Meet Clara Llama

Did you know I have llamas?  Did you know I recently acquired a new one?  It's true, I did.  Here she is the day I got her.

I took her on because my friend who had her was moving and couldn't keep Clara.  She was all alone at her previous home so she is really better off here, in a herd now.

Clara was badly in need of trimming so I finally got around to catching her and going at her shaggy matted dirty hair with a good pair of scissors.  I covered her eyes with a cloth and that helped calm her down so I could work on her.  Took awhile but here are the results:

I can actually see her tail now!  Before she had some filthy dags hanging at her hind end and now they are gone.  (dags are the dirty matted stringy hair that hangs around the tail area)  I'd like to catch and trim Gracie next.  She is the lighter colored one in the picture above.  

This picture shows the mass of hair I cut off of her.  I couldn't save it, too dirty and full of burrs and totally matted.  I saved a couple of chunks thinking I might be able to needle felt them into some sort of thing to give back to the friend I got Clara from. 
Before, when I only had 3 llamas, Gracie was at the bottom of the pecking order.  Someone has to be and she is the youngest (at 7) and came after the others (before Clara) so it was her by default.  Now she has someone to pick on so she is happy.  Clara doesn't seem to mind being at the bottom.  I think she is just happy to be in a herd instead of alone!  She is very sweet and inquisitive, as is Gracie.  The other two are older, probably getting close to 20, which is fairly old for a llama.  They are both stand offish and don't like to be touched.  Clara is about 13.  The original 3 llamas were used to wading across the creek to get to the big hay field.

It took Clara awhile to get up the nerve to follow them.  She didn't know how deep the water was.  Eventually she gave it a try and now crosses back and forth with the rest at will.

Here they are, waiting to cross the creek.

The water isn't terribly deep as you can see by the water line on Angel.  Surprise, the oldest llama, (she came with that name, all of them came named) likes to hug the fence line as she crosses and she barely gets her feet wet.  Clara took a cue from her and crosses like that.  Angel and Gracie like to just wade on through.  Gracie in particular likes to play in the water.  I have to keep the water barrel tied down otherwise she will play in the water and knock it over.

I made this last image into a card for my friend and sent it to her.  She misses Clara but is so grateful I was able to give her a good home.  I'm happy to have her.  We were already supplying the hay for Clara in her old home so now we will just put it in our barn this year.  Hay season coming up soon!
Here are a couple of links to old llama posts I've made, in case you want to see more of them:
Llama Love
Llama quilt
Meet Grace

Llamas and Cows and Dogs! Oh My!

First of all I want to welcome my new followers!  Thanks for joining up, hope you enjoy this post from around the farm. 

We had a fairly dry day last week and I enjoyed the walk, got to see the neighbors baby cows cavorting in the field.

Miss Grace enjoyed the wind giving her a little blow dry of her long hair.  Llamas always seem to have a piece of hay sticking out of their mouths.

The new born calves are so cute!  I love watching them run around in the field, playing at "The Calf Town Race Track".  Oh dee doo dah day!  Yeah, it was that kind of a day.

I always have to stop off and visit the neighbors steer.  The teenager next door is raising it as a 4-H project.  Every day I walk past "20" and bring him a hand full of fresh grass.  He appreciates it and bows his head so I can scratch his back.  It is our little daily ceremony.

I will be sad when he gets carted off to the fair.  Sometimes he licks my hand.  Have you ever been licked by a cow?

Tonka is doing well.  He is used to being around cows since he came from a cattle farm.

Charlie has pretty well adjusted although he still prefers to stay up high, out of possible reach by the new dog even though Tonka pays him no mind at all.  

 I mustn't leave Miss Sadie out.  She is such a sweetheart.

Be well.

 

Slow progress

I have been trying to get a blog post up but many things have been interfering.  The situation in Japan has been very much on my mind.  I have friends over there and was amazed when I received an email from them, letting us know they are all alive. They live in Tokyo and their home is a shambles, but they are grateful to be alive.  Also my blogging friend has been posting daily from her Japanese home.  You might like to read her blog, I have her on my side bar or just click here: Taniwa.  She had a friend visiting when the earthquake hit, they were out sight seeing and were underground!  You should go read her blog.  It is fascinating.

My little life seems hardly worth talking about right now.  The first photo shows progress (barely) on my current dooleybobber.  I applied the denim beads with sequins, copper washers and beads.  The close up photo is unavailable right now.  My power has been going out, already twice today.  But I'm not complaining!  Just saying.  Above is my design wall, covered with various things.  My work and some gift hearts over on the right side there.

This is a glimpse of dooleybobber #13.  I will be giving it away on the other blog, Fox on the Run.  That is the group blog of my art group.  We have been having give aways all month long and they continue, so go on over and leave a comment if you care to.  I haven't posted my piece yet, it will be later, probably next week.

Many of you have asked about my llama Grace and how she has adjusted to her new home. I'm happy to report that she is doing great!  She seems to have taken it all in stride and fits right in.  Isn't she cute?

My older llamas are still not happy to have the little whippersnapper pushing her nose into their hay flakes, but there seems to be less spitting than before.  The Divas let her follow them around, although they are a bit grumpy about it, plenty of laid back ears and posturing.

The snow is gone now, it was very pretty on this sunny day.

