I used Split to bring in Buster (the calf) yesterday evening.  Holy shit! That dog has more grit than any I’ve ever worked.  She’s either brave as can be or stupid.  I’ve never seen Buster move so fast.  Split has been awfully quick to use her teeth on anything these days.  I’ll have to get on her for that as soon as I’m able to put more consistent time into her.

Needless to say, I won’t be using her to move Buster any time soon.  I don’t want all the weight run off him.  Crazy thing.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can work her on now.  I don’t want to put her on ewes with lambs, pregnant goats or even poultry at this point.  She’s way too ramped up.  I’ve been keeping her up in a run for most of the day.  She still gets a lot of exercise, but not anywhere near as much freedom.  She simply can’t be loose around any type of livestock.  All she has on her mind is working.  I have two roosters up in one of the runs and watching them has probably not been a good thing for her.  The roosters are going to their new home today so maybe she’ll settle down a bit.

Ah Split, I almost sold her, but I think I would regret it.  It seems like there’s no happy medium in Border Collies these days.  Either they don’t want (or have no talent) to work or they are working fools (and I use the term “fool” with full intention).  Split is a working fiend (worst than fool) and I guess that’s a good thing, but she’s really, really, really hard to live with.  She just won’t settle.  Gel has more than enough desire and talent to work, but he has an off switch.

Angel, one of my Saanen goats, had triplets yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) one was stillborn.  Triplets is a lot for any goat to feed so I’m just as glad there are only two.  She has one buck and one doe.  We are still waiting on Addie, then Billie and last in February will be Fennel.  I’m going to pick up Fern (the goat) today.  Hopefully she’s bred this time.

Fern, the dog, is doing wonderfully in her new home.  I’m very glad that all worked out.

The bottle lamb (we named her Nutmeg) continues to do well.  I put her out with the sheep and goats during the day and bring her in at night.  She’s seems to have imprinted on animals other than sheep.  I tried to pawn Nutmeg off on Angel after Angel delivered her babies and I think Angel would have accepted her, but the lamb didn’t seem interested in suckling on an udder.  She kept coming back to me and sucking on me.  I guess I’m her mother now.  When she’s outside, she spends more time with either the guard dogs or the goats than she does the sheep.  As soon as I have goat kids old enough to put up at night (so I can milk their mothers in the morning); I’ll put Nutmeg up with them.  She slept through the night last night, when meant I slept through the night.

We have been rotating guard dogs.  I leave one with the goats and sheep during the daytime hours with the other in a run and then switching them out for the nighttime shift.  That seems to be working okay.  Yesterday, we built a shelter intending it for the sheep.  It is now in the poultry pasture.  We were hoping that we would be able to move it with the ElectroNet, but it’s too heavy.  I think what we are going to try to do next is to build four six-by-four free-standing shelters.  We can put them in the ATV wagon one at a time to move them and once we get them in the new location, put them altogether so we’d have a twelve-by-eight covered shelter.  This may work in the summer for shade as well as in the winter for inclement weather.  The shelter that is in the poultry pasture will be useful as well.

The next building project on the hit parade is a run-in for the horses.  Merlin won’t let Dream into the ShelterLogic shelter.  The plan is to make them a 12×12 covered shelter with a divider in the middle.  We’ll put rails around the outside and entry gates that can be closed if necessary making twelve by six stalls, which is a bit small, but they are both small horses.  Then we’ll bring the ShelterLogic shelter up close to the house and use that to feed the cats in.  That will be a rude awakening for the cats.  We’ve been making good use of the free tin I got several months ago.  We’ve been using rough cut lumber which is about half the price of regular lumber.

Until later …

Poor Ruth, a Rhode Island Red hen with a endearing personality (she’s the one that lays her eggs on the back porch), was injured recently.  She may have been stepped on.  The roosters were harassing her, so I brought her into the house and set her up in the tub (which tub we rarely use).  She’s getting better and hope she recovers.  It always seems as though it’s your favorites that get hurt (or killed).  I truly do think that Ruth may have caused the injury so that she could come into the house as she’s always trying to do so.  Whenever you open a car or truck door, she’s the first to jump in.

Early this morning, one of the ewes delivered twin lambs.  She must have had one of the lambs in one location, then moved to a different location to deliver the second.  The first wandered off and when I found her, she was mingling with the goats.  We tried to get the ewe to accept the lamb, but she refused so now she’s in the kitchen being fed from a bottle.  We were able to hold the ewe long enough for the lamb to get some of her mother’s milk.  This is the first time we’ve had to bottle feed a lamb.  Hopefully we won’t have to do many more.  Unfortunately none of the goats have kidded yet so we are feeding her raw Jersey milk.  So far, she’s peeing and pooping so maybe she’ll make it.

