Dashing Through The Snow

We ended up getting around 8 to 10 inches of snow. It is hard to tell how much we actually have because it tends to move around so much. In some places it is up to my knees. It is still snowing today but we aren't suppose to get anymore accumulation.

We were under some type of snow emergency yesterday. No one was suppose to be out on the roads unless they were coming home or going to work or had some type of emergency, like needing medicine. But we had to go feed a sick friend's horses. I am not one to like to get out on the roads when they are slick but for some reason I wanted to go yesterday. I took my camera and had fun getting out. There wasn't much traffic and it was a beautiful drive.

These are some pictures of our friend's place and her horses.

More Snow...

We spend much of our time under Winter Storm Warnings it seems. February has been a great month for warnings. We don't get much snow but we do get lots of warnings. We are just hoping that it doesn't end up like the boy who cried wolf.

We have gotten around 6 inches of the white stuff so far this morning. It is still snowing and the forecast says we could get another 6 inches. I don't think that we will but you never know with Indiana weather.

When I looked out the window this morning I was amazed by the beauty of it all, as usual. I ran to get some clothes on and to get my camera for pictures before the snow was disturbed.

I was too late. I heard my DH say that someone was plowing our drive. A phantom snowplow come flying down our drive. The problem was that he didn't know where our drive was and ended up plowing up the gravel and dirt that holds our driveway in place and keeps it from washing over the hill when it rains. Oh well, he meant well and it is the thought that counts.

I snapped some photos of the snow, they look a little gray because of the fine snow that is falling.

More Results

We could only find two eggs this evening, so the experiment isn't panning out with great results but I will give it another day. We haven't had the hens on layer feed this winter because we have been feeding them something with more protein but got a new bag of Layer Crumbles today.

Our updated weather forecast is a brand new Winter Storm Watch for Tuesday, 3 - 7 inches of blowing and drifting snow with cold temps.

2/5/10 Storm Update

Well our big storm has arrived in the form of pure rain. My Granddaughter's teacher had told her that they probably wouldn't have school today. I don't know how she is doing but I would have been devastated when I woke up this morning, they did have school.

Our accumulation estimation was raised one inch last night to 9 inches and if this rain had been ice or snow it would have been a pretty decent storm. There is some snow mixing with the rain right now. It is a little after 9:00 AM. Instead of a Winter Storm Warning maybe we should be under a Deeper Mud Warning. There is still the possibility of losing power if the light poles sink.

Now A Warning

Our winter storm WATCH became a WARNING this evening. It was suppose to start with rain and it started raining around midnight. I love winter and snow, always have, but with the prices we are paying for hay and being caught with so many horses this winter, it has taken all of the joy away. I sure will be happy to see green grass growing again. I will also be happy when all of the hay bills are paid. It has been a struggle.

We worry about the horses because the big bales that they are getting are not what we would normally feed. My DH likes "good" square bales that he can regulate without much waste but all of the decent priced "good" hay anymore is just junk, moldy and weedy. We were forced to switch to big round bales that are nasty but are still costing us thousands of dollars.

We had to buy the big round bale horse feeders when we switched to round bales and you talk about a joke. They cost an arm and a leg. They start falling apart and getting dangerous after a couple months of horse use and sitting in the weather, more money down the drain.

The horses made me feel a little better tonight. They all look great and were running, racing and playing like a bunch of kids. Even my old gelding stood on his hind legs and pawed at the sky. I think they must be looking forward to the storm.

Winter Storm Watch

Thanks to those who were concerned about me. December and January were not great months. December was lean in the pocketbook for us, plus I had the flu during the first part of the month then my DH got pretty sick towards the last part. I spent a couple of weeks on the couch with a pinched nerve in my back around the first of January. I think that I have had a little of the winter blues. Nothing much to write about and I just haven't been inspired.

