We've Moved!!

Here I promised that I would update more over the past couple of months, and I failed miserably!  Unfortunately, even though I was home on the farm for all of February, it was a pretty nasty month weather-wise, so the llamas and dog didn't get much outside attention.  But, circumstances have changed, and I'm really going to try my best to keep up with this blog!

Because...we've moved!!

Yes, Abby and I finally have moved to our new home in upstate NY.  We're now living on a beautiful old farm, and I can't wait for spring to arrive so I can start doing farm-life things outdoors!

The temporary llama barn.

Abby's not quite sure if she likes her new home or not.  She has been pretty much cooped-up in my bedroom.  There are 2 resident dogs that have to get used to her, and we're going really slow with the introductions.  Hopefully in a few more weeks they will all get along and she can have free-reign of the house.  She does love being able to run around and play fetch on 60 acres though!

One of the 2 resident dogs...a gorgeous Great Pyrenees!

I have lots of great things planned for the farm in the coming year.  First and foremost is to fix up the beautiful bank barn and get fence up so I can move the llamas in June!  I'm also hoping to continue to cultivate my green thumb with some of the flower gardens around the house.  Should be fun!  Of course, the forecast is predicting 4" of new snow tonight, so the idea of working outside seems pretty far off...

The top of the barn is currently home to pigeons, so it needs a lot of work!

The bottom was an old cow milking parlor, and it is in pretty good shape.  Just need to test the paint for lead, clean the surface, fill in the drains, and build a couple pens!

Back of the barn, where the llama pasture will be.  The big metal thing has to get moved too...

Hopefully we don't get this much snow!

Winter Wonderland

Things have FINALLY calmed down (and I am once again in possession of a camera cord to download pics!), so here's a new post!

I have lots of new pictures, but I think for today I'll focus on the snow!  The day after Christmas we got about 8" of snow at home in Indiana, and of course the dogs had a blast playing in it.  We took several walks around the pond and pastures, letting the dogs run and play.  It's really nice having most of our property fenced...now the dogs can run in the areas where there aren't llamas.  Luckily no one decided to take a swim in the pond.

Our pond.

Kaya was almost too short to play in the snow.

Cerro (left) and Abby (right) had a blast!

And of course I had to take pictures of the llamas in the snow.  They weren't quite as amused as the dogs, but I did see Ralph and T eating snow off the fence on several occasions!

Ralph peeking out from behind Kara.  She's now bigger than he is!

The humidity gave T the most gorgeous curls!

A Ralph sandwich...Bluff's in the back and Kara's in front.

Another view of the Ralph sandwich.  See how big Kara is!

Strange looks from both Bluff and Kara, but look at those ears!

I've been knitting and spinning up a storm recently, but I'm not quite done with my favorite project, so I'll make a new post about that all when I'm done!

Winter Update!

So many things to write about!  I guess this will be a hodgepodge post!

Little miss Abby is growing up quick!  She's still not very big (at least for being 5 months old!), but she's a lot bigger than what she was!  She had a great time playing at home over break...4 dogs to play with is much more fun than just one!  She got initiated into the Leak family holiday tradition of decorating the dogs and taking a million pictures...she made an adorable reindeer.

My awesome new boy, CNS Mr. T, is officially #1 in the ILR-SD UAP Top 10 for yearling non-breeders!  He more than beat out the competition for the title, with at least 5 times more points than the runner up.  I'm so excited to get him into the show ring next year.  I've been having a lot of fun clicker training him (he's VERY food motivated!), and hope to run him over the obstacles a few more times before our first show, the Hillsdale Hobo show in Hillsdale, MI the end of April.  And if I get really lucky this summer, I'm going to hit him hard with the obstacle training, as well as really start his ground driving.  He'll be 2 years old in May, so I've got about another year before I can hitch him to a cart.

And of course I'm knitting lots of cool things!  I just finished a fake-cable earband, knit out of two strands of grey handspun yarn (1 angora rabbit and 1 alpaca/llama blend).  It looks very "rustic" since the two colors blend together in weird ways, but it is incredibly soft and promises to be very warm!  I'm now working on a pair of socks for my sister.  She actually asked for them!  (She's finally starting to appreciate handknit goods!)  One sock was finished over my New York vacation in December/January, and the other is now halfway done.  Once this is done I'm starting to knit with some handspun merino that I just finished.  I'm going to be selfish and make myself a cowl, earband (with an angora lining!), and some sort of mittens (maybe fingerless or convertible).  It's cold up here in Michigan, and these will go great with my "new" (hand-me-down) winter coat!

Puppy!!! And other such news...

Well this time there is a cute, cuddly excuse for me not updating the blog...I finally got my puppy!

Autumn Hill's Absaroka (aka Abby) came home with me last Sunday, and it has been a whirlwind of a week!  She's still pretty young (9 weeks on Monday), so potty training is a constant battle.  She's also not too fond of eating her food, so I'm trying to come up with something to tempt her.  But she's cute as a button, and very smart!  We've already started training, and she will sit on command and come to me most of the time.  We start puppy class next week, which should be a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures to make you melt...

Checking out Hank, my roommate's dog. 

In other news, my new gelding llama (CNS Mr. T) finally made it home to our farm!  He didn't finish his ALSA Halter Champion at the Noblesville show, but that just means I get to finish it next spring/summer!  He has quickly melded into the herd, and has a new best friend in Ralph.  I can't wait to go home next weekend to start working with him!  We're going to focus on desensitizing, a few obstacles (before it gets too snowy), and ground driving this winter.

T with his new herd.

Strutting his stuff in the pasture.

Look at the lock structure in that fiber!  Can't wait to shear him next year!

I'm also in the process of (finally) updating my Etsy shop with all of the new items that I've made over the past year but didn't sell at the craft fairs this summer.  I bought a glass head from Pier One last week, and just finished my light box this afternoon.  Now all I need is a nice sunny (and dry!) day to go out and take pictures of everything!

I had pictures of the light box, but they won't load...



And one last order of business...would anyone be interested in me writing a short article on doing fecal exams?  I need to test our herd next weekend when I go home, and I'm going to do my best to take pictures of the process.  Hopefully I don't have too many gross "bugs" to show you when I'm done!

Fall is Here!

Fall has arrived, and brought beautiful weather, at least in central Michigan!

I had a great day today at the Meridian Heritage Festival in Haslett.  There were tons of visitors, and I sold quite a few items!  I'm back tomorrow for the last crafters market of the season.  Here's a couple photos of my display today.  The wind wasn't very cooperative, but eventually I got everything to stay put and not fly away!

I was hoping to have llama news to report, but our truck broke down last weekend, so we couldn't pick up my new little gelding!  So my parents are going next weekend to get him at the HLAA Fall Show, where he is being shown by his breeder.  I'm hoping he will finish his ALSA Halter Champion!

I do have puppy news as promised though!!  I found a litter in north-central Michigan, and went to take a look today.  The parents are fabulous dogs, and the puppies are adorable!  I picked out a gorgeous little girl, who will be coming home with me in two weeks!  Now I have to do a lot of shopping and pick out a name!