Our next project

I hate this building. Really. I hate it. It's abandoned, it's got a hole in the roof, and the back wall is leaning precariously. It's also in the way of any future additions to our home. And, did I mention the snakes?

Unfortunately, this first thing people say when they visit our farm is "What is that building? It's so cool / neat / awesome!".

Fine. You win. We're going to see if we can save it. My husband's has wanted to save it for the past few years, but I could never figure out what we'd do with it. Now, I think it may be the Offbeat Acres Farm Store / Art Gallery.

Hopefully, when we move in, the snakes will move out.........

Another bad day

We took Willow for an ultrasound today. When her heart murmur was diagnosed a week ago, we initially decided against it. We changed our mind over the weekend, just so we knew exactly what we were dealing with.

The news is bad. Willow's heart has 2 holes in it, and there's also a problem with the vein connecting her heart to her lungs. (I'm probably not explaining that right, but it's close enough). The vet doesn't think she'll live more than a year, and eventually die from congestive heart failure.

We brought her home and put her back in the pasture with mom. Now, we watch and wait. Over the past few weeks, she's been gaining weight and been more active, so I thought she was getting better. Now, I know how wrong (stupidly optimistic) I was.

I guess the silver lining is this: when she passes, we will know nothing could have prevented this. Our vet at the UW is also doing research on heart problems in camelids, so he took some extra pictures of her for his research. I guess that's something to cling too, but I'm still sad.

Cria update

The baby has a heart murmur. We thought something was up, because she spends an awful lot of time just laying around in the pasture. I guess this isn't uncommon with crias that are early. The good news is that she is gaining weight and growing. I've also heard that the murmur is more pronounced as it's starting to close. The vet didn't notice it during the first vet check, and now my husband can feel it. Maybe that's a good sign. Until she's up and running around, I'm going to worry about her.

We named her Willow Nelson, by the way. Let's hope I get to see that name printed on an ARI certificate someday.