A Bit More than Puppies

We are drawing to the end of the puppy time. We are keeping one and there are two that I just advertised today, so going from eight to three will be a nice decline for the demand on Montana. They are the cutest thing ever but it's hard to walk, feed, etc, eight puppies. For the most part, they are outside during the day and in at night and the puppy kingdom doesn't smell very good in the mornings!

I feel like regular life has been on hold with the puppies, but we do do other things. Did I ever cover the fact that Bella turned 8 and Tori turned 13? Well, that happened at the end of January. Tori is still awaiting her party, you guessed it, until after the puppies are out of the gated community downstairs. ( I need to plan that TODAY!)

Bella got real cow-girl boots, now she just needs a horse!

 

 

Other good news is that the llama and lapaca are settling in nicely. I like the fact they are far less needy than the goats are and donkey was! They just graze and don't storm the barn every time the goats are fed.

And here is some awesome news! My four baby boy goats are being sold to the local Berry Farm here for their petting zoo area. They are also going to be the spring 2018 goat yoga babies. (Yes, goat yoga is a real thing!) They are going to be famous.  They are very excited!

 

Jenny 

Puppies Outside

The puppies are 5.5 weeks old and today was sunny and warm; we took them out for some adventure time and just ignored the huge puddles everywhere that the puppies walked through. It is the first time we have walked them around the barnyard and fence area. It took a bit to get them moving, but they caught on and tromped with us.

This one was crying at the wall after he couldn't figure out how to get up.

They spent some time analyzing the creatures on the other side of the fence.

Butte looking especially Butteful today, don't you think?  Actually, it's amazing how cute she is with her ears up, and then she goes to this strange appearance when she slicks them back. Glacier is just cute all the time.

If there is any rustling in the barn, they all have to go check out the possibility of it being grain.

This puppy is rather confused by the concept of a llama. He kept staring.

It doesn't matter how much fun they are having, they get too tired and just go to sleep.

We lugged them to the backyard puppy pen for naps in the sun. They will be ready for another round soon.

Jenny

The Farm Additions

 Our new farm additions are a huarizo and a llama. If you don't know what a huarizo is, don't feel badly as we didn't either - it is half llama and half alpaca. It appears more as a llama, but makes it a smaller, more manageable size. We made the trip two hours away, into the mountains to a petting zoo. They actually were taken from another zoo and bought by this zoo, just to resell. Anyway, I only intended on coming home with the white huarizo, that I named Glacier. While there, however, JD became concerned that she wouldn't do well without one of her friends, so he impulse purchased a full size two year old llama that was the friendliest of the llama bunch. 

  
The group text we always have going with our big kids announced JD choosing a llama, followed by several big kids responding with things like, "right, don't believe that". It took some convincing for them to not "blame" me for the extra llama.

I told JD he could name his llama as long as he stuck with a mountain theme. He decided on Butte. A butte for those that don't know is an isolated mountain with steep sides and a flat top; there is a mountain in Montana named Square Butte. Butte is pronounced like Beauty without the Y. JD is finding it humorous due to the spelling. She doesn't mind and may wish to go by "Brown Butte."
 

They have both been housed with a white male llama for some time, so either or neither may be bred. Hopefully it won't be in the dead of next winter as they have a 11 month gestation. The male llama seemed nice enough until we loaded two of his three ladies in our horse trailer, and then he proceeded to spit at us through the trailer slats. He had pretty good aim and hit JD once from ten feet away.
 

The llama is much more outgoing that the "lapaca" at this point, but I did have Glacier eating out of my hand tonight. They just need some stability and love, and a hair-dresser, but that will have to wait.

I'm pretty excited about the addition of them. For now I just have them with each other to settle before they go out in the field with the goats. 

Jenny

 

Lest We Forget the Goats

All this puppy hoopla has stolen some goat cuteness time. In the month of January, Lady had twins, Leia had quads, but we lost the little girl, Storm had a single girl and Daisy had a single boy. I have spent a lot of time with prospective buyers here to see the puppies and goats and that is only going to increase when I advertise them.

Here is a picture of Leia with her triplet boys. She is my first goat and five years old and she isn't a very good mother this year, she continually lays down to avoid feeding them and we are supplementing them with bottles. (They were just de-horned in this pictures which makes for ugly marks for a week or so.)

We are leaving in a few minutes to add something rather exciting (I hope!) to the farm - stay tuned!

 

 

Jenny

Guess Who is Three Weeks?

 The puppies are three weeks old today.

Alei managed to hold all eight at once.

We celebrated the occasion by giving them their first puppy food soaked in milk today.

                                                  Jenny