Daisy..and random stuff.

I am trying to determine what color Daisy, "Sommarang Daisy" truly is. She was registered as a black and white flecket by her breeder. When I bought her as a lamb, she looked more like a dark moorit with consistent color all the way to the skin, although her face has always been much darker than her fleece.

This year she lightened quite a bit, which I attributed to age and bleaching from our extremely hot summer....until I parted her fleece to take a closer look.



This is what her fleece looks like today, almost a grey/brown color......charcoal/pewter??? She does have some modified colors in her pedigree. Any ideas? I should add that Daisy was bred to my Moorit flecket ram last fall and her resulting ram lamb Ace appeared to be black/white from birth....he has lightened a bit, but if he is a true black then Daisy can't be brown ( brown bred to brown=brown)...she looks brown toned to me! ?????



Random.

After weeks of suffocating heat and monsoon like precipitation, Our weather here has turned absolutely gorgeous. It was 78 degrees here today with very low humidity and it is expected to remain just as nice for the next week or so. It is amazing how much the weather can affect one's frame of mind....at least mine. Instead of simply doing chores, filling water, filling water, and, oh yeah, filling water, I have been able to spend some time enjoying all of things that make me love this place so much. Yesterday, I took my quarter horse, Jake, out for a ride without us both ending up in a puddle of sweat!















My next project is to get Morgan, (the little pony behind Jake) "started" now that the weather is getting cooler. Morgan is 3 now, I have done tons of ground work with her, but I should have started her under saddle this spring........my excuses?? Time and weather......plus, I have to gear myself up for it, she definitely has the "pony attitude", so she will be a challenge and I am not as young as I once was!

I had to post a picture of Jasmine, our Arabian, too. Jas technically is our beautiful daughter Nicole's horse, we have had her since she was two and Nicole was 11. Nicole is currently a very busy neurobiology major at the University of Iowa without much free time, so Jasmine has always lived with us....and we pay her vet bills....and farrier...and feed bills...but it's Nicole's horse...I'm not sure how that works.















The garden is winding down for the season. Remember my pumpkin plants that were taking over Eldridge? They finally succumbed to squash vine borers, (my fault, I don't spray anything) but I still got a respectable crop, all things considered.














Ande looks like he is busy getting ready for the Labor day weekend....I am not sure what that entails for a llama...but, whatever.

Here comes the rain again.

I haven't posted lately because, well, there is nothing interesting happening. I am reduced to talking (complaining) about the weather. I know that a lot of the country has been suffering through drought this summer....I would like to send them some rain...really. We have gotten an overabundance of rain and heat and it is really making me cranky. It has rained virtually every day for...I don't know how long. My tomatoes and cantaloupe are so engorged with moisture that they are trying to escape the confines of their skins and splitting apart.

Here we go again.



I must say the dark clouds did make a nice backdrop for my sunflowers, even though they are looking tattered by the daily deluge of rain and wicked wind. Hmmm...looking at that picture it just dawned on me how tall those plants are. The corn was about 9 feet when we measured last...boy, I am going to have to measure that guy................oh, we really need something exciting to happen around here!

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.

The trouble with friendly sheep.

This is the problem with having Shetland Sheep. I have been wanting to post updates on some of the ram lambs because it is so interesting (at least to me) how quickly they change physically as well as how much their horn growth changes from week to week. In order to share that information I like to add photos (as you may have noticed my photography skills are much better than my very weak writing skills, so pictures make it easier to figure out what I am talking about), but trying to isolate and photograph one individual in a pasture of Shetland Sheep can be.....a bit of a challenge. They are like a classroom of first graders "pick me! pick me!". So, once again, lots of extreme eye/nose close ups.




I was able to finally get some pictures of my Gulmoget ram, so far he is looking REALLY nice.

Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this nice ram and his twin sister. Their dam, Thistle Keep Sagebrush Vole was already bred to Underhill Gulliver AI when I bought her from Thistle Keep Farm/Chaparral Shetlands.

I know, I don't need two pictures of his derriere, but he has got such a nice square rear and TINY tail, it is worth a second look, don't ya think?







I am keeping my fingers crossed that his horns continue to look good. I have to remind myself that he is a month younger than the other boys so his horns have not grown nearly as much.


I will try to give an update on one or two of the other boys tomorrow....IF the photo op arises.


Little cria " Ande" is doing well.......now. He gave us quite a scare over the weekend. Saturday evening when I went out to feed the sheep and check on the new little fluff butt, I noticed yellow runny stains on his rear legs, and he suddenly seemed very weak. He would get up and walk a few feet and then lay back down and then struggle to get up again. I know how quickly neonates of any species can deteriorate, and he was clearly in trouble. I also know my limitations and I am not nearly as familiar with llamadom as I am with my other creatures, so I called the vet right away ( farm call on a Saturday night = $$$$ ouch), she immediately started him on some meds for the pain and diarrhea and has me giving him Naxcel (antibiotic) injections twice a day, plus electrolytes and Pepto Bismol. Today he is MUCH better and we stopped the Pepto (yeah, no more Kool-aid mustache) and he seems to be having more normal stools. We are still giving injections and pushing the electrolytes, especially since we have had heat indexes of 100 degrees for the last couple of days and for the foreseeable future.

He is really a sweet boy, especially considering all he has been through in his short life, and all the needle poking and syringes of fluid he still comes up to us for scratches and hugs :).

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.