Summer Recap

“Time flies when you’re having fun” – should this be the recap of our summer?! Maybe!

It’s hard to believe that it is September. The summer “to do” list is wrapping up and we are moving on to our “must do before winter” list… which seems just as endless as the summer list! 😀

In July we welcomed llamas back on to our farm! Our coyote and wolf problem is just to serious to not have llamas around. They are some of the best guardian animals you can have. Llamas aren’t the easiest animal to find “for sale”. We watched Craigslist and Facebook for months looking for the right llamas or at least llamas in a days drive. After having a male llama previously we knew that we would not do that again. Their hormones are too much for almost any kind of fencing! In July we were fortunate enough to find a pair of female llamas for sale only a few hours later. Llamas used for guardian purposes are often not very tame so it was no surprise to us that these ladies didn’t want anything to do with us (and still don’t!). The first week they mainly stayed out on pasture and didn’t come up to the barn except for a drink of water. Since then they have adjusted well and make their rounds around the pasture daily. They do not come in the barn at night by their own choice, which is fine, they are doing their job of protecting the goats. We turned to our awesome followers on social media for some help in naming the ladies and we decided on Ivy and Athena. (Ivy – Left, Athena – Right)

July also brought the first cutting of hay. If you grew up on a farm, have a farm or know a farmer then you know how the weather dictates what you do and when. Haying is always a race against the rain and sometimes you have to stop and finish later. After a few days of work we were finished and had the hay in the yard for winter. One of the best feelings on a farm with livestock is having a nice stock pile of hay and straw for the winter!

August brought some good times and hard times. The time of year has arrived where we need to sell some of our female goats. Sometimes hard decisions need to be made… and this is one of those times. Breeding season will be here soon and we can not keep does around that have not kidded for us in the past. Some we gave a second chance and went two years without being bred. It’s not an easy decision by any means and we wish we could keep all of our goats, but it is just not realistic. This summer our herd was over 100 head but going into the winter months having under 100 head will be more manageable as well. Next year though will be a different story as we are planning an addition on the barn!

To our surprise our llama Athena had a cria towards the end of August! A cria is a baby llama and we were fortunate enough to get a female! We named her Cora. 🙂 Llama’s are a very hard animal to tell if they are pregnant or not. They do not “show” like some other animals do. The gestation for a llama is just over 11 months so it is a long time before you find out! Cora is doing great. Her favorite time of the day is when the goats are locked in the barn at night and she can run circles in the pasture. It’s like mom is telling her “I can see you, now go have fun!” And boy does she run fast. Spinning circles around the pasture and always looping back around to mom. 🙂

With the farm projects and getting our fall fragrances ready for our goat milk products we aren’t too sure where August went! Now will start our busy season for our goat milk soap and lotion products. Our house has been smelling like fall for the last month! We can not wait for our customers to try some new scents and new products that are launching in September!

As for the bathroom renovation and water line to the barn, these projects will be finishing up in the next month.

There are so many things to love about this time of year. We hope you had a great summer!

-Randi

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