Happy rams

You may have noticed that the 'Lamb Watch' gadget on my blog is up and running again....guess what that means? It's that time of year again. Romance is in the air at Crosswinds Farm, and the 2012 lambs will be here in about 5 months.

I normally put the rams in with the ewes right around Thanksgiving time, and for some reason, I was thinking that I still had a while before we would be playing the Sheep Dating Game, but as I was looking at the calendar last week, it occurred to me that it IS Thanksgiving time and I needed to get sheep moved around....I have no idea where the year went, but here we are!

The sheep certainly didn't forget what time of year it is though. There have been lots of lustful gazes going back and forth across the pastures.

The boys have been waiting patiently to meet their dates....OK, maybe not SOoo patiently.

And there has been A LOT of unlady-like behavior from the girls.

" I smell boys!"

Even the ewes that are normally the best of friends have been acting like guests on The Jerry Springer Show.

 " You're goin' down, sister!"

Have you noticed a common denominator...or, I should say, common dominate-r, in most of these photos?

Awwww, it couldn't be sweet little Athena, could it?

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it's totally her. She may be the smallest ewe, but what she lacks in stature, she makes up for it in attitude.

The rams and ewes were put together in two groups last Sunday, putting an end to all the fighting. Little Miss Athena and Lucina ( the black ewe lamb) are safely tucked away in a pen to protect their virtue; they are way too little to breed. I can't promise that there will be no fighting in that pen though, 'cause, well....Athena is in there. 

Mama Llama is just happy that things have settled down....

She was getting a little stressed with all the fighting.

" MAKE IT STOPPP!

 In my next post I will let you know which ewes are with which ram. ; )

Animals with antlers-you should have seen this one coming.

I know, I do this every year and I am sorry about that, but somehow this just never gets old.....for me anyway....I think my animals may disagree.

" Oh. My. Gosh. Here she goes again. Somebody call the Humane Society pleeeeease!"

"Don't worry, Jolly Ball, I know where she sleeps!"

"Really? Do we have to do this every year? Really? Really?"

"Why can't we just go to the dog park like normal families?"



"Seriously mom, this is asking a lot, even for an  easy-going Golden Retriever."

"Don't be so grouchy, you guys, I think this is kind of fun!"

" FUN? You WOULD think this is fun, you big dorky llama! This is NOT fun! Look at me! I am a chicken with antlers for sheep's sake! A chicken with antlers!"

Happy Holidays from the critters at Crosswinds Farm.

Beware of flying spit!

I haven't been in a bloggy mood lately. I think it is partially due to the fact that a week ago we were reveling in the 60 degree temps, thinking thoughts of spring, and then that all came to a screeching halt a couple of days ago when we were mercilessly flung back into reality with a February snowstorm and more "seasonable" temperatures (that's the local weather guesser's way of saying "freakin cold"). Today was a tad more tolerable, I think the afternoon temp was somewhere around 30ish and as an added bonus, we had bright sunny skies.

It is a really slow time of year for us here. Shearing won't occur for a few more weeks, lambing won't be until the beginning of April, and there is certainly nothing going on in the garden...although, now that I think about it, I do need to get out there and prune my fruit trees and use some dormant spray on them...I digress (as usual). Since the weather was somewhat cooperative, I thought it best that I take advantage of it and get a few things crossed off my 'to do' list. One thing that has been bothering me is the loose fiber on Ande. I really wanted to get a halter on him and start getting some of that flyaway fuzz plucked off since it is loose anyway AND my shearer refuses to shear llamas.

Now, admittedly, I have not been as diligent as I should be in working with the llamas. They really don't require much maintenance and are pretty darn self sufficient creatures which makes it very easy to continually slide them to the back burner, so to speak. Mama llama wants absolutely nothing to do with anyone of a two-legged variety so she demands no attention from people..unless she is hungry. Ande, on the other hand is very "in your face" friendly and because he was born here, I was able to handle him from day one. I got him accustomed to a halter, lead rope, and all the fun stuff that goes along with that. That said, I haven't had too much occasion to continue to work with him on any kind of a regular basis aside from routine shots etc. Soooo, when I went out today with my plan in mind of rescuing that falling fiber. I grabbed Ande's halter and lead rope, fastened the halter on his dainty little head, and thought all was well for a moment, and it was....until Mama Llama discovered my "evil" plot and came running into the barn frantically humming her llama distress hum, which quickly progressed into a llama humming/clucking warning, followed by the backward placement of the ears, to which I responded by yelling, "Don't you even think about it!". By the time those words left my mouth, it was already too late, the spit was flying. And by spit, I don't really mean spit, it is actually partially digested, green, putrid stomach contents, and yes, it smells just like you imagine it would. Poor Ande was caught in the crossfire and was taking the brunt of the flying phlegm, but plenty of it arrived at it's intended destination squarely on my face...and when I say, "face", what I really mean is; face, hat, coat, pants, boots and I am pretty sure some slid down the inside of my shirt... I was afraid to look. All was already lost, and being the ridiculously stubborn (stupid) person that I am, I stood my ground, took her punishment and didn't move until she was convinced that I was not going to hurt Ande. Finally she gave in...maybe she ran out of digestive goo...I guess we will never know the real reason, but she eventually walked away. HA! I win! The only remaining problem, other that the fact that I was now covered in some vile substance and was smelling a bit like a dead squid washed up on the hot summer beach, was that Ande was very distressed at this point. I knew that it was best not to add to his strife by plucking his fleece and making this whole experience something that I would have to call some sort of an animal shrink to talk him down from, so I kept him on the lead for a while, just petting and talking to him until I was sure that his little Psyche had healed.

