Everyone is all tucked in for the cold temperatures coming up.

Knitting definitely helps me deal with the ups and downs of farming. I find the repetitive motion very soothing. Here are a few of my recent finished projects! How many of you knit?

Last year was a particularly difficult year for me. I had several losses including my first dog I ever owned, my grandmother, and lastly we lost Purdy at the very end of the year. I had my Labrador since my 16th birthday and she was with me through all my major life changes. My grandmother always called immediately after reading my blog posts and we would talk for awhile about it. I never realized how important that was for me until she was no longer there. We also moved to a new farm this past year. I had so many big dreams for my previous farm and it was emotional and hard for me to let go of those dreams. We have a new farm and have spent the last 6 months or so building new fences and planning our new farm.

The most recent thing that happened was Purdy our livestock guardian llama became injured somehow while out in the pasture. We thought that she was going to pull through but on Christmas Eve she took a turn for the worse and sadly passed. I spent a considerable amount of time in the barn while she was sick which only made me more attached to her and harder when she passed.

We are starting this new year off with my daughters second birthday which was wonderful to see the joy of life on her face. I have started setting up our nursery as our second baby is due in March which is scary but also wonderful. Our ewes are due to start lambing any day now and today was llama delivery day.

I decided Cacia Farms wouldn’t be the same without a llama and today our new boys were delivered! Willie and Waylon will grow up to be our new livestock guardians for our sheep. They are only 1 1/2 years old so they have several months before they can go in with the sheep. In the meantime I will be socializing them and getting them used to all the farm things (this translates to llama snuggling and walks)!

I hope everyone’s new year is starting out as wonderful as mine has been!

Purdy our llama is one of the key members of our farm as she guards our sheep. Tuesday when she came in for dinner we noticed she was a little crooked… as in her super long neck was really wrong. We have put her up all comfy in the barn and have her on the meds we can to help her heal and be comfy. We think she had some sort of trauma but not sure how it happened. Hopefully with time and care she will get better. This was last years farm Christmas photo hopefully she will be all better for the picture this year!

Every now and then the stars and planets align in life and great things just fall into your lap.  Anyone who has met my daughter Henley knows that she is animal crazy just like her mom and dad.  Although we have two horses already they are adult size horses and just not the right fit to be Henley’s first horse.  Well a couple months ago I was chatting with my mother when she asked me does Henley want a pony?  I resisted the urge to immediately scream of course my daughter wants a pony, I thought I better run that by my wonderful loving husband.  Surprisingly my husband was completely on board with getting said pony and actually thought it was a brilliant idea.

Plans started forming as to how and when Henley’s new pony would get here as he lived in South Carolina at the time.  Janet one of my mom’s friends had this pony for her children and he sounded perfect.  Dickens  is a Pony of The Americas pony and is absolutely adorable.  He is in his late 20’s and has had many little girls who have loved him and cared for him.  Janet being wonderful offered to drive Dickens all the way up to upstate New York for us.

Yesterday was the day that sweet Dickens finally arrived!  They didn’t get here until late last night as they were driving and Henley didn’t get to meet him until this morning.  The pure joy and delight on my child’s face when she realized there was an extra horse in the barn and that it was hers was amazing.  Henley immediately pet Dickens and told him he was a good boy, she then proceeded to feed him several carrots.  The gentleness of this pony with my daughter amazed me he seemed to just know this little person is mine and I must take good care of her!  I think that this sweet pony is going to thrive here with my little girl and I cannot wait to see how their bond and relationship grow!

Well it’s only 8am here and I have already had to wrangle the sheep twice. Until yesterday I would say our ram is an angel who never escapes …. until yesterday. Unfortunately wonder dog Gus does not move Cliff our ram. The ram just stares at Gus and Gus gets frustrated. This means every time Cliff gets out I have to walk out and put a halter on him and drag him back to where he is supposed to be. Well this morning I have had enough so he gets to spend the day with his new pal Hubert. I was going to move Norma over with the big girls but in true farming fashion she flopped down and played dead. I had Henley strapped to me so I wasn’t in the mood for dragging Norma to the other pasture. Everyone will just have to get along today. After I got Cliff put away I sent Gus to fetch his ewes which he did marvelously. Here’s hoping the sheep stay where I put them for a bit.