Baby it's cold outside!

First, can y'all read this ok? Sometimes I go to blogs and when there's a background like this, I can't see the words. I can here, but wondered what y'all see. Let me know please and if you can't see it, I'll change it.


Wow. Alpaca wool is amazing! I just now, after more than 2 months, got to actually PET this red Alpaca.

Seems like I am always in a hurry when I am feeding all the animals in the morning. I feed these 2 about half a big coffee can of sweet feed and minerals in the morning, plus hay. Misha, the red one, will eat out of my hand or the feed can. But that's as far as it's gotten. Until now.

So this morning, I put their feed in their bowls and just stood there. Misha was beside me and Sugar on the other side of him. I reached over, while they both had their heads down, and pet Sugar. Of course he moved over. But then did let me pet him for a few seconds.

But Misha, the red one, let me pet him all over his back and neck!! I just stood there, since he never even moved, and pet him all I could. It was amazing! He is SO soft. I am so happy that I have finally got to touch them! I'll do this every morning now and maybe one day I will be able to pet them any time I want to.

They are really sweet boys and I do love them. My husband says they are just stuck up. He'll say something to them and they just turn their heads away. Not the most social of animals on this farm.

We had to start up the wood stove again this morning. After being SO hot and humid here the past week, it's cold again. I mean, we had windows open and I was wearing shorts. But not today. Or the rest of this week. At least we don't have ice and snow like everywhere else. But I think frozen mud would be nice right now. It has rained a bit too much for me. Not liking all this mess.

                                   This was from a few weeks ago. But we'll have more soon.

And yesterday morning, right at feeding time, it's just pouring rain. So I go out in it to haul hay and bread and stuff to the masses. As soon as I am done, it stops raining. Seriously. So I didn't milk Penelope. I had to be gone all day and had to leave. So I was thinking I'd go ahead and dry her up, since the day before, I only got a pint of milk.

But I don't want to dry her up. I want to keep milking her. Even a pint of milk a day is better than nothing. Or store bought. or even raw Jersey cow milk. It's good and I like it, but I really love my goat milk. A lot. I know I'll eventually have to dry her up, and will. But just not right now.

I have still not done a thing about Christmas around here. I used to decorate my whole house years ago. I just can't make myself do that here for some reason. We do put up a tree, but I have to make myself do that anymore. And I'll get the grand kids to decorate it when they're here. I might go get some greenery and red berries from Mrs. T's yard later and do the mantle and buffet and windows outside. But I really don't care. I just don't like winter anymore. And IT'S NOT EVER WINTER YET!

It IS a boy after all!

I was thinking I didn't have a rooster after all. He never did crow. Just another hen I guess.

But this morning, I heard the noise. Twice! It was the sound of a very young rooster trying to crow. I love that sound. But I love a really good crow too. So he can keep his name, Black Bart, now.

And I think I might have another rooster as well. You can see the one with the long feathers in front of Black Bart. If it is a roo, he'll be Black Jack. They are both pretty big. This other one has the tail feathers like a rooster.

So this is pretty cool. Get to hear crows again after a very long crow-less time here at Outback Farm.

Doctors, doctors and more doctors. Good grief already!

So this week, Tiny has 4 different doctor appointments. It was only supposed to be 3 but then the hospital doctor wanted him to come in today. So yesterday was the blood work to check his INR level because of the Coumadin. Today the hospital doctor to check on him and that was the last time for him. Tomorrow is his diabetic doctor, who moved his appt. up from Jan. Then Thursday is the wound care center to check on his ankles. Man, that's a lot of doctors in one week. And Friday is my day with Mrs. T.

We will also have our youngest grand Kansas the next 2 days on account of her having strep throat and the doctor said for her to not go back to school til Friday. So she'll come out in the early morning so her momma can go to work. Then on the way to town we'll hand her off to my mom.

And I need to call the dentist and skin doctors for Mrs. T too. I keep forgetting to do that. So I could be taking her to doctors too. How fun is this? Tiny is already tired of going to doctors. And tired of watching TV. Now that's hard to believe. He can sit for days and watch Gunsmoke or Law and Order. He even laughs like a kid at the 3 Stooges still. So he must be getting restless. Poor guy.

So he does stuff like this. I had set this feed pan on the hood of the truck. He moved it to the center and called it a hood ornament. Our farm truck hood ornament. Very clever indeed! And he's been chopping a little wood. He also has brought in wheelbarrows full of wood. But since it's going to be in the 70's the next several days, we let the fire go out. Plus it was like 87 degrees inside the house. With windows open. I think we got the stove working pretty darn good. But probably don't need to use it til it gets near 20 degrees.