and peahens in their pen.

The signs of fall are everywhere, but when the sun shines just right on some of the trees along the edges of the bottom pasture, the leaves glint and make it look like the trees are full of white blossoms. I did a double take the first time I saw it. After all, it’s not time for trees to be in bloom!

Except, of course, the camellia is still blooming. Some of the blossoms look pretty ragged, but I don’t think this Grandaddy Long Legs minds.

Did you know that these critters, also called harvestmen, aren’t really spiders?  They may look like one, but the biggest difference is that spiders have two body segments, whereas a Granddaddy Long Legs has an oval body that is only ONE segment. They also do not produce silk or a web, so turns out they are not true spiders.

The ferns back in the woods are still nice and green, but then, they stay pretty green all winter.

The creeks and sloughs are full of colored leaves that have fallen from the trees.

Meanwhile, when the sun warms things up, there’s usually at least one little turtle on the long floating in the pond.

However, they are still very shy, and don’t let people get very close before they plop back down into the water and disappear.

And while our lone wandering white rooster is still AWOL, it seems we may have missed a couple of younger chickens that are roosters.  I looked out our dining room window yesterday and saw at least two roosters fighting.

There was a third one nearby that acted like it might join the fray, but since it never did, I’m not sure if we have 2 or 3 young roosters running loose.

This morning I looked out to see a bunch of squirrels running up and down the fence posts.  This one peered inside a rotten post. . .

I think he’s wondering if he put any nuts in there.  Maybe I should tell him he’s looking in the wrong direction.

Cause there are some big nuts inside the house!

The Dead Animals Need Love

We came back from the grocery store yesterday to see a pasture full of dead animals.

Buried among the weeds was our Maremma, looking like nothing more than a pile of old white fluff.

It kind of looks like I just threw a white fleece out in the weeds.

The other dog, Toby the Farmcollie, looked done for too.

There he was, toes up, and dead to the world.

Worse, this apparent plague seemed to get the hoofed animals too.  There was a lump that was once a cute little goat.

And alas!  Even the llamas looked like goners.

What caused this dreadful plague? Why were all the animals keeled over like that?

In a word, sunshine.  After days and days of rain, we had a beautiful day with bright sunshine and the animals were enjoying stretching out and soaking up the heat.

The cure? Well, dead animals need love.  All I had to do was walk out there closer, and up popped heads, and the lump of a goat came to life. . .

As did our llama lady. . .

… and all the other “dead” critters.

They just can’t resist seeing if I have any treats or pets for them.  They sure do enjoy attention, so like I said, all the dead animals needed was a little love!

Wish it was that easy all the time!

Friday’s Farm Fotos

It’s been a while since I posted some miscellaneous photos.  So here we are, a snapshot in time, pictures from today around the farm.

First I went out and fed the chickens.

It’s still kind of drizzly out.  We seem to be having a monsoon season here, and I must say, I’m getting a little tired of it.  The chickens don’t seem to pay much attention, however, nor do the guineas.  Here’s a couple of keets from two different age groups. . .

They’re starting to look more like adults, and a whole lot less like babies.

The mutant chimera chick was getting a share of the grain.  It’s still looks strange.

Noticeable in his absence, however, is the lone white rooster running around in the pastures.  We caught his compatriots a few nights back and put them in a pen by themselves.   He was roosting in a catalpa tree by the sheep shed with some other chickens.  The Farmer got hold of him, but did not KEEP hold of him and the rooster escaped.  I guess the rooster figures he doesn’t want anywhere near us in case we try catching him again!

Out in the main pasture I can see some of the trees in the neighbor’s yard have turned color.

The colder, rainy weather has brought down a lot of leaves.  Most of which are boring brown, like these in another neighbor’s driveway:

In spite of fall being here, there is still lots of green grass and grazing.  Keira and Cinnamon like to spend a big part of their day in the main pasture, munching up on the grass.  Samson is also out there, but doesn’t seem to worry about being so close by these days.  I’m hoping Keira is already carrying a cria.

The dogs were out playing this morning, but as soon as they saw me with the camera they stopped.  They were more interested in what I was doing.

Neffie is the white dog, our Maremma.  Toby is an American Working Farmcollie, though I think he’d rather play than work.

Walking back to the house I noticed there are still berries on the Tea Viburnum.

The camellia bush still has a lot of blooms and even buds, along with numerous visiting bees (or hornets or whatever they happen to bee).

And now I BEE-lieve that’s enough pictures for today!

Courting Llamas

Our llamas have been flirting with each other from a distance for weeks now.  It’s been obvious for some time that they’d like to be back together in the same pen, but we were keeping them apart to give Keira plenty of time to recover from losing her cria.  I also wanted to give them their yearly vaccinations before letting them back together.

Well, it’s been 5 months now since Keira lost her cria, so she ought to be in as good as physical shape as she’s going to get!  They’ve had their vaccinations, and since it’s supposed to be better for crias to be born in the fall and there’s an 11 – 11 1/2 month gestation – – – it’s time!

Accordingly, this weekend we let Samson out of solitary confinement.  He went out through a pasture Keira had been in and left some droppings, so naturally, had to stop and check them out.

Step 1 of the Llama Courtship Ritual:

Don’t ask me why he feels it necessary to sniff then bare his teeth and arch his head and neck towards his back.  I guess if you’re a male llama, it’s just the thing to do.

But things really heated up when he got to where he could communicate with Keira directly across the fence.

Step 2 of the Llama Courtship Ritual:

In case you can’t tell, the male llama, Samson, is the one on the left with his motor running.

Our Maremma LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) went crazy over the whole situation.  She sticks close to Keira and Cinnamon (our little doe goat), and she wasn’t happy about Samson making such a racket over Keira.  I think she was wondering if he had honorable intentions, ha, ha!

At first Samson didn’t realize that the gate was open to the pen Keira was in.  When he did. . . well, things got really serious!  Keira was receptive and Samson was raring to go!

Step 3 of the Llama Courtship Ritual:

The llamas are in the shadows… hey!  Let’s give them some privacy, okay?  We’ll just say that if we don’t get a cria in 11 or so months, it won’t be because Samson didn’t do his part.

As for Neffie, she remained decidedly unhappy about the whole situation.  She kept looking at the llamas, then looking at me and barking, as if she were saying, “Are you going to let him get away with that???”

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.

Sorry Neffie, but it’s the only way to get a cute little cria.   Besides, Samson is quite honorable.  He stays close to his woman, even after she gets pregnant and cranky.

Now if Keira will just deliver a healthy little cria next fall. . .

Happy Old Farmer’s Day!

Did you know today is “Old Farmer’s Day”???

I didn’t know it until I was working on today’s humor mailing and checking out holidays for today. Apparently, the origin of the day dates back to the early to mid 1800’s. There were several dates in September and October for local town “Farmer Days”, but for whatever reason, October 12th seems to be the most common date for this celebration of farming.

So in honor of our “Old Farmer” here’s a picture I took this weekend.  Our lady llama was intent on giving him some of those special llama smooches . . .

Happy Old Farmer’s Day!

And since I also happened to come across an “old farmer” joke this morning, I’ll include that as well:

An old farmer and his wife were leaning against the edge of their pig-pen when the old woman wistfully recalled that the next week would mark their golden wedding anniversary.

“Let’s have a party, Homer,” she suggested. “Let’s kill a pig.”

The old farmer scratched his grizzled head. “Gee, Ethel,” he finally answered, “I don’t see why the pig should take the blame for something that happened fifty years ago.”