Friday, July 16, 2010

Sad, Sad Day on the farm

The heat the last couple of weeks have been extremely challenging.  The llamas that have not been shorn are holding up really well and seek the fans and hosing off to keep cool.  The sheep seemed to be doing fine, but the other night Talker seemed to be not quite right.  With quick research I found that he was bloated which can be induced by heat.  Unfortunately, we lost Talker this morning.  Talker was one of our original wethers and he was very sociable and met us at the gate at feeding time to "test" the hay each night.  He was a very sweet little boy and we will miss him.  The other sheep are grieving and paying their final respects to him this afternoon under the shade trees in the pasture.  Tonight, Talker will join the "Winding Creek" cemetery and be buried next to Bethany and her unborn lambs, the ewe we lost earlier in the year.  Losing animals does not get any easier as time goes by and at times like this I wonder why we have them.  But, within a few days someone out in the pasture will make my day with some funny antic or some gentle gesture and I will be reminded why we love them so much and keep them. 

Talker
We will miss your friendly, kind nature.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Farmland Vacation

Well, another July 4th holiday has come and gone.  We love to take advantage of the 4th of July as our scheduled holiday.  We spent 4 days at the lake visiting Jeff's mom and my mom tagged along to have a great time.  Jeff cooked way too much food on the grill as usual, but everyone had fun and the fireworks were great.

Now, back to "vacation" for me.  We are back home, Jeff is back to work and I have a few days off from the bank to try to accomplish way too many things.  One item on my list is to finish shearing the girls.  It has been extremely hot and more fans are not enough.  This morning, I decided to try to hand shear Purple - well as you can see. .. it started out well. . .but Purple decided she did not want to participate.  So, she's looking just a mite funny now!

Although I only got a little bit of wool off of her, hopefully it will help.  Looks like Purple would prefer a professional.

On the other hand. .. Llizzie thought it was great fun to be hand sheared.  We started with her neck, which was matted and had never been shorn.  I did leave her a little llama mohawk since the fiber was nice and silky.  But for the barrel cut, she just stood there . .no halter, no restraints. .just stood while I hacked away with the scissors, shook out the second cuts and walked over and put her wool in a bucket.  She thinks her new hair cut is just grand.  Such a good girl.

A few other things I have planned for my "vacation" are sorting and cleaning fleeces, sorting and packaging yarn, inputting items on our etsy store, http://www.windingcreekalpacas.etsy.com/ and organizing all my knitting patterns.  Some other things I hope to find time for are finishing my items for the Ohio State Llama show, cleaning the barn and a little antique browsing. 

I am headed to the Columbus area to deliver a loom to my friend Vicky - who got the loom as a birthday gift. .. so tomorrow will be spent on the road and teaching weaving . . .. should be a fun day. 

More vacation updates later, for now I am headed off to do something, who knows what :)