FarmLife: Thoughts On Animals, Stewardship, & Farm Culture
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| Missing her herd, SP's walk was a true mini today. |
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| Good with the golf cart. But then, the see them every day. |
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| She sees her friends and isn't happy. |
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| Did this side better after learning from the one below. |
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| Macgyvering began here. You should see behind. |
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| First photo reprised. |
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| Behind view, first side. Something else, eh? |
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| Check out the headband ~ totally MacGyver. |
Saturday promises to be another scorching day for the girls, hot at 93 degrees and humid. Add T-Storms to the mix. Not wonderful. This time, I'm ready. Michael and Harold worked their magic, finding 2 great solutions. They cleaned a mini-hillside pasture alongside the chute to the upper and lower pastures--this was Mickey's idea. This area is large enough for the 6 girls, but is more ideal at 3. 
After proofing the area, we opened the gate and Tess was the first one in. Cierra was last in and first out. As she ages, Cierra takes the safe, secure route; always the leader but loner, she remains in the barn at night. Remarkably, she is still, at 14, the alpha female. One of benefits of life on this mountain is the breeze; almost always there is one. So in this sheltered area, there is usually natural AC that can keep the girls cool while outdoors. Today will be the test case, and if pressed to guess, I think they'll pick the second innovation.
We added 2 AC window units, and in our trial run, within 35 minutes the temperature dropped 6 degrees. But that was on a cooler day, toward evening, as Michael duly noted. Problem is the barn is big, so how can we best deliver the AC to the girls. Here's the solution, and I think it's way cool. I'll let you know later how it worked.
o be on the safe side, 1 of the 2 right side bungee cords gets reattached to the stall door.
The final ingredient is turning on the AC units. Mickey says the large fan will pull the AC into the stalls. It seemed to yesterday when we did a trial run. Weather, when bad, can make a season endless. This year, summer has been an endless trial for all of us who have livestock. I think the guys have created a great solution.
After last week, my husband and I are convinced we need a vacation from the vacation. It's been a wicked busy few days, and Friday pushed the definition of a hectic day into overdrive. Up at 5, my first appointment was 7 AM with our pole building guy. Mickey is extending the barn roof to give the girls more protection. Makes sense, because when we install the new dual-head automatic waterer (that will be a monster of a job), digging the hole with a smaller backhoe won't be such a problem inside the paddock. But drilling through the very solid stone farmhouse foundation -- that's another issue entirely.
By 8 AM, the girls are ready to be vetted. Someone has a tapeworm, so within one week, we are Dr. Justin Cunfer's first and second barn visit. A record for both of us. The worming went well enough, but we saved our difficult girl for last. Rev needed an ultrasound to confirm if she was pregnant. Our results were not conclusive, but Dr. Cunfer thinks she is. Problem child, Rev just does not want to be clipped (ask Tabbethia, she can tell you) or vetted. If you asked me, I would say I think she is pregnant by her behavior alone. Unlike her herd, she was simply not cooperative. So I guess I am on another pregnancy watch and only time will tell.
At 8 AM promptly, Perry Breiner and Tom Oswald arrived to finish the excavating. Some earth moving, but mostly finishing work. Spreading different grades of stones, then topsoil. Still, it took an entire day, and it was hot.Breiner Excavating from RJ Stangherlin on Vimeo.
Fortunately, the girls took all the noise in stride. By now they were used to it. Only Rev seemed plussed by the early events of the day, and she chose to recline and dine. Between checking on the girls, hosing them, and running water to the men, by 3 PM I was totally unplugged.
Someone I have never met virtually touches my life every day. She is the first person I found who has a llama blog and writes (almost every day) about farmlife. Because she writes so beautifully, from her heart, she touches ours as her readers, and I can think of no better tribute to a blogger than to read her. Every day.
r, and provides a home and safe haven for the animals, family, and friends, all of whom love her so dearly. No one I know on a daily basis receives as many comments, on Facebook or her blog, as she does. By now, you likely know of whom I write, Teri Conroy. And some day I would really like to meet her f2f and experience the magic of Wunsapana Farm.
Today she wrote about the heartfelt pain and sadness of knowing that her girls were not pregnant, and there would be no crias this year. She captured so tenderly her animals' feelings, as well as her own, and that, I believe, is the magic of Wunsapana Farm. Of Teri Conroy. Of why we wait for her next post. Of why a friend posts on her wall, asking if all is well since no post today....
which is why when disappointment hits, it lands so hard on someone who delivers so much. Daily.
Two bosses, two businesses, one objective. Move a lot of earth. Carve out some of the mountain, move it across the street, pond side, create a new road to the upper 40. Level the playing field. Build the berm higher. Top the topsoil. Add stones. Mix all of the above, and you have the recipe for a perfect landscape. The good earth.
Always a pleasure to watch genius working with the skill and experience of years and tons of earth moving. Just peeking at the work in progress scares me silly, the angles on which these big machines sit and work--with people inside them. When I saw the big boom sliding down the berm, I knew it was time to leave.
Until the temperature rose into the high 80s, the girls looked on with classic llama curiosity. Bless them. Nothing deters Rev, the brown llama that resembles a very giant poodle (a nightmare to clip, hormonal, pregnant, say no more...) lets nothing stand in the way of eating. The earth could quake, but if a food source remained intact, she would chomp. Tess, however, is another story. Always in the thick of things, always curious, always inside the moment.
Maria, without an h. Peeking through the vinyl door. If you are a breeder of llamas, you take many factors into consideration when selecting an animal to add to your herd. Just makes sense to get fiber, temperament, size, blood lines, guardian and performance types in your breeding plan. When I entered the llama world, I had no thought of breeding, but Carol guided me in choosing as if I were. Now that I am more interested in growing my herd, I have most of what you would want to balance a breeding program. So, how did I select Maria, and why. The video answers that question, beyond a shadow...A Talking Llama from RJ Stangherlin on Vimeo.
