Officially spring, a Rainbow, and a raincoat

This is the first time I have looked at the weekly weather report on my phone and not seen a single snowflake—lots of rain clouds, a half of a sun behind a cloud—no snow.

And Rosie has already given us her 2 babies, so I am declaring it finally spring here at Lester's Flat.

Rosie's little girl with the crooked neck has straightened out. We are still bottle feeding her, but I have had some luck with getting her to milk from mom. Now I just have to get mom to agree to it for more than a minute or 3. That's Rainbow (adopted and named by Little Sister in NJ) making friends with one of the chickens that hangs out regularly in the goat shed.

The next pic is the MonkeyCat who pulled Husband's raincoat off the chair to make himself a bed. Not a care in the world.

Husband and I are both still working. He is in his office all alone, having sent everyone else home. He most definitely would not survive sitting around the house doing nothing. (I would not survive that either. ;) I am going into the newspaper my usual 3 days a week because we are essential. I would feel much safer hunkered down at home, and would be quite happy to stay there as long as necessary. But for now at least, I am essential to the newspaper.

And the news just keeps getting worse...

The sky is not falling

I took this photo to prove the sky is still there, even if it isn't blue. Even though I joke about it, along with just about everyone else I know, this is not the great apocalyptic end of the world, but it just may be the end of the world as we know it. And yes I am singing that song in my head now too.

This virus is a serious threat to life as we know it. It's not going to get back to "normal" any time soon. A positive attitude seems the best cure they have to offer for now, but let's not ignore the fact that there is a big negative out there. Stay home if you can. Stay safe if you can't. And keep all those great jokes coming while you're singing:

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine
(time I had some time alone)

I feel fine (I feel fine)

Rosie's kids, still no spring, the evil Coronavirus

I said I would not declare it spring until Rosie had her babies AND I stopped seeing snowflakes in the forecast. Well Rosie did give us 2 little girls on Saturday afternoon, but as of Saturday morning there were still 5 little snowflakes predicted for the upcoming week. It is snowing right now.

Rosie's first kid is a little doe and came easily. The second one was coming back feet first and needed a little help from me. She must have been snugged up inside pretty tight because her neck is stuck in an awkward position, and she is weak. We kept her in the bathtub for awhile Saturday evening to warm her up and try to feed her.

By morning she was standing up, but is still weak and unable to nurse. We have been bottle feeding her. Feisty little girl wants to do the right thing and nurse, but can't quite get in position. With guidance from our Goat Lady friend, Karen, I think we can get her through this. Only time will tell how feisty she really is.

The evil virus is escaping New York City and finding its way upstate. At least there are no reported cases in our county. Still shortages in the grocery store. Still confusion as to who should go to work and who should stay home. Both of us are still working. Hub somewhat limited with his office officially closed for 2 weeks, me on my usual schedule at the newspaper.

I might have to ask our egg-buying Greek friend from the city to not return. He was here this weekend with another friend of his, and threatening to come back in 2 weeks. As far as I know, there are no clear rules saying you can't leave NYC and come to your summer home in the country. It is a form of socially distancing yourself from a lot of sick city people. But also a way of spreading that evil virus. Now is the time of year when all the "lake people" come back to their lake houses, and all the snow birds come back from wherever. 'Tis the season. It is what anyone who had that option, in this awful time, would want to do, isn't it?

Cyrus isn't worried. It is truly comforting to watch all of our animals going about their lives without a concern. As if there were no great apocalypse at all.

Dogs as art

Our landscape is not quite as perfect, but the dogs are working on their poses.

It looks like Cyrus chose the better day.

Husband and I are both still working.

I work at the newspaper and we go to press Tuesday night no matter what the apocalypse. There are only 4 or 5 people in our office at any given time.

Husband works with 3 other people, but still does some local traveling in contact with others.

Cancellations and closures everywhere, but we don't get out much so we are not greatly affected by that. We don't get out much by choice. We are happy in our world.

And yes NJ, NY is officially as crazy as you are. We have the same shortages of toilet paper, paper towels, meat, bread... It wasn't noticeable last week when I was at the supermarket. According to friends and neighbors, now it is.

