Changes in Llamaship

 There have been quite a few changes here in the past week.

Ivory needed to move for health reasons.  She has stomach ulcers and needs special care for awhile.  Powderpuff went with Ivory to reduce her stress.  We miss them, but we're glad that Ivory is getting the care she needs and has a familiar face with her.

We had a few llama-less days until we found Barack O'Llama.  He's a four year-old with experience guarding goats, packing, and being in parades.  (He's more accomplished than I am!)

Barack meeting the family.

Barack looking handsome, yet a bit concerned.

Barack meeting the sheep.

Less than twenty-four hours later, they are all grazing together.

"Greener" Pastures

This week has been tough.  I thought Saturday would be a little easier because it wouldn't be just me, two little boys, two llamas, seven sheep, fourteen chickens, and assorted neighboring animals.  I would have a helper.  I forgot that the two little boys try to get away with more when Daddy is home.

We did a wee bit of housework before we went outside (thank goodness).  Tonight I won't be sleeping in straw/hay/mud.  (Well, maybe our sheet weren't that dirty.) 

Elsie wants out.  Who could resist?

Next on our agenda: letting the sheep out of the barn.  Scott had yet to witness the way the llamas react to sheep on the loose.  Powderpuff and Ivory put on quite a show for him, alarm calling and running circles around the sheep.  Everyone calmed down (a bit), and Scott went to the barn to make a new mineral feeder for the llamas--out of a bucket.

Calico sees buckets (and grain scoops and garbage cans and....) and goes wild.  All the other sheep follow her.  Something happened to scare them, and they started to run.  Calico started limping.  I freaked out.  ("She has a broken leg!")  The llamas started alarming and chasing the sheep.  The neighbors started to cross the road with their two dogs.

We tried to round up the whole flock in the barn.  It's usually not too bad, but for some reason (maybe little boys running around the barn?) they would not go in.  We finally ended up with all the sheep in--except for the baby, Theresa.  We've had the sheep for six days, and this was the first time we've heard any of them "baa."

We caught Calico (I fell in poo, but I do realize that it's a part of the job), and it her leg was stuck through the neck of her coat.  After much (but very brief) debate, we decided to let her go without a coat.  She has a nice fleece, very fine wool, and hay sticks to her like white cat fur on a brown corduroy couch.  Sigh.  I will be spending a lot of time on her fleece or paying the mill a lot extra to do it for me.

Calico, the second from the left, is busy loading her fleece with vegetable matter. 

We decided that we should put the sheep into the other pasture.  It took awhile, but was fairly uneventful.  We went in for lunch.  The instant Scott took a bite of his sandwich, a red-tailed hawk flew over the chicken coop.  His sandwich waited while he put the chickens on lock-down and scowled menacingly at the hawk.

The sheep enjoyed their new pasture.  They met the chickens.  They met the cows.  They lounged.  They chewed some cud.  While they were happy, we put up an offset electrical wire to keep the cows from lounging on the fence.  (The cows are testing it out now.  I think some of them must be thrill-seekers.)

Lounging and chewing cud.

Sheep meeting cows, without any much drama.

Even though the sheep were in another pasture -- another non-adjacent pasture-- the llamas were not happy.  They both kept their eyes on the sheep, and Powderpuff kept alarming.

Ivory and Powderpuff.  They still  think"guard sheep" means to guard against the sheep.

Llama Drama

Our rescue llamas arrived on Saturday.  (We adopted them from Southeast Llama Rescue.) Meet Powderpuff and Ivory (a.k.a. Ivory Snow but that's a lot to say!).  They are sweet but still a bit shy.

Here's Powderpuff:

 (Yep, she's huge.)

And Ivory:

It's been raining pretty much the whole time they've been here.  Ivory likes to hang out in the hoop house.  We've taken the straw out to make room for Powderpuff but she doesn't go in for more than a few minutes at a time.

Powderpuff could go in the barn or the hoop house but she stays out in the rain.

Powderpuff is avoiding the barn because the sheep are in there.  Both llamas walk in, take one look at the sheep, and walk back out.  That went on all day yesterday.  Today they are staring at the sheep and intermittently making alarm calls (which sound a bit like a giant duck quacking).  The sheep are not concerned.   I'm hoping to make some progress this afternoon.  The sheep really, really want out of the barn.

I guess they want to stand in the rain, too.

"They can take my comb, but they can't take my spirit"

Floppy's floppy comb may be gone, but she's doing really well.  Who would have thought that they feathery lump of a few days ago would be up and pecking again so soon?  Certainly not me.  She's a tough old bird-- in the best way possible. 

Cecily

Everyone who has animals has a favorite, even if they won't admit it.  Today, our favorite chicken was killed by a predator.

In the morning, one of our older chickens was attacked by a red-tailed hawk.  The boys and I saw it happen.  She was still alive, and we moved her into the chicken tractor, where she could be safe and alone.  She is in the coop with the rest of the girls for the night.  Her name is Floppy, and I'll keep the blog updated on her status.

After the attack, all of the girls ran into the coop-- except for Violet and Cecily.  They went to the backyard and hid under the butterfly bush.

The boys and I went the zoo, and when we returned, Cecily was dead.  We assume it was the same hawk.  My older son and I buried her in one of her favorite places (which was somewhere she was not supposed be, of course).

Cecily was our favorite.  When she was a chick, she looked like she was wearing eyeliner.  Even then, we had a hard time keeping her where she was supposed to be.  She was hard to catch from the day I opened the box--unless she wanted to be caught and then she liked to be carried.  Cecily was beautiful, and she layed (a lot) of the loveliest white eggs.  We are all going to miss her.

Cecily, just a few days ago

Me and Cecily

Cecily checks out a cow

Baby Cecily

My big guy giving Cecily a snack

Countdown to Sheep

The sheep will be here in...

Well, I'm not really letting myself count down the days.  There's always the chance we will need to reschedule due to bad weather.  And I prefer thinking about my (huge) To Do list without knowing exactly how many days I have to get it all done.

Here's a picture of our most important sheep preparation thus far: our fence.  There happens to be a mama cow and her extremely cute calf in the picture?  Whoops!