Stormy Moves Outside!

Today was a big day for Stormy the cria.  He finally moved outside into a small pasture with his mom, Dolly Llama.

He was born on January 20, so he's been inside the barn in a stall for over a month.  It's been really cold here - our temperatures have been well below normal for several weeks.  Now, the weather is finally starting to go back to "normal" and while that's still cold, it's not as cold outside as it has been inside the barn some nights, so I was confident he could go outside.

It was quite an operation to get him moved because Dolly doesn't want to move unless he's by her side.  Once she was on a lead, he followed, but then upon going outside, he wanted to explore around, and he would prance off to one side, leaving Dolly on the lead making her little whining noises.  Once she saw her llama friends, she was excited to reunite with them, but it was important to keep her with Stormy until he's a little older.  He could get butted and hurt by the sheep or goats, so he's in a small fenced area with Dolly where they have their own personal shelter.

He ran around in the snow and explored, but always went back to her side, which was great to see.  They have really bonded closely.  He kept sticking his nose into the snow and then pulling back, as if to say "Hey, that's cold!" but then he'd do it again!  I think it will take some time for him to learn that snow is cold every time you stick your nose into it!  You can definitely see that he's her son!  He really took her colouring.

Leslie is still holding out for warmer weather.  No lambs were born today.

The chickens enjoyed the sun, which has been conspicuously absent lately.  They enjoy sitting on top of the chest freezers that we use in the barn to store bags of feed.  They're not plugged in, but they are certainly mouse-proof, which is a great way for us to safely store bags of feed without encouraging mice families to move into the bags!

The ducks gathered around to bask in the sun too, but then the sun moved, and the ducks didn't.  A lot of them have black streaks on them because they insist on hanging about underneath the tractor, where there is a copious amount of grease and oil.  Silly ducks.

Finally, a short update on the barn building.  It's come a long way this week, with the overhang being installed all the way around the barn on three sides.  Here you can see it on 2 sides, but it's also on the front, which is facing away.

The back of the barn has a lean-to built onto it, which will become a large chicken coop.  You can see in the picture below that the roof on the lean-to is installed, but not the roof on the main barn.  That should happen this coming week.  It's exciting to watch the progress and know that it will be a great shelter for our animals in the future.