Margaret came over about 5:30 last evening. I had Tinker out of the pasture on a halter and lead. She and John made holding him look easy. John held his head and Margaret braced one leg under his chest and just lifted up his injured foot. Tinker didn't struggle or rear up or anything! Amazing!

Tinker's foot was amazing too. It still has a scab on it but it is solid and normal. There was no blood or pus or softness to indicate that it was anything but normal again! Hallelujah! I am so thankful that he is well and thankful for Margaret's help and support.

Tinker's ear was torn up pretty badly. That is a sign that Prince probably needs his fighting teeth cut . I thought they had been done a couple of years ago but maybe they weren't all in at the time. Tinker also has a few sharp fighting teeth. John and Margaret said they will come back and clip the teeth for us. I will call them on Sunday and see when would be a good time.

Tinker was not so co-operative when I took him back to the pasture after John and Margaret left. He was pulling and rearing and I had a difficult time getting the halter off. I know it was because he was anxious to get back to his duties as head honcho of the pasture but it wasn't fun for me and I will be reading up on training and handling alpacas.

I got a new digital camera for Christmas so I hope to have some time to take pictures and get them on this blog. Soon it will be 2010! Can you believe it?

Christmas is over for another year. As much as I enjoy it, there is a lot of work involved and this year there was some added stress, so I am glad things will be getting back to normal.

My car broke down on Christmas Eve. It will be fixed today so I will have it back this evening.

The alpacas gave me a great deal of worry over the weekend too. We could not restrain Tinker successfully in order to change his bandage. He was feeling much better however, as evidenced by his violent fight with his brother Prince. On Sunday morning when I went out to feed them, they were lunging at each other, rearing up reaching over the fence, screaming and running. I could not keep them away from each other. Then in the evening it got worse. Tinker threw himself at the gate so hard that he popped the chain off and went right through. It was pitch black outside and freezing cold. So I went out in my robe and PJs and opened the gate and just let them go at it. Monday morning, they were still posturing and screaming some but I thought the worst was over. NOT! They had another knock-down-drag-out-rolling in the dirt fight. Tinker lost the bandage on his foot and the tear in his ear had reopened and was bleeding all over the place.

I thought it would never end, but it did. I noticed Prince was at the far end of the pasture , sort of hiding in the corner. He would not come up to the barn. I was afraid he was hurt now too. When I walked down to check on him, he looked fine, but Tinker came running toward us with his head down and his neck stretched out. He was telling Prince to stay where he was! Prince turned away from Tinker, his face in the corner. Then Tinker went back to the barn and started eating. The other boys have just tried to stay out of the way of all the fighting. Buddy did not bark all night and Tinker did not sound alarm calls all night last night. So maybe things are settled. I will have to make sure Prince gets food and water though, even if I have to haul it to the far end of the field.

Also, I hope that Tinker's foot is healed enough, but I may have to put a new bandage on it. Margaret has offered to help again so I will call her today and see what she thinks. If we do put a new bandage on, it will have to wait til Steve gets home from work so that we have enough people to keep Tinker still while one of us puts it on. I'll keep you posted.

There are some good things about waking up early. This morning I woke up at 5 am and looked outside. Big, huge snowflakes were gliding softly to earth. I don't remember getting snow this early as long as we have lived here, what, 6 years now. It did not pile up to any depth for which I am grateful. There is still a dusting in protected areas and on trees and bushes. The sky is still all cloudy and white. There may be more snow yet.

The peace and quiet is another blessing of getting up early. The babies and most adults like to sleep in. It gives me time to think and reflect or just plan my day. It makes it easier to laugh and get through the noisy, chaotic times when kids are screaming and playing and running and animals are barking or fighting or otherwise engaged in life.

I hope this snow has not been enough to damage Tinker's bandage. I don't think it has been. It looks like he stayed in the barn and only came out to do his business. There is no snow out there just a dampness. Maybe the sock on his foot was enough to keep the bandage dry. At least, that is what I am hoping.

I finished my Christmas muu-muu yesterday. Today the plan is to wrap gifts, make food and get ready for tomorrow and Christmas day. Steve has the rest of the week off. He bought some new stock panels to repair the alpaca pen and the goat pen so I hope he will be able to do that soon. The grandkids may come up for a visit while their mom does some last minute shopping. It will be a busy day and I will be worried whether or not I can get everything done. In the end, what is supposed to get done will and the rest won't be that important. And that is another benefit of waking up early.

