The new addition... an Alpaca!

I know, it's been too long since I last blogged. . . but, I was waiting till we got the new addition to our ranch, an Alpaca!!

We picked him up yesterday. He is kind of wild and is sad to be separated from his momma, but I think he'll do just fine and friendly up quick. . . at least he needs to! We thought he was a "she" when we got him, but later found out "she" was a he. His name was Patty Kay, but that doesn't work for a boy name. So he needs a new name, obviously. Thinking about a few, but the one that is sticking at the moment is "Buddy" (I know, very original).

Anyway, he is so tiny and soft. Part of my family thinks he isn't cute, some think he looks like a bird, others think he is cute (me). What do you think?? He really isn't dirty, as it looks - the white "dust" is actually his color.

Last Monday I noticed that Peppercorn, one of our female llamas, wasn't acting right. Normally when I'd walk up to her, she would get up. This time, she didn't. I put the halter on her and had to force her to get up. Obviously, she was not feeling well. Monday night she was not going well at all, seemed really shaky and weak. I gave her Thiamine and a bunch of other vitamins. Tuesday morning she seemed much better but still "off". She has slowly gotten better, but she has still been doing one thing - hanging her head down about half the time when she is standing up. This can be a sign of pneumonia in llamas. I have been giving her tons of vitamins and things, and she hasn't gotten worse but not much better the past few days. So, last night we decided to start her on Penicillin. Hopefully it will kick in and knock out the pneumonia.

Poor girl. Thankfully, she has kept eating and drinking this whole time. Last night it actually took 2 of us to hold her so I could give her the shots. . . so I guess that's an improvement. I just hope she gets all the way better.

Me and Ms. Peppercorn,

Last Tuesday we went and sheared a gal's gelded male llama for her. He was a real sweaty  and took the whole thing really well, just on a halter. My clippers decided not to work well though, so I did most of it by hand. Thankfully we just gave him a barrel cut. In exchange for shaving her llama though, the lady gave us 4 turkeys, 3 silkie chicks and 1 silkie rooster. I guess the turkeys will be for Thanksgiving, and the rest just for the kids to have fun with ;).

Well, not too much else has gone on. I am going to have to work with "Buddy", the alpaca, every single day to make him friendly and lead train him before mid-October (when the Down Syndrome Association of Tulsa [DSAT] Buddy Walk, where we are planning on taking several animals).

"Cutie Booty", the little Nubian bottle doeling, is growing so well and is just adorable. I really need to get some new pictures of her. She is also being lead trained to go to the DSAT Buddy Walk.

Have a good day everyone!

Suriyah

Photo update

Well, life has been a normal-busy lately. I went out in the pasture the other day and snapped some photos, so here they are.

trees ;)

one of the pastures, it's getting kind of brown because we have not had a lot of rain!

another pine,

some of the does and sheep out in pasture,

Ms. Salty,

in the forest,

we still have lots of nice hay!

Blueberry, she has turned into a really nice 2 year old!

things are getting dry!

and this is from this morning. Me and my little sister milking - she milks really well for how little she is!!

Have a good day!

Suriyah

Larry the llama :(, auctions, etc.

My family that was on the trip got home a few days ago, glad they got back safely. We've just been doing normal things around here. Thursday we went to an auction, wasn't much but did get some stuff for free. Next Thursday there is another one that is much bigger that I think we are planning on going to.

Thursday afternoon everyone was fine. As usual, we filled the waters and hosed Larry (the "baby" llama) and Armor the puppy down - really likes water! Then after milking I went out to feed and found Larry dead, no clue why. He was perfectly fine earlier. He had come such a long way since we got him, from being terrified of people to coming up to be petted and was learning how to lead. Very sad, his sweet face will be missed :(.

But, the Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!

We have slowly started integrating Armor, the puppy, and his goat friends into the herd - so hopefully soon they can go out to pasture here.

I've gotta go eat lunch.

Have a good weekend,

Suriyah

Tour the Milk Room

Here are some pictures of the milk room. I gotta go, so enjoy the pictures, no captions right now!

EDITED: Alright, I am editing this to add some more info to it.

This is from the gate. The stall is 14'x14' or something close to that.

The does jump on the short stand, then on to the big one. The floor in here is not cement. Cement would be nice, but this is pallets with rubber stall mats on top of them.

This is what the goats get to look at while being milked ;).

The green on the ceiling is spray foam insulation, and it is behind the boards on the walls too. The boards were already up when we got this place, but we took them all down and insulated it, and put them back up. They are home-milled oak (I think) slats.

This counter is where the milk is handled. It is filtered here and put into gallons, and then into the freezer (right outside the milk room gate). The strip cups are on the shelf up high, and the stereo :).

And it would not be fun to milk in the summer without these fans!!

That's it for now!

