All boys in the house, but me

I really planned to get a new girlfriend for Woody after Sophie left us, but then this big boy Cyrus found me and insisted on coming home with us.

Again I am the responsible party for finding a new dog so shortly after we lost our sweet girl, but when it feels right, and The Husband feels it too, and even the WoodMan gives his approval, well, what else to say?

I had been poking around on petfinder.com, and bcaaofnj.org (where we got Sophie and Woody). I found lots of beautiful dogs, but none perfect. Then, on Thursday while I was in town, some strange force pulled me into the Susquehanna Animal Shelter. I told them I was just casually looking, not really ready yet. I met Cyrus and Chunk, both black boys who looked interesting. Chunk was fine, but still needed to be tested with cats. Cyrus was said to be a big lovebug great with dogs, cats and children, but already had an application in on him.

So I texted the Hub and told him to swing by on his way home from work sometime, not really expecting him to do it anytime soon.

But he did. And felt the love too.

And then the other application fell through.

I really really didn't expect to be able to bring him home today, but here he is. Woody even sat in the back on the way home in the car, giving Cyrus the only available seat.

So far all is good at Lester's Flat. All good but Monkey is not so sure yet about big black boy, and Cyrus thinks the chickens look mighty tasty... We can work on those things.

Cat and Hound, part 2

MonkeyCat and the WoodMan are still going at it. Poor Willie doesn't understand why Monkey is spending most of the day downstairs with the monster dog who eats cats. He meows at the top of the stairs begging his little orange and white buddy to come back.

Monkey even sleeps down with Woody most of the time, although I suspect they are in separate rooms and that the WoodMan, for the most part, is unaware.

In the middle pic, Woody is chewing on the poor cat, who doesn't seem to mind. But I can't watch this for too long before I start to think he is actually chewing on him. So I separate them, Monkey runs off, and Woody promptly takes his spot on the sofa. As it should be, or so he thinks!

Spring is still trying to take over for winter. We have had warm temperatures for the past 2 days, and even some rain, but not enough of either to melt all of the snow that is still here.

I will have to get some more photos of the adorable goat kids. We managed to sell the 3 boys, and Fred is coming to pick them up probably next weekend.

So there is still time for cuteness!

I need a haircut...and other stuff

I work part-time for The Freeman's Journal/Hometown Oneonta newspapers as their graphic artist. They were taking photos of us in work the other day, and here is my pose.

I grew my hair this long because I thought I would donate it to Locks of Love, to make wigs for cancer survivors. But then I found that they won't take hair that is more than 5% grey. Sorry, I cannot meet those requirements. Guess I really do have to get my hair cut soon.

Just this week the editor of the paper attributed an article to me that I had very little to do with, other than sending him a link to use for information in an article he was writing. It was late. He had space on the editorial page. He printed the link verbatim and gave me the byline.

He should have given credit to backyardchickens.com. One of my go-to sites for information about raising chickens. But hey! He also gave a "link" to my blog.

Credit for this photo: Ian Austin.

So if that's how you got here... Welcome!

Scroll down. The other posts are more interesting than this (I hope). This one is written after work, late in the evening, maybe had a glass of wine..or 2...

I saw this photo from the weather satellite for today, the first day of spring. Orange dot is where we are, still under snow cover, but it feels a whole lot like spring. Goats had their kids. Chickens are out wandering outside the coop (those famous chickens I love so much). Pigs are in the freezer (I know, that's so cruel.)

And here's one more kid photo, since the goats got bumped in the last post. Little girl in the center, other 2 are boys.

Bumping the goats

I am moving the adorable goat kid photos down a notch to report some big news here:

The MonkeyCat who has been here since September just now had his first up close and personal meeting with the WoodMan. This has been building up for the past few weeks. Monk comes down the stairs and pesters Woody and then escapes either back up the stairs or through the cat door into the basement.

Woody has been getting better about not chasing the Monkey, but there's only so much a big hound boy can handle.

So today Monkey came closer than usual, and I decided to allow them to be together—with lots of "Be gentle" and "Be nice" talkin' to the WoodMan.

Although it looked like Woody was eating the little cat, the little cat was not complaining and kept coming back for more. In fact, this has been going on now for a good half hour. When Monkey has had enough, he runs off, but he just keeps coming back. His fur is soaking wet, especially around his neck, which is where the Woody likes to chew on him.

I am a little bit nervous to leave for work...or maybe I just don't want to miss all the antics.

We goat together

I couldn't get all 4 in one photo (not a good one anyway) so you will have to suffer through with these. Top photo is the only little girl in the middle, her brother with the one floppy ear to the right. They were born late Tuesday night.

Second photo is all 3 boys: the white one and the one in the back are Rosie's kids, born on Monday around noon.

They all came out to play today, even though the weather is still way too cold for March. They don't seem to care. We do.

