I did herd health for two days and all I got was this stinkin’ T-shirt.

So yesterday we completed a two day slog of trimming the toenails of roughly 200 animals, 2/3rds of them by yours truly. We do toenails every other month along with monthly Ivomec shots, routine vaccines, and body scoring on the entire adult herd. Though the pace is often quite blistering when we are starting out and still running on adrenaline and caffeine, by the time we are handling the 20th pregnant female who wants to lie down every time you touch her, the enthusiasm tends to wane just a bit. As tedious as it may be, in reality it’s usually only about 8 hours of actual labor and if the due females can restrain themselves from having a tricky birth or two (they couldn’t this time) it can often get done in just one day. A special thank you to our dear friend Jamie Page of Sanctuary’s Alpaca Farm who showed up yet again on Thursday (and has been doing so for years now) to work the clipboard and change needles. As always she seemed generally bemused by the banter going on within the crew which is often rated PG 13 at best.

With herd health done and all of our newly bred females rejecting the teaser yesterday afternoon, today is a day of relative rest. We’re having my God Parents over for dinner tonight as well as our friends Dave and Tatiana who in addition to their daughter, Haley, will also have their new baby girl, Moira, in tow! We get to play with her, feed her, overstimulate her…and then give her back! He, he, he. Have a nice Saturday…