What a difference!

Graves Excavation finished up the tank and wow, they did a GREAT job. Besides putting in an overflow pipe, they created a great spillway. They also smoothed out some areas were rain had eroded big ditches behind the barn and turnout pens. 

Bob planted rye grass on the fresh dirt.

The llamas watched all the goings on from a safe distance.

The horses finally settled in for some grazing after a quick romp around the pasture bucking and kicking after being penned up for three days.

More progress on the dirt work

More work on the dam on the second day, it is hard to see but there is a huge drop off behind that tree. The spillway has been moved to the near side and the terrace improved to control run off. We had a shower last night and again this morning so I'm not sure if anything will be done today.

Here is a photo of one Blaze's mother, we call her MamaLama. In the background you can see the upper part of the big tank, with the improved dam it should raise the level of the water with the next heavy rain.

What happened to August?

Well, it just flew by, I guess, since I didn't even have time to post on the blog.
We have been fairly busy around the farm while trying to stay cool in a record breaking hot summer with loads of 100+ degree days. But we did have a fair amount of rain so the pastures held up better than normal and hay is more plentiful. In the photos below you will see we still have green grass (weeds).

We have been trying to make some improvements about the farm, grading the gravel drive was way overdue and while the dozer man was out we asked him about repairing the dam of our biggest stock tank. He got right on the project of putting an overflow pipe in the dam and creating a new spillway that will stop the erosion on the back side.

Here is the tank on Monday of this week.

Yesterday it looked like this.

I can't wait to see it this evening. I will try to get an "after" photo tonight.

Of course to do the project we had to pen the horses up and pull up the cross fencing. I guess it will be a good time to revisit the layout of the pastures.

The llamas are loving a bit of extra freedom to visit the other areas of the farm. This is Blaze down near the front gate. Doesn't she look regal, I just love their attitudes.

Bye, bye to Junior...

Here is a family portrait before we sold Junior... the white male llama on the left. Renee and Jeff McPeek came Sunday to pick him up to become a guardian for their new flock of Tunis sheep.

I know that they will enjoy him, he is such a curious guy who has the biggest, most expressive eyes!

Llama shearing time

All four llamas have been sheared now. That should be a lot more comfortable for them. They are such funny animals.

They weren't amused by the whole procedure... here is "Spot" getting clipped this afternoon.

I think "Junior" looks cute in his llama-pajamas.

His sister "Blaze" was not at all happy. Below is a photo of her showing us what she is going to spit at us if we don't leave her alone. But she got over it real fast.

The llamas are starting to fit in

Bob turned the mom and daughter out with the sheep and they were just fine with the arrangement. 

Spot and the boy will later go with the miniature horse herd. They weren't as pleased...

What's new on the farm? Llamas!

We have been looking for a guardian for the flock of Tunis sheep. Even though Bob's coyote deterrent has been working well, we felt the lambs could still be in danger.

We did a lot of research on guard animals... dogs like Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherds are popular around here. Donkeys are another common protector of livestock. We wanted something that ate the same thing as the sheep if possible. So we settled on a LLAMA!

Our search for a suitable llama led us to a nearby town where a lady had four she wanted to sell together. So they now live at Unicorner Farm! Here is a photo of them while they were still in the trailer this evening.

We have them penned next door to the sheep so they can get used to each other. We are thrilled with the  quality of the four.  We hope they will take their jobs as coyote patrols seriously.

We did have a llama before, named Chipper, he lived with our miniature horses. Unfortuately, he had a heat stroke the year after we moved to the new farm. Llamas are llovely animals, very calm and they walk so gently. They make a neat humming noise and are very curious.

Now we need names for our four new acquisitions. Any suggestions?

The older female on the left is white with tan on her face, a 2 year old female black and white, the mama llama is dark brown and the yearling male is solid white.