I often have visitors here at the Fat Ewe Farm. They range from older folks who miss the mixed farm and all it has to offer, to very young ones, coming with their parents to view the animals. I was lucky the other day to show three delightful youngsters the critters on the farm. 

They came with their parents of course, and the mom is a professional master spinner with a wool company of her own. That is how we met. She had come to return some roving, now spun into a thick irregular chunky yarn. I am not sure what I will use it for as there is not much there really. I have another bag of roving I might convince her to spin too and then there would be enough for a mat. It would be perfect for that. 

We had to walk out to the pasture to see the sheep. I caught Rosy's little girl, who is as friendly as Rosy and not at all hard to catch, and they were able to pet her. Rosy and her lamb are purebred Babydoll sheep, and my favourite sheep on the farm. Karin Llama made quite the hit as she always causes some sensation when she runs over to investigate the newcomers to her pasture. She likes to smell the folks up close, so I instruct them to hold very still. Her nose tickles on the back of the neck or she will come right up to the face too, and smell the lips and breath of the people. Some are terrified of llamas only from what they have heard, that llamas are mean and spit. Any animal can behave poorly if not treated properly from young, but Karin was born here at the farm and she loves everyone. 

I think the ducks were the favourite of the little girl though. She loved their plump bellies and soft downy feathers, though the young ones are starting to feel prickly as their new adult feathers are poking out. They saw the potbelly babies and the bunnies and got an egg each to take home. It was a great afternoon and a little too short, but their drive was long to get back home. The daddy came along too and he is as gentle natured and kind as they come. We had a good time and I invited them back when they had another opportunity to come for a visit. See you then, kids!!

Llamas are really interesting creatures. I love them. They not only look different , they have traits that are unlike most domestic animals in North America. Llamas are related to camels, another animal I find interesting. Camels can survive in extreme cold or extreme heat. 

Llama behaviour shows they are curious animals and somewhat shy. That is, unless they were born on the Fat Ewe Farm and loved from the moment they arrived. Karin was born here and as a baby, I hugged her and held her close. When she was a little bigger, it took strength to hold onto the little girl since it is their natural instinct to move away from humans. Karin loves to go meet any new people and will be right there smelling their faces to see who they are. Most people have heard horror stories of spitting llamas, and believe me, after having been spit on by a male we were trying to load in a trailer, there isn't a lot much grosser. Llama spit is actually vomit from the stomach and it stinks like puke. That is the only time I have ever been spit on. Karin has not once ever spit on anyone or anything that I have witnessed. She is a sweetheart. 

Llamas do not like dogs usually, but she had no choice since they were here mostly before she was. Mike and Joe live in the same pen as she does and they all get along wonderfully. If Karin hears something such as a coyote or fox, her ears go back and move around listening. I am hoping she is bonded enough to want to protect the sheep and stomp the crap out of a predator, which llamas can do.

Karin loves to be present at the birth of every lamb. She waits patiently near the mother and leans right in to inspect the newborns, but she never interferes. Kaon had twins this evening, a boy and a girl, purebred Shetlands and Karin was there. I picked a twin up to take a photo and guess who photobombed? Karin! 

Karin fur can be spun into yarn or felted for fibre. It is very silky and soft. Llamas do not need to be shorn yearly and some have short fibre that does not need to be shorn at all. Others have dreadlocks, like on a Suri Llama and the fibre grows 10 to 20 inches long! I wish I had one of those! But I am happy with Karin. Soon she will have a friend, a little white alpaca female with blue eyes. 

I am happy to have Karin on the Fat Ewe Farm and think her presence here makes the farm so much more pleasant than it would be without her. She was named after my dear sweet cousin Karin, whom I also love very much. I don't know what will happen to Karin Llama when I retire. Maybe she will go to your farm?

Some call it selling animals or livestock, but my animals are all my friends. Everyone has a name and a place in my heart and when it is time to part with them, a piece of my heart goes along too. In some cases the animals are blessed and so am I, because they go to a home even better than the one they know here at the Fat Ewe Farm. Such is the case with my darling, sweet and gentle llamas, Lucy and her baby cria girl, Audrey. They have been renamed, but the names I gave them will stay with me. I am getting old and renaming simply does not stick in my pea brain. 

