Category Archives: Uncategorized

Life Cereal? Llama Burrs? What do they have in common??

Chickens & Rooster, Dunkay the Donkey, Farm Life, Goats, Horses, llamas, Uncategorized
Oh my gosh…the 1970s Life Cereal commercial was just played out in the back pasture!!

Scene… 4 llamas munching away, all of them are filled with burrs. Chad and I standing there, hands rubbing our chins trying to figure out the best way to remove burrs from 200 pound animals.


Me: “we need to try to get those burrs off of them”
Chad: “well, I’m not going to try it”
Me: “I’m not trying it”, as I push Lincoln our Alpaca towards him
Chad: “I said, I’m not trying it”, as he pushes him back towards me
Me: “I know, let’s get kyle to do it! He’s right over there”, as I push Lincoln back towards Chad.
We both turn around and yell at Kyle….”hey Kyle, wanna pick burrs off the llamas”??  He looks at us, glances at the llamas filled with prickly plants, then responds, “sure, I’ll try it”!!

Ps, kyle got 1/2 a burr off of Sammie then quit. He stomped away as he mumbled something about ‘not being our amusement for the day’, as we tried to hide our face while giggling!

Love Struck Alpaca!

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I was outside getting into my mothers car for a trip to MC when I noticed the neighbors down the street a bit, along with their contractors who have been working on their house, were all standing in the front yard looking in my direction. I have learned from past stares, squealing of brakes, and laughter, that something is up with my animals. So I turned around to scour the landscape for anythi…ng out of ordinary. I found the show….Lincoln our alpaca was having a ‘date’ with our horse Laci who as always, seems bored when he is ‘dating’ her. I ordered them to stop…’him’…to stop!!  Heck I even threw rocks to startle the love struck alpaca. He ignored me of course and went along as if they were the only two love birds in the world. I rolled my eyes and walked back to the car when the crowd across the street started to clap and woot! I guess he was finished, I know I was!  I didn’t even bother to turn around. I noticed my 81 year old mother was standing next to the gate, her hand covering an open mouth, eyes wide as she watched the unnatural show in apparent shock. I gently turned her away from the horror show, guided her into the car, convincing her that it’s okay for an alpaca and horse to ‘date’!

the four stooges!

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It’s POURING along with strong 35+ wind gust! I tried to get out my back door for my daily exercise  and excitement by sloshing through ankle deep puddles, into the barn so I could feed everyone. There was, not 1…not 2…not 3 …but FOUR llamas, all standing around, chilling on my porch, gazing towards the glass door. They were trying to keep dry, and stay away from the wind. I guess they got bored and decided to watch the house for entertainment! I opened both doors and not only was I startled, but they too got spooked, bumping into each other trying to get away from the swinging door. It was like watching the Three Stooges (plus one) crashing into each other, making loud un-happy ‘your-in-my-face’ sounds, knocking over my chairs which made me grumpy, yelling, “stop, it’s only me” as I put both arms up to shield my head from anything that might be falling from above! They took off in 4 different directions, two were cranking their necks, spitting at each other. I shook my head, rolled my eyes, bent down towards the wind and ran to the barn just so I could fight ‘the keeper of the door’, Laci, to get in. Sheesh

Back To Normal? HA!

