Rural Legacy: June 2015

Monday, June 8, 2015

All in a Monday Morning

Hope you're enjoying your sunny (hot) Monday!

So far today, we've picked up the latest meat chick order from the post office (2 didn't make it) and got them situated in their brooder tank.

Last night, we moved the turkey poults from the brooder to the pasture to make room for the new arrivals. This morning, we found 4 dead and 1 missing which leaves 6 still derping and chirping. I guess someone gets to sit out with the turkeys tonight to take care of the skunk (at least, that's what we're assuming it was. Skunks leave tell-tale signs at the scene of the crime. They slaughter their prey which is usually a significant percentage of the flock (that's putting it nicely), let their kills ferment for a day, and then they'll return the next night to feast. Really disturbing. Really gross. But it means that we can deal with the perpetrator.

On top of turkey drama, we need to get the first batch of meat chickens out of their brooder tanks and onto pasture. They've put on enough weight and size to be moved out. Guess we'll have to do the great chicken shuffle this evening since it's going to be too warm to do anything productive this afternoon.

Today is a day for chocolate. And a lot of iced tea. Because it's too hot for a proper cup of tea. ;)

Until next time!

The Great Llama Shearing

With the impending first heat wave of summer, we decided that we needed to get the llama sheared before it became too miserable for the big guy. We didn't get around to shearing him last year (it costs a pretty penny to have the shearer to come out for 1 llama), so Zorro spent the hotter days under a sprinkler that we had set up in the pasture. With 2 years worth of a fur coat and not calling the shearer in a timely fashion, we had to get down to business and shear him ourselves. Thankfully, a friend of ours was more than willing to help. You see, back in high school, he did 4H llamas, and he :really: wanted some llama time. So we set aside a Saturday to tackle the project. Nathan came up wearing his 4H llama shirt from yonder llama days and armed with the biggest, baddest shears I ever did behold. After some llama wrangling, we set to work taking off the mat of a fur coat.

With Nathan working on one side of the llama with his shears, and Dad working on the other side with the clippers, we finished in a fairly decent amount of time. The impressive part was when the mat of fur came tumbling down the llama's side like a giant shag rug - one big, tangled mess. We really didn't care about saving the wool for spinning because we still have bins full of the wool from past shearings with all our other llamas. The sole purpose of this shearing session was to make the summer heat more bearable.

Before: