Llama Clinic

Time for the llamas to have their annual check ups.  We are fortunate that a number of vet students from the U of M come out to a local farm and hold this clinic every spring.  It is very hard to find vet familiar with llamas so this is a huge blessing.  The girls got a good once over, their teeth checked, shots, dewormed and toe nails trimmed. 

Marceline in the chute getting her shots.

Honey Bear and Dancer.  Honey Bear was all done and very interested in sampling the hay. She has been eating hay out of the same field all year so perhaps this hay from another field was a real treat for her.

The Running of The Llamas

The Running of the Llamas is a fun celebration that was held in Hammond, Wisconsin.  This was the 20th, and final year, of the event. During the event, which packs the town with people far and wide, heats of four llamas race down the street for about two blocks to the finish line.  Some llamas are great runners and others are not all that interested.  A llama that isn't interested in doing something just doesn't do it.  If you are holding on to a lead of such a llama, you may not even get over the starting line.  Spark brings Marceline because she makes it her goal to be the leader of whatever group of llamas she is in.  This means that she naturally wants to be in the front of the pack and that her personality makes her a strong competitor in a race.  The last two years Spark and  Marceline won their heats, but came in third over all.  Since this was the last year, Spark ran sprints in the backyard for a good portion of the summer to get ready for a win.

Before the race there is a parade with the llamas, local royalty, and others community groups.

This year Spark's training paid off, he and Marceline came in first place.

For her effort she was awarded with a large basket of vegetables.

The prize smelled so go we could hardly get her back to the trailer to go home.  Bet she wishes she had run faster those other years now that she has "tasted" success.

At home, Spark cut up all her winnings to share with the entire barnyard.

Llama State Project Bowl

Our team the Stearburne Spitters.  Llama was new in our state this year and the kids did really well. The kids got together several times in the months prior to the bowl to practice together and then also did a lot of studying on their own. 

Spark made a llama cake for lunch.

This was lunch and it gives you and idea of just how many people were there.  This is just a very small part of the room we were in and there were other rooms and people sitting in hallways.  

Signs of an Early Spring

We were excited that it was warm very early this year and we were able to get some barn cleaning done.  Yes, that really is exciting, usually the poo is frozen down and then when the snow melts it runs through the barn and make a huge, gross mess.

It was so nice that we shed our jackets.

Pancake sunbathing.  Being a farm cat is good work if you can get it.

Lola and Jamal were happy to be out and not have wet feet.  

And then this happened.  A few inches of snow came and ruined the whole thing.  Thankfully it didn't stick around long.

4-H Knowledge Bowl Pratice Cake

After the Minecraft cake Spark was on a baking spree.  We had our first llama knowledge bowl practice at our house and he made another layer cake with a llama on top to spur on the llama learning.

Llama walk

We have a really great leader of our llama club who plans tons of great activities for us.  So when she suggested someone plan a llama walk we took on the challenge and quick got one planned.  We held it at a beautiful county park that has a river that winds through it.  

Afterwards we roasted hot dogs and made S'mores.  This was a lot of fun and we already have ideas on how to make it more exciting next year when we have more time to plan.  

Llama Herdsmanship

At the 4-H awards banquet, the kids won the award for llama herdsmanship at the fair.  That means that they kept the stalls and area clean and the water buckets and feeders full.  The llama kids in our county all work together as a team and take of whatever they see isn't up to par when the walk through the barns, but it is nice to be recognized anyway.  Actually, I am more proud that they all are willing to take care of someone else's animal than worry about winning the award just for themselves.  

Running of the Llamas

Every fall in the town of Hammond Wisconsin thousand of people line the street and place bets on which llama will run down the street the fastest.

Spark and Marceline signed up to be in one of the four races this year.  

Spark won his race and was in the final race where he took third place over all.  He was in first place almost the whole way and got edged out in the last minute by a large white llama and a little alpaca that both got a burst of energy at the last second.  Not all llamas are runners.  The ones who win are ones who want to be leaders and do everything they can to make sure no other llama is in front of them.  Marceline went because she is the only llama we have with that trait.  The rest of them are happy to followers.

Right before the race Spark was asked by a group of old women bikers if Marceline could wear a handkerchief with their logo on it.  Marceline was proud to represent them!  

After the race Spark was even asked for autographs.  We are already looking forward to next year and I think their might even be a bit of training that goes on before hand. 

Llama Fiber Day

 We have the most awesome llama club ever with a leader who is full of energy to plan all these fabulous activity days for us.  For this event we were learning all about fiber and what to do with it.  Llama owner can be an odd bunch when it comes to fiber.  Most of us have bag after bag of raw fiber in our garages that we don't know what to do with.  So we either need to learn what to do with it or hook up with someone who does.

