A Good Start

A beautiful sunrise was a good start to what turned out to be a productive day, and it's about time, too.  The family will celebrate Christmas on December 23, a Saturday.  Yes, we're out of sync with the rest of the world, but they all work and weekends are better for our get-togethers.  For us, it's not the date, but the who you're with that makes a holiday.  Behind as usual, I needed to get busy in the kitchen.  That's where I spent most of the day and actually got three things knocked off my list.  Dietary restrictions of one sort or another have put a real crimp in my Christmas gifting.  I don't want to be the cause of any health problems, for sure, but some traditions are hard to break.

My milk customer has been gone for a number of  weeks, but called on Saturday and I had to tell him the news:  Sheila has retired and I will no longer have milk for him.  He had dealt with "no eggs" pretty well, but "no milk" was a blow.  I gave him the number of a gal who raises goats and might be a supplier.  She called me later and said her does were in that dry period before kidding, but she passed him down the line to a friend of hers.  It's been many, many years since I've had to buy milk at the store, so I know how he feels.

I'd been on 911 duty for Cam, who had been painting again.  She stopped by on her way home at the end of the day to pick up a care package of sausage and peppers.  What had begun with a good start to the day came to a sad finish.  Cam called when she got home and said that something had killed her little goat, the one with psychedelic tennis balls on her horns.  There were wounds, but it hadn't been eaten.  We all live with possibility of predators up here, but it is devastating, all the same.  There have been sightings of mountain lions in the area lately, and it might have been a lioness teaching her young ones to hunt and kill.  My heart hurts for Camille, who is so very conscientious about her animals.  This goes way beyond "sigh."  I'll be checking on my girls more frequently.