Have a good day,

Suriyah

Baby Kidded

Yesterday morning it looked like Baby (Good Goats Baby Ruth) was going to kid. All day there wasn't much, and then we were watching something on the computer and I was checking on her every now and then, but nothing much - it looked like she was in early labor. I went out the next time (just a few minutes later) and she had just pushed a kid out! A beautiful red buckling. A few minutes later, she had a huge doeling - thankfully we didn't have to pull though, she came right out! I thought for sure she was a buckling before we "checked"!

Baby has never had a doeling before - this is her 3rd kidding - first time she had a single buckling, second kidding she had twin bucklings, and then this time. Oh, and the sire to these kids is Ace, our FB Boer buck.

the doeling,

the buckling,

I think our llamas are pregnant, at least the brown one, Peppercorn, is. Mom is unsure, but I am 99% sure, LOL! I have been watching their udders/etc. for a while now. Both of their bellies are hanging low, and then the other day Peppercorn's udder filled up - no doubt about it. So, I think she is going to have a cria soon - that would be exciting!

Please discard the not-so-great haircuts (it was the first time I've sheared a llama) and them being dirty in these photos. . . they love to go in the pond, and then roll in the dirt.

Other than that, we've just been staying busy. I have cleaned up and been decorating/organizing the milk room the past few days. When it is all the way done (for now, something is always changing), I'll get some photos to share. There are still a few things I have to do in there and in the kidding stalls and freezer area too.

Oh, and for an update - Parker, the buck who had the cold, is totally back to normal. Dancer (with the barber pole worms) is also doing much better.

Have a good day,

Suriyah

Poor Baby!

Baby is SO wide!! She's still holding onto those kids.

This is Cutie and her new little friend.

I thought this was a weird picture of Prissy yawning!

Does are starting to come into heat, FINALLY! Rosie is in heat today. . . I have 5 does that I will breed as soon as they come into heat - they are does that we either milked through last year and/or didn't breed. The bucks can be so loud when the does are in heat, and they go crazy, of course. Poor little Berry has urine scald on his face. I've cleaned it and put cream on it. It doesn't look that bad, just a spot is bald now :(.

Suriyah

odds and ends. . .

I stink SO bad right now like a BUCK! This morning Rhia, one of the Nubian does, was (is) in heat. So I got little Berry out, the Nigerian buck. Long story short, he's a little bit too short but might be able to breed her if I try later today or on her next heat. If he can't breed her on her next heat, I'll use a different buck.

The photo below is of my little brother, Osiyyah, "helping" with milking :)!

Today the plan is to clean/organize, and I am hopefully going to organize/"decorate" the milk parlor. . . I'll get pictures when it's done, Lord willing.

And this is a little something I haven't talked about really. . . the rabbit barns. This is the meat rabbit barn. Right now we only have 3 meat rabbits (& 1 baby). The other bunnies, the Mini Lops, have their own special barn with shutters and an air conditioner. Pretty cool. You can see it on my sister's website here.

meat rabbit barn, just recently finished.

Have a good day!

Suriyah

New kid and crazy days!

I know, so sorry for not posting sooner! We have been incredibly busy the past several days, as part of my family went on a trip to California (for too long, LOL :)!), so we have to do all their animal chores on top of ours. It seems like we are having 18 hour days right now. . . and come to think of it, I guess some of us really are! Anyway, I think we'll survive until they get back ;). Plus it has been SUPER hot here, which just complicates things - getting up to 103-105 every day the past few days.

Sunday morning Mom woke me up saying that Prissy was going to have her babies soon. We got up and got most of the does milked before she had the first one - a totally cute little BUCKLING. He is polled.

So as usual, I milked Prissy, fed the kid, fed all the other goats, and was still waiting on Prissy. She was having pretty good contractions on and off, enough to make me concerned. About 2 hours after she had the first kid, we decided to go in and find out what was up. Mom felt something, and it ended up being a small kid folded in half. She had to pull his head up and then he came out, and the placenta plopped out right after him. Unfortunately, he was not alive :(. Her entire labor seemed weird to me, as her contractions before she had the first kid were REALLY hard. So I don't know when he died, but it was a bummer - always sad. But, God causes everything and we have to be thankful for it all!

After dealing with that, this little guy was not-so-smart when it came to drinking out of the bottle, but finally got the hang of things. His sire is PawPawNin Quiet Wyatt. So he is 75% Nubian, 1st generation. . . polled.

For an update on Dancer (with the worms) - so far, so good. He still is awfully thin, but is eating and much perkier than before. Loosing weight in animals is easy, making them gain it back can be quite a pain at times.


