Cold Noses and Sour Tongues..

Finally, after suffering through nasty, cold, "Global Warming" for the past 6 weeks, we got a break in the Arctic weather....It couldn't come any too soon.

Weather like this is hard on people, but at least we have fireplaces, stoves, and furnaces - cows and goats got nothing.....

We have had sunshine for a few days, but it was a COLD sunshine - highs just pushing about zero.

Yesterday, the high was in the 40's.....Bikini weather compared to the last few weeks.

I got out the hoses and proceeded to fill the stock tanks. They were getting low, but this was the first chance I got to fill them for two weeks. Plus, there was no melting, so no runoff from the roof to help me keep them filled.

As I strung out my hoses, I saw Belle watching me intently. She could reach the open water in the tank by the heater but, something told me she was getting lazy. As soon as the water started streaming from the hose, she proved me right:



She must have stayed there, drinking for about 15 minutes. It took awhile, but I finally got a good photo of her tongue sticking out while she tried to lap the water stream.



You'd think it would have been easier for her to just sip it up like normal, but NOOOOO. I think she enjoyed playing with the hose too much. Everyone else just waited around until the tank was full.

While I waited for the tank to fill, I decided to give a few pieces of grapefruit and orange skins to the goats. Normally, they woof them down, even the big pieces. This grapefruit must have been especially sour - the only one who would eat it was Rosie - and she wallered it into submission for about 10 minutes.



She'd toss it around, shake her head, and keep swinging her head side-to-side, all the while trying to chew the thing.





Good old Rosie did finally manage to subdue the poor peeling, but it was fun to watch. Even the other goats were looking on. Only ONE of them decided to try the other piece of skin, but soon spit it out. Rosie ended up with BOTH halves. I'm sure she was happy, but they sure were SOUR!

The orange peels went down the other goats fairly well, though - they aren't as tart.

This morning, The first thing I did was to check on Yani, one of our LGD's. We knew that she was getting close to her "due date", so I had put her in a private room in the barn. Last evening, there were no pups, but she was laying odd and a bit restless. I figured she was getting close.

I found 5 pups beside her this morning and then another one was added sometime before noon. So far there are three boys and three girls. Of course, we don't know for SURE, but it looks like 6 will be the final tally. Yani seems to be a good mom, even though this is her first litter. I DO know that "dad" was ushered out this morning, and told to STAY out - in no uncertain terms.

Pest, the Cat, learned the hard way this afternoon, that visiting hours were over - especially if you are a feline....Yani got REAL close to her, then uttered an evil "LEAVE OR DIE" growl....

Pest got the message...

Here is a shot of Yani and her pups: