A New Beginning

Well the teenage goats are gone.  All 120 of them.  Better late than never I suppose.  The man who took them said they looked healthy, just not very heavy.
  I talked to a friend who is also a farmer's wife.  I mentioned I was having a hard time with the knowledge that these poor babies were going to be slaughtered.  Her advice was to distance myself and try not to think about it.  I think she has the same issue with their cows.  So on with the new.  We moved all 26 new babies and their moms into the empty area.  Now we just have to watch them a little more closely as they are bound to be trampled with their mother's attempts to get outside in the morning.  One almost was this morning.  We also had a little guy left alone outside in the cold, snowy weather last night.  Her mom went into the barn at dark and she was left there on the pile of hay.  Good thing Brad went down just after dark to check instead of waiting until 9 when he usually goes to close up.  She may have perished by that time.  Even one of my little bottle babies couldn't wait to get out for hay this morning.  We had to track him down and bring him in to drink his milk.  We had 2 new additions to our collection this morning.  It was a pleasant sight.  Both dry and drinking and mom being protective.  Yahoo.  We got a heat lamp going, fresh water and some grain and got all 3 into a secluded pen.  Maybe we'll get a couple more today.
On the down side, our house smells distinctly of skunk.  I thought they hibernated...  I think it has taken up residence until our back stairs.  They are concrete homemade stairs hollowed out underneath for a dog house.  It is full of straw and some dog accessories because the dogs go in there to get out of the cold and wind.  I took a peek after I smelled the odour and it was very very strong in there.  I didn't see anything, but I wasn't going all the way in to check.  Maybe the dogs startled it and it sprayed.  Who knows?  Brad will have fun looking out for it.  Another critter for him to shoot.

My friend should be arriving tomorrow and hopefully we'll have a good couple days of stitching/quilting.  That is the plan though.  Maybe we can even watch a chick flick or two.  I guess I should make some more cookies today, Brad's stash is getting low and I don't want to be doing that with my friend here.  I should really be getting groceries, but I don't feel like going out today.  The wind caused some pretty good drifts last night and I don't feel like plowing through them.  I'll head out tomorrow morning. 

I guess my mind is pretty much empty now, my 5 day cold is almost gone and I'm feeling almost normal today.  I shall type again soon.