This will be the last post for a couple of days because I am combining business with pleasure this weekend. We are heading up to Wisconsin tomorrow and will see all sorts of cranes at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI on Friday. That’s the pleasure part! On Saturday, it is business, but also quite a bit of pleasure for me because I will be learning all about llama parasites and other fun stuff that can make my ‘nanner-eared kids’ sick. I realize that doesn’t sound like much joy in mudville, but for once there isn’t a Llama 101 attached to it. I certainly understand the need for Llama 101, and have been to many where I learned quite a bit, even after several years in the business. But I’ve been doing this for around 14 years now and figure I’m about ready to attend vet conferences to learn more — except they won’t let me. Ah well . . . . This one should make up for all the beginner conferences I’ve been to. I will say there is a llama conference held annually in MA that sounds excellent, but that is a bit far for my pocketbook.

One great thing happened today, which reflects back to my posting last night about how boring my life is: I got lots more burrs out of Sweet-n-Tart’s fiber. I’m done with the neck and just about done with the front legs. Now comes the FUN part — the back legs and tail. She’ll deal with just about anything except that tail, and of course, she has lots and lots of burrs in it. I’ll let you know if I get kicked — which I probably will. I saw more burrs on Kismet’s legs, so if Cherity comes on Friday, I’ll ask Josh and her to take them out. They should share in the fun, right?

This weekend we also pick up Spicey Hot and Mocha Latte [naming lamas is fun!] and Hokatika and Otis [NOT my name!] and Sky’s the Limit. Sky is such a neat guy; I hope his breeding expedition didn’t spoil him. I will get pictures of him on sometime — he looks like a clown.

Finally, I’m getting the On the Trail with Llewis and Cllark started — see the picture above of Carl walking a Llewis and Cllark type llama. I’m looking forward to putting the information together for the folks to pick up, and am REALLY looking forward to the ways the stories will be told. It should be great fun.

Enough for now — time to ‘fly away’ to be ready for the cranes tomorrow!

Have a hummer of a day.

This has been an exciting week or so for EDR Lamas. First of all, the IgG for Kismet, the baby alpaca, was borderline okay, 738. That isn’t even beginning to be borderline okay for me, but my vet accepts something less than perfect [which I don't do well]. They had some plasma that I had sent over a while back for someone else to use who then decided not to use it, so we put that in her last Friday. I sent the sample out to M&M Labs in Michigan to be checked on Saturday. I didn’t hear anything on Saturday, so decided it must be okay; even if they didn’t get the results Saturday morning [and I didn't expect them to], my vet would have called me if the number was still low. It came back at 1216, as I recall, which is much better. And she is running around and having a wonderful time, gaining weight and everything. I know — I’m supposed to be putting pictures up here. I will by tomorrow or Friday evening. Tomorrow evening I am finally getting my garden set, unless it rains.

We are picking up on tours and hikes –even have a craft tour! I am now trying to figure out how to do a Tea on the Trail [without llamas because it will be in August and too hot for them to go on the trail]. It should be fun, but I’m just not sure about the best way to do it.

We’ve started advertising again, too. Josh isn’t happy with what I did because he doesn’t think it will bring people around, but if I can get them to the web site that is a start. Basically, I ask a question that we get asked a lot in the TidBits ad and then give the answer on the web site. Nothing new about that, but I think it may be okay. We’ll see.

About the visitors: this may be short because I’m getting tired. We got a call from some people who were moving from Delaware to Colorado and needed someplace to keep their animals during the day between what they expected was going to be two nights of driving. I’m not sure about the two nights of driving from Delaware the Colorado, but was more than glad to let their guys run around the front/riverside pasture since no one else is on it. The people, Olin and Becky, got here almost at noon and we put their six intact males in the front. I wasn’t concerned about fighting because the one thing that are does have is lots of green stuff! And I was right — the only one that got upset was the bluebird who was trying to protect her nest box. She finally gave up and flew into the tree until the boys quit jumping around for joy. Then she went back and all was fine. I checked on her later and she was in the area. So the boys ran around and ate, getting over their first 18 hours and ready for the rest of the trip. Olin and Becky refueled and sat in the back woods resting and getting themselves ready to go. Finally the time came, and we went down to round up the boys. This proved to be easier than I had anticipated, using the Marty McGee roping system to urge them along. We used a couple of wands to help guide them, too, but they were really easy. We got them on leads again and took everyone to the trailer. Not a problem!

We have one more baby due — overdue, I think. And of course it is an alpaca and of course it is her first and of course I have no one else in the herd due so I can’t tell if this is just the way it is going to be this year.

