On Thanksgiving day I noticed Abby wasn’t with her mother and brother. I really didn’t think much of it. It wouldn’t have been the first time a baby was left sleeping next to a tree while everyone else moved off only to wake up bleating for it’s mom once it realized it was alone. Still, as I fed the other animals I called to the goats and I never heard her cry out. I decided to make a quick look around even though I didn’t have time because everyone was loading up to celebrate Thanksgiving with relatives. I continued to call out while I walked the area. I noticed something dark hanging in a fallen dead cedar. At first I thought it was just a bag or something the dogs had brought home. As I got closer I could tell it was Abby. She wasn’t making a sound nor was she moving. I thought she was dead until I got close enough to see she was holding her head up. She had been playing on the down tree and slipped catching her leg between the limbs and there she hung, front feet barely touching the ground. I got her out and checked her over. Nothing appeared to be broken but she wasn’t using the leg at first.

     Over the next few days she began to put some weight on it. I still caught her a few times and checked for any sign of a break but everything felt fine. Then this last weekend I noticed I noticed she wasn’t using it at all and it appeared to be swinging unusually. I checked and it was obviously broke above the ankle. Last night with Lisa’s help we put a splint on it. Either the swelling was keeping me from noticing the break or it may have been cracked and something caused it to break after she started using it again. Either way she will be fine in a week or so.

     For a few weeks now we have been feeding some dropped off cats and kittens at the local dump. We decided to take in the remaining kittens this weekend. No we didn’t need anymore cats but one of the kittens was sick and we couldn’t leave it like that. I started putting some antibiotics in their water but the sick one continued to get worse rather than better. So it went to the vet for some stronger medicine. One day and the rattle in it purr is gone. We will keep them in a dog kennel in the barn for a week or two and then open the door and let them be barn cats. Hopefully they will stay. The last two we had at the barn left after about a year and decided they liked living around the house better.

     Last week our oldest grandson Jacob found a baby squirrel. He named it Brandi. It was kind of beat up so it was placed in a cage outside until I had a chance to look at it. It was obvious to me that it was much younger than anyone else thought so I put it in a bird cage in the house with some old rags to burrow in. We have been feeding it with a syringe and a special nipple. Yesterday was the first time we have seen her out climbing around the cage. I have no idea what we are going to do with her if she can’t be released. One of her front feet/wrist may be broken. Hope it heals well. Time will tell.

     Olive had her calf yesterday in a rainstorm. I think it is a little heifer but I haven’t gotten close enough to be 100% sure. The pictures are not that good because the rain was reflecting some of the flash making them look darker. Plus you can see the rain streaking the pictures. I’ll get better pictures later. I’ll go back to milking in a couple days. NO MORE STORE BOUGHT MILK and CHEESE!!!

Lastly here is a picture of Jacob cleaning up around our little barn and refilling the compost bins. He likes driving the tractor.