Sunday afternoon it poured rain, and it was still really hot out, so it got really humid. Yesterday morning I noticed that Parker had a runny nose and was kind of "off". This is prime weather for pneumonia. So, I gave him a bunch of vitamins and went off to town. Last night he seemed alright, but I gave him more vitamins and started him on Penicillin. He also had a slight fever. This morning, no worse and he is eating, which is good, but I went ahead and gave him a shot of Banamine. Hoping he doesn't get any worse.


We're still waiting on Baby to kid. . . she is so fat and her udder is full! Today she is on day 146.


Time to go too some more things! Have a good day!


Suriyah

190 animals, worms, dairy sheep

Wow, has it really been a week since I was last on here?!? I guess so!

Before I forget, this is a fact about our ranch that we figured out the other day - we have about 190 animals, just here on our side (goats, sheep, llamas, dogs, rabbits, guineas, chickens, cats)!! And guess what. . . about 160 of those are named :)! We all thought that was pretty funny.

I've been waiting and waiting for the right does to come into heat, but they haven't yet. The other day the bucks were blubbering at the fence, so I went down there to see what was up... hoping a doe was in heat that I wanted to breed. But, nope, it was just little Snickers in a total standing heat. She is not ready to breed for a few more months.

The past few days I have been researching a lot about worms, specifically Barber pole worms (Haemonchus contortus). I have read about them before, but have really been looking into it. I think Dancer is having trouble with them, steady weight loss and anemia. The stress of the move probably brought it on, and I was worming him with a wormer that will not deal with Barber pole worms. After talking to a long time goat breeder, she gave me her vet's treatment plan that they have seen work many times. It is Valbazen that they use. Valbazen is one of the "white" wormers, along with Safeguard, etc.

So we got it, and I started treatment on Monday. Hopefully he pulls through.

We've had good success using Cydectin the past 2 years here in Oklahoma, but I have heard that this year it is not working as well for many folks. In California, we would worm about once a year with Ivermectin, and then after a doe kidded with Safeguard. It worked, but that was the DESERT :).

One thing people do not do or remember, which is a HUGE key, is having healthy goats otherwise. An unhealthy goat that is not in good condition is going to be a prime target for worms, compared to a healthy goat that can fight them off. Good feed, nutrition, minerals and especially copper boluses help with this. It has been found that doing regular copper boluses help reduce HC worms (barber pole worms). Okay, off my soapbox now ;).

Onto other things. . . the little kid, Cutie Booty, is doing great and growing well. I don't have any updated pictures of her at the moment, will have to get some though. This morning Mom saw Baby do the normal "birth stretch". . . so maybe we'll have some kids soon!!

One another note, the other day I made some cheese from regular milk, and some from low-fat milk (milk that has run through the cream separator). I thought it was interesting to see the difference in the cheese. They are both good. The one made with low-fat milk (on the left in the photo) is more crumbly, dryer but still good. The one made with full-fat milk (on the right in the photo) was way more creamy and kind of "sticky", still good, but it was more like a spread. That can change though depending on how long you hang it.

Last Wednesday they (Mom and my little sister) traded a lady named Nancy for some dairy sheep! They got one ram and 2 ewes. So next year we might get to try some sheep milk, Lord willing.

AND very surprisingly, they are not too scared, one of the ewes will come up to you! She's still a little bit scared of the little (human) kids, probably because they move to fast. But to have a friendly sheep :).

Ames,

LL,

Malibu,

I thought this was a cool picture of "Miss Salty" ;),

This is Wonder, doing something weird, of course.

Have a good day,
Suriyah

bucks in rut, the pasture, life

I know, it's definitely time for a blog post! Things have been going pretty good - it's really hot here! Every evening when the milkers come back to be milked some of them are really hot, especially the big old girls - so we have to put cool water on them, which they don't care for, but it works.

The bucks are now stinky and getting yellow and worse every day. I haven't noticed any does in obvious heats yet, but they should start coming in any time... I'm waiting! There's a few does that we milked through last year that I am going to breed on their first heat this year.

Baby and Prissy are still HUGE, but they're doing surprisingly fine in the heat.

Here's some photos from the past week.

all the animals grazing close to "home" after milking,

goats in. . . the jungle?

one of the meat doe kids. . . she hid her face right when I took the picture!

This is little Berry, the Nigerian Dwarf buck. He is so small and fat, there must be something wrong with him :)! He is 2 1/2 years old and tiny. . . I guess he'll just always be short.

Parker,

Hug,

My brother Todahyah built a new pen for his 2 pigs - a boar and a guilt that is due in September, I think.

the pond ;),

and one of the roads in the pasture,

That's all the pictures for now. There's really not much else to update on. . . just busy with life. The little goat kid that our friend gave us, Miss Cutie Booty, is doing great! She's such a silly little goat. Now she is staying out in the stall in the day and in the bathroom (in her crate) at night.

Have a good day and stay hydrated!

Suriyah