Goodbye geese

Our two geese were just getting to loud and rambunctious for me. Since they were only three weeks old i figured they would only get louder and more irritating to me so I traded them in.

Meet Eleanor and Gertrude



Gertrude is the one that has more orange on her. I picked those names because they are now the old ladies of the bunch. I got them from a friend's mom who was looking to downsize her chickens and get more geese, so it worked out well for both of us. We've only had them for one day and i've already got an egg out of them so they must feel comfortable. They are very friendly and they don't seem to mind sharing the coup with the little chicks, ducks and turkeys.

That's it for the farm update. All the other animals are doing well and enjoying the warmer weather and lush grass that spring rains and sunshine brings.

Molly

We've picked a name for our new Alpaca girl. She is to be called Molly. I'm easy going, Matt is actually the one that has picked the names for the llama and the alpaca.
Today we took Molly on our daily walk.



She did great and was fairly calm as long as she was behind Kady.


One of our barn kitties, squash, decided to go on the walk with us. Elijah just had to stay back and walk with him to make sure he was following us. Whenever Squash would slow down and check something our Elijah would call out to him to keep up.


We actually went to church today! I have no idea how the service went. I was with the two little boys in the children's room and Joshua sat with Matt during service. I'm hoping next week I'll be able to leave Daniel for a little bit and get in for a little worship! That's one of the things i miss about church, singing together glorifying God.

the new girl in town

Meet the new girl...

Yep, she is an Alpaca!

They all seem to be getting along great...

More to come later, but she needs a name... any suggestions?

Shiloh update

I'm sad to say little Shiloh didn't make it. She did make it through the night and we thought she would rally, but as the day went on she didn't want to sit up at all, her breathing was very labored, eyes glassy and she had not pooed or peed for over 24 hours. We're a little sad here, and we wish we could have gotten her sooner because we really feel we could have prevented her from going to far gone... but having animals means dealing with death. Joshua is sad that his baby llama is gone (he doesn't understand dead yet) but he seems to be handling it just fine. I told him that we would look for another llama for him and that we still had our big llama, he was comforted at that.

laundry room llama

I never imagined that i would see this sight in my laundry room....


Before the sun went down I went out and checked on the llamas. Shiloh wasn't looking so great. The cow was bugging her (sniffing at her face and just being a little pest) and she was laying on her side pretty cold (she did this on the ride home also) so we decided to make up the laundry room for her to give her a better chance of getting well. It's warm and dry and we can leave out food and plenty of fresh water for her without Ferdinand and Cammy eating it before she has a chance. She's in pretty bad condition just hanging by a thread, so I'm trying everything in my power to give her the best chance at life. Hopefully she will pull through and start gaining weight and muscle. She can't stand up for more then 5 minutes at a time and she gets easily fatigued. I really hope this little girl pulls through because i know that she is just a gem and i really feel that if she can overcome and get well again she is going to make a GREAT therapy animal!

Llama love

we picked them up today!!!!!!!



This is "Cammy" .. her original name was "twisted sister" because her hair is twisted, but we didn't like it to much so when we were driving home and looking at her we thought she looked like a camel.. and Matt has always wanted a camel so we have decided to name her Camille, or "Cammy" for short...
She is just perfect for our family.. so sweet and friendly. Which is fun because the meaning of Camille means "perfect".
Driving home...


We're Home!


Elijah said "look, it's a llama"


This is the other llama Shiloh. She was not thriving at all at the llama ranch so we took her home with us in hopes of lots of feed and love will get her all better. The reason she didn't do so well is because of her temperament. She is very calm and non-aggressive and that's not so good when you are with 50 other llamas when it comes to food. So anyway we are really hoping she will pull through the night... she was eating today so that's a good sign... but only the cold night will tell if shes got the gumption to hold on!



Hanging out...


meeting Ferdinand for the first time...


it's been a long day and I'm ready for some downtime!!! I'm sure there will be more ever so riveting llama updates in the near future!

This has been such a good weekend, and I'm feeling so blessed! This is the first time that my step dad has ever come out to visit with my mom since Matt and I married 7+ years ago. The visit came at a good time as last week was really hard for me. While i was running my legs went numb and i started feeling really strange. I think i threw a clot or something because that weekend i was in pain and sick and very tired. I'm doing much better then i was last weekend, but it was a major set back for me and slightly depressing. I thought that the days of my circulation and blood clotting issues were over, but i guess i haven't been doing as well as i thought i was. So I'm back on my blood thinning medication (natural stuff called Nattokinase) and trying to minimize driving time and remember that I always need to be preventative in what i do. Though i am a healthy person (eating good, regular exercise and healthy weight) I will always need to be sensitive to my special circulation and heart health unless the Lord heals me of it. Anyway... sorry to ramble off... it's just been a hard week.

In farm news...

Pippin (our pack goat) will be going to his new home tomorrow! I'm so excited for him. I think that he is really going to love his new owners (he already met them and he stuck to them like glue while they were here) and his new stable mates. He is going to be surrounded by a bunch of milk goats! I think Ferdinand will probably miss him, but i know that he'll adjust just fine. Anyway Ferdinand will have a new friend to keep him company. It's official, we will be driving down next week to pick up our new llama!





He is still a baby, but i think he will work very nicely for our little farm. He doesn't have a name yet, but I'm thinking we will name him Apa. Matt and I went through this cartoon series that had a flying bison and i loved his name and personality, so I'm thinking I want to name our new llama after him. The llama that i wrote about in my other post was a very nice llama, but the owners wanted way to much for him and also he was older and grew up around llamas so he would have been very lonely with our little farm.
Here is a picture of the flying bison character that i want to name our llama after



One more month until our barnyard poultry come! We are getting 10 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 geese, and 2 turkeys. I'm pretty excited... especially about the ducks.. I love ducks!
Well.. I better get off to go till up the garden one last time before planting in a couple of weeks!
Isn't our life exciting!?!