However, I feel a little inspired today. As I sit here waiting on the big winter storm that is about to engulf Indiana tonight and tomorrow, I was thinking of Spring. Our groundhogs did not see their shadows and Spring is only a few snowstorms away. I know this because my hens have gotten back on their nests and gone to work this week. After months of one egg per day. We got two eggs, then six eggs, then zero eggs, then four eggs, then one egg. I can't wait to see how many eggs we get this evening.

The actual truth is that I had read somewhere that giving your hens Cayenne Pepper would make them start laying. I tried it and about three days later got six eggs. So, yesterday I fixed them up with some leftovers drowning in Cayenne Pepper. I will let you know how it goes.

Collette is huge but I don't think that she will have triplet doelings again this year. I think that she will probably have twin spotted doelings. I still have no idea when she will kid, but I do know now that the father is my black spotted young buck, Rancid. I didn't think he was tall enough or even knew what he was doing but where there is a will there is a way. He doesn't even stink yet!

I check Collette everyday when I milk Calico. She is getting ready to kid, losing her ligaments and has that dropped look, hollowing out in the flanks, carrying low. Still no udder to speak of though. She is waiting for just the right snow or ice storm or just the right sub-zero temperature.

My plans for the rest of today are to get prepared for a winter storm. I need to find a way to store some water. If our electricity goes out we have no water because we have a well with a pump. We do have a nice spring in case of emergencies but it is easier to store some from the well than hauling it to the house from the spring.

We do have heat from a ventless gas heater that provides our heat during the cold months. We do not have lights or a way to cook unless we run our generator. I miss having a woodstove because you always have heat and a way to cook. I suppose we could always build a campfire outside to cook on, I am a pretty good campfire cook.

Just When I Needed You!

Rachel at Welcome To Wilmoth Farms was hit very hard in Kentucky by the ice storm that passed through on Tuesday, January 27th.

If you follow my blog you know that during that storm our little Angus was born. My first thought while he was thawing out in our living room was, I knew Rachel will have some advice for me since it has been many, many years since we raised any calves on bottles.

I had many questions, like how long he should have colostrum, since his Mother never let him nurse? If the goat colostrum that I had on hand would work since the roads were so bad that we couldn't get out to get anything else? How much should he be drinking and how often?

Then the really, really big question, how do you stop these scours????

But alas, Rachel is still without power and Angus may be half grown before she is back among the enlightened. She did read my post about Angus and left a comment but she is only checking in when she can. Since for some reason I am not able to post comments on her blog, I will just have to communicate with her here.

Hello, Rachel, hope you are doing well and I hope that your place is thawed out by now and clean-up is nearly done. I really hope that you get your electricity back soon. But I must say that these on again, off again scours are driving me mad!

Angus is healthy and strong, has bonded with my DH and follows him everywhere he goes. He always runs in a gallop with a few twists and bucks. When he is hungry, he comes to the door and rattles the doorknob, this gave me quite a fright the first time that he did it and I was here all alone.

Since he is staying in the barn right outside my living room door, I am seeing most of his bowel movements and smelling them. Some are firm but some like the one that I slid in the other night and almost fell are very runny.

I would appreciate your home remedy for scours very much. He is currently getting 6 quarts of medicated replacer per day with some yogurt and an egg in each bottle. He is also getting mushed up Calf Manna and we are putting a couple of tablespoons of Pepto-Bismol in each bottle if he appears to need it.

Night Glitter

To update my previous post, all of my hens came home wagging their tails behind them. I don't know where they have been the last few days but they seem to be fine. I would imagine that they were just under a shelter of some sort. Then the snow piled up around them and they couldn't escape until the sun came out today and warmed things up.

I had a most amazing walk that I was going to blog about and forgot. It got really cold last night and after I got all of my feeding and milking done and had gone into my toasty house for the night. I remembered that I had forgotten to feed Angel and Abby. Well, there was no hurry, I warmed up and did a few things inside. Later I wrapped back up, fixed their food and went back out into the frigid night.