Lucy and Audrey were sold to Tim and Adele, a very wonderful couple that live nearby. Tim runs his own business doing mechanical maintenance on large machines and is now licenses to do out of province inspections and repairs too. Adele, well, I don't konw what she does for work, or if she is a fortunate stay at home Mom. They have a wonderful young boy and a teenage girl, equally beautiful. From time to time, they have requested small things via the internet and I was able to help them out, no charge, for it was no hardship for me. Being the kind of folks that remember kindnesses, they have offered to repay such with helping me out and are coming to assist on shearing day, if all goes well. For that I am grateful. Shearing is a fun experience and a lot of work. If the weather cooperates, it does not take long to do the sheep, llama and Angora goats. This years fleece is mostly for insulation as it is again heavily contaminated with hay, despite my efforts to try yet again another feeder model. 

Back to Lucy and Audrey…

The llamas have a wonderful loving home. They are given treats and tasty morsels, are fondeled and petted often during the day and are responding with the love and gentleness that llamas, when treated right, are known for. It is a win win situation. The new owners simply adore the llamas and the llamas are happy, healthy and content. 

Such is the case with Sherri the Nigerian Dwarf goat. I seldom sell bred animals. Instead I prefer to keep the babies and moms until they are strongly grounded and I know they are in great health. Then occasionally, I will sell the mother with the babies or wait until the babies are weaned to sell them alone. Sherri went to Tyler and his family. She is bred, had quads last year and is ready to pop in a few weeks. The family wanted to enjoy the experience of kidding and seemed more than willing to learn about goat care and needs. Sherri is well loved and I am positive her babies will be spoiled, too. There are two little boys in the family, one still an infant and the other old enough to understand and learn the care and love of animals. The couple sent some beautiful photos to me of the interaction with Sherri and a few words telling me how much they enjoy her. Wait until she has babies! Goat kids are amazingly comical and cute and win the hearts of everyone. It will be that way with Tyler's family for sure. I have permission to use the photos on my blog (I always ask prior to doing so, so that no privacy is invaded). Thank you for sending them along. It warms that piece of my heart that goes along with my creatures when they move on. Knowing she is so well loved makes my heart sing and I am grateful for her new family. 

Life is truly such a blessing. Isn't it?

When I first came to the Elk Point area and started The Fat Ewe Farm, 3 full years ago in March, 2012, llamas were among the first animals to come to live at the farm. Lucy and Joyce were the two llamas, but Joyce has since been sold. Lucy was at one time a show llama and was haltered frequently, trailered and moved around. Today, when I haltered her, she fought only a little, then settled in to an old routine, which she knew well. There was no resistance from her when I had the halter on and she followed easily with no need to tug on the rope. Her baby, Audrey, of course followed her mother. I had Lucy tied to a fence post awaiting the arrival of the trailer that was coming to take her to their new home. Lucy and Audrey were birthday presents for a local family, actually for two female members of that local family and I know they will be well cared for and loved. 

Karin, the other llama on the farm, is left alone and lonely. Llamas need to be together once they are bonded. Karin was born on the farm, the daughter of Joyce, and is only two years old. She is a delightful creature, friendly and loving and very pretty. She pined away for her mates at the gate of the pen long after she could no longer see the trailer. Then I fed her and for a while, all was forgotten as she munched her extra ration of alfalfa. Soon, another llama is coming to the farm, a little Suri female cria, about the same age as Audrey. Suri llamas have ringlets of very fine fibre and the new young cria was actually born on my birthday. Kariin and the new baby will stay on the farm provided they bond and get along well together. 

Llamas can be very good protectors of sheep and goats, but these girls had never had to protect any sheep at all. With the big livestock guardians, they did not get a chance to even consider protecting, so I don't know how they would be if they were actually confronted with a coyote. I am quite sure that Karin will protect the baby llama though, just through instinct. 

Thank you Lucy. You introduced me to llamas and you were loved and appreciated on the farm. Bless you and your baby girl in your new home. May everyone be happy. 

Audrey Llama, this year's beautiful young female cria, is an absolute delight. She is friendly and loves hugs and rubs. She still chortles, a sound that the babies make, which sounds like bubbling humming at the same time. When she sees me, she tends to come over for a snuggle and a chat. Her mother, Lucy, to the right of her, has regained her health, after a long fight with mineral deficiency, worms and mites over the winter. Karin, with her butt to the camera, is a friendly girl too, and the under dog of the trio. Lucy is the boss and when they are feeding, sends Karin away. Llamas like to have their own places to feed and do not like to share. Whereas sheep will tend to stick their heads into a bale of hay and crowd one another, llamas want to be separate, as you can see by the way they are feeding in the picture. Even the baby will now feed away from her mother. 