Signs of spring #3 and 4, and these little piggies went to market

Tuesday night I get home from work about 10 pm. Just get settled in when The Husband calls me from the goat shed—there's a third little kid out there. We both waited around to see if there was a #4, but it wasn't happening anytime soon that we could see. He went about an hour later and #4 is out there as well. (in the photo: little doeling in front milking off of mama, little buckling only 1 black foot showing behind mama)

So both mamas delivered 2 kids without any help from us.

Only 1 doeling, the darkest of the 3 brown ones, and 3 bucklings. Not good numbers for us, but any combination of adorable is a good thing!

Also today the piggies went to market. We are trying a new butcher, The Farmer's Place in New Berlin. Had a new transport person as well—Barb and her husband Rick. They loaded up the 2 pigs in about 10 minutes, a clear victory over every past effort, but then it took them another 15 minutes or so to back the truck and trailer out of the snowy driveway.

And our friend the bald eagle was flying over surveying the whole episode.

Spring is coming. It is.

Here are the first two signs of Spring!

I spoke too soon! Rosie, one of our kids from last year, just gave us 2 new babies. I think they are both bucklings, but not sure yet. Too excited to give them a good look—both them and me!

More pics to follow. Gotta head into work.

Still no sign of spring!

We still have over 2 feet of snow on the ground, still some overnight temps below 0°, still some heavy winds blowing the snow all around. When will it end?

Dunno, but it will. The chickens are laying eggs again—average about 5 per day—up from about 2 per week. And our Greek friends are making the trip up from the city again, fighting over the chicken eggs. "Don't sell them to anybody else. Save them for me!"

Sadly, we lost 7 of our 9 ducks to some unknown predator, probably a fox, but the 2 remaining are a male and female, so we have some hope that more are on the way...some day. (Although this particular female has never laid an egg that we know of...)

MonkeyCat and WoodMan are getting better at coexisting, but the Woody still gives chase every time he is awake enough to notice.

MonkeyCat still is carting things up from the basement to the second floor. He ran out of egg noodles (since I took them all away) and has moved on to the hot peppers that I had drying down there. Woody still eats whatever Monkey throws back down the stairs to the first floor, but he has discovered that the hot peppers are not quite as tasty as the noodles.

I have been busy working for the newspaper, and my dear friend Maryellen has been giving me a good bit of work as well. Small pic is a map I am doing for her (for Pilot Freight) that was particularly difficult. One can only fit so many cities in a state in 6 pt type... I'm just sayin'!

Not looking forward to tax time.

Never do.

Procrastinate as long as possible...

The groundhog was right

We are not seeing the end of winter anytime soon. I think we have close to 3 feet of snow on the ground, and it's still coming down. The big pic will give you a good idea of the amount of snow, especially in comparison to the photo up top with the big Lester. That one was from Thanksgiving Day. Now you can barely see the top of the black bench.

And the cold temperatures make it even worse. It's supposed to get up to a high of 0° tomorrow, high of -2° on Sunday. Low on Sunday night is expected to be -20°.

Inside it is nice and warm by the woodstove (75° right this minute) but the poor animals outside are not thrilled with the cold. The ducks somehow make the trek from the duckhouse through the snow all the way to the chicken coop every morning. I'm not sure why they need to go out there other than they enjoy the chicken company. This is maybe 100 feet through the deep snow, only about 20 feet down the cleared driveway.

And I know how difficult that trekking through the snow can be, as Woody likes to take me through it while I am walking him on the leash. He has to leap through it since it is up to his belly, and he pretty much just drags me along behind.

He is definitely still missing Sophie and so are we, but I am going to hold off on getting another dog, even with the temptations from our favorite animal rescue (Burlington County Animal Alliance in NJ). Lorraine has sent some heart-tugging, adorable, perfect pup photos which I am not even going to post here because they will just tug at my heart that much more... Let's just say that one of them looks like a 6MO Woody...

The WoodMan definitely still needs some one-on-one training. I want to be able to trust him off the leash before I get another dog, and winter is not a good time to practice that. Is spring coming anytime soon? Please?

Missing our Sophie!

I didn't want to bump Sophie, so I am reloading one of my favorite pics of her—resting after a prolonged romp with the Libby pup back in 2007 in NJ. She was a great one for putting that belly in the air for a good belly rub, and sometimes just to rub her back on the floor or the grass.

We are all missing her, especially the WoodMan. He keeps looking for her. He looks at the front door if I say her name. He went out to the garage (where he saw me put her in the car to take her away) the first time I took him out for a walk after she was gone. In fact, he did not even want to go for a walk, he stayed on the porch and refused to come with me until I dropped the leash and he ran to the garage door.

I took him into work on Friday thinking this is the most subdued he has ever been. He was mostly well behaved, and I think it was a nice distraction—for him and for me.

First pic is him in the office of The Freeman's Journal (allotsego.com). Second pic is him on the rug in the kitchen by the sink. This is the rug I had up in the bedroom upstairs, the rug that Sophie spent a good bit of time sleeping on. Not his usual hangout spot...maybe it still smells of Sophie Girl...

Good night, my Sophie girl

May you rest in peace.