I did something last year that I don’t think I will do again: I field bred my alpacas. I only have four females and one breeding male, and I watched very closely and wrote on the calendar when I saw someone being bred. Only one of the three ended up being bred, which could have been caused by the field breeding or by the fact that the male was 13 years old at the time. I don’t think his age is a problem, though, and he did take each of them down several times. The issue I am having is that I know this female was bred the first time out — at least he was sure doing his thing. And I’ve been around the block enough times to know first-time breedings, no matter how wonderful they look, don’t always take. I’m just feeling very insecure and am tired of waiting around for her to do something. It will probably be a light fawn, which I do not want, but the male is red/brown and the female is white, so I think that is what I will end up with.

On the subject of waiting for babies, one other thing that is really bothering me right now [maybe because I'm sitting around waiting for this blasted baby to drop -- watch, it will not only be light fawn but a boy] is that people in both of the state organizations I belong to, IAOBA and ILLA, are taking life too seriously. Hey, folks, things happen — spit and shit both, you know. None of us is perfect and by-and-large we are volunteering to to what we do. We do have lives outside the organizations. If you want to take something that seriously — not trusting people, being negative, acting like a toddler whose candy was just taken away — spend some time in a cancer ward. Check out the kids UNDER TWO YEARS OLD who are bald because they’ve been getting chemo. Get a real life and let the rest of us enjoy our animals. If having llamas and/or alpacas is the your total livelihood, then spend your energy doing that, not sending e-mails and talking to people and generally causing problems because something ‘wasn’t done right’ according to your rules. Even if it wasn’t ‘right’ according to the procedures, I doubt it will cause the world to end, or even the llama and/or alpaca industry to cease and desist.

Okay, one more rant and I’m done for the night. This is the problem when I’m tired and also tired of w-a-i-t-i-n-g [and yes, I've done this lots of time before and gotten just as frustrated]: I say what I want. The best part is that the ways things are going, no one else is going to know! So HA!! At any rate, I am fed up with people who buy animals and don’t know anything about them and then abuse or  neglect them. I’ve been involved with two llama rescues in the past month, and both were totally ridiculous. One involved a male cria [baby] who was taken away from a perfectly healthy mom and sold to a lady who had the sense to check around [after the cria quit eating] so that it ended up at my ranch with an adopted mom and seems to be doing well. The lady who bought the cria is somewhat to blame for not doing some research before buying the little guy, which she acknowledges, but the real problem is the person who sold him with the advice that the lady could bottle feed him like a goat.  Berserk male, anyone? The other one was a neglect situation — an intact male kept in with a stallion and a mare and none of them fed properly until last January. Needless to say, it was originally a disaster. However, in January, a wonderful lady [who again didn't know anything about llamas] started feeding all the animals at the place [horses, ponies, birds, pigs, and the llama]  and fell in love with the llama. We helped her move it to a much better facility after she had to buy it from the person. Last I heard it is doing well, but what a rotten situation. I asked about calling Animal  Control, but apparently in that area AC only deals with dogs and cats — makes me really appreciate David, the previous Animal Control person in my county.  And that isn’t anything near what the true rescue people see, from what I’ve been told. It is so sick, sick, sick. I would take along to a rescue some of the people who have nothing better to do than complain about how things are done in the ILLA and IAOBA, but I probably wouldn’t be doing the rescue “correctly,” and I would haul off and hit the person when he/she starts in on me. I do not hit animals, but like a spitting llama or alpaca, I do my own version of spitting on people when they deserve it.

So much for tonight’s temper tantrum from me. The one thing I do take seriously from tonight’s rant is the treatment of llamas by unethical and stupid people. The rest is just a game.

We had the most fun a couple of weeks ago and took a small white llama, White Knight, and a black suri alpaca, Midnight Idol, to visit several kindergarten groups in Washington, IL. We did the usual of talking about llamas and what they do, like living in families and carrying back packs, and stuff. I’m not sure how much the kids really get out of that, but we try to make it really interactive with lots of fun questions. One thing I always do is tell the kids that llamas hum to each other to talk, and then I have them ‘hum’ thank yous and good byes when we are done. I also try to get kisses from at least one of the animals — grosses out some of the kids, but that is part of the fun of it! We did have one thing happen that has NEVER happened before: the alpaca decided that he needed to pee — on the rug in the room! At least he didn’t start dropping droppings! I tried taking him outside while Cherity, who works with me, kept on talking, but of course he was too stressed at that point to do anything. It was wild; I guess enough of the kids had done something on the rug to get him started. It would be nice if we could get them to ‘go’ before we start, or at least before they get out of the trailer, but since we’d never had this problem before, I guess I was getting a bit lax. And it bit me in the proverbial butt! If I can I will attach pictures — the kids are so cute, and this llama and alpaca are the perfect size for them. And in this group only a few held their noses and said the llama and alpaca smelled — better than usual.