Now, I don't want people to think that this is usual behavior for llamas. In fact, this is the only time Mama has ever even come close to spitting. She was just being...well, a Mama.

I have no photos of myself after our encounter, probably because after turning Ande loose I immediately went into our basement, next to the washer and stripped off my stinky stuff (sorry for the visual) and promptly started the washer, with HOT water...twice.....with oxyclean...and detergent.

Here are a couple of poor Ande after he was caught in the line of fire....if only this was smellovision.

"Go ahead, B%#ch, make my day!"

Oh, by the way, stay tuned, I noticed today that my Quarter horse gelding needs his sheath cleaned... I am sure that it will be equally fun!

Have you kissed a llama today?

It occurred to me that I haven't done any real updates on Ande for a while. Oh, an occasional photo of him doing something cute, but nothing more. People always ask me about him, (probably because I posted graphic photos of his birth on this blog) a lot of people feel a connection to him.

It's hard to believe that he is almost 6 months old now. It sometimes seems as though he should still be that gangly, newborn conglomeration of legs and ears. But like all babies, he is growing. Since I see him everyday, sometimes the gradual changes as he matures go unnoticed. But today I glanced over and saw him standing next to Momma Llama and I came to the realization that he is now nearly as tall as she is, and he doesn't look like a little cria anymore, he is taking on a much more regal appearance. Thankfully, the one way he is not growing........his "manly" parts are still very tiny. llamas mature pretty slowly in that department, so we have a bit more time before the removal of the dingle berries, but it will be done. Then we won't have to worry about aggression as he gets older.......plus then there won't be any shenanigans with Momma Llama.....sorry, I don't know why I went there.

There are certain questions that everyone asks about llamas, so I will try to provide answers that pertain to my llamas specifically (your individual results may vary):

No, he won't spit at you! Really! Llamas generally spit at other llamas (occasionally at my sheep if they get between said llama and a flake of hay). That being said, like any animal, if they are mishandled or raised to think that they don't need to respect you, then you can expect a big, gooey, green, gob of cheek stench to be hurled into your eye.

UH, nooooo, you can't ride him! NO, not even a little bit! Seriously, why would you even ask that?

What is that big pile of jelly beans in your pasture, you ask? Well, for those of you who are not familiar, llamas tend to "go" in a community pile, and yes, they do look like (black) jelly beans. One big pile makes for a much easier cleanup (yeah). They could teach our dogs a thing or two...when the last round of snow melted, Gary went on a scavenger hunt of sorts, wandering the property until he gathered 6 bags of doggy surprises out of the yard.

What noise do they make? Llamas are generally quiet gentle creatures. They will sound a shrill "alarm" if there is some perceived threat, which mine have never done, probably because they lead a pretty cushy life and don't really have anything to be concerned about. But, they do communicate with each other with quiet humming. Ande hums to us when he is happy to see us, or sometimes when he is nervous. After we had our first winter storm this year, seeing the ice and snow covered ground, Ande didn't want to come out of the barn. After a LOT of coaxing, I finally got him to follow me out. His nose immediately went to the ground, curiously touching the snow and humming. With his nose on the ground all the way across the pasture as he walked beside me, he said "Hmmmmmmm Hummmmmmmmmm". Translation, " Ohhhhhh, I dunnooooooo, I don't likeee thisss".

One of my favorite things about my little camelid is that he runs up to the fence to welcome everyone to our farm like some kind of overzealous Walmart greeter. He also loves to give kisses. Yup! You heard me. If you lean toward him with your nose, he will reach his nose to you and wiggle his lips and nose on your face and hum. It's not nearly as kinky as it sounds. I have even made my big, burly, farmer friends lean over and give him a kiss. They protest at first, but then they giggle like little girls. They like it.

Okay, watch Ande grow.

What is with the brown tail???

Kisses for Auntie Marie.

MWAH!

Cinnamon and Ande

Cinnamon is one of our barn cats, he is extremely sweet and loves everyone...almost. Yesterday he decided to get acquainted with Ande (or as we have gotten accustomed to calling him, Ande's Candies.....don't ask) and they seem to have a mutual distrust of each other for some reason.














