Surprise Package

Tessie is always the last doe to leave the barn in the morning and sometimes needs a little coaxing, but when I stepped in yesterday, she wouldn't move.  And then I was stunned to see why.  It wasn't the Wells-Fargo Wagon but the stork that had made a surprise delivery in the wee hours of the day.  Tess had already passed the placenta, which sometimes takes a couple of hours after the birth, and the little kid was having breakfast.  I had actually decided that Tessie's visit to sex camp had not been successful.  She showed no real signs of pregnancy in belly or udder, and certainly no indication of impending delivery...I had been checking her daily.  As a first-time mom, perhaps Tessie was as surprised as I.  I had not separated her from the others, so perhaps Cindy, Esther, and Inga acted as aunties and helped her through the labor.  As soon as the baby stepped away from the breakfast bar, I scooped it up to check for gender and was, I'll admit, disappointed to find he was a male.  It's harder to find a buyer for bucks/wethers, and they usually go to an unhappy fate.  As are all babies, little Twenty-Two is a cutie.  It will be hard not to become attached.  I cleaned the big room, gave Tessie grain and alfalfa and brought her a bucket of water, and left her and baby inside for the day.

Larry had come to see the newest addition to the herd, and then he and I were on a dead run for the rest of the day.  As well as the defunct pool, there is a nonfunctioning boat and trailer that has been sitting by the driveway for a number of years, gradually becoming filled to overflowing with an accumulation of trash; the idea being to haul the whole thing to the dump.  It had become an embarrassment, needing only a rusting washing machine to complete the trashy picture.  Unable to move the boat, Larry had transferred most of the contents to my pickup and, looking like the "before" picture of the Beverly Hillbillies, we headed off to town.  In addition to the dump run (which is now called, for some unknown reason, as a transfer station), we had a number of other stops to make, including a hunt for a new doorbell.  Due to previous bad experiences at Home Depot I've avoided going there for years, but I was running out of local options.  We found exactly what we needed, helped by available, friendly personnel, and I went out of my way to find a manager to congratulate the store on the total turn-around in attitude.  It was unfortunate that some ditsy woman backed into my truck as we were leaving, but no damage was done.

Larry wasn't successful in changing out some wiring on his truck to accommodate the travel trailer; he'd hoped to be able to take it down to the valley on this trip.  There just aren't enough words to say how grateful I am for all that was accomplished in four days.  Larry has earned a rest, and I need a rest!  As my friend Dolly said, we're ready to be published in "Farm Beautiful."  The pleasure of my son's company can't be measured.  I started missing him as soon as his taillights rounded the driveway.

It was a good week.