I have not written anything in a while, and my nephew said he was going to quit looking at our site if I didn’t start updating so here goes.
I have some sad news to report from a few weeks ago. We lost a baby llama. We knew Gypsy was having problems but did not realize how serious it was until it was too late to save the baby. We loaded her up and took her to a vet in Claremore, who did a wonderful job in doing all she could, but it was too late. Thanks to her Gypsy is doing fine now. If we had waited much longer we might have lost her too. We will not be able to breed her until next year, but that is okay. The baby was a girl and we had already decided to name her Gypsy’s Rose Lee and call her Rosie if we had a girl. We were all very sad and Tabi learned that there is sometimes heartaches on the farm too.
I don’t think I’ve talked about a new llama we purchased and named Dudley. Tabi really is our “llama whisper”. We got Dudley from a guy who had horses and he put them together without thinking about the fact that his horses had never seen a llama. The horses got all excited and went through the fence so he needed to find a new home for the llama. This is why I recommend if you are thinking about getting a llama to first read the book “Stop Spitting on Your Brother” by Diane White-Crane. Even though it is written for children it has a lot of factual information about the behavior of llamas. Okay back to my story…
We looked at Dudley and decided we would like to have him, because he has a beautiful coat and I’m thinking of the yarn I will be able to make once I get my spinning wheel. The owner delivered him and from the looks of things he had lassoed Dudley to catch him and load him. Steve got in the trailer and just lead him out. Tabi was holding him while we visited and wanted to know if she could take him to his new home. Steve first said “no, you can’t handle him”, to which I said “let her try”, also thinking she would need some help. Well before we could get turned around she had him through the first gate and almost to the second. He was following her like he had always been lead. She has him eating out of her hand and can catch him almost every time. It is remarkable what you can do with an animal if you understand a little about them. The guy we brought him from was amazed seeing this 12 year old leading a llama that he had to drag!
Dudley is the name that Tabi gave to him because of the book I mentioned about.
We found out that it is not a good idea to introduce a new male into a herd. Scout did not want anything to do with a new “boy” around. Dudley is only a couple of years old. We decided since he is not registered we would take care of that and had the vet come out and preform a little surgery on him, so we hope Scout will no longer feel threaded.
Graylland Acres Simply Goat Milk Soap will soon be offered for sale on the website. We have 4 batches curing, so keep checking back and I’ll let you know when it will be ready.
