Ah the farm, a peaceful and tranquil place where the llamas frolic in the pasture, chickens peck away at the brown grass, the turkey barks at the neighbors, the chunky little pig roots for grain leaving holes all over, the baby goat jumps gleefully from hay bale to straw bale, the donkey bellows out his HEEE HAAAAAW, and our woolly mammoth Laci stands in a trance most of the day from eating to much. So much activity and fun! Until…we come home to find 3 llamas, 1 alpaca, an over energetic goat, and a potbelly pig on the wrong side of the fence as the donkey and mini tank gallop back and forth in frustration on the right side of the fence because they can’t run down the road with the other escapees. Chad and I pull in our driveway and automatically go into ‘loose farm animal’ panic mode. He runs to the right to herd 5 animals, and I go for the easy one, Sammie who is on the other side of property.
I of course film my little adventure. Chad…he is chasing, yelling and flinging his arms at 2 llamas and one alpaca who decided to split up and run in opposite directions! He wasn’t worried about the pig, she found a huge pile of clover and was in pig heaven. So Mr Super Farmer goes after Sweetie (with a baby goat following of course) who thought it would be fun to sprint towards the road to help her daddy get some much needed exercise. But! Nancy saved the day by running (which I found that I don’t do so well at my age) around the corner to stop Sweetie from galloping into the road! Sweetie stopped. I stood there with my arms outstretched and we had a real life Clint Eastwood stare down. She looked past my shoulder, then back at me. I glared at her and said, “go ahead, make my day!” She took a couple of steps to the right, I matched hers while going forward. She then side stepped to the left, so I had to resort to doing my famous crazy farm lady yodel. For some reason, they all hate my farm call. She turned around, galloped towards Chad who was shaking the magic cup of sweet grain! I followed the defeated llama as I did my l victory dance. Super Farmer took over with his side kick Sugar Baby and got her over the gate as I kept the others away from the 5 foot opening. Yep, a team Chad and I are! We chase, fling arms, coax, threaten animals with no grain for a year…or worse, giving the warm spot in the barn to the ‘creature’, we sweet talk them with promises that can’t be kept, and my favorite…do the victory dance together as we high five each other for another successful farm animal capture!