Tomday! What Have You Done!

Awwwwwwww! Look at my little Tomday! This morning when I was feeding he peeked out of the barn door. He didn't come running down the hill for breakfast, but instead stood and watched. I could not see his hind end, only his front so I figured he was fine, and would come when he was ready.

After getting the two-leggeds out the door and onto the bus, I began my daily ritual of filling up water buckets and general duties. It was then that I noticed my littlest goat hobbling down the hill on three legs. He left rear leg dangling and crooked off to the side. I felt all of the bones, flexed his joints, and felt for swelling. Sure enough, the lower leg was swollen.

A few hours later we were off to see our favorite doctor -Tammy Doughty who X-rayed Tomday's leg. She found his knee cap was out of place and higher then it should be as well as a small fracture. We figured he must have caught his leg and wrenched it as he tried to free himself.

Tonight he is settled in to the barn in a huge stall with his mother. He'll have to stay in for 4 weeks or at least be in the barn as it has to stay dry. Never a dull moment here.:)

Look at my mama hen defending her chicks from the marauding "sheepdragon". I thought for sure that this little hen had fallen victim to the fox. Instead, she had made herself a nest behind the feed bin, and proudly strutted out of the shed with her little clutch. She is quite proud and a great little mama.

The days are getting shorter now and my life is shifting once again. In the summer I work outside early before the heat of the day. In the fall and winter I wait until mid-morning for the sun to warm the earth and dry the ground from overnight frost.



I am still plugging away at fencing the ridge. A few hours here and a few hours there. I keep telling myself there is a reason why I am not wealthy enough to pay someone else to do it. But then I also remind myself that I am healthy enough to carry rolls of fencing and buckets of nails up the hill. And there is no place I would rather be than up on that hill in the afternoon, surrounded my my peaceful sheep munching all around me. It sooths my soul.