Ever kissed a llama?

I went to a friend's farm for the first time a few weeks ago to pick up some eggs. I knew she had llamas. I didn't know about Carlton. Carlton is a pack llama. He's big. He's sturdy. He doesn't have as nice of hair as the "fiber" llamas. Dale warned me that Carlton tends to be a bit pushy. I walked up to the fence and suddenly had a llama in my face - LITERALLY. :-) He also wasn't too happy about me scratching Mutt's nose. Carlton would move his very long body between me and Mutt whenever i reached through to scratch Mutt's nose. By the way, Mutt is a sheep. There's another sheep there named Jeff. I didn't meet him. I could only view him from afar. Seems he's not as partial to having his nose scratched as Mutt is.

I have a green pepper!!!

I have a green pepper! It's smaller than my thumb, but who's counting? Well, it might be the size of my thumb by tomorrow. I'll have to check. :-)

My garden is doing really well

My garden is doing really well considering that it's a not a very good year for growing vegetables. We have had a very cool summer. July was the coldest July on record for this area. In spite of that i had a lot of cucumbers and green beans. I had a few zucchini. In fact, i was surprised at how few i had. The corn, which i didn't expect to get anything from has six ears on it, out of twenty-five stalks that's not bad, imho. The tomatoes didn't start to turn color til August. That is totally unheard of; they should have been red or yellow in July. The peppers have failed to produce. I think it's because the tomatoes are literally over-shadowing them. The kohlrabi is doing well. I haven't picked the leeks yet. I'm hoping they will bulk up. And the watermelon. Well, yeah. I have flowers. I actually expected even less from the watermelon than i did the corn and so I'm not surprised that all i have is flowers.

My lettuce was super. No, this picture isn't of lettuce. I forgot to take a picture of it. This is my corn starting to tassel.

I planted way too many lettuce seeds in two window boxes that i put up on a plant stand on the east side of my front porch. I had purchased a mesclun mix, so i grew lots of different colors and styles. I had to remember to water them frequently. I also had to thin them which i really didn't want to do because they looked so pretty. One of the lettuces tastes a bit like pork to me. Tho I'd been told it is in the horseradish family. I want to know which one it is, so i can grow more of it next year.

Esther likes both cucumbers and green beans. She found a way into the garden even tho i have a very flimsy fence around it. I've really enjoyed letting the dogs run in the backyard first thing while i check out the garden and pick some green beans or a cuke. Then on our walk I'll give Esther the green beans or part of the cuke as her treat for sitting at the corners before we cross.

The first time she found her way in the garden i had been running between the garage and the front of the house. When i came back into the backyard there was Esther standing in the middle of the garden with a small cucumber in her mouth. I was so angry i didn't even think to take a picture til later and by then it was too late, the adorable moment had passed. I should have known that Esther would find another opportunity to get in the garden when i had my back turned. In this picture she is in the corner where the kohlrabi are. She hasn't tried a kohlrabi yet, tho i suspect she'll like them because she really likes broccoli. No, no broccoli in the garden this year. She's actually trying to figure out how to get out now that she's been caught in the act. This time i had to open the fence for her to get out. :-)

Esther

I've had a request to put more pictures of Esther up on my blog. I love this picture. I don't know if anyone else will... but here you go.

We were in the backyard. The dogs were playing and Esther laid down to rest. I don't know if you're aware of this, but it's kinda hard to get a good picture of a black dog. I have some others that are better. But they were taken by a far better photographer and it will be a bit before i post them.

Esther has had an eventful summer. In July she woke me in a panic about 5:30am one Saturday morning. It was her normal "MOM! MOM! There's a thunderstorm coming!!!!" method of waking me - stomping on my chest and knocking books on my head. Except, we weren't supposed to have any storms. I checked out back. Checked out front. Suddenly Esther is going potty in the living room. I looked at her and told her she had just earned herself a trip to the vet. Yes, i did bring a sample with me. The urinalysis revealed two things. She had an infection and her specific gravity was very very low (10.05). In the words of the vet, "lower than i'd expect if her kidneys were failing". My thought, "that's good right? Because kidney failure is very very very bad." He then mentioned Cushings disease. Also not very good, but better than kidney failure. However, i had to put her on antibiotics to get rid of the infection before we could move forward with investigating what was causing the low specific gravity. Two and half weeks later i took another sample in to the vet. Specific gravity of 10.04 this time. Couple of blood tests later and Esther was cleared of Cushings. No Cushings for Esther. You go girl!

Then the vet recommended we check her for diabetes insipidus. This is not sugar diabetes, which is diabetes mellitus. What they both have in common is lots of drinking and lots of urinating. The test for diabetes insipidus is to treat it and see if intake and output drop off. Treatment for dogs is to give them a drop of medicine in one eye twice a day. The vet assured me that it's easy to give dogs eye drops. Yeah, right. All i could think is, you've not given eye drops to Esther. Of course, he's a vet with many years experience and an amazing ability with animals. Even my dog sitter laughed at the concept of giving eye drops to Esther. I'll spare you the details because this is getting long; i will say we made it through, but it was tough. I couldn't tell if the medicine made a difference, so i finally decided if I couldn't tell, then it wasn't a significant enough change to warrant continuing treating for it. I called the vet's office. I spoke with the receptionist and asked her to tell the vet there wasn't a significant change. That was a week ago Monday. I haven't heard from the vet. So i'd say she doesn't have diabetes insipidus either. Yea!!!

I know, you're all asking, so now what? Honestly, i have no idea. I suspect just watch her for any issues in that regard. In the meantime, i'm making sure she has enough water as well as potty breaks, of course.