Today was a good day at Saguaro Hill Farm. This morning Steve and I took Tinker back to the vet. It was not an easy task getting him in my SUV. I pulled and Steve pushed and Tinker finally got the idea and stood in the vehicle. He was complaining the whole way, giving us his loud "Hummmm" repeatedly. Once we got underway, he cushed and remained pretty calm.

Once at the vet, he leaped out of the car. He behaved very well, just looking around and checking out the horses who were there getting new shoes. He even let a complete stranger rub his neck and pet him.

The vet came out and removed his bandage. The smiles came out then. She was so happy and relieved. She said"It looks very good and now I know it will heal. You guys did good!" We really didn't do much except give Tinker his shots and take care of him as usual. She then put on a new bandage and a clean sock. After giving me bandages and more antibiotics, the vet sent us happily home! Thank the Lord and the vet!

We have to give him his antibiotics for another week and change the bandage once a week for about 3 weeks. Tinker should be healed by then. I'm supposed to call the vet back and let her know how he's doing, but she didn't think she would need to see him again! Hallelujah!

The propane guy came and filled up our tank today. Don't have to worry about hot water for several months. I also got my mother's Christmas card and gift today. I did a little bit of sewing. I finished a table runner for our Christmas dinner and started on my Christmas muu-muu. I feel that all things have been gathered and are ready to go for the big day. I just have to make cookies, wrap gifts, stuff stockings, clean house, prepare food, finish my muu-muu, well, you get the idea.

Here it is Friday already! I don't know where this week went. I feel like it is still Tuesday and I just took Tinker to the vet. It is Friday evening however. Tinker is doing better, a lot better than he was on Tuesday. He's walking almost normally again.

I delegated the job of giving Tinker his shots to Steve. I get very nervous and shaky when I think of giving shots. I've even stuck myself, but Steve is calm and steady. So I get to hold Tinker and twist his ear, while Steve puts two injections in his behind! The first night wasn't so bad. Tinker didn't know what to expect I guess. The second night was more difficult. Tinker twisted away and threw his head up and even reared a couple of times. I got a puncture from the fence and a scratch and a bruise. So tonight I decided to do it differently. I fed all the animals first. So everyone was calm. Then, instead of tying Tinker to the fence and holding him, I haltered him but did not tie him to the fence. I held him around the neck with one arm and twisted his ear with my other hand. It went a lot quicker. He did move forward a couple of times but he did not rear or throw his head around. Maybe tying him to the fence freaked him out. Anyway, we only have to do that two more times. Monday we go back to the vet and see how the wound is doing. I keep praying that it will heal quickly. I am also thankful that we haven't had any rain so keeping the bandage dry has not been a problem. That could change at any time.

One of the other alpacas had a problem tonight too. After Steve and I finished with Tinker, I noticed that Cimarron was in distress. His mouth was opened and green slobber poured from it. His nostrals were flared out and he was stretching out his neck. He had a look of panic in his eyes. He was choking from the pellets we feed them. It happened one other time. Steve and I went after him. He is not hard to catch especially when he is having a problem. We stroked and patted his throat and neck. Eventually, the panic left Cimarron and he coughed. The slobbering stopped and his nose stopped flaring and went back to normal. Kardigan, the black alpaca, ran up to Cimarron and chest bumped him, as if to say, "Hey Bro! Get over it!" They moved away from us. Posturing, the way males do, their heads up high, their spit flying, I knew things were back to normal.

I think that choking thing happens when they try to eat too fast because they are competing for the food. I will be more careful by making sure that I dump the pellets into a feeder full of hay instead of an empty feeder from now on. I am also going to have to figure out who to put with Tinker. He cannot stay by himself forever. Cimarron and Stewie are pretty calm. Kardigan and Prince seem to get along OK too. They are both pretty dynamic. Maybe it would work dividing them up that way. I won't know until I try it. I know for sure that I will not be putting Prince and Tinker back together. I would also like to get at least one more alpaca, a white one. That won't be for awhile though and, who knows what new problems a new alpaca would cause????

