Of Course

With a new ceiling fan installed, of course the temperature dropped a good 20 degrees.  Nature has such a wicked sense of humor.  It was actually pleasant walking down to the barn and I didn't drip one drop of sweat while milking; how's that for a change.  (Just as an aside, if you're leading a goat somewhere and she stops to pee, don't get in a hurry because she's guaranteed to drop a load of pellets right afterward.  One of those things you learn the hard way.)

Each delivery of alfalfa is like Forrest Gump's "box of chocklits," you never know what you're going to get.   Sometimes, depending on the time of year and where it was grown, it's the next best thing to straw, nothing much but dry stems with a few leaves.  The prior load was loose leaves only and the flakes fell apart, very difficult to handle.  This current batch is perfect:  small stems, green leaves, and big chunky flakes to throw over the fence.  Right now the girls are getting two flakes a day, filling up any empty spots with the dry grasses in their pens.  Come winter when the ground is bare, I'll up their feed to three.  That's in addition to their bowl of chow in the morning and a snack at night.  Their weight remains steady on this diet and Tess and Sheila continue to produce milk.

Bess and I went to the "cookie store."  She doesn't care why I am going, she only knows that's where she'll get two cookies (milk bones).  She checks carefully when I get back in the truck.  "Put 'em here, Mom, right here (on the console)."  Bess won't touch them then, but when we get home and she jumps down, she turns in expectation to get her treat.  She eats that one, then comes into the house and looks for the second cookie.  And then of course, she wants the lamb treat that always comes when she's gone for a ride in the truck.  Who says I'm not trainable?

Cam and Honey stopped by in the afternoon and we all went out on the deck to enjoy the delta breeze that had blown in and watch Stump and the kids, as well as five huge tom turkeys that marched by.  There was a thunder storm over the mountains, and with each clap of thunder the turkeys set up a racket.  Evidently turkeys don't like thunder.

From the dampness on the deck (it's just now light enough to see), I gather we got a sprinkling of rain last night.  Of course we did...I didn't unload the grain from the truck yesterday.  Some things are just inevitable.