I for one am enjoying this cooler weather along with our llamas and other furry critters. Our larger than life, think their human, need to be in control, bossy, they rule we drool animals, hate the hot muggy weather. It makes them cranky, irritable and down right sad. There’s nothing worse than a depressed donkey who wants mama to hold him and reassure him that the crisp Fall weather is right around the corner. The oven weather will make poor Laci our mini tank stop eating (whaaaaat??!!), she lays in the cool grass under the pecan trees and whinnies out , ‘oh woe is me, I’m so miserable’! The goat walks around the pasture in a daze, the unbearable air makes him act more dopey than he really is. He runs into things, and growls instead of baaaaa’s. The pig lives in the mud puddle, she angrily snaps at everything that walks, flys, floats or runs past her…every animal on the farm keeps their distance, except for Dunkay of course, he is overly nosey and wants to know what shes doing and if she’s hiding food. The llamas spend 99.9% of their time laying next to the metal barn in the shade. When they are up, they fight with each other. There were days when I thought it was raining because I kept seeing droplets flying past the window. It turned out to be llama spit…the girls were spitting at the boys, and the boys were sending it back! Kind of like a civil war reenactment…they are lined up facing each other other, eyes narrowed, cheeks puffed out filled with spit, front hooves pawing the dirt (which puts them in a dust cloud), they put their heads high in the air, wait for Dunkays command to shoot with a loud “HEEEEE HAAAAAW”, then the firing begins! Spit along with loud grunting, squawking from the crowd of chickens, hooves pounding on the ground, llama war cries, Dunkay ‘hee hawing’, flocks of birds flying out of the nearby trees trying to get away from the war, C.S. (our rosster) crowing out his frustration with all the noise, the dogs acting rabid in the house, running to every window to see ‘who, what, where, when, why’! The old goat is still in his heat daze and walks between the spitting llamas, getting a new shiney coat…which means somebody has to hose him down (now remember, I don’t do barn animals when it’s hot, cold, rainy, foggy, snowing, sunny or dark outside). After a few minutes of war in the pasture, I push Super Farmer towards the door with an old umbrella and demand that he break up the fight! This is when I find out how much he really, really loves me! So far, the man still adores me.

The chickens dont seem to mind the heat, they seize every opportunity to peck away at the over abundance of flies that comes along with farm life, weeds, grass, bugs, dirt, other animals, each other…anything. Yep, life on the farm during the summer is exciting, fun, adventurous, active, calm, peaceful…NOT!

Come on Fall!