Bunnies & rabbits, cats, Chickens & Rooster, Dog, Ducks, Dunkay the Donkey, Farm Life, Goats, Horses, llamas, Uncategorized
Now that I’m feeling almost ‘normal’….my animals have decided to be themselves again and show me just how ‘normal’ it is around here. So far…today…. Bouncer chased one of the baby chicks, it ran to the trees where both mama hens were sitting with the other peepers. Both chickens FLEW out of those bushes and went after Bouncer, wings flapping, loudly squawking! Bouncer ran the other way a…nd they FOLLOWED him attacking! Dillon the stupid goat, worked the fence to get himself on the other side where Stormy our boy Llama was and got himself stuck there. He trotted back & forth BAAAAAING trying to get back to where our mountain goat was. I went over, lifted the fence up as far as I could with my back and right leg, to let him come back to his side of the pasture. I looked like a weight lifter! He stood there staring at me, so I took my left arm, went under as far as I could, grabbed his collar, trying to force him under and back over to me! He gets half way under and does his famous stiff front legs out, digging into the grass trick, letting me know that ‘he aint going nowhere’! It looks like me and the goat are playing Twister! Right at that moment, a young mom with her little girl drive up, get out, asking me from afar if I have eggs for sale! Do I look like I can go check?? After threats, grunting and pulling, he gets on his side of the field and runs to Sierra. The black mama hen and her 7 fluffy chicks found their way outside the fence in the farthest back pasture, staring at me trying to get back inside, I can’t get at them, I need Super Farmer to help me, so there they stand, the 8 of them, lined up along the fence, clucking to get back in!!
After about an hours rest, LeAnna, Isaac and I, decided to do some Goodwill shopping. She accidently left the gate open and I just happened to look up to see Lincoln across the street in our neighbors yard, munching away at their bushes. Sammie is in the driveway a few steps from joining him! I yell at LeAnna, “HELP ME”! We run out to where the escapees are, they look up, spot us running toward them which makes them take off galloping down the street! Now, I have a truck coming towards them and a car coming up behind us, both vehicles stopped to let the circus perform. We are running as we zig zag with outstretched arms., I tell her, “herd them back my way’!!. LeAnna isn’t familiar with farm talk, she looks at me funny, so I say,, “bring them back my way”…she then looks at me bewildered! I yell, ‘just help them to come back towards our yard”, she understands and starts to herd those animals. I run in front of the bushes to keep Lincoln from going around them and back into the street. The lady in the stopped car, has her window down. I smile as I say running past her, “never a dull moment”! Her mouth is open and she stares with an amused, yet concerned look at this crazy lady running down the street behind two llamas with her arms frantically waving as another young woman with an ‘oh no’ look, follows in a nice dress and shoes!! Lincoln sprints through the open gate and I tell LeAnna, ‘just wait, Sammie will follow’…he did. We both grab for the gate, slamming it behind both animals that are now running to the back yard as the others join them. Stormy is watching all the excitement which makes him agitated cause the boys are a few feet away from him enjoying some freedom. He screeches out his alarm call as he runs along the fence trying to find a way over it so he can fight!
When I came back home, my chairs were knocked over from the donkey, they forced my bird feeders off their stands, eating ALL the birdseed, pushed over Isaac pup tent which is now laying in a heap, the trash can was on its side again and the goats ate my flowers. Yep, back to “NORMAL”.

Bread bag and animals!!

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Note to self….never go into the pasture and pick up an old bread bag with animals grazing near by. Why you ask? Because as soon as it was in my hands, every animal out there suddenly perked up, spotted the bread bag and ran to me thinking I had food! When I saw the stampede, I took off running for the gate! Sparky was on the left, Dunkay on the right, both goats in front of me and Laci bringing up the rear in case I dropped it. I yelled at everybody that the bag was empty but they weren’t buying it. I got cut off and surrounded by the savages. There was pushing, grunting, snorting and me in the middle trying to show them there’s nothing in there! One of them grabbed the bag and ran to the back as the others followed. I mean…come on! I quickly let myself out before they realized they were fighting over an empty plastic bag. When I looked back, the bag was gone, one of them ate it! True story!!!!

Mountain Goat and the forbidden grass!

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Nothing like looking out the window to see my mountain goat on the other side of the fence eating the forbidden grass next to the road! I had to sneak out there, keep the gate open, while watching the llamas so they didn’t make a run for freedom and chase her back inside. She only zig zagged one time so I had her back in her own pasture within 40 seconds with no ‘crazy farmer lady’ yells! She t…rotted over to Dillon and they stood there nose to nose for about a minute. I think she was telling him about another escape planned for later on. I walked the fence, found her hole and fixed it the best I could as Dunkay stood next to me trying to grab the rope out of my hands. He thinks everything I carry is food and try’s to eat it…rope, scissors, plastic cup, bread bag (which he ate already), gloves, metal pans and so on!!! I stood up, admired my fix job and got nudged in the back by Sparky, she too thought I had food and was asking…no, demanding for it…all of it. I showed her my scissors as a ‘ha ha, no food’ and she grabbed them and took off! Now, I could let her try to eat them and hurt herself or I could run after her, which I didn’t feel like doing, and save her from certain death. I ran after her. I think they do this stuff on purpose just to hear me yell! I got my scissors out of her mouth and pointed my finger at her….I opened my mouth to scold her but figured why bother, she will only do it again. Sheesh. I will keep an eye on the mountain goat tonight, I can’t have her finding another weak spot and giving the Tank an idea to follow her.