Yesterday I called the vet about Tinker. He was limping and really favoring his left front leg. He had a big lump on his toe and I became alarmed. The vet could not come out. She was too booked and wanted me to bring Tinker to her. I didn't think I could do that with the vehicles I have. The vet tech suggested that I try getting the lady from the big alpaca farm to come out.

This morning Tinker was not any better so I called Margaret and Melissa. They are my neighbors down the road who have a large alpaca herd. They were more than happy to come out and look at Tinker. They cleaned Tinker's foot and wrapped it in one of Steve socks. They gave Tinker a shot for the pain. Then Margaret called the vet for me again after she assured me that Tinker would fit in my SUV.

So Tinker and I went to the vet. We spent two hours there. The vet shaved his foot and cleaned it thoroughly. She took x-rays and wrapped his foot in a big clean bandage. Poor Tinker! Poor me! I'm glad I took him because it is a pretty severe injury. The vet thought he may have broken his toe. The x-rays showed that he just jammed his toe joints together. There was a big swollen ball on the side of his toe that was filled with pus. The vet did not find anything in the wound. She thought he may have had a tumor on that foot that broke when he injured it. She said she will worry about that if the wound does not heal properly.

I have to give Tinker two shots a day until Sunday, one is a pain medication and the other is antibiotic. He'll get one in each side of his butt. Poor baby! Then on Monday, we go back to the vet. Please pray that he will be much better and heal quickly. I do not want him to suffer and I do not want to have too many more vet bills or I will have to get a second mortgage on the house!

For those of you who were worried about Little Bones, I have returned her to her own pen. Margaret, who has raised goats for many years, told me that Bones isn't big enough or old enough to get PG yet. I am relieved about that too. So,if she is not already pg, she will have a reprieve until next season. She seemed to avoid Falkor pretty well so, hopefully, I got her out of there in time.

Such a traumatic day! I prefer the slow, uneventful days! My body is aching too from holding Tinker and getting him in and out of the car. Alpacas may be small as far as livestock goes, but try holding a 150 pound alpaca while he's rearing up trying to get away from his pain. And it's not fun watching someone clean and dig into a wound that you know is painful, even if it is necessary! I am very very grateful to Margaret and Melissa and to the vet. Thanks so much!

Aah-uoooooo! Yip-yip-yip! The coyotes are close this morning. I went outside, turned off the holiday lights and just listened. They moved slowly down the hill, away from the chickens. Then I heard Buddy bark and know they must be off our property. I hope Mikey found a safe warm spot to hide from them. He didn't come in last night. I'll find out when I go out to feed everyone.

It has been crisp and cold since the storm passed. Caramel is not being very cooperative with Falkor. I guess she isn't ready yet. Little Bones on the other hand is "flagging" (wagging her tail) every time Falkor comes near. I will move her today into his pen. I will have to move little Mouth back in with his brothers for awhile. Maybe Caramel will get in the mood with Little Bones in the same pen with them.

Tinker is much better. His hind quarters are moving normally again. He is favoring his left front leg a little still. This has not stopped him from running around with the other boys. He startled Steve the other day when I was gone shopping. He started making this really "funny" noise, Steve said. I asked "What kind of noise? Was it a high pitch yipping noise? And was he standing real tall looking at something?" "Yes," Steve said, "It scared me cause I never heard that before! What the heck was he doing?" "Oh! That's just an alarm call!" I said, "You never heard that before?" Tinker seems to be the herd leader as far as alarm calls go. One day he started and I looked out the kitchen window to see if the neighbor's dog was out there again. I saw this huge tumble weed rolling toward the pasture! Ha! I was relieved there was no dog but I couldn't do much about the big tumbleweed! Sometimes Tinker starts sounding the alarm and I don't see anything that would cause it. I always check just to make sure though. Same thing when Buddy barks, I always at least try to check. I don't always at night because he barks almost non-stop at night. At night I listen for changes in his bark that would signal a real danger, like a snake or a person intruding. If I don't hear those subtle changes then I don't worry as Buddy is just doing his job.

Today is pen cleaning day and, since we will be moving goats again, we'll probably do some more toenail clipping. I can feel my aching back already! Ha!