Their little encounter did make for moderately amusing entertainment though.
Ande would cautiously approach, stretching his neck (as if he NEEDS to) to try to touch noses while maintaining a safe get away distance. Cinnamon would respond by plastering his ears against his head while uttering sounds that conjure up images of the bowels of Hell. After which, a reluctant touching of noses would occur.















The nose-touching was some kind of cue for Ande to turn and make a mad dash around the small front pasture, kicking out at invisible pasture gnomes as he ran.

Only to come trotting back to start the game over again.
















Cinnamon is the friendliest of our barn cats. He usually waits at the back door every morning for me to come out and do chores and then accompanies me on each task, only stopping for the morning treat of canned cat food. This morning he was not waiting for me at the back door, our barn cats are pretty predictable and when one of them is absent from their usual routine, I always get very worried. After calling for him, filling the cat food bowl, and all of the usual enticements didn't coax him into the barn, I was deeply concerned. Then after one more check of the horse barn, I saw him resting on top of some bales of hay. Something was wrong. I tried to pick him up and he hissed at me, he seemed lethargic and in pain. I felt for injuries, there was no blood, no wounds, but as I looked more closely I noticed grease behind an ear and a little "road rash" on his hind end, he had been hit by a car. I gathered him up and rushed him over to our vet's office. The vet asked me to leave him there for evaluation and observation and said that they would call me and let me know what they found. After a couple of hours they called back and luckily there were no broken bones and no apparent internal injuries, just soft tissue damage....he is going to be okay.

I told my husband when we got barn cats, "Try not get too attached to them, things happen to barn cats". Perhaps I should follow my own advice. I really don't like the idea of outside cats for that reason, I do get attached, and things sometimes do happen to them. That is the hardest part of farm life, there are all these little lives that can bring so much joy, but they can also cause so much worry and heartache when things happen to them.Unfortunately, we need the cats outside in the barns. We do our best to take care of them, they are spayed/neutered, have all of their shots, get dewormed, flea control, fed daily, heated water in the winter. I guess, compared to a lot of pets, they have a pretty good life. I just wish they would not make me worry so much!

What do you do when it is ridiculously hot?

.......Hang out by the pool with your friends, of course!

I just wanted to share pictures of Emma's little pool party with her friends......Hmmmm, I don't know WHY people always stare when the drive by our house.

Well....you don't see that everyday!

"Now what?"


What started out to be an uneventful Tuesday morning, running BACK to the grocery store for the items that I forgot to buy YESTERDAY when I was there, mailing a couple of letters at the post office, suddenly became a very exciting flurry of events (exciting by Eldridge standards).


As I pulled into the driveway with my list of errands completed, I glanced into the front pasture, as I always do to see what my little darlings are up to..........I really did NOT expect to see this........(not for the faint of heart).


I slammed my truck into park, jumped out, flung myself over the gate to see what was in store for me. Now, mind you, I have not delivered a llama before, I am used to...well, less neck and less lanky appendages. If the birth process goes well with the sheep or horses they generally present in a nice "divers" position, little front feet sticking out facing down, head resting on the legs. This, on the other hand, just looked like a mess of tangled alien parts, and to top it off, this long neck hanging out flopping around shaking it's head to remove birth fluid, while mom just meandered around. As I was attempting to assess exactly what parts were where, our substitute postal carrier pulled into the driveway with a package for me. She looked horrified, "Do you need some help?" she asked reluctantly. " Why, do you know anything about llamas?" I asked.... She left the package on the porch and wished me luck as she drove away.

Once I got a closer look, everything was, in fact, where it was supposed to be, so naturally I thought, I HAVE to get my camera ( I think Nancy K. is rubbing off on me)! I snapped this picture and then a moment later momma llama finished the job at hand and delivered her little cria. Now, those of you who have been following the Crosswinds blog know that you don't have to ask.....of course it is a BOY!



The sheep were very curious about the new arrival .



"You listen here newbie, I am the cutest baby on this farm!"



"Hey, where can a guy get something to eat around here?"

Okay, (whew) they are MUCH more attractive once they have dried off. Mother and baby seem to be doing fine at this point. Momma passed her placenta, I trimmed and dipped the umbilicus, striped teats, and made sure that the baby was nursing, so now I am just waiting to see if his plumbing is all working before I breathe a sigh of relief.......incidentally, FYI and note to self, string cheese does not keep well in a truck when it is 90 degrees outside while you are delivering a llama......I kind of forgot the groceries in the truck. Bonus though, while momma llama was resting up, I took advantage of her relaxed position and finally got some more of that matted mess of a coat trimmed off and was able to get a hold of her back feet to trim her toes.


I guess the mystery is solved as to whether or not llama was pregnant.