Lost It

Drat!  I don't know what was going on with Ralph and Celeste yesterday, some sort of sibling battle, I think.  It started in the wee hours of the morning with a real cat fight on the bed.  Not one of the mock wrestling matches they usually have, but a growling, hissing, biting fight that ended with a race through the house.  I did not appreciate being wakened at 3 a.m. in that fashion.  Later, Celeste was lying in a patch of sunlight when Ralph walked over and sat on her, a brother's revenge.  I so wanted to take a picture, but lost the chance when Celeste rolled out from under her silly sibling.

I had hoped that Tessie had learned her lesson and so let her out of the barn with Esther.  Surely two days of being confined before milking would have taught her not to walk away from me.  Well, I lost that one and we'll have to double down today.  It's up to me to accept a change in the regimen.

On one of my unsuccessful forays to catch Tess, I walked by the dead tree at the side of the barn.  In a hole in the trunk was a small lizard basking in the sunshine and it had a brilliant patch of blue on its throat, absolutely beautiful (if you like lizards).  Again I wanted a picture to share, but my movement scared the little guy and he ducked back into the shadows.  Another opportunity lost.

Just before sundown, the flock in the chicken pen set up a ruckus that usually signals danger.  I wasn't able to go outside just then, but later, after the goats were tucked in, I put the chickens in the coop.  As is my habit, I did a beak count and it seemed I came up short a hen.  I didn't see any feathers outside the fence, and it was too dark by then to check the corners of the hen house.  In a day of losses, I hope I didn't lose one of the little girls.