Llama's are long-legged, eat grass, leaves, some weeds, and they love dog food!  How do we know that? Because every time they get over to the dog houses where we feed the dogs every day, the Llama's go crazy over the dry dog food in the dogs' dishes!  Llama's make a distinctive 'hooooooo' sound that they use to communicate to each other.  They can also make very shrill shreaking noises if they are upset at each other- especially the males- and they make great animals to have around with the sheep as they will alert everyone if there is a possible predator around or someone that they know is not supposed to be there!  When Llama's are happy & content, which is pretty much most of the time, they are very docile and even enjoy being around humans, sheep, chickens, etc.  They are not particularly fond of dogs though, as they will paw the ground with their hooves and kick at the dogs to make them keep their distance. A Llama is a graceful and beautiful animal- and they command a certain amount of respect from the rest of the farm animals & humans, too.
When they get comfortable with people, they are wonderful to have around and are content as can be just roaming the pasture for tidbits of their favorite grass and leaves.  We are learning more all the time now that Baby Dandy Llama has been born-  he is quite the little man & curious as can be with the chickens & the sheep.  He wants to be friends with all of us- but his mama Lucy, reminds him that he needs to mind his manners & stick close to her so she can teach him the Llama ways of life on the farm!  Please click the PLAY button at the top of the photo to start the slideshow!

The lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, canteloupe, watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, and everything are thriving with consistent timers on the water sprinkling system!  It is simply amazing what 80 degree temperatures, twice a day soaking/watering, and good old mother nature can do in a few days time!  It's the magic & mystical mix of why we all do what we do!
We hope to get more recent pics up this week so you can see the progress from the seedling stage of the tomatoes and such.  The photo to the left was taken quite some time ago but progress is being made each and every day!  We worked up a smaller area with the tiller for an herb garden as well- so stay tuned!
- Ruby & Ellis  
p.s.- don't forget that Ruby is the Riverdale Ridge Dragon. . . and Ellis is the Riverdale Ridge Supervising Cat.  ('Neither one has learned to run the tiller or the hoe yet. . . but we are working on that!)

Most of the lambs were born about the end of April. . . They are just hilarious to watch as they interact with each other and with the other animals on the farm here at Riverdale Ridge!  They love to play "king of the mountain" around the calf hutches and listen to their hooves make all the noise they can muster up!  They wander away from their mama's and then it's a race for who comes running first. . . mama or baby!  They are sweet, healthy, funny and beautiful little creatures for sure!  Please note all the colors of lambs this season- many of the black ones have striking white marks around their faces & heads; and we even have a tri-color lamb that gets more beautiful as the weeks pass by!  We have a black ram adult male named Freckles & a white ram adult male named Tucker for breeding this season.  The little white males are pretty frisky & their growing nubbin horns almost make them look tough!  Please click the button on the upper left side of the photo to start the slideshow-  enjoy!

What? It's June already?  What in the world did you do with May?
The lettuce is up, the beets, the cucumbers, okra, squash, tomatoes, onions, potatoes. . . kohlrabi's, carrots,  jalapeno peppers, bell peppers,. . . and all because the month of May & mother nature was so good. . . it was so busy for planting, weeding, planting some more, and adding this to that and oh my!  We've definitely come to the obvious conclusion that there is "no such thing as a 5 minute job"!  haha
  - Now, if we could just get Ellis the supervising cat to pull his share of weeds. . . and maybe Ruby, the Riverdale Ridge Dragon could run the tiller or the hoe!  Ruby?????  Ellis???? 

Spring brings a new sense of life to all of us- a fresh start, a new beginning to the year!  And as with other farms, we too have new faces around the pastures this spring!  Many of the Mama's have had their calves already and we just had to get up a few new pictures of the fuzzy faces!  Mother Nature never ceases to provide us with Magic & Mystery every spring when all the new faces arrive!  Click on the PLAY button on the upper left hand corner of the photo to start the slideshow!

Lucy llama finally had her baby on May 24th!  It was a day of 45+ mph winds with High Wind Warnings all over the state of Wisconsin prior to a large weather front coming in!  Baby Dandy the llama was born on Dad's birthday, so we combined the words Dad + Windy and came up with the baby's name: DANDY!  -and when you view his pictures you will see that his name definitely fits!  He is sweet as can be and his mama Lucy could not be more proud!  He is as soft & fuzzy as can be and very curious about the other animals around the farm!  We are so excited about his birth that we just had to share his first days on the farm with you!