Since they are all getting along well, we’ve decided to keep the ewes up with the goats for a few more days.  When we have a couple day break between lamb births, we’ll move them back to the ElectroNet.  Tomorrow we’ll build sheep shelters and I will take photos of them as well as the newly-designed goat shelter which I think is going to stay up this time.

Until later …

I went out early this morning to check the sheep and found that one ewe had lambed.  The ewe is a black-headed Dorper and we used a solid white Dorper ram this year.  The baby is a red and white paint!  I don’t know where the red came from, but she’ll surely be a keeper.

One of the adult ewes who lambed earlier this week is slated to be moved on when we sell our lambs this summer.  She’s a blaze-faced black head and produces very nice lambs, but she’s hard on the dogs.  I expect a little stomping and carrying on when they have lambs, but this ewe has killing on her mind.  She runs Gel down which is dangerous for him and for me if he happens to be near me.  I don’t need a 100 pound ewe running into and possibly injuring me. Gel will bite her if she rams him, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  She has no respect for him.  So she’ll be moved on this year.  We can risk injury like that.  She came into the flock as a mature ewe and had probably never been worked by a dog before.  It’s best to keep ewes in our flock who have been brought up being moved by a dog.  We have no need to add any mature ewes at this point anyway.

We now have several buyers waiting on any lambs, kids and adult sheep that we have available.  That is a good thing.

Yesterday afternoon we worked on the goat shelter.  What we are doing is a hoop house design.  We bowed a wooden frame (supported by three four x fours) over the chain link and plan to put cattle panels over the wood and then put the tarp up.  I expect this frame will be sturdier than the pipes were.  I hope, hope, hope that it will hold up until the spring at which point we’ll work on a permanent shelter.  If the weather cooperates, we’ll finish it this afternoon.  We are supposed to get freezing rain Friday into Saturday so the goats will have to stay up in the barn until Sunday.  We’ll make a sheep shelter on Sunday and then haul it up to where the ElectroNet is set and then bring the sheep and Liath in the ElectroNet and bring the goats down.

Addie and Angel can’t hold off much longer.  I know they are not happy being left in that stall and Rose is on my shit list (yet again) because when I went up to feed them this morning, she was running the goats around the stall which I’m sure wasn’t making them happy.  Rose is going to get her furry butt put up in a dog run until I get the goats back down here.

Until later …

I cook.  I suppose that’s a good outlet and it seems to work pretty well.  The results are good.  I wish I’d find some solace in cleaning because there’s a lot of that that needs to be done around here, but cooking is my comfort.

Yesterday I made a dish with chicken, garlic onions, peppers and home-canned tomatoes.  I’ve been using my new cast iron frying pan almost every day and absolutely love it.  In addition, I baked a loaf of Anadama bread and some Focaccia.  Today I have a pot of chicken soup started.  It’s supposed to be a pretty decent day today, which is a good thing because we have to do something about shelter for the goats.

Unfortunately, funds are too short for us to be able to build the structure that we wanted to for the goats so we’ll have to keep using the existing shelter.  We are going to get some rough cut lumber and use that to make a frame on top of the chain link and then put the tarp up over that.  It isn’t ideal and there’s no guaranty that it won’t come down again if we get heavy snow, but it will be less likely to than it was when we were using the metal poles.  The metal pole holding the tarp up on Gel’s run bent during the last storm.  I was wrong about how much snow we got.  I originally thought eight inches, but we got 10.5 inches.  I cannot recall having seen that much snow since I’ve been here in North Carolina.  I will bet the a lot of poles holding up tarps on dog runs in this area bent or broke.  We made a wooden frame and nailed tin to the top of the chicken house and so far, that has held up well so hopefully it will stay up on the goat shelter.

Yesterday morning, in the rain I got the tarp up over the chain link and supported it with pipes stuck in the ground.  It looks like a big top tent.  Since the rain was not heavy nor was there any wind, it stayed up and the sheep were able to have some shelter.  The goats are still up in Red’s barn.  I brought Rose up with them yesterday afternoon; it’s a bit crowed up there, but that’s all I can do for now.  She slipped into the pasture with the sheep and Liath yesterday morning and Liath almost killed her.  So much for sisterly love.

