This was a pretty crazy, jam packed weekend on the Gillis homestead.
Saturday dawned and we spent the majority of the morning doing household chores. I hung with Izzy while conquering the laundry and weekly cleaning tasks, while MrGillis finished the second alpaca paddock( more on that in another blog).
Then, Izzy got restless, so we decided to take the trash to the dump. At the end of that trip, she refused to get out of the truck. So we hopped back in and went to Houlton to do our weekly shopping, figuring she’d nap on the way up and we could treat ourselves to some Chinese takeout for lunch. We arrived by noon, did our shopping (the feed store, the super market and wally world) ate our Chinese take out in the parking lot of a closed dairy bar and headed home by 3.
When we got home we unloaded, and Izzy and I played outside while MrGillis finished the gate and let the alpacas out into their new pasture. Then he built a temporary home for our newest family member, who was set to arrive the next day. The sunset was beautiful, we finished up some late season harvesting after the little one went to bed, and then we too said goodnight.
The next morning, Sunday, we all woke up late, and when I finally got out to feed the animals, I found one of our youngest alpacas, Rosie, laying down, lethargic and unwilling to eat breakfast. In an absolute panic, I contacted their previous keeper, sent her a picture and she came right over. Between the two of us, we googled, called anyone we could think of, read and deduced possible poisoning from new plant material, as before our eyes, the other youngster, Stormie, started to act the same way.
The general consensus was that, it wasn’t looking fatal, because they would get up and walk around a bit, and they didn’t have any other symptoms. So it was time to sit, watch and wait. So we did. We used the morning to clean up the yard before winter hits, checking on the alpacas periodically. By evening, they had rallied, and both were more then willing to push their faces into my grain bowl. This morning, it was like nothing ever happened.
The other thing we did this weekend? Well, we moved my parents to our town! We spent the majority of sunday afternoon helping them unload a car and a u-haul and getting them settled in. Also, we welcomed this sweet little thing into our lives.
Yup, we are now the proud care takers of a bunny- a bunny that I call Thunder Buns. Everyone else just calls it Bunny. My mom has had this bunny for awhile and while moving to Danforth is great in most instances, they did lose a lot of outside area. So the bunny has come to live in the alpaca paddock with us and the rest of the gang.
We’re hoping to get it into a new home soon. For now, it’s totally chilling.
Intense weekend, right? With homesteading, it always seems like a new project (or ten) is being added onto the to-do list, even as you’re checking off something else. But, its the life- And we love it.
Until next time, have a wicked good day!
Gillis Gardens, LLC 