Llama, Llama, Goat

 

Last week, I invited Bruce the Shearer Man over to help my llamas and angora goat feel cooler this summer. And of course, I kept the fleeces and will probably be selling them soon, as I still have fleeces and rolags of carded fleece that I’ve yet to spin into yarn. Here are some photos from that experience, with before and after photos, too.

Cataleya, my female llama. Before Photos.

Cataleya wearing her spit mask (trust me, it was needed!lol!)

Half a llama partially sheared.

My friend Kendra drove over to take photos and experience shearing day. We had to do the shearing down by my house as we don’t have any electric in our barn ever since an underground critter chewed our wiring.

I typically don’t shear a llama tail, but not only were their tails tangled, knotted, and dreadlock-like, but Cataleya also had a piece of wire twisted within her tail.

We couldn’t help but laugh at how funny her tail looked naked.

And voila! All done!

Cataleya’s After Photos! 

 

Isn’t she pretty?

And next up is Catlinite, my gelding llama. I had to walk each llama and goat down the hill from the barn to the house to be sheared, then walk them back up, and bring down another one…and so on, and so on. lol!

And Catlinite’s Before Photo! He used to be a show llama, and he still knows how to pose.

My twin sons, Jem and Jax were a huge help that day moving panels and keeping them secure when the llamas tried to thrash around.

Bruce the Shearer Man and all of us within spitting distance were very thankful that the llamas wore spitting masks.

 

Catlinite’s After Photo! He was making faces because he didn’t like the nasty taste of spit in his mouth.

Next it was my Angora goat Luna’s turn to be sheared.

Here’s her Before Photo:

 

My son Jem, caught this funny photo of Luna expressing her displeasure at being sheared.

But soon she relaxed and began to enjoy the attention.

And it wasn’t long before her thick, heavy dreadlocks finally fell to the ground.

And soon she was all done!

And she was so much cooler and happier!

Luna’s After Photo! Isn’t she pretty?

When I walked her back up to the barn, her goatie friends, Mud Pie and Latte didn’t even recognize her!

I gathered up the fleeces and carried them into the garage.

 

Boy Howdy! They were heavy and hot! It made me happy knowing they weren’t on my animals anymore, so they would enjoy feeling cooler this summer.

I ended up only saving the llama fleeces, as Luna’s fleece had become too matted and dirty. I usually shear her twice a year, in the Spring and early Fall. But last Fall it snowed the day before I was going to shear Luna, so I just put it off for fear of her getting too cold. The two llama fleeces are in very good condition, super soft, and not too dirty either.

Llama Drama!

 

Poor Apache. Having to accept goats and llamas as part of her herd. Apache wants everyone to know just a little of what she has to endure just to live with these weird looking, banana-eared camel creatures that everyone calls Llamas. It’s terrible, she says!    

 

Apache: “See?! Here’s some nice grass Jen picked just for me, and who is being rude, reaching over the fence, to steal my grass? Cataleya, the freaky llama, that’s who!”

Apache: ”Seriously?! Just look at her! Jen thinks Cataleya’s funny. I think she’s obnoxious! Back off! That’s my grass, Cataleya!”

 

 

Me: “Apache! Cut that out! Biting is not allowed!”

Apache: “But Mom! She tried to spit at me!”

 

Cataleya: “Tell me you did not just stick your tongue out at me, Apache!”

Me: “Can’t you two just get along?”

 

Cataleya: “Mom! She’s doing it again!”

Apache: “I can’t help it! Llamas are so rude!”

 

Cataleya: “What-evah! Everyone knows, Llamas Rule and Horses Drool!”

New Arrival

 

Last week an 18 wheeler backed up into our driveway and dropped off a new arrival.

A Deluxe Jr Portable Corral by  Shady Shack.

I decided to get one of these portable corrals for future overnight ACTHA CTC rides, base camp horse camping trips and for grazing my horse and llamas in the front yard (When we have grass. Thank you monsoon rains!).

I had considered getting an electric fence corral, but remembered how Apache reacted to the one that she was in last summer during our Carson National Forest camping trip. To say that she has a high respect for electric fence is putting it mildly. The pen that she and about 10 other horses were kept in during that trip was about 150 x 50 feet, and she avoided the edges of that pen and stayed in the center at all times. When I had to walk her through the electric gate, she was very high-headed, snorty, and bug-eyed and practically leapt through……I had to stay on my toes….not easy for me to do with my bum knee and creaky hips.

Also any time we’ve had to ride near an electric fence, Apache has gotten nervous to the point where it feels like she’s all coiled up like a ball of springs and wants to gallop right on past.

So, while I know she respects electric fencing, I nixed the idea of keeping her in an electric corral during horse camping trips, because I want her to be relaxed and calm while penned up in a small space and not worried and stressed. And I don’t want her to be tied up to a trailer all weekend, especially after she’s carried my butt around on trails all day long. I’m pleased with the inner dimensions of the corral, which create a 10x10 stall or a 13’ circle. Apache is able to lay down and walk around, too.