Llamas can be raised with sheep, but do not avail themselves of minerals as much as they should. I have begun to add a little salt and some dried molasses to the mineral mix for the llamas. I need to make some feed baskets that are high enough so the sheep cannot reach them so the llamas are happy. Right now, they will wait until the sheep are done eating before they feed, but by then, the tasty morsels are all but gone. Llamas can do well on poor forage, as long as it has a variety of weeds and leaves and not just grass, which is not their first choice, being browsers, like deer. 

They have been a wonderful addition to the farm. I would recommend llamas for anyone looking to add a quiet, pretty animal. Their fibre can be shorn and spun or felted too, so they do provide some value and llama meat, though a bit bland, is very fine eating, not that I am eating my girls. Llamas breed once a year because gestation is nearly a year. The females do not go into heat, but rather the act of breeding stimulates ovulation. Once bred they will fight a male off. There is no longer a male on the farm, but they can interbreed with Alpacas, and there are two males here. They are kept a long distance from the llamas in the hopes that they do not jump the fence and breed my girls. The resulting animal is a hurarizio, a small version with a cute face, but they are frowned on by alpaca and llama breeders, both.

The babies have started to arrive in full swing. Today, this morning, I was greeted with a baby cria (llama), a sweet little girl with a red coat and black mask. She is so beautiful. Lucy Llama, her mother, is a quiet, halter trained llama, and is very protective as is her Aunty Karin. The ewes all came over to inspect the new arrival. 

Then in the early afternoon, I was surprised by Leda, a young ewe, when she delivered twin boys, one black and one white, but they weighed only about 2.5 and 3.5 pounds each. It is not unusual for Icelandic ewes to birth twins and even triplets, but she is young, only a year and a bit herself, so this was quite difficult for her. She had the boys cleaned up and nursing quickly, then moved them inside for the evening. In a day or two, when she feels they are aware enough , she will bring them back to the flock. The twin girls born two days earlier have already joined the adults, though Mamma Red keeps a close watchful eye on them. 

Then late this evening, Taffy did not come out of the small shelter when I checked the goats. It was nearly dark and I thought for a moment I saw something small and white near her. Sure enough, there was a tiny blue eyed buckling, half Angora and half Nygerian. He appears to be healthy and robust. I will check on him before bed to be sure he has nursed. Sometimes new mothers are not quite sure what that is all about. If his tummy is full and his mouth is warm, he and she will have figured all that out. Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats are great, but Angoras are terrible, because the mothering instinct has been forsaken for the best fibre. These babies are only the beginning of an estimated 60 lambs and goats that will be born on the farm this year. It is the most exciting and heartbreaking time. Sometimes nature takes its course and for whatever reason a young one does not make it. The mother cries and so do I, but for the most part, we have been extremely fortunate at The Fat Ewe Farm and the babies and mothers have gone on to see tomorrow. How blessed I am to be the stewardess in all of this. It is pure bliss and I am grateful to our Creator that I can share in the new lives. Thank you. 

The buck and the rams were put in with the girls on the first of December, making the first due date April 30th. As with humans it is always a little of give or take each way, and the ram cannot get to each girl the first day, although I am sure he tried. The young ewes, or hoggets, were in with a Babydoll Southdown ram until the Blue Faced Leicester trio joined them. Although the Blue Faced Leicester was with the ewe lambs he arrived with, it does not appear that they are bred, or if they are , they would have caught on the last heat making them due in mid June. 

But the ladies are ready. The llamas were transferred over to the sheep pen and the ewe lambs are with them now too to make lambing easier. There is a lambing shack and another area that is private, plus their shelter, but often the ewes just choose a quiet corner and lamb out in the open. The ravens hang around the pen and it is likely they were what cause the loss of four lambs last year who simply disappeared. So, I must be diligent and watchful. 

