"I Told You So..."

Well, where do I start? Today was a very interesting day. Nathan has been trying to help me sell part of my alpaca/llama herd. A couple came last week and fell in love with one of my young alpaca boys, Dusty, (appropriately named because he is a light-tan color) and one of my young alpaca girls (Patches), so named because she is all white with one small brown patch on her rump. They decided to also buy my only llama girl, Emma. Unfortunately, the couple buying them do not own a stock trailer so Nathan told them we could deliver them to their house if they would pay extra for our gas which they agreed to do. We live in the middle of "no where" like some people say. Since Nathan resigned his job, we have been trying to consolidate all of our trips into town and carpooling together. So the boys started school this morning. Nathan said we had to stop school at 10:30 so the boys could get ready to go to town. He and I were going to load the three animals into the stock trailer and be ready to leave by 11:00. We told the couple we would be at their place by 11:30. Our plan was to drop off the animals, get them settled in and leave by 12:00 to get the boys across to the other side of Albuquerque for their orthodontic appointments starting at 1:00. I asked Nathan at breakfast if he wanted to get the animals and round them up into a pen so it would be easy to get them loaded when we had to leave. He said, "Naaah...we'll just load them when we get ready to leave. I started getting things wrapped up at 10:25. Nathan got the truck keys and I backed him up and we got the trailer hooked up...

I asked Nathan if we should go get the boys to help us get halters on the animals and to get them loaded in the trailer. He said, "No, we don't need them. We can do it." I tried to tell him we needed at least one boy armed with a stick to get the llama girl out because we have to walk her through the boys' pasture to get her out the gate and into the trailer. So I called Jordan to come out and help us. When he got there, Nathan said we didn't need his help and to go back inside to get ready to go. I just quietly shook my head. Little did Nathan know that it took Aaron, Jordan and myself to get her into the pasture and it was a mad house! I knew what was coming, but I bit my tongue. I figured, ok, maybe Nathan knows something that I don't.

I wistfully watched Jordan walk all the way out of the pasture. Nathan and I haltered Emma (the llama) and got a lead rope on her. We tied her off to a fence post. Then we haltered the baby girl Patches. Patches is not halter trained and doesn't walk well with a lead rope. Emma has been trained to lead. She was not leading well at all. I think she was anticipating what was coming. Nathan was holding on to Patches' rope and I untied Emma. Nathan came over and opened the fencing for me while trying to keep the animals from both pastures from crossing over while I went through with Emma...

For people who do not know how things work with alpacas/llamas, if the girls are not bred, the boys will try to breed them and that throws the girls into active heat. If they are already bred, the boys will still try to breed with them, but the girls will bite, kick, spit and do anything to keep them away. As I'm trying to drag Emma across the pasture, I see 10 hormone driven males trying to all become Emma's new best friend (all at the same time). I am getting push, shoved, stepped on and spit on the whole time I'm dragging her through the chaos. I start yelling for Nathan to come help. Emma was going to get trampled to death by all the boys fighting or I was going to get caught in the cross-fire. Nathan let go of Patches and came running through the gate. I am trying to push and shove all the boys off of Emma. Nathan took her rope from me and started dragging her towards the gate (by this time, we are only 1/2 way to the gate) while I attempted to keep the boys at bay and push her from behind to keep her moving. When the girls are receptive to breeding they will just lay down on the ground. Guess what Emma did??? She laid down in the middle of all the boys shenanigans. NOOOO! Get up! I called the boys on my cell and yelled for them to IMMEDIATELY come help. All the while, I am still getting pushed, kicked and stepped on. I am not a happy camper right about now. Nathan didn't looked to amused either...go figure! With all four of us, we barely got her out.

Then there was Patches. She wouldn't stand a chance walking through the field, so Nathan decided to drive the truck through the boys' pasture and up to the girls' gate. That was a great idea! Aaron and Jordan were out in the field trying to catch Patches' rope again. So when I opened the gate to let Nathan drive through, I could only protect one side of the truck to keep the animals in the pen. Of course, one of the boy alpacas (Hershey's Dark Chocolate) slipped out on the other side of the truck. Thankfully, he was the only one to get out. We got the other two animals loaded and it didn't take the boys and I long to get Hershy back in the pen.

Nathan and I kind of laughed about it after we were all done though! I tried not to say "I told you so..." But Nathan said "I should have listened to you!"

Welcome to my life on the farm!

God bless! Hope you got a great laugh from us! There will be many more I'm sure.