The Alpaca Have Landed!

Our neighbors across the street have an alpaca and a llama that are going to be staying with us for a bit. I never knew the difference until I did my own research.

Alpaca are smaller than llamas and their wool is quite valuable. Check out the picture of Stud Muffin (the white alpaca) and Bella (the black llama) below...

It should be quite interesting to get to know these two!

Back In The Saddle

I got to go riding today! It has been since 2007 when I was last in the saddle. My next door neighbor has five horses that she is conditioning for polo tournaments in a few months. We just made a few laps around their property. I rode LoLo~he was a sweet gelding. Every time we rode by our fence, all the dogs went crazy!

 It was also one of the nicest day we have had thus far in 2011. The ducklings spent most of the day outside and loved it. They aren't the *brightest* creatures and couldn't figure out how to get in the water, so I had to periodically catch them and place them in the pool. The two mallards are the crazy ones of the bunch...as you can see from the video, one of them decided to play "Duck Duck Goose" by himself.

First Big Outing

The ducks are getting tired of spending their days in the bathtub so I decided to take them on an outing. I got a huge Tupperware storage bin and filled it with water, put some rocks around the edge so they could get in and out, then brought them out in their traveling wine box to explore.

They had a blast! Of course, they are still nervous around me so I let them out and stood about 10 feet away. I didn't leave them unsupervised because I could hear hawks in the nearby trees but let them have plenty of time to swim, explore and eat things in the grass.

Brothers...Finally

I'm so proud of our boys. Auggie has really become a good big brother. For those of us who know our household, we got Finnegan February 4, 2010 (on Auggie's birthday). The first day I brought him home, Auggie beat the snot out of him. Since then, I have kept the separated. Finn is just as happy playing with our "guest doggies" and Auggie could care less. When we moved, we really started re-introducing them with the guidance of our trainers at Jabula Dog Acacdemy. So glad they are doing so well!

The Ducklings are Here...The Ducklings are Here!

Peep peep peep! We now have five ducklings that were born Sunday February 27-hatched out as part of a little girl's science fair project. There are three Indian Runner ducks and two Mallards.

I have the babies in the guest bathtub, lined with newspapers. So far, they mostly just peep, eat and poop. Besides the regular duck food, they really like spinach leaves, strawberries and blueberries. I also plan to pick up some meal worms and crickets for them. Oh, and they are really messy, cute and timid.

Visitors...

While working in my office today, I spotted some old visitors across the road. It was Lady and Dodger, the two "strays" we found in January, wandering down the street. Our street is fairly busy, so I called them up the drive (they came running and remembered me!) and brought them in the fence until their owner, Christine, could get by to get them.

Once she came by to pick them up, she invited me over to she her new goats and chickens. She has a beautiful house around the corner from us, but that backs up to ours through the woods. She has a wonderful set up with some really amazing chickens, a pig, four dogs and two baby goats. I was in heaven at her house! Then she dropped the bomb...she was looking for someone to take five baby ducks...and she suckered me into it! So tomorrow we will be picking up our baby ducklings~stay tuned!