Besides not having the money, the weather is not going to be conducive for construction projects for the foreseeable future.  They are calling for another winter storm Friday into Saturday.  It shouldn’t be as bad, but any bad weather right now is difficult.

So far, we have three lambs and all are doing well.  I’m hoping some of the ewes will lamb today while it’s warm.  Yesterday afternoon, I took Buster out of the pasture with the sheep and put him in the poultry pasture.  He seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.  Liath is not; she favors the cow over the sheep.  Unfortunately, she’s going to have to deal with it as Buster is slated to go to the processor on March 22 and Liath won’t have another cow to hang with until June or July.  I moved Buster because the lambs were hanging around under his feet and I didn’t want to risk his stepping on them.  Hopefully after the storm Friday night, we’ll be able to move the sheep and Liath back out to the ElectroNet and Rose and the goats back here.

As well as getting the cover back up over the goat shelter, we are going to make some low, covered shelters for the sheep and put them in the poultry pasture.  If the weather is going to be bad, we can bring the sheep up and they’ll have shelter.  Eventually, we hope to be able to design shelters that are easily moved so we can leave them out in the ElectroNet.

Sometimes I wonder if keeping these animals is at all worth the trouble.

Until later …

We had two lambs born yesterday and another one last night.  There may be more out there now, but I only saw the one.  So far, no problems.  Still waiting on the goats.  Both Addie and Angel are about to pop.

Until later …

Gel: he’s a gift that keeps on giving.  The more time I spend with this dog, the more I love him.  There will never, ever be such a great dog.

On Saturday morning when we discovered the shelter had come down; and in retrospect, we should have been getting up every two hours and pushing the snow off that tarp and maybe it would have stayed up; but in retrospect (again) if the tarp hadn’t come down, we wouldn’t have brought the sheep in from the open field where they were fenced.  So back to when we discovered the shelter came down, I called up to see if we could put the goats in a stall in Red’s barn and once we got approval, we went up to clean out the biggest stall.  Before cleaning out the stall, we brought hay out to the sheep and calf.  They were in miserable shape.  Wally said to me that this just isn’t right, and it isn’t.  Even though sheep and cows do not need as much shelter as goats, they should still have the option of going into shelter if they want to.  He said this will be the last winter that we do not have adequate shelter for our animals.  Buster looked like something out of the movie, Ice Age.

We got the stall cleaned out and bedded down and went back down to get the goats.  Believe me, they didn’t want to come out of the remains of their shelter and wade through eight inches of snow to get up to Red’s.  I almost used Split as well, but elected to just use Gel.  It took what seemed like forever to get up there.  It was sleeting and the wind was blowing and I could barely see where I was going.  Once we got the goats in the barn and settled, I went out to get the sheep, calf and Liath.  The going was even harder for the sheep and we had to circle back a few times to get Liath coming along with us.  Buster discovered the goats were in the barn and wanted to go in with them and gave Gel a bit of a fight coming back down.  Ever the gentleman, Gel gives the stock every opportunity in the World to move off him before he uses his teeth.  He is an incredibly kind dog.

It would have been nice if I could have used the ATV to move the stock, but given that it’s two-wheel drive, it would have been useless in the deep snow.

Once we got the sheep, calf and Liath up, I came into the house and cooked a kick-ass breakfast.  I really, really needed another cup of coffee.

Oh, I know pictures would have been nice … but it seems that all of my focus and energy is used up keeping these animals comfortable.  I saw some gorgeous photo opportunities, but running around with a camera almost seems like a frivolous activity these days.

I almost sold all of my goats on Friday.  We some extra cash for various things.  Sometimes I wonder why so many wrenches are thrown into the works and why things have to be so hard sometimes.  When the man was out looking at the goats, I was almost in tears thinking about letting them go.  It was a good thing he came without a trailer because if he did, they would have gone.  Wally was furious with me for offering them for sale and I think he might have killed me if I sold them.  I can’t sell those goats, they’ve become so much a part of what we have going on here.  We can say with complete authority that, albeit on a small basis, we are a working farm.  Every day we consume something that was grown or raised on this land.  The goats are a very integral part of the process.  These days, the only meat that we buy in a grocery store is chicken.  Soon, we’ll have goat milk and fresh goat cheese.  The chickens are laying like gang busters, even in this horrible weather.  Remember that chickens can be dual process creatures.  Not only do they lay eggs, but they keep the manure spread out.  Except for the divots that they make with their hooves, you can’t tell that two horses has been running free on the 15 acres.  I noticed yesterday that the song birds were keeping the horse manure spread out.  The snow was a bit too deep for the chickens to get down there.