I had my headlight on which gives you a new prospective on things in the night, all of the animals eyes glow because you have this bright light so close to your own eyes. But what was so amazing about last night was that there was a freezing fog.

Oh my, it was the most beautiful thing. The air temperature was so cold that the fog was freezing into tiny, sparkling ice particles floating in the air. Wow! It was like walking through suspended glitter and it was everywhere. I could have stayed out all night if it hadn't been so cold, but if it hadn't been so cold it wouldn't have been such a glittery world. And to think that I would never had experienced it if I had just had a flashlight in my hand.

Thawing Chicken

Awhile back my Hubby thought that I had some missing hens but it turned out that they were all here. This time I hate to say that it is true. On the night of the big snow and ice storm the chickens had been in the barn all day. That evening my DH herded them out of the barn and sent them on their way to the goat/chicken shed. We were on our way to the neighbor's for supper.

They always go to the goat/chicken shed without any problems, so we didn't think to check on them to make sure that they all had made it. I really don't know why they didn't make it to the shed but we didn't know there was a problem until the next day.

My Son came to get one of our blazers and when they dug it out of the snow, started it and moved it into the driveway, a Barred Rock Hen ran out from under it. Her feathers were ruffled and she was covered in ice. My Husband caught her and took her to the shed and placed her on the roost.

A short time later my Grandson was out playing in the snow when he came running into the house saying that Elvis, my Polish Rooster was in trouble, he thought he was dying or dead. My DH went out and found him lying in the snow barely alive. He brought him to the house and he had so much ice on his head that his neck could not support it. He would not have survived much longer.

My Husband discovered that he might have missed his calling, maybe he should have been a chicken stylist.

After Elvis was thoroughly thawed out, he was immediately back to his old self and jumped on a hen.

After the Barred Rock Hen was thawed out with the hair dryer as well, I went to count heads. We were missing a Silver Laced Wyandotte Hen, we searched under everything that we thought a hen might hide under from the freezing rain and sleet. As you can see, it was hard to look everywhere.

I guess that when they had tried to make it back to the goat/chicken shed that night they just chickened out and didn't want to walk through the freezing rain and sleet, so they just hid under something, then the snow that night trapped them.

I counted heads again last night and one of my Golden Comets is missing too. I must have overlooked her the other night when I counted. I guess we won't find them until the snow and ice melts, there might yet be hope if they are under the goat/chicken shed because grain falls through the cracks in the floor.

This morning my Mille Fleur Bantam Hen was bleeding profusely from her toe. I brought her in the house and her toenail as well as the tip of her toe was hanging loose. I tore it the rest of the way off and tried to stop the bleeding but it was hard to get stopped.

The temperature was -10 here this morning. I am thinking that her foot must have gotten frozen to the roost last night. After about 30 minutes of bleeding I finally got some cobwebs, wadded them up and applied them to the toe and that did the job.

-10 this morning and 45 degrees this afternoon, this must be Indiana. Angus is doing very well, he has a wonderful appetite now and I am trying my best to keep him from scouring. He keeps wanting me to play with him and I am just not up to it.

Angus

I have kept you in suspense long enough. We went to our neighbors on Tuesday night for supper, it was the night of the ice storm. We feasted on tender Pork Roast that is like no other, fried plantains with garlic and salt, beans and rice cooked to perfection, boiled potatoes and squash, followed by wonderful lemon meringue pie.

The neighbor mentioned that he was afraid one of his cows was going to calve that night. He really doesn't have a good place to get a cow up and with the weather like it was there wasn't much he could do because all of his pasture is on a hillside.

The next day we got a call saying that she had a bull calf and she was rejecting it. My DH went to help him get her up and try to help the baby nurse. The calf was chilled, weak and covered in ice and mommy just flat didn't like him. She was under the distinct impression that one of the other cow's calves was hers and they could not convince her otherwise.

