Another Snowy Saturday

This is the view from my studio this morning!

Last night it was snowing when I got home from work. I hurried down to milk the cow and feed the kids and before I was done the ground was white. Thank goodness my husband had been kind enough to do all the other evening chores including bringing up the firewood. We settled in for a quiet meal and warm fire.

I checked the weather about 1:30 this morning and knew it would not be necessary to get up at 5 a.m. to bake, we had at least 3 inches at that point. So, I was able to get a luxurious extra 2 hours of sleep! What a splendid and unexpected gift. My husband said he checked to see if I wanted breakfast but decided I would rather sleep than eat so did not wake me. Good choice he was told ;o)) The store did open late, so I just baked 9 loaves to drop at noon. I also made granola for the week and got a batch of yogurt going.

Being that I was surprised earlier this week with the arrival of a cashmere kid I decided to move them all to the lower barn for closer watching. While in "captivity" I trimmed feet and checked eyes. Feet were too long and in desperate need of trimmimng but eyes looked good. As I checked the last doe I noticed she was thinner and her udder looked as if it had been nursed on one side. I couldn't feel a baby so that meant she must have kidded yesterday. This was not good since a baby was nowhere in sight. I spent the next couple of hours walking and looking for a kid. I took her back to the pasture in hopes she knew where it might be and lead me to it. I kept hoping it was asleep somewhere. She kept repeatedly going to the same spot where I imagine she gave birth but there is was no baby to be found. With all the snow it was tough looking for a kid- dead or alive. I have kicked myself repeatedly for not moving them on Tuesday night but it was a crazy week and I just dropped the ball. My heart just breaks for her. I plan to leave her out there tonight .... just in case and will search again tomorrow.

My husband and I walked the other pastures to discuss the cross fencing that will have to be done in the next week or so. We usually put up temporary fencing to keep the animals off the hay field and the lower pasture to allow us to fertilize and the grass to grow. They are dry lotted for abour 2 months. We decided this year we might as well make a permanent fence line. However, this requires materials we don't have on hand so we can't start today.

I finished up the evening chores and milking. All the while I was fussing at the bottle kids. They are a constant distraction. Always looking for kisses and a bottle! Their crazy shenanigans keep me laughing. It is taking much longer to do chores these days.