(I wasn’t too sure about those heavy duty velcro closures. But they are a nice safety feature in case a horse ever got tangled up in the fence panels)

   

Apache really does seem to like her new portable corral, too.

(Some of you have noticed that Fantastyk Voyager and I are neighbors and have asked how close we live to one another. Well this photo kind of gives a good idea. See the large barn on the left side of the photo? That’s Val’s barn. See the smaller barn on the right side of the photo? Yep, that’s mine. The llamas and goats have the paddock on the far right side of my barn and Apache has the two paddocks which are to the left of my barn and behind her portable corral. In fact our horse paddocks share a fence line, of which you can see coming down the upper left side of the photo, beside Val’s barn. So our houses are only separated by the distance between the two horse paddocks. So yeah, we’re friends, bloggers AND neighbors.) 

As for the llamas, unless they are sheared down to skin, they wouldn’t be bothered by an electric fence. And unless I ran at least one high string and one low string, they could just crawl under…..or leap right over the top.

(Catlinite, the old man, is the one I have to watch out for because he likes to kush down to eat, and I can totally see him shimmying right underneath this portable corral)

Speaking of Catlinite, oh boy! It has been way too long since I’ve tried to catch and halter him and it showed the other day, too. I had already haltered Cataleya, very easily I might add, and she was already inside the portable corral happily munching grass, so Catlinite was a stressed out, distracted mess pacing up and down the fence humming to his sister. If only he understood that I was trying to take him to her. bah!

I had to spend 20 minutes working with him to accept the rope and halter. Once I get him in the barn stall I can usually walk right up to him and get him haltered, but I made the mistake of first trying to catch him in his paddock and when I got the rope around his neck, he turned and ran off full barrel, so I had to let go. The 3 goats weren’t making it any easier on me because they were constantly getting in between Catlinite and me trying to get me to pet them. ugh! And after he got away from me in the paddock, he was a smarty pants and wouldn’t let me get close enough to be caught. So, I left the paddock and he finally went into the barn, where I locked him in and finally caught him. Naughty bugger! 

People always ask me, “Why Llamas?” And I tell them it all started when I was a little girl and watched the movie “Dr. Doolittle” for the first time, and saw his “Push Me-Pull Me”. I wanted one of my own someday! Never mind they don’t exist. hah!

Or do they?

Catlinite is a guard llama through and through and he takes his job seriously. He is often seen pacing the fence or kushing down at the farthest egde of his paddock keeping an eye out for danger. If he sees any, he is quick to herd the goats into the barn and then run back to take care of the predator. He came from a farm that used him to guard their huge herd of alpacas……and they never lost one or had one injured by predators or stray dogs, ever.  I watched him go after a stray dog in our paddock about a few months after we bought him 4 years ago (he is 7 years old now, and with his neck all snaked-out, his clawed hooves striking out as he ran after it full barrel, that dog was screaming for safety!

(Cataleya and Catlinite accept both of our ranch dogs. But Dobbie Girl still gets pretty intimidated when the llamas bend down to have a sniff.)

Cataleya, who arrived with Catlinite 4 years ago, is now 5 years old, and is a very sweet girl. She loves to leave the barn and go for walks and explore new places. She can be nurturing and patient with the goats, letting them nibble hay from her fleece, or lay beside her, but she has virtually no guard instincts and is happy to leave them behind if given the chance.

I trained her to carry a pack right after I bought her and she seems to enjoy going for a hike in the woods while carrying my water and gear.

Anyway, I guess I got off on a totally different subject, probably because I hardly ever talk about my llamas and the 4 year anniversary of when they first arrived here is in just another month. Wow! Time flies!

You can see those early llama posts if you’re interested: 

Officially a Llama Mama!

Llama Land

Room with a View of Llamas!

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Ok, so I won’t bore you with anymore llama talk. This post is about my new portable corral, for Pete’s sake!

Someone on my Facebook asked me if it was heavy to move around and told me that I was lucky to have a couple of strong young men to help me. Well, I’ve not had to utilize my strong young men at all, in fact. I can move it all by myself, thank you very much. hah!

Yes, it’s true, the 5’ high x 5’ wide, 3/4” steel panels only weigh 13 lbs each and I can carry two of them by myself. Which is very convenient, since I am currently using the portable corral to graze my animals in the front yard.

I‘ve already moved the corral 4 times since last week. And I have the Crop Circles to prove it. hah!

(The first two crop circles belong to Apache. Right after the llamas crop circled that 3rd one, I moved it up to the 4th location)

Seriously, aren’t those alien crop circles the funniest thing?

But at least the grass is getting mowed and it’s free food for the critters. It won’t last once the monsoon rains end in the next couple weeks. The grass only grows here once a year in late July/August and then it’s back to feeding hay full time.