The calf was given to me, my Husband carried it home wrapped in a wool blanket on his tractor through the ice and snow. I instructed him to bring him into the house to thaw him out.

He thawed out nicely. He accepted a couple of syringes of warm goat's milk to get him kick started. I had some powdered goat colostrum that I mixed into a quart size bottle of warm goat's milk. It wasn't long before he was dry, warm and on his feet giving the house an inspection, he found it to be calf friendly.

With the weather and roads so bad, we had to go to another neighbor's to bum some cow colostrum and an antibiotic as a precaution against whatever might attack him in his weakened state. His nose was already dripping snot on assorted family members.

All went very will and he drank a quart of the cow colostrum from his bottle with so much gusto that he collapsed the bottle at 11:00 last night after we moved him out in the stall with my two does.

The does were not happy campers but we didn't have any other choice. They thought that he was most certainly a fanged, clawed, goat eating predator of some sort. They totally panicked every time he moved. It is a very large stall but they kept trying to run through the walls and jump over the gate. I don't think either of them slept a wink all night because they both had to have both eyes on him at all times in case he made his move.

My problem started this morning, he wouldn't take a bottle. I kept trying all day and could only get a couple of ounces in him at a time and he didn't want it. He laid and trembled.

I was home alone and there was no way I could get him up or carry him but he finally got to his feet and I guided him back into the house at which time he peed on my best rug which made me feel much better because it let me know that he was at least getting something. My estimate was that he relieved himself of three gallons at least.

He did finally drink about a pint tonight and I think that he will drink more later. I know he isn't getting enough and I suppose he will stay in the house. He is laying in front of my refrigerator right now and I can't even get myself something to drink.

More later...

Weather Update

I measured 6 inches of snow yesterday morning in our driveway. Then the freezing rain started, we got around 3/4 of an inch of ice before the freezing rain and sleet turned back into snow overnight. When we woke up this morning we had an additional 6 inches of snow on top of the ice.

When I went out in the sunshine early today I could stay up on top of the ice, so I was only wading through six inches of snow. Later on the ice didn't hold me up so well and it got a little treacherous. My feet would sink softly into the snow then the ice floor would break with a thudding sound and I would sink down another six inches.

The problem with this was that you had to concentrate on stepping straight up out of your ice footprint or your toes would catch under the ice layer and you would fall on you face in the snow. This was something that I had to keep reminding myself of.

After paths were made in the snow and it all got packed, I could walk across the bottom strand of electric fence wire without lifting my feet to step over. It wasn't even visible. I also had to bend down to unhook the top gate wire. The stone step into my goat/chicken shed was level with the packed snow, so all in all I felt a little taller today than I have been feeling.

I took on a new rescue responsibility today and if it lives through the night tonight I will share the story and pictures with you tomorrow.

Predictions

As I sat here reading different blogs and message boards tonight, I found that most interest was centered on the weather. We are currently under a Winter Storm Warning and are suppose to get up to three inches of snow tonight, three inches tomorrow and so on.

I just went out to see how that was coming along and discovered that there is already three inches of snow and ice on the ground here at a few minutes after midnight, so that means that it will have to stop snowing immediately for the weather predictors to be correct. I looked at the radar and it doesn't seem that we are being skirted by this storm, so I think that for once they have underestimated this storm for our area.

Normally they tell us that we are going to get 10 to 20 inches and that we will be trapped in our homes with no electricity, food or water for many days and we wake up the next morning to see the pretty snow and not one flake has fallen. I remember one year that the predictions were so bad that schools totally dismissed classes before one flake fell and it never did snow that day or the next or even for the rest of that winter, if my recollection is correct.

Perhaps the Predictors are tired of getting caught with egg on their faces, so they just didn't tell us the terrible truth this time. It will probably be the worst snowstorm in decades and we will be unprepared.

