A day like today

Good grief. Today was some kind of day.

First of all I voted early in the a.m.

Then I headed to another alpaca farm, bringing one of my males for breeding. My dear friend gifted me with a beautiful pair of mittens -- made from the fleece of my favorite Canadian female alpaca, Candi. That brought tears and thank yous.

Then it was back home, doing some work on the Bobcat, letting the big boys into the front yard to munch on the green, green grass.

Next some llama and alpaca friends stopped by for a visit. Loyce, Pat, Lee, Marilyn, Barb and I headed out on the golf car to feed some carrots to my girl herd.

I commented on the fact that the llamas were all "out in the back hay field" eating the good hay.

As we drove out on the golf car -- I realized that NONE of the llamas were in the back hayfield. "Where could they have gone?" I asked out loud.

Well -- apparently one of them had stuck her head through the gate to eat the grass outside the gate -- and lifted the gate off of its pins -- and half of the gate was lying on the ground.

So over 30 of my herd had gone "walkabout" in the neighbor's yards, down the street, down a long lane, just wandering around.

Thank goodness for experienced "llama wranglers." The first six llamas came back to the "call" -- "lllllllllaaaaaaaamas -- alpaaaaaaaacas" and rattling of a bag of carrots. It got harder after that.

The other 20-plus had to be herded, coaxed, cajoled, begged back into the gate -- one-by-one.

When they had all been captured, Pat and I drove our trucks around the neighborhood to "make sure" they were all back.

That's when I locked my keys in the truck. My son used a hanger to snag the keys, that were lying right on the console.

Then everyone left, but Loyce -- who helped me do an inventory of my animals. I got out the herd list and we checked off every animal. All present and accounted for.

Whew! I'm tired.