Just The Usual

Not much going on around here... today is very cold.. like - 14 C, with windchill around -22 C. My goat babies got their blankets put on this morning! The cold should be short lived though, tomorrow its supposed to be +4 or 5 C and maybe some RAIN. Lovely. Like just be winter now... this fall winter fall winter stuff is getting kinda old!! (I know be careful what you wish for!!)

Last night right after work, Shawn and I went out Christmas shopping. Mostly HE shopped and I killed time... he was shopping for me. I did get a Christmas present from him already though, but mostly because it was too big and awkward to hide!

How old am I?? Ok, OLD, let's leave it at that... guess what he gave me? A plastic sled... you know, the sort where you trudge off in the deep snow to some hill and zoom down in? A weird gift for an old broad, yes? Even weirder was the old broad ASKED for it for Christmas. Ok ok, so I haven't actually lost my marbles (just misplaced them temporarily... probably in some box!) Its actually to help me do my goat chores.

I always muck into a muck bucket, then trudge about 200 feet away in the deep snow carrying it to the manure pile to dump it... Now I can put the muck bucket on the sled and pull it to the manure pile. Or put a bale of straw on the sled and drag it down to the goats. I don't really plan to use it to zoom down a hill.

In fact, after receiving the sled last night, I was whining about how flat our land is and that I couldn't try it out. Well, I forgot that at the corner of the property (on the side with the neighbour, not the vacant lot side) that there IS a hill that goes down into the swamp! Umm, yeah, I don't think I'll try that... at least not until I'm SURE the swamp is frozen solid! ;)

This morning after I took Shawn to work, I made a quick stop at Farm Boy to get a loaf of bread, then I headed up to the Kinburn Feed store where my hay / straw supplier works to pick up the straw I ordered from him on Monday. I paid him for my 10 bales and told him I'd load it (as he was busy loading the truck with the fork lift) and he wouldn't hear of it.

By the time I went out and moved the van next to his truck and got the doors unstuck (frozen) he was there up in the truck moving bales to the back where I could reach them. I fit 10 bales in the van easily, I could likely get 15 or 16 in there before it would get too hard to stuff them in.

Once I was loaded, I thanked him and then headed home. When I got home I opened up the big doors to the feed room and moved the last few bales of straw from the last load out of the way and stacked the new ones up... I can pile them 5 high in that little building with no trouble. I put the older bales at the front, so they'll get used first.

I swept out the van with the broom, I didn't get all the bits of straw, but its not bad. Maybe tomorrow when its warmer I'll take the shop vac and get the bits around the edges of the mats.... today is too cold for that! I swept up the feed room and reorganized things a bit and then I was getting kinda chilly so I came inside.

I'll go out later and muck out the goats... let it get as warm as its gonna, first. At least the sun is out :)

Oh and my goats are finally starting to believe that beet pulp is NOT poison. Yesterday morning, I mixed some grain in with it and put a few raisins on top and they ate it up. I made them some more last night and they ate that up too. It was kinda cute cause the beet pulp mixture was a bit wetter and they were making adorable slurping noises while they ate it. Sounded a bit like Pixie eating her dog food, which is always kinda yucky sounding... but when goats do it, its not *quite* as gross! :) Besides, they aren't doing it IN the house, which makes a difference.

So not much happening around here... just the usual stuff.