Just in case that happens, I am filling all of my pitchers with water, that is about all I can do at this point. I am also blogging now in case I have no electricity tomorrow.

Wind Chills

Not looking forward to the weather for the next few days. It is currently snowing and sleeting here. We are under a wind chill advisory for -10 to -30 from tonight through Friday. I know that is not as cold as it is some places and I don't mind the cold but I don't care much for wind chills.

It is hard to keep water to everyone, we have a big heated tank for the main pasture but with so many horses they can drink it dry in a day's time. Which means that it has to be filled everyday, even in subzero temperatures. The problem, of course, is the hose. Yesterday it was warm in the morning but the temps dropped all day and I didn't think to top off the big tank before the hose became frozen, so I had to wind the hose up and bring the whole thing into the house. We have a hard time remembering to unhook and drain the hoses.

We have to provide water in nine different places, two tanks are heated but require hoses to fill them, two tanks are not heated and required hoses, the others are small and we can carry the water.

I carry warm water in my little red wagon to Cooter, Angel and Abby, I also carry warm water to three different places for the chickens. The does in the barn are not hard to keep watered because it is normally warm enough in the barn to prevent frozen water but last night I brought their bucket into the house after they were bedded down. I will have to remember to do that again for the next three nights and probably most of the day tomorrow, I will just have to take the water out for them to drink and bring it back in.

Our biggest headache is the two tanks that are not heated, I usually take a splitting maul and drop it down on the ice to break it for Badger's water and for the young horses that are separated from the main herd. It will not be an easy task to keep them watered for the next couple of days. I will also have to keep breaking and refilling for Cooter, the dogs and the chickens. I break their ice with a hatchet and scoop out the ice with a very handy kitty litter scoop that I bought for that purpose, then refill with warm or hot water.

So, while some of you are sitting inside your warm, cozy houses listening to the wind howl, think of me trudging across the hard frozen ground with a bucket or splitting maul in my hand fighting against the icy wind. We will also have to feed and milk in this cold, it is all part of the joy of farm living and I love it, my eldest son and his family got me a new face mask for Christmas, so I am prepared.

We have been getting around 8 eggs per day but the temperature took a nose dive yesterday and we got 10! I don't think that I will ever understand chickens. They might all lay tomorrow since it will be so cold and there will be nothing else to do.

Disappearing Wire

For those who have horses, you know how deadly a stray piece of electric fence wire can be. We have had our worst horse injuries come from a piece of wire getting loose in our pastures. Electric fence wire can escape the fence posts in a number of ways but usually it is the horses themselves that break these devils loose with their own foolishness.

On one occasion we found empty t-posts right before dark where one strand of wire was missing. While searching the field for the wire my DH discovered a very horrible leg injury on my gelding, the injury was so bad that he couldn't walk and we had to take the trailer to bring him to the house for first aid. Darkness fell before the wire could be found and the search was to be resumed the next morning by me.

As soon as dawn broke, I was walking the grid in the upper pasture until I came to a group of horses with a young filly's leg shooting blood out two feet with every heart beat. I summoned help, got a disposable diaper (a must for all horse owners) and some vet wrap and returned to the scene. Once the bleeding had stopped and I knew help was on the way, I left the filly standing where she was and started the search again. My top priority was finding that stupid piece of wire.

It took a long time to find it but I finally did and we doctored the two injured horses several times per day for three months. Both fully recovered with only slight scarring. Time and space does not permit me to tell you the endless heartbreaking stories of horses that I know of who have been injured and even put down because of electric fence wire and high tinsel wire.

Alright, now that you understand the dangers of wire around horses, this is what happened on Saturday morning. When I awoke, I heard banging around in the barn. I looked out to find Cooter in the barn wrecking havoc. I snatched him up and drug him back to the goat lot only to find that the whole bottom strand of electric fence wire was missing between his lot and the lower horse pasture. Gadzooks! I said, and turned him loose in the lot anyway.