Using a drop spindle is something I have been wanting to learn how to do. The people who do it make it look so easy so why aren't we making skein after skein of beautiful llama yarn.  Well, because it really isn't easy.  

We finally did manage to make some yarn on our spindles.  It was thin and then then lumpy and then thick and so on.  The lady who taught the class, who made perfect usable yarn, applauded all our efforts anyway so we walked away thinking there might be hope for us yet.

Dad or Uncle Si?

Felting soap.  This was by far my favorite activity of the day and we have made several more out of our llamas fleece.  

Dancer in her non-aerobic spinning class.  Actually I think if you were able to get the wheel really going you could have a pretty good calf workout.  This proved to be as hard as the drop spindle.

Dancer felted Minnesota.  This has since died as it got let sitting out somewhere and the cats killed one night when we were sleeping.  They just go crazy over llama fiber.

The leader of our club has about 20 llamas and everyone grabbed one and took it for a walk.

Dad took out Diego. Diego likes to be the boss and do his own thing so Dad calls him Diablo. 

Spark took out this little cutie, Gracie.  

The kids also learned how to dye fiber and they made a batch of yellow and purple.  

State Fair

There was lots of llama brushing and hair blowing to get Nora ready to go. 

Loaded up the two llamas were going from our county. 

Dad touched the butt.  This actually got people there excited.  Settle down people, it was one finger print. 

Spark and friends were in a cooking contest.  He also showed a bonsai tree.  As he was carrying it the mile plus back to the car, a lady asked where he got it and he gave it to her.   I wonder if she carried it around all day. 

Dancer and Nora lined up for the costume competition. 

We stayed at a motel with a two story tall mermaid on the roof.  Rather odd for our part of the country.

Dancer doing public relations with Nora.  

Fun, fun time but happy to be home until next year!

Somebody's Knocking

Knock knock

Who's there?

Llama

Llama who?

Llama in!

The Road To Blogging Is Paved With Good Intentions

These pictures are all from sometime in May.  This post is my attempt to do a little blogging catch up.

I'll start with a llama because there can never be too many llama pictures.

We went to Llama magic that was held at a fair grounds in the cities.

At Llama Magic you can buy fiber and llamas in the same buildings.  It was good we didn't bring the trailer with because there were some adorable crias for sale that might have found their way home with us.

Mother's Day we traveled up the road to see how high the water in the Mississippi River was and how fast it was flowing over the dams.  FAST!

At one park the kids couldn't resist climbing on their unique play equipment.

Stopped at the dam where we usually go fishing.  This support has a huge ledge around it that you have to climb up on to, now you couldn't even get close to it.   

The mist was so high that we couldn't see across to the other side.

Helmets Required took a trip up to the Hinkley Fire Museum.  This is a place has a fascinating story.   

First thing rebuilt after the fire was the train station.  Now it houses the museum which we spent a lot of time in because there is so much to see there.

The boys spent a good portion of the time hanging out in an Indian shelter.  They all thought it would be super cool to have one in their backyards.  I agree.

We stopped at the monument for the mass grave for those the survivors weren't able to identify. 

The plan was to start out the day enjoying lunch at the casino buffet and then going to the arcade.  After lunch, however, we found out that the arcade didn't open until later in the afternoon so we trekked back after the museum and boys played games while the rest of us watched and waited.

We toured a fish hatchery.  Working there would be Dancer's dream job, growing little fish in to big fish to stock lakes.  

Checking out fish samples.

Counting how many fish hatched.  

Pumpakunchen just keeps growing.

The 4-H Junior Leaders made May baskets for a local nursing home.  Like the lateness of this blog post, they didn't get them handed out until the middle of the month.  I don't think any of the residents minded that they weren't on the actual day, they just like to have the kids visit. 

This will be the first year we have a llama show in our own county so llama obstacles needed to be built.

Lots of painting and

hammering and we have ourselves a pretty nice set of obstacles to start with.

Helmets Required toured a military museum.  The boys climbed on all the tanks to pose for pictures

while Dancer checked out a Jeep.  I think she had visions of all the off roading she could do in it.

Our Monday co-op did a service project helping a member of the church we meet at clean out and 

plant her flowers.  With 14 people it didn't take very long.

We have enjoyed a few bonfires, always a nice reward after a busy day.

And we will end with a llama.  They got their spring hair cuts.  They will need lots more work before the fair but we did this much so they won't suffer heat stress.