Thanks to my newest followers, you brought me up into the 90's.  I had better figure out a good give away for if I ever hit 100.  Thank you all for following and especially for taking time to leave a comment, I always appreciate it.

Be well.

 

Meet Grace

I picked up a new llama last week.  She is one year old and her name is Grace.  My long term readers might remember my talking about my old (81) friend Joan, affectionately known as the Llama Lady.  She has had a bad few months and can no longer live out here alone, taking care of all her animals.  She has finally come face to face with this and has had to re-home all her animals and move into an apartment in the city.  To help her out I decided I could fit one more llama into my herd.

Little Grace easily fit into my van.  Here she is, getting her first look at her new home. 

Here are my Diva's, getting their first glimpse of the new girl.

I removed Grace's halter and she soon hopped out of the van on her own.  

 The Diva's came running over to check her out.  Grace was brave and stood her ground.

 Here comes big boy Indie, to do his own checking out.

 After everyone had a good sniff they began to move away from Grace, who pursued them.  I was surprised that all my llamas seemed almost to be afraid of Grace and they ran away fast through the woods, heading for home, leaving poor Grace behind.  She seemed to be afraid to go through the woods.  I checked on her frequently and brought her hay out in the field.  Next day it was the same, my old llamas wanted nothing to do with this young upstart and left her alone in the field.  Finally I went out with a pan of grain, stood near her until she would approach me which took an hour of standing still, but once she started eating the grain I was able to lead her down the lane and home.  I closed the gates so all the llamas are stuck in the fields near the house for now until they adjust to Grace, and she to them.  She seems to be quite at her ease, but the others are having more trouble.  I notice she has green slime on her ears, evidence of being spit upon.  But she is doing great.  Everyone will adjust in time.

Indie and Grace

I hope you all are doing fine too.  Spring is right around the corner, already the daffodils are showing their green heads and my snow drops are blooming, the birds are singing their wild songs.  Won't be long now.  

Oh, I almost forgot, Happy Valentines Day to you all.  I♥ you.

Be well.

 

Llama quilt

Continuing with my llama theme, here is a little wall hanging I made to represent Surprise. She is the prettiest of my llamas, in my opinion. In her opinion too, I'm sure. She is the queen. I made this for my friend Joan. I showed a picture of Joan and her llamas a few posts back. Joan is the 80 year old woman I got my girls from.

She loved this piece but unfortunately when her house burned down a couple years ago, so did this gift. It was the least of what she lost, she was lucky she didn't lose her life. I don't remember the size of it, probably about 22" x 20". I used a lot of my own hand dyes on this piece. Not great art, but it was really appreciated and I enjoyed making it. Now that Joan is in her new house, maybe I should make her some new art.

Listening to Colin Hay today. He used to be the lead singer/songwriter in Men At Work.
Be well.

Spit Happens!

Whatever you do, don't click on this picture.

When spit happens, it tastes real bad.

I mean, really really awful.

You didn't click on these, did you? You'll be sorry, it is so gross!! Poor girls, it's like having...oh, never mind. You get the picture.

Llamas again

Here is my 80 year old friend Joan, feeding her llamas and peacocks. She is the one who gave me my llady llamas.

Llama love

Queen of the herd, Surprise, mother of Powder.

Audrey asked me about my llamas so here are some pictures of them. I have 5 llamas, two white ones, and 3 black-ish, brown-ish, red-ish ones. The white one above was the only one born here so she is my baby, I named her Powder. My other white llama is a male, he came named Puff, so now I have Powder and Puff.

Above you see my other male, named Indie. Indie has scary looking teeth but he is quite harmless and gentle. None of my llamas have ever spit at people, btw, although they frequently spit at each other. I try to stay out of their line of fire if they are having a spitting match. The walls of their shelter show evidence of these missed targets.

Above is one of what I call the 3 Divas, she is Angel. The other diva is Surprise. The only one I named was Powder, all the rest arrived already named. Surprise is definitely the queen of the herd and since Powder is her baby, Powder seems to be second in command now. One would have to work with these llamas quite a bit to be able to touch them. Mostly they let me get only so close and then they move away before I can actually make contact, with Powder being the acception. I can pet her.

Below you can see buck tooth Indie with his goat buddy. The goat passed away last summer but they were very close friends as you can see. Usually the llamas don't like to lay touching each other, although they are herd animals. Indie always let Lacy the goat cuddle up to him, and he helped keep Lacy warm during the winter.

Llamas are the quietest animals I have ever been around, and the easiest keepers too. They make a humming sound, so peaceful. I had them for years before I ever heard one of their alarm calls, which is quite alarming indeed. I came running to see what the commotion was all about, expecting wolves at the door (okay, maybe only a coyote) but it was the neighbors cows who had gotten into the pasture. Surprise did not like them in HER pasture, and was letting every one know it. They are very alert and good watch animals. Some people use them as guard animals in their sheep or goat herds as they can kill dogs or coyotes. Not all llamas would do this, but some will.

That is enough of a llama lesson for the day. See how green the grass is in the last photo? That was taken last summer but it is just as green right now. I know the rest of the country seems to be snow bound, but here it has been very mild and warm. Warm enough that we mowed the grass yesterday! That might be the earliest mowing ever. If this keeps up I will have to get my shorts out. Of course, there was frost everywhere this morning, and I had to break the ice on the water for the llamas, but we have full sun and the days warm up splendidly.

Be well.
Listening to the Pogues today.