I started searching for the missing wire immediately and could not find it, it was not in any of the usually hiding places. Now bear in mind that the lower horse pasture is where the big round bales of hay are fed and we have had a lot of rain. There was no way that I could walk out in that deep mud soup to look for a piece of wire.

I went to the house and got my binoculars, I stood out there on firm ground for about an hour combing the pasture. First I searched every horse's legs with my super vision because that is always a good place to find wire. No luck, I couldn't see it anywhere.

When my DH got home he started walking through the mud looking for the wire, he walked back and forth many, many times without finding the 100 feet of wire. I suggested that perhaps it was buried in the thick mud but he doesn't think that there is any way 100 feet of wire could be totally covered with mud.

So now we have a mystery, what happened to the wire? Neither of us will rest easy until we figure this one out.

A New Year

We made it through December! My DH loves to sing that song all through December, then on January 1st announce that we have made it. I tell him that December isn't the hardest month for us. He gets really down in February, because by then he is tired of feeding hay and our hay supply is getting low. It is either really cold or really muddy in February and he gets very anxious for Spring.

The old year went out on a bad note for me. I was sick all day yesterday. I ran a fever and was so weak that I couldn't even set up to read a book. My dear, dear, wonderful Husband had to hold a glass of sprite with a straw for me because my arms were so weak that I couldn't even hold the glass. I don't have any idea what the problem was but I couldn't eat anything until late afternoon and then I could only eat chicken soup.

I chilled and kept covered up all day until about 11:30 last night when all of the sudden my fever broke and I started sweating. As soon as my fever broke, I felt so much better but even after sleeping all day yesterday, I still slept well last night.

Things are looking better for 2009, we got 8 eggs each of the last two days. It got down to 17 degrees last night, so I don't know how egg production will be today.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap, my feather footed banty rooster, is slowly improving. He slept on his feet last night for the first time since we found him nearly frozen. He is still in the house and will stay in the house until I am convinced that he can take care of himself outside. I am not sure what happened to him but he did show signs of leg mites and lice, that had most assuredly drained him plus his beak was frozen shut.

He is talking to me now when I go into the room, which is another sign that he is improving. We have taken care of his mite and lice problem, so he is starting to gain some weight and get his strength back.

The reason that I didn't notice that he was having a problem was because he stays in the goat/chicken shed all of the time with the little D'Uccles during the cold months. The rest of the crew are always out and about, so I can spot a problem with them but the D'Uccles and Bootstrap are always nestled in the straw of the nests or on the roosts. With his fluffy feather cover, I just could not see that he had lost so much weight and his foot feathers hid the leg mite damage.

Christmas Break

For some reason my hens decided to take an egg laying break on Christmas day. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and not terribly cold, so there is no other explanation than they just wanted to take a Holiday. One hen did go ahead and do her duty, so it wasn't a totally eggless day, she must not belong to the Union.

All was back to normal yesterday and it turned out to be a 6 egg day. They had better give me at least 5 eggs per day for as much grain as they are eating. I put out what I think is a large amount of Chicken feed, cracked corn and black oil sunflower seeds plus some goat's milk occasionally and they have it all cleaned up in no time. I usually fill their feeders three time per day during the winter months.

It was such a strange day yesterday, rainy, foggy and warm. I spent a lot of time outside last evening without a coat or sweater. I even tried getting some pictures when it was almost dark. My camera has a night time setting on it that I had never used, so I snapped a few pictures of my DH putting out big round bales of hay in the muddy field in the fog.

I love the way the fog creeps into our lower pasture and fills the valley. Sometimes the fog even stands up in tall columns and looks pretty spooky. Now that I know how to take pictures in the dark, I might be able to actually get some pictures of the phantom columns. It was really a lot darker than it looks in these pictures.

A One Egg Day

There have been colder days than today, there have been nastier days than today. We have consistently received at least five eggs everyday since the cold weather has arrived. Something changed today, only one lonely egg.

