News from the Ranch

Well the weather is frigid and it certainly feels like winter even though winter doesn't officially arrive for twelve more days. We are anxiously awaiting the birth or our first kids, though we have no signs of their eminent arrival. Farmer Kaul says those nannies better start having some kids soon or they will be sold to market!

T-Bone is doing good, getting bigger all the time. Today was the first day he did not eat all of his food. This is a good sign, it means he's full and he has already eaten all he wants. This is also good news for the budget because he eats 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket full of different feed. He eats crushed corn, sweet feed and a couple other treats, plus hay. Yesterday I went out to feed him and he was nowhere to be seen. He was chilling out in the pond area back in the woods. By the time I finished delivering all his food and water I saw him standing back there, just looking at me. Normally he is waiting for his food by the gate, bellering loudly for all the neighbors to hear, but I was a little earlier than usual. All the water troughs have been frozen over for days. Even though the temperature gets over 32 all the ice doesn't melt so we have to break it and pull it out so the animals can drink. T-Bone is big enough and the ice is thin enough that he can push it down and get a drink but the goats are another story. I don't know if it's because they are too small or if they are just cranially challenged.

Sunday we got two new barn cats. One male and one female, they are both fixed. One is white, currently named Snowball, the other is gray, named Smoky. So now we have 4 barn cats. Hopefully they will all get along once the two new cats are released and will begin to suppress the mouse population.

Kash has become an accomplished escape artist. First he squeezed through the gate, we're not positive but we think he sometimes goes under, and now he jumps between the top two rows of fencing. We added some chicken wire to his fence but that smart creature jumped through anyway and was heavy enough to bend the fence down enough to get through. So now he is either being locked inside his dog house or allowed into the house (which was his main goal to begin with). Have we been outsmarted by a dog? I have enough challenges with our two human children I can't fight every battle with the four-legged ones too!