A Break in the Busyness

It was a beautiful day today in Tonganoxie... a balmy fall day, starting out cold but quickly warming to the upper 50s.  Keith and I forced ourselves to ignore the fact there was an auction mere minutes away on the other side of town so that we would not spend any money unnecessarily.  Keith did go to Home Depot to get a load of plywood for the roof of the chicken house, but by the time he got back, it was so windy it was not safe to climb up and install the roofing, so we are waiting for another day.  In the meantime, wind or no, the boys raked:

Here is Nate with some of the bags of leaves they gathered, headed for the compost heap.

Chris took a break to help me get the warming light ready in the little hen house, since the birds will be staying in there this winter.

You can see the wire hanging to the right... there is a chick-warming lamp that hangs in there and provides JUST enough warmth to keep everything going.  In another week. we'll put heavy plastic on the three windows for the winter.  Last year we used silicone, it looks like glass but was plastic, but it was hard to cut and shattered when Keith removed it in the spring,and I have picked up little pieces all year. 

It is so nice to do chores in the daylight on the weekend.  The Beacon of the Farm is shining morning and night now while I work on the birds from Monday til Friday.

The llamas are fat and content around the hay buffet as they eat their dinners.

Today we had very sad news about Big Mama Llama, who is Tony's mother.  Big Mama was loaned to us three years ago by our friend Joani, and came with her then cria, Tony.  We loved Tony so much we bought him, but Joani wanted to keep Big Mama.  She was here for a year, and had another cria, the beautiful Yankee.  We lost Yankee last March (2010) when he was gelded.  Big Mama went home with Joani when she brought Tony home to us after the gelding. 

Yesterday, Joani found her dead in the pasture.  She had not had a live cria since Yankee, two years ago... and Joani believes she had gotten very elderly.  She was a wonderful llama, and taught Tony and Inca well.  We think that's why Inca is such a good mama to Aztec, and we are so very sorry to hear of the death of our good old gentle friend.

Here is a picture of our little girls today.  Hannah saw Dr. Tom again this morning, and he has given me medicine to reduce the swelling in her left eye.  We are going to try that for a while, and see if it helps, so now she has three medications going in.  We'll do what we can to keep her comfortable. 

Aren't they sweeties?  We love all our dogs, but the Little Girls hold a special place in our hearts.