A busy Summer

Wow I'm not sure where summer went!

It was a busy one. We were fortunate to have some help from the HelpX website - Paul and Charlene, Nic, Sarah, Cecilia, Fred and Fabien.
These folks helped out with looking after the chickens and turkeys, collecting eggs, fencing, gardening, yardwork, housework.... Thank you each and every one. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Canada!

So what have we been doing?
Larry had 3 different groups of cows to manage - checking water, moving fences for rotational grazing, moving cattle....

I had a fence to build, animals to pick up at community pasture, the sheep and goats that stayed home needed checking and managing, my garden needed work, I helped Larry move cows, and then tried to keep the Balance of things and plan fun stuff in between - so I took my horse Macy to 2 horse shows, took my dog Spice to sheep camp, went fishing, went to Cypress Hills, went riding 1x a week with my coach...

So here are some random photos from the summer
You might remember this photo from my Grazing Rotations blog - this was what the grass looked like after an intensive graze on June 4:

 This is the same hill, on July 6:  

Me and Macy moving cows

Jewel eating apples - there's an advantage to having a long neck! :)

Remus, new guardian of the flock. Sitting behind the electric fence.

Fishing with friends

 Nic enjoying some time off 

The chickens enjoying a dust bath under the trees

The new chicken pasture. 

  

chickens moved

turkeys foraging 

 Whats left of a plant: only the top leaves the turkeys cant reach! 

Here's a video clip of the turkeys grazing Turkeys Grazing

My veggie garden with chicken coop in background

 Another picture of a thistle that the chickens and turkeys stripped

Shamrock trail ride

Nic with a fish

At sheep camp: thanks to Chelsey A Hinckley for these gorgeous photos

Take-out day at the Elbow community pasture: I was at the crowding tub, this is the alley leading away from the tub to the sort gate

The view on the other side of the crowding tub! It was a hot and dusty day! 

Animals sorted into producer pens

 Remember what the layers looked like when we got them? 

Before and after

 Nice moose spotted on the way back from Elbow pasture

Sunset over Lake Diefenbaker

Fall is in the air....

Land of the living Skies :) 

Grandma Llama

I wrote about acquiring a llama by the name of Jewel a while back.

Jewel integrated nicely into the flock, but I didnt know how precious she could be until the kids began arriving. Goat kids, that is!

The first set of twins were born on pasture, and while the sheep had gone for water and the goats were lounging in their shed, Jewel stayed with the new mom and her babies. She hummed to them, sniffed them and seemed quite concerned when I picked one up.

Since then, as the kids started coming, Jewel has been looking out for them. A kid will follow its mom out to pasture, fall asleep and miss the herd returning to their loafing shed. But Jewel would be there, comforting the baby. I walked out a couple nights ago to ensure everything is tucked in, and Jewel showed me there was still a kid out in the pasture.
Early this morning, I snapped this photo of Jewel with 4 young kids in the pasture:

And here, Jewel is checking out new arrivals on Earth Day Sunday with mom in close attendance

Jewel making friends

What an amazingly gentle soul. 

The Guardian

I got a llama yesterday! This is Jewel, she is 10 years old and registered.

It was a bit foggy out this morning, which made for some neat pictures

Jewel with the sheep

Checking out the short fuzzies...

...And the tall majestic ones....

an itchy moment

Jewel seems very alert and curious. She has been handled lots and is halter broke, I still need to remove her halter. The sheep are familiar with llamas so they were not too traumatized. The goats think she's a bit weird but they don't really care. The milk cow - well maybe her eyes got a bit bigger, it's hard to tell, she is a Jersey with pretty big eyes as it is! :) 

The horses weren't really spooked but they thought it was a great excuse to ACT spooked and run around like crazy things! 

I caught Macy and Jack standing still in the fog:

Macy

Jack

The only ones that really noticed the llama, were my dogs. They know to stay out of the pens, but they run around the paddocks. They barked and growled at the strange new creature.

My hopefully future herding dog, Spice

I will monitor Jewel in the next week or so, to make sure she bonds with the flock. It might be a bit of a challenge because the goats come back to the corral to sleep at night, but the sheep prefer to sleep in the pasture. The horses go wherever they feel like it. If it looks like she is not bonding, I might separate the horses out into one camp, and bring the sheep up to the corral at night too.