I think we will just hunker down and pray for the end of the apocalypse. We have enough pork and eggs to last us into our next lifetimes.

Plenty of goat milk soon to come to wash it all down.

C'mon Rosie! We need some action!

None yet.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, 1948

Woody's advice

Woody is offering some advice to those who are working from home, or sheltering in place. He is an expert at making good use of his time in the house.

Relax. Don't stress. Curl up with your favorite blanket(s).

Spend some quality time with your loved ones—the human ones and especially the other ones.

Make some dinner using all that chicken you stocked up on.

Share with those who don't have enough, and especially share with those who can't make their own.

And if you were the ones who found empty shelves in the store, order take-out from your favorite local restaurant. They need love too.

Still waiting on Rosie, still snowflakes, still craziness

Miss Rosie has been outside sunning herself every day that it is sunny, and some when it isn't. She is not in any rush to give up those kids. If she starts looking concerned, I guess that will be our signal that it is time.

I personally am not declaring it is spring until Rosie has her kids AND, more importantly, until there is not one single snowflake in our forecast. We are not there yet. As long as the sun is shining, Rosie and the Peters are happy campers.

Coronavirus. Just not sure about the toilet paper shortages. Just not sure why people feel the need to buy everything they think they will need to take them through the next year and not care about leaving some for their friends and neighbors. In addition to the things you would expect people to stock up on in a health crisis, I have heard that there are shortages of chicken? chick peas? bread?

Go figure.

What is she waiting for?

Rosie hasn't kidded yet. She looks like she is about to burst, but she is still mostly hanging out in the sun enjoying the almost spring weather. I could tell the kids had dropped in her belly yesterday, and I thought we would see them today, but still no action.

Left to right: Rico, Ray Davies (the stud man), chicken posing as a goat, 12-day old brown boy, and my big girl. My sister thinks she looks like Shirley from Shawn the Sheep.

If Tara keeps coming out for baby goat kisses every year, pretty soon we will have a whole calendar of cute Tara and baby pics.

Shout-out to Red Betty: Here's your girl!

Spring has sprung

I know...we will still get more snow...but not so much (I hope) and it won't stay. Woody spent a good bit of today outside in his chair declaring it is spring! And while Cyrus is content to sit in the sun on a nice day, Woody then declared it was 5 pm and time for his food, even though we just pushed the clocks ahead last night and it was really only 4 pm...or should have been if he was using his internal clock.

Soon we will all adjust. But for now the boys are singing the blues—it's 5 pm somewhere—so feed us!

And no, still no kids from Rosie. She is huge! I hope to get a pic tomorrow of Her Hugeness, out sunning herself like Cyrus (but fatter) in the grass.

Still waiting

Still waiting on 2 or 3 more from a very pregnant Rosie.  Hoping there are no surprises after she delivers.

So the plan is to try to sell Ray Davies (handsome guy, left photo) but not for meat. It's hard to control who is buying for what purpose, but if they ask about the weight, it's a pretty good sign—no sale.

The red one in the 3 pics below is definitely a female, so she is officially named Red Betty after one of our biggest goat fans in Alabama.
https://lestersflat.blogspot.com/2019/02/goats-today-chickens-tomorrow.html

And if we can sell Ray (too sweet for meat) then we can keep one of the brown boys as our new stud man. PS: please don't tell The Husband his pic is on here. :)

One big happy family

Susan gave us our first 2 kids: a little white girl and little black and white boy. The doeling is the one who got bloody when she was disbudded. You can see that she healed up just fine.

These kids are already in that playful stage, bouncing around the yard, enjoying the warm weather of the last 2 days. Some of the other youngsters are starting to venture out as well.

The only bothersome thing about this happy family is that Ray Davies, our buck, is Susan's son and also the father of the 2 littles. We will try to sell him this year because we don't want any more inbreeding, but Mom and Son are so bonded to each other, it will be hard to split them up.

And we are still waiting on Rosie to give us 2 or 3 more. Fingers crossed our population does not increase any more than that!