Dunkay & the gate

Chickens & Rooster, Dunkay the Donkey, Farm Life, Goats, Horses, llamas, Uncategorized

We’ll, Dunkay managed to fit his plumb, furry body through a tiny opening in the back gate and got into the forbidden pasture with Stormy. The tank tried to follow him but is a bit chunkier than he is and didn’t make it. She twisted, snorted and tried to jump. She gave up and backed out while Dunkay stood there watching with a mouthful of grass. Sparky thought she could get through to the yard of plenty and squeezed, whinnied, stomped her hooves and got stuck. I’m standing there watching the performance as my eyes roll with the words, “oh brother” coming out of my mouth over and over. I get on the other side with Dunkay and I push Sparky’s head, forcing her to go backwards, freeing her from the trap (I was tempted to leave her there) as I tell her, “bad horse, very naughty”! Now I turn my attention onto Dunkay. We stare each other down for about 15 seconds, me with squinted eyes, his with amusement cause he knows it will soon be chase time! I step towards him, he steps back. I raise my arms to start my ‘famous crazy farmer lady yell’ and he turns around and trots to the back part of the pasture! The games have begun! I chase, he runs. I yell waving my arms, he throws his head back and ‘Hee Haws’ loudly mixed with laughter. We run back and forth as Stormy stands in the corner watching. The chickens scatter, feathers flying, the mama hen protecting the chicks as we sprint through the middle of the flock that was peacefully pecking away at the grass!! I get mad, he gets happy. He won. I left him there for Super Farmer to deal with when he gets home. Later on around dusk, I hear Dunkay roaring out his amusement as Super Farmer chases him back and forth yelling out words like, ‘Idiot, stop, come on’!!!! I quickly go outside to watch the show and they gave me my money’s worth!!! They ran back and forth for about ten minutes and Dunkay won! Super Farmer gave up. He came back to the house mumbling as he was scraping the poop off of his dress shoes, his tie flapping behind him. He gave me a ‘don’t even say it’ glare, so I didn’t. I silently giggled and gave a thumbs up to Dunkay. I will tempt the donkey out with carrots and threats of living in a cage later on.

Death and Family

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It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit and look at a computer screen. I’ve been limping down a long and painful road. My oldest brother tommy passed away from a massive heart attack the same day my father was forced into a nursing home after losing his battle with Alzheimer’s. Shortly after, my precious little dog Tribble, my constant companion, joy and comfort was run down on the street by a person who didn’t even bother to stop. My heart has been breaking in so many ways in the month of July that I can barley function. My dog Tribble is running around in heaven, sitting on the lap of my big brother who I adored and looked up to. My daddy is accepting the fact that he can never go home or what he thinks is home and my devoted mother is loving him right where he is and what he has become. The farm is still going strong, my animals have not stopped their daily annoyance and two days ago we found 6 little chicks under the wings of a hen who was hiding them. So as my life ended in certain ways, new life was beginning inside the barn. Time will heal my heart, my big bro and little dog will be a pleasant memory that warms my heart and brings a smile to my face. My dad will welcome his daughter into his arms even though my name has forever escaped his fragile memory. I will go on, I will survive, I will laugh and hug those around me. Addie Acres is my life and I refuse to let it slip away. Just give me a little more time before I write about the naughty horses, mischievous donkey the mountain goat that stares!

Shearing our Stoned llamas

Farm Life, Horses, llamas, Uncategorized, , , ,

Oh what fun the farm can be! We had the llamas sheared and clipped today! Our Shearer, Felicia, drives over an hour just to spend time with 5 very un-happy large animals that hate the sight and sound of clippers! She is only 25 and braver than chad & I put together! She ran with us to catch Stormy (who we found out is gilded, so no babies) and she gave all of them a shot to make them happy & woozy! We had 4 very stoned llamas’ & an Alpaca! Once the drugs kicked in, they looked at us with peace signs floating in their eyes. I think they thought they were at Woodstock enjoying the rock and roll music of Jimi Hendrix playing in their ears, gazing at the pretty streaks that followed the trees and humans swirling around in rainbow colors as they moved! They let me pet them for the first time around their ears and face and I swear they grinned at me! After the shearing, they all laid down on command and let Felicia clip each toe nail as they snapped at imaginary objects floating by. They were so stoned! After each animal was finished, they carfefully got up on wobbly legs and staggered away like a drunken sailor! Stormy went around in circles chasing who knows what in his drugged up mind! Sweetie and Violet laid on the ground for a few minutes enjoying the fog and the other two boys walked into a corner and got stuck there not being able to back up or turn around because the drug told them they couldn’t function or think or problem solve or anything else that required movement!! Stormy did take advantage of poor Violet who was still laying on the ground that wouldn’t stop moving underneath her, to have some ‘couple time’ and tried to make a baby which he couldn’t seem to figure out how to do. The two other boys wobbled to the fence which made Stormy forget about his date and he got up a little too fast to chase the boys and fell…twice. he finally got on his feet and stumbled to the fence to spit at the boys who were feeling braver ‘under the influence’ and tried to pick a fight! So….I had 3 very high llamas trying to be tough guys as they swayed back and forth trying to nip at each other through the fence which they all thought was made of rubber cause they would run into the fence and bounce off it, again and again! Yes, I do have most of this fun time on film!!