I hope things get better soon.

Until later …

I might as well move back to Massachusetts (remember, where all the jobs are) instead of staying down here in the warm frigid south under eight inches of snow.

Yep, eight inches of snow Friday night into Saturday.  Of course, the goat shelter came down … again.  Heck, the weight of the snow was stressing even the ShelterLogic buildings.  We got the snow off them on Saturday and it’s going to take a long time for the piles of snow between the two buildings to melt.

The goats are up in a large stall in Red’s barn.  Addie is due any day now.  The sheep and calf, all of which were covered in ice and snow, are down in the goat pasture.  The goat shelter is now a sheep cave.  They were pretty happy with it.

Yesterday, we got the tarp and pipes off the goat shelter, with the hope that we’ll be able to start construction on the wooden shelter sometime this week, but the weather may not cooperate.  The goats may have to stay up in the barn for a week or so.  They are not happy with the arrangement.  We’ve told them they are in the best possible place, but they are not listening.

At least the horses are starting to use their shelter.  It appears Merlin may be acting a bit possessive, but being a mare, I think if Dream really wanted to go in, she would.  They aren’t happy being confined to their pasture (rather than roaming the 15 acres), but with no grass for them to pick, there’s no reason for them to be out.

Lots of things suck right now, many of which I haven’t mentioned, but like with everything else, we’ll get through it.

Until later …

It was sort of anticlimactic.  I’ve been dying to get on her and decided to go out and try it.  She stood perfectly still while I saddled her.  I walked her around a bit, then lunged her some (she doesn’t have much of a gas pedal while lunging her and I hate to try push her on by using a whip or the end of the lunge line).  She didn’t give any indication of bucking so I put my foot in the stirrup and stood in it.  Still no movement so I swung my leg over her back.  She just stood there.

I left the rope halter on her and wrapped the lead rope around her neck.  Once in the saddle, I clucked and squeezed my legs and she took a few steps.  I stayed in the saddle for about five minutes then dismounted.  Meanwhile, Merlin was dancing just out of reach as if to say, if you think you are going to catch me, you are mistaken.  Don’t worry Merlin, I know enough to be sneaky when trying to catch you.

Now, do I just leave her in retirement or try to build her back up?

Decisions, decisions …

Finally I am able to take some time to write about the clinic.  I’m probably going to wish that I had written sooner for fear of forgetting something, but hopefully not.

I didn’t sleep very well the night before.  I was running through in my mind everything that I needed to bring with me and worrying that Merlin wouldn’t load in the morning.  Not much is worst than trying to get a reluctant horse on a trailer.  Luckily, my worries were unfounded.  We caught Merlin in the dark, put his blanket on him and he walked right in the trailer.  Good boy.  Dream wasn’t too happy being left alone in the dark, but there wasn’t anything we could do about that.

We got on the road right on time, stopped for a quick breakfast and arrived at the stable where the clinic was being held at around 8:00.  It was damp and cold.  I wished that I had brought a winter hat, gloves and my heavier barn coat, but the forecast was for temperatures in the low 50’s.  The forecast was wrong.  The sun didn’t come out all day and at times, it drizzled.  I didn’t realize how cold I was until on the way home with the heat cranked up high in the truck.  It seemed to take forever for me to warm up.

Once we pulled in and got the trailer parked, I went to the barn to complete the necessary paperwork.  Wally unloaded Merlin and when I got back to the truck, I saw Wally walking Merlin around on a tight lead.  Merlin was acting like a fool.  I quickly stepped in and took hold of him on a looser line to allow him to move more.  Horses seem to be calmer if they are allowed to move.  Restraining them in any way adds to their agitation.  I have noticed that many of the so-called natural horsemanship instructors brush and tack up their horses using a rope halter and long, loose lead rope.  If the horse feels the need to move his feet during the process, he is allowed to.  Tying them restricts their movement and if they get particularly panicky, they can pull back and injure themselves.

As I was walking Merlin around (and he was still acting like a fool, just on a looser lead), Robbie Potter pulled in.  He jumped out of the truck and introduced himself to Wally and then to me.  Wally said that Merlin was going to be in his clinic.  Robbie asked if he could take hold of him and I released lead.