Hard to believe that summer is over already.           

It’s Gone

 

After a week of going up to the main paddock almost daily with gloves, trimmer, step stool (to sit on and take the ache out of my back and knees), and my water bottle in hand, I’ve finally got control of all the sage by aggressively cutting, trimming, and pulling…..and a whole lot of sweat and sore muscles.

It’s finally gone.

You can see the *Before* photo with This Link.

Here are the *After* photos:

(You can still see the stumps of the sage left behind, which I’ll get help pulling them out with the tractor soon) Oh…and it rained not long after I took these photos. Not much, though. It sure is dry and dusty around here. We only got enough rain this summer for about 3 weeks of grass growth. It’s all dried up and brown already.

A couple of you asked if Bella might have gotten sage sickness too, because of the way she acted so out of character and bucked my twinling Jax. It’s possible. Bella really liked the back paddock and spent much time in there. After we sent her back to the horse rescue, I did a walk-thru of that paddock and noticed that two sage bushes had been destroyed, as if she had attacked them.

(Here’s a pic of that back paddock. Bella destroyed the sage bushes, so it’s sage free)

And she had also eaten the bark of the juniper and pinon trees, too. Apache doesn’t even do that. But considering that Bella was staying here to help her lose some weight and was only getting one flake of hay three times a day, and no grain, due to her insulin resistance, it’s a real possibility that the change in diet, eating less food, caused her to be hungry enough to binge on large amounts of sage.

Which is kind of sad if that happened, because I really liked Bella and felt she fit in well here, even though she had health and boundary respect issues. Apache really seemed to like Bella, too.

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This is a view from the back of the main paddock looking towards our house. Notice all the sage is gone now. Only the yuccas and trees are left. You can see the large grey log, just left of center, that Jen and I are sitting on in my blog header.

 

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Apache seems quite confused about the loss of all of her yummy sage shrubs.

(Do you have any idea the amount of courage it takes me to get anywhere near the backside of my mare? I about had a panic attack after this photo was taken, because I was sort of wedged into the corner of this paddock, between two fences and her body, only about 3 feet from her butt.  She had come to me for some scratching and petting when she got jealous seeing me petting Annie, my neighbor friend’s mare.

And when I was done petting her, Apache turned away to walk up the hill. I didn’t relax until she was over 10 feet away from me. whew! After getting kicked in the face, the back side of any horse is not ever where I want to be.)

Apache did stay very close to Jenna and I the entire time we cleared away the sage and weeds. I caught her eating the sage and some other weeds while I was pulling them out. I think she was mostly doing that because she wanted me to stop pulling sage and pay attention to her instead.

 

During all the clearing of the sage, I also discovered a couple of other suspect weeds that I’m removing, too.

Does anyone know what this weed is? It’s those green mounds down to the left and right of Jen’s feet. She took a break from hauling weeds to love on Val’s Arabian mare, Annie.

Close up. Notice the little berry-like fruit. They remind me of mini unripe tomatoes.

After doing some research on the Guide to Poisonous Plants Search Feature, I’m guessing Horse Nettle, which can be toxic to horses if eaten in large amounts. ugh! It’s growing all along the fenceline and I watched Apache grab a bite of it just the other day.

I also found this plant.

I think it’s a Chinese Lantern or Ground Cherry, a member of the Physalis family, which can be poisonous to horses if ingested in large amounts, causing colic, bloat and diarrhea. What a mess!

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I had some help clearing the weeds. My daughter Jen loaded up piles of sage and weeds and hauled them up to the hill to the goat paddock and compost pile.

And the goats and llamas sauntered down to help munch on the little bits of sage and weeds that I missed.

Apache really likes the goats and tries to groom them and nibble on their tails.

Unfortunately, the goats aren’t as open-minded about Apache’s attention and usually run-off. Except Latte, my mini-mancha doe. She seems to be a little more tolerant of Apache’s affection and curiosity.

Apache really likes Dobbie, too. She’s always trying to nuzzle and lick my little dog.

Apache tolerates the llamas, but sometimes tries to herd them around, which usually ends up with Apache getting spat upon. 

But the llamas really like Dobbie and try to nuzzle her, which leads to Dobbie running away and hiding behind me.

(That’s Catlinite, my gelding guard llama sniffing, Dobbie. And my sweet Angora doe, Luna is walking down on the left)

This is Cataleya, Catlinite’s half-sister. She’s my good llama who enjoys going for walks and getting out and exploring. I taught her how to carry her own pack. Catlinite, on the other hand, is a worry wart and doesn’t enjoy stepping off his own home turf.

 

And Dobbie likes to pretend she’s a herding dog when she’s around the goats. They don’t seem to care for that behavior very much, and are always sure to let her know. Dobbie still has fun anyway.

(In this video, you get to see Dobbie “herding” the goats, me getting pestered by a goat, and Apache feeling left out and coming over to join the craziness)