Paddock Shuffle

Yesterday was a busy day, we moved some of the animals into the new paddock across the road.  It needs to have the access road fenced off, and some yards and then be divided up into smaller paddocks.... but for the moment, its one great big paddock with a LOT of grass in it.  It is great to be able to see llamas (and alpacas and sheep) in a big chunk of our property that until now we havent been able to use.

 BeetleBub, Red Riding Hood and Gracie in exploring mode.

We meet Mareebah while we were out checking for small gums that will need tree guards if they are to make it fully grown trees.

It didnt take them long to find the dam, and though a sunny day, it wasnt much past mild on the temperature scale, none-the-less some of them went in for a swim!!

Jemma is a big fan of a little swim:

The Weekend

I was supposed to spend the weekend driving to Narrabri and back, but a quick review of the weather forecast including the flood warnings meant that plans were postponed.  Instead I managed to fit in a visit to see Scarlett - who was in fine form :)

Jake and Coco

Some pics of young Jake with his dog!

Mud, Wash Aways and Llamas

Yesterday Jay Jay - an aging llama - leaving the yards and the creek paddock after breakfsast, must have walked on a part of the bank that had been affected by wash away from the recent rains.  The result was that she landed in a tight muddy 'gorge' and was completely wedged in :(

I tried pulling her out backwards and had her pretty much 'free', but her instinct was to go forward and pretty soon she was wedged in tight all over again!!

I tried getting the hole with her and pushing her out.. no progress.

I tried digging the sides of the gorge wider to help her get out... the soil/clay was much too compacted for me to make much head way and Jay Jay kept spitting at me the whole time I was digging.

By this stage we were both soaking wet and covered in sludgy mud :(

Finally I tried getting the belly band from the crush around her chest and putting the quad bike in the creek bed, lower and behind her and hitching the belly band to the winch on the bike.  I was pulling her back and rotating her at the same time... all good, stopped to assess and see if I could get her free when she started trying to get out herself.  Much wriggling later she had shrugged off the belly band, but rolled herself into a lower part of the gorge on her back!!  She was now stuck in a shallow V shape, on her back, legs flailing in the air!!  More pushing, pulling and maneuvering on my part and I had her out, she was a bit shaky and shivery and totally soaked, but she stalked off as haughtily as she could!!

This morning she opted not to come in for brekkie!!

2 Visits with Scarlett

I've been to visit Scarlett twice recently, as soon as I arrive with my big orange bag she wants her photo taken and then to look at it on the back screen of the camera.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day and I had a lovely time, Freya made a yummy lunch, and gave me champagne, chocolates and potted tulips (in bud) which was all very lovely.

After lunch we took Scarlett and went shopping to spend the money my mother gave me for my birthday - bought some lovely French style crockery that I've been eyeing off for a while!!  Scarlett had to try out every ride on toy in the centre.

I know... its green and I never choose green, but here it just works!!

Jake Comes to Visit

At the end of April we enjoyed a visit from Alan, Aleisha and Jake.

Jake enjoyed some time in the yards with Dad, he was fascinated by the llamas and alpacas.

Cuddles with Gargie :)

 And Eggy - keeping all the littlies happy :)

They took their puppy Coco home when they left, sad to say good-bye to her, its been fun having her here, and her brother Yoyo will miss her heaps, but know she will be happy in her permanent home.

Aymara's Cria and a Visit from Scarlett

After several false starts last week, Aymara came up with the goods yesterday.  A fantastic little female cria, Dad is Carter who was killed by his paddock pal, Totem, last month.   Carter and Totem had been together for 4 years without an incident, so we were all pretty shocked by the first major argument resulting in a fatality.  It is lovely to have something to remember Carter by, and she looks very like him.

Later in the afternoon Scarlett came to visit, she and the newly named Bumble Bee seemed to hit it off immediately :)

The day did not end well, very unexpectedly we lost Sevanna's cria.  Not sure what went wrong there, only 2 days old, very distressing, especially for Sevanna :(