January Saturday

The morning started gently with a lack of alarms. It's so nice to lollygag around in the morning, cooking breakfast, exercising, feeding the critters, all without a schedule.

I spent some time grooming Millie, much to her delight - a task I'm much overdue on. She gets so excited when someone comes in to play. She tears up and down the hill as if she was still a yearling. The field we were in can't be seen from the road, but there are a couple spots where a car going up the drive is visible. Cars can certainly be heard, since the road is gravel. While we were grooming and snuggling, my neighbors truck turned in and drove up the road. Millie looked at it, wiggled a bit, and returned to enjoying the attention. Then another truck turned in. Millie gave me an apologetic glance, and took off to let that strange truck know this is private property. Of course she knows the difference between home trucks and strange trucks.

People persist in ignoring the private property signs, thinking this is public land for them to play on. I kicked them off, then decided to clean out the upper kennel I use for the bantam chickens - one of the few structures left standing after the snows. I set up some new perches for them, cleared out an old nest of eggs, and got the place looking pretty spiffy.  The bantams gathered around to watch and dig through the cleanings looking for bugs. When I finished they thoroughly inspected the area and tried out the new perches. It's always good to have your work appreciated.

I came in for a late lunch, looked out the window and - it's SNOWING! It's too warm for it to stick around, but this is not a welcome sign. I shouldn't be so surprised, but it's hard to remember it's still January. While it's been quite cold, it hasn't been raining. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, especially with most of my shelters still not functioning. It's just a bit odd.

It's so much fun to be here for sunrise and sunset, even when the sun isn't obvious.