Katie bar the door!  Merlin didn’t know what hit him.  A few quick snaps on the lead rope were enough to change Merlin’s mind about acting like a fool.  Then Robbie made him move both his hindquarters and forequarters and lunge around him.  I told Robbie that Merlin was difficult (to say the least) tacking up and in general, handling on the ground.  That he was spooky which made him hard to handle.  Then the desensitization began.  It was not as kind as what I’ve watched Clinton Anderson (and others) do; but keep in mind, what we see Clinton Anderson do on television may very well be quite different than what may go one without the camera.  It didn’t take long for Merlin to settle down.

We hooked Merlin to the trailer and started to clean him up.  If there was a contest for the dirtiest horse, we likely would have one.  Since Merlin lives outside, without a blanket, he was quite muddy.  It was too cold to bathe him so we had to make do.  He was much easier to tack up after the Robbie-treatment.  We were to meet in the arena with our horses in rope halters and saddled up.

In the arena, we did some groundwork.  Robbie said that he didn’t believe in a lot of groundwork and that some people over-do it.  He said that his “pre-flight” check includes the ability to move the horse’s hindquarters, forequarters, backing him up and moving him around him (lunging).  If he’s able to do all of these things, then he feels that it is safe to get into the saddle.  Merlin easily moves his hindquarters, the forequarters are more difficult, especially on the right side.  Merlin’s right side, all in all, is worst, probably because no one has ever done anything to him on the right side.

Once the groundwork was done, I got Merlin’s bridle on and mounted up.  He was still quite high and moved on out quickly, as he always does.

Much of the rest of the clinic was spent going around the arena at a walk and sometimes a trot.  We did very little cantering.  There was a lot of people in the class, more than I think was comfortable.  The arena was large enough for the number of horses, but it was difficult for Robbie to focus on the entire group.  Unfortunately, this was a one day clinic.  Up until almost lunchtime, Robbie thought it was a two day clinic, so he was teaching it in that manner.

After the clinic was over, Wally mentioned that he thought it was a bit too basic and slow, and I imagine someone watching would think that, but you needed to be on the horse to feel how the very basic maneuvers that we were doing were helping both the horses and riders.  I was the only one using an Australian saddle (which I expected).  All of the other riders were riding English.  Robbie was using a Western saddle.  It doesn’t matter what kind of saddle you ride in, but I don’t think the English-orientated people were getting as much out of Robbie as I was.  I’d be willing to bet that most, if not all, of the other people in the class competed in dressage or hunter/jumper events.  There were several young horses in the class who were acting about as foolish as Merlin.

Robbie had us going around the arena in a straight line (on the rail) and zig-zag lines.  He’d tell us to get our horses walking as fast as they could without breaking into a trot going in a straight line, and then in a zig-zag line (fast walking is Merlin’s specialty).  Then he’d tell us to get our horses walking as slow as they could without stopping (hard for Merlin).  We did a lot of reversing direction at a walk (and sometimes at a trot) away from the rail, keeping our circles as round as possible.

While I’m sure this was extremely boring for some of the riders and most likely for the spectators, what he was doing was making us control our horses’ feet under saddle (just as we did on the ground during our ground work).  This work, while probably even boring for the horses, softened them (at least it softened Merlin, many of the horses in the clinic were quite dull) tremendously.  It isn’t very often that I am able to walk Merlin on a loose rein with his head down, but we did at times during the clinic.

After lunch we started back with the walking around the arena, but he broke the group in half and had half of us going around the outside of the arena in one direction and the other half going the other way.  This blew Merlin’s mind.  Then he had us weave with the rider going in the opposite direction and Merlin all but blew up.  He’s likely never had to do anything like this before.  What the exercise was teaching us to do was to take responsibility for where we were going.  I think a lot of people who ride just let their horses go in whatever general direction they point them in, often at whatever pace the horse chooses.  In the clinic we were taking responsibility for the speed and direction we wanted to go.

Then we had to back our horses up.  I’ve taught horses how to back up, but I did it by pulling on their mouths until they eventually backed up.  I tried to do this with Merlin, but I don’t think he’s ever been taught to back up.  I pulled and pulled, but got no where.  Robbie told me to ride my horse back.  How the hell do you do that?  He told me to imagine there was a giant ball behind me and I had to move it back using my body.  I squeezed my legs, put pressure on the reins (bit) and pushed my body back as if I was pushing a giant ball back.  It took a few seconds, but I got one step back.  Robbie cheered and told me to pet the hide off that horse.  By the end of the clinic, I was able to get many steps backwards.