Sharon goat looks like she will have quads. Lucy Llama is definitely due, though Karin is not showing signs of being bred, which is a good thing, because I already have one too many llamas. I think Helga, the other Icelandic ewe will be the next sheep to give birth, but it really is waiting game as nature will take its course. One thing for sure, is that cuteness overload is about to happen!

The theory is that if a lamb is picked up and shown to the mother sheep, she will follow. It works for short distances and when the lamb is new, but after a couple of months, as in the case of Dominique and his mother, she paid no attention. I was trying to move the llamas and Mamma Sheep in with the ewes to make feeding and watering slightly easier, since Zeb is now rehomed. Talk about a lesson in frustration.
Lucy did get as far as the ewe pen, but I could not lure her in, not even with grain. I was in danger, however, of luring the sheep out, who remember what a grain bucket is and were highly motivated to see what was in it. Karin Llama and Mamma sheep did not even so much as enter the barnyard, even with their matriarch, Lucy, out of sight. Usually, Karin follows wherever Lucy goes, though not today of course. In the meantime, little Dominique was being inspected by the ewes, batted around a bit and cried until he was hoarse, but Mamma Sheep never came. Lucy had a visit with Aiden, her son, who lives next to the ewes, and then went to eat what little bit of green grass she found on the east slope of the yard. I finally gave the plan up and then had to carry Dominique back to the llama pen and get Lucy, Karin and Mamma Sheep back in too. So much for moving the Llamas and Mamma Sheep. Sigh.

Everyone said I should get the baby lamb out of the shelter shared with llamas because they are big and will hurt him, but no way. The llamas are very gentle and careful with the new born. They bend down and say hello to him and even watch him when mom is outside eating. Lucy Llama babysits for mamma sheep when the lamb is left inside with her. He is comfortable around her and respectful too. The sheep and the llamas share the same feeder and although llamas are territorial when it comes to their food, they certainly tolerate little Dominique lamb under their feet and carefully step around him. He does tend to stick to the corners near mom and then curls up in a soft bed of hay for a nap when he is tired. Dominique is a pure bred Dorset sheep, a breed that was the most popular a century ago. Ewes weigh 150 pounds and up and rams 200 and up. Dominique had a slow start to life, being weak and clueless, but he is quickly making up for lost time and learning his way around the pen and shelter. The two mother llamas, Lucy and Karin are left in the pen because Jeanette Llama, Karin's cria was sold last week and Aiden, the little male cria from Lucy, has gone to live with the alpaca boys. Pretty soon, when Dominique is bigger, he and his mom will go to live with the ewes on the Fat Ewe Farm. Welcome little boy!

The temperatures have stayed in the minus 20's for a long time, gong down to minus 32 and 34 at night. For the most part the sheep and the dogs, except of Harley, who has arthritis from being fed GMO grain based dog food when he was a pup, are pretty comfortable. Both the dogs and sheep can curl up on the snow and sleep there and not be cold. The dogs curl up and their bushy tails cover their noses. The sheep are well insulated and the alpacas seem to be too, more so than the llamas. Those poor goats run out to eat and shiver and run back to their barn, staying there until they have to eat again. They do not like the snow or cold and only travel on their paths, never venturing their little hoofies into the snow. The Angora goats were not shorn in the fall, so they have long thick warm coats that will be of little to no value other than insulation, because the fiber will mat and it is so full of vegetative matter from feeding alfalfa hay. It does make good insulation though. Some of the chickens only venture out to eat and drink and spend the rest of the day on their perches in the coop, trying to stay warm. The ducks and geese come out to eat and drink, but drop onto their downy bellies frequently tucking their toes into their feathers so their feet do not freeze. In their coop, they have a thick straw bedding that insulates their feet from the icy ground. Still, one duck froze in his sleep this winter.

The trees can be heard cracking loudly when it is crispy cold, freezing as they stand. In the winds, these weakened trees are blown over and up rooted or simply broken in two. No other living things are seen around the farm, no weasels, no coyotes, nothing, because of the pack of livestock guardian dogs that keep it safe. The lens on the camera continually fogs over because though it is very cold, there is also a mist in the air of ice particles. It has snowed non stop for the past three days, lightly, but non stop. One would wonder why anyone would choose to live in such a frigid area, and yet, further north, there are much colder regions where people also live. Just because winter is so hard here in northeastern Alberta, the anticipation of the beautiful summer is so looked forward to. But, darn, it is cold right now.