The good news is that the shortest day of the year, Sunday, December 21st is about to arrive and then the days will start getting longer. I always love to get on the other side of that short day. I love cold weather and snow but I don't care for the long nights.

Angel and I both saw an unusual sight today. I was walking back to the barn from feeding Cooter. I had already fed the Chickens in a couple of different places, there was a group pecking at their feed right in front of our horse trailer as we passed.

All of the sudden from up on the hill above the barn, something came swooping down upon us heading right for that group of chickens. I stopped and at first glance thought it was a hawk, it had the same coloring. Angel was a few yards behind me and she froze in place, looking up, high over her head. I was stunned and relieved when I realized what it was, it was one of my little banty hens in a hurry to get to the feed before it was all gone.

I have never seen a chicken fly that high, she had her wings stretched out and glided in for a perfect landing, right in the middle of the feeding frenzied large hens who make her life pretty difficult. Those hens scattered in all directions, they thought the sky was falling. I am almost certain that she was playing big, bad, bird of prey. It was very affective but the moment of panic didn't last long and the big hens ran her off again.

Just Confused

Others that I know who have goats know exactly when their does are in heat. I have always had trouble with this. It seems that my does do not show obvious signs. I turned Cooter in with five does last winter and when spring rolled around I only had three does who looked bred, the other two were questionable. Two of the does had twins and the other was carrying triplets when I lost her and all three babies.

The other two does never produced any kids and I never seen them show signs of heat. I also never seen Cooter breed any of them. After the babies were all born and I was ready to put their mothers back into the goat lot, I took Cooter to the pen up the hill. Then tied him out every day to eat grass and weeds.

One day in October, Collette who was always a trouble maker and tried to be the herd Queen started acting submissive and quiet. She also showed an interest in going to visit Cooter, so we took her and she stood quietly while he bred her. I sold her not long afterward and also sold Cinder as a doe in milk. I was milking Calico at the time so I kept her in the barn stall and put Cooter back in with Paris.

So, this is where we are today, Paris looks bred but I have been fooled before. On Saturday, she had a long string of goo and so I thought that she must have gotten out sometime this summer while I had Cooter tied out eating grass and went to visit him.

When I seen the goo, I assumed that she was getting ready to kid, so I put her in the barn stall with Calico. She doesn't have any sign of an udder but that is not too unusual. On Sunday morning she had blood all over her tail. But she didn't act strange other than she was crying continually and wanting to go back to Cooter.

Yesterday she had more fresh blood and today she doesn't seem to have any new blood. I have asked the powers that be if this could be a heat cycle and have gotten conflicting reports, some think that she is getting ready to kid in the next few weeks and some think that it is just a weird heat. She has quit crying now and acts fine, her temperature has been normal through all of this, so I am just stumped and don't know what to expect.

If you have wondered why I haven't been blogging lately this is part of the reason, along with a new Grandson, who is just too handsome. Also there have been Christmas programs to go to and the usual fun things to do around the farm this time of year, like breaking ice and carrying water. I have also been trying to do some Christmas shopping and catching up on my rope halter orders.

Anxiety

Here it is the end of another day and I still don't have my Christmas shopping done. I received my first Christmas card today and it caused me great anxiety. This year has flown by with each month passing by faster then the previous one.

The days are so short that I barely get my morning feeding done and it is time to do my evening feeding before it gets dark. I am always so rushed that I feel like I have forgotten something important.

We did get some small projects completed today. My DH shoveled out the goat/chicken shed and fixed me an area inside to feed the "stay in the shed" chickens, so the goats can't get to it. My Mille Fleur D'Uccles are the only ones who cannot tolerate the cold weather and spend their winter days on the roosts.

I got six eggs today but only three yesterday, the hens didn't like the rainy, snowy day that we had yesterday. The Sun inspired them today, it inspired me too.