The goal with all of the exercises we were doing was to make doing the right thing easy for the horse; and the bad thing hard.  As soon as Merlin took a step backwards, I released the pressure.

Later in the day we worked on turns into the rail.  Robbie wanted us to be able to move the horse’s rear quarters using our reins and leg pressure a quarter turn and then move the forequarters another quarter turn.  That was hard and something I need to work on.  I find it hard to feel the difference between movement of the rear- and forequarters.  I discovered that I do a lot of looking down to the ground when I’m riding.  Robbie corrected that quite a few times.  Not sure what I’m looking at down there … probably praying that I don’t meet the ground again.

Besides learning to ride Merlin backwards and the softening I felt in him from the exercises, perhaps the most exciting thing happened towards the end of the clinic when I rode Merlin to a stop.  I shifted my weight and applied just a little pressure to the bit and he came to the smoothest, most complete stop than he’s ever done under saddle.

Granted, all that we did throughout the day was extremely basic, it all felt really good.  I was glad that I was able to stay in the saddle all day with very little discomfort.  My left knee and ankle were problematic, but getting out of the saddle and walking around a few minutes helped relieve the pain.  By the time 5:00 rolled around though, I was ready to go home, as was, I’m sure, Merlin.  I was a bit worried about how Dream was taking being left alone all day.  Merlin didn’t bat an eye while I took his tack off and put his blanket on.  He loaded right into the trailer and we headed home.  Robbie and most of the other riders were still going strong.  I felt that we got what we needed to out of the clinic and that it was time to call it a day.

Thankfully, everything was okay back at the house.  We got all of our chores done before it got too dark and we were both very happy to get into the warm house.  I’m looking forward to when I’m able to ride again and put into practice what I learned at the clinic.  While I don’t have an arena, I can do all the exercises in the back fields (once the river recedes).  There is another clinic in March.  It’s a two clinic.  I’m first on the waiting list so hopefully I’ll get in.

Until later …

I’m getting a little tired of these heavy rain, high wind storms.  We got over four inches of rain in less than 24 hours coupled with 30 miles per hour winds.  And guess what happened … the damned goat shelter blew down … again.  This is it, we are both through trying to fix that stupid thing.  We made a pact that if it came down one more time, then we’d sell some sheep and build or buy a better shelter.  Luckily the tarp stayed on the shelter while it was raining.  During the day, I watched it blow, knowing it was likely going to blow off and sure enough, it did.  The wind was so strong, it lifted the concrete blocks we had the lower part of the tarp attached to and blew the blocks up over the fence.  Want to know how much fun it is wrestling a 48 x 30-foot tarp in 30 mile per hour winds?

This weekend we’ll begin building a wooden, covered shelter.  Part of our building project will also include making a wooden, covered run-in for the horses.  I know they will go into the 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building that they have down there, but I don’t think they care much for it.  The 10 x 10 ShelterLogic building will come up here and that’s where I’ll start to feed the cats because I’m getting just as tired of cleaning up the messes they make in the kitchen when they eat.  The goat shelter will come first, but the horse shelter will follow shortly thereafter.  We still have a huge pile of tin for the roofs which will help with the expense and we’ll use unfinished lumber which is about half the price of finished lumber.

I’m tired of staying awake at night during storms worrying about shelters blowing or coming down.  We considered using a 10 x 20 ShelterLogic building for the goats, but what we’d have to do to keep them from climbing on or chewing the tarp isn’t worth it.  The attraction of using a ShelterLogic building is that we can take it down and take it with us if we move, but I honestly don’t think we’ll be moving any time soon.  At least I hope we won’t be moving any time soon.  As far as I’m concerned, we can stay here for the rest of our lives.

Speaking of feeding the carnivores, as I wrote several days (weeks?) ago, I’ve adjusted how I feed the dogs and cats.  They do not have access to as much food as they did before and when I put food in front of them, they eat.  Gel in particular is eating better.  He’s looking for food and that is better than turning his nose up at it as he was previously.  I’m not feeding the cats anywhere near as much as I was and I haven’t seen many mice around so they must be hunting more than they were before.

Everything is flooded.  The back fields are, once again, lakes.  I’m glad we got the rain because it will make the grass grow in the spring, but I wish we didn’t get it all at once.  Yesterday, I went out to check the sheep, calf and Liath as soon as it got light and road down back to look at the river.  At that time, I was able to pass through the fields, but I couldn’t do it in the afternoon, unless I had a row boat.  That means I won’t be able to ride again for a day or two.

Rain is good.  Rain is good.  Rain is good …