Insulating barns, working llamas, etc

WELL, not too much has been going on lately. It has been super nice weather, so we finished insulating the doe barn, and my mom insulated a lot of the buck barn yesterday also.

We walked in the pasture a few times this last week, and there is not much grass left out there to eat anymore. So I have been feeding a lot of hay out lately. The pasture was kind of overgrazed this past summer, so hopefully before Spring we can split it so we can rotate and have more feed that way.

I have been working with the llama girls everyday. The brown girl, Peppercorn, was a lot more "wild" and nervous when I would work with her. Yesterday though (the 3rd time I've worked with her) she was not too nervous and let me pet her and didn't "dance around" much at all. So,she is improving very quickly! She also walked well on the lead yesterday, and the first few times she didn't know how to be led at all! So that's exciting with her. We'll see how she does today.

The white girl on the other hand, Salty, has always been very easy to lead and was obviously worked with in the past. I am getting her used to me brushing/petting her also but she is not too bad at all. BUT, yesterday I started to pet her (while I had her haltered) and she turned and spit at me! EWW! Thankfully it was not green spit, but it still stunk. I think she is getting grumpy and is going to have a cria (baby llama). Today her back seems a lot "higher" than before, so maybe we will have a cria soon (hopefully a girl!)!

Me working with Peppercorn,

We are now milking 12 does - drying lots up. We have 13 dairy does bred and 8 left to breed. Plus several Boer does already bred. It's nice in a way milking only 12 does now - somewhat of a "rest" (if you'd call that a rest!).

Have a great day,

Suriyah

weekend update

Well to say the least, it was a very busy and exciting weekend! Some new friends came from Canada Friday and left yesterday, and needless to say it was a very good time.

The house is somewhat of a mess from everyone being over during the weekend. But such is life :)!

Today I bred Urban Acres C Blueberry Cream ("Blueberry" - I finally have her papers after waiting for a year+!) to SQSW Berry Blast ("Berry"). They are both blue-eyed. I housed Berry with another yearling a few weeks ago - she was in heat, but I didn't see him breed her, just saw him try. So if it did not get her, she will be coming in soon as it's been 18 day today since then. I hope he did! I was right there though when I bred him to Blueberry this morning. Yay - the "little buck" finally was able to breed a doe!

For a quick "update", we are now milking 16 does/AM and 14 does/PM. I am going to drop a couple more does to only 1x/day milking. In the morning when I'm moving slightly slow, it takes about 1 hour to milk and feed, and at night about 45 minutes.

We also now have 13 dairy does bred, and several left to breed! The new Boer buck, Ace, has bred several of the Boer does now also (at least 4 I think).

We still have the paint Boer buck (18 months), cross-meat buck (8 months), and Boer/Nubian doe (2 1/2 years) still for sale. I would really like to move the 2 bucks out ASAP - so we will accept any reasonable offer! Email or call me if you are interested (sf@goodgoats.net - 918-598-4004).

I don't have a whole lot more to update on ranch life, so. . . have a good day!

Suriyah