Icicles Just Outside Our Bedroom Window
Looks like winter is here to stay for quite awhile. -24C is quite a common temperature these days - perhaps when we started out from Nanaimo, BC, we should have headed south instead of east. Just last Saturday, despite the freezing cold temperatures and the snow whirling about, Freya, our goat, gave birth to two kids for the first time. Sarah, my wife, was so worried about the goat giving birth without anyone nearby, but me, I just figured let nature take its course - after all goats have been dropping kids, not just one, but up to five at a time for thousands of years without the help of humans. Freya must have given birth to her two babies a short while before I arrived in the morning to feed the livestock. Unfortunately, the doe, because her eyes were not open, must have died stillborn and the little Billy goat wasn't looking too good either. After I told Sarah that Freya gave birth, I took the little doe out into the forest and laid her down in the soft snow; the circle of life; one dies so another can live
Giving Freya the benefit of a doubt since she was a new mom, we had a difficult time trying to get her to feed the little guy. Sarah tried bottle-feeding him but he wouldn't suck on the nipple, so the only way he finally got any milk was for me to pull Freya down on the stall floor, then put my weight on her so she couldn't get up and then Sarah managed to get the little guy to suck on her teat. For the first couple of days, we weren't sure if the wee Billy goat was going to live or not because he still hadn't managed to stand on all four legs and appeared to be very listless. However, on the third day, he was not only standing, although a touch wobbly, he was able to walk on his own and Freya was allowing him to suckle. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be livelier than he is now or not but only time will tell. Not the best time, the middle of winter, for a goat to have a young one, so if we decide to let Freya have any more kids, we're going to make sure that she has a springtime kid. Not sure what we're going to do with the baby goat once it's full grown because we don't want any Billy goats and there is the risk of him mating with his mother - that is definitely a big no-no
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12'x16' Baby-Barn in Bill Leeman's Yard
I bought Bill Leeman's baby-barn the other day and we're hoping to skid it about 1/2 mile down the road - one hill down and one hill up to our place come this weekend. It's pretty much bare-bones inside; there's a loft but there isn't any standing room. Fortunately, since I'm not a very tall fellow, I'm going to drop the loft down about 1.5', which hopefully will just give me standing room in the centre. I'll put the computers along the walls, so since I'll be sitting at them, I should be alright - just have to make sure I don't get up in a hurry so I don't bash my head on the ceiling. The baby-barn was being used for storage but I have plans to convert it into a new studio - still not a huge space but there will be plenty of room for what I want to do - should be a real cozy, come next winter, to create some paintings or other types of artistry.
I like the studio I built in the garage even though it's pretty tight. However, when I built it in the summer, soon after we first moved here, I didn't know that the garage flooded when the rain fell heavily or in the spring, when everything thaws. Renovating the baby-barn will be another fair sized project for me as soon as the weather gets warm enough to rip out the old studio and start working on it. I don't want to think about all that work at the moment though, because just the thought of it makes my back, muscles and joints ache. How did I ever get myself into this situation at 70 years of age; it would be nice to be at least 10 years younger.
We have another snow storm blowing our way; supposed to start snowing in about an hour and a half so I best stop writing this blog and start hauling in some wood from the wood shed while the yard is still fairly clear - Bobby Farrell ploughed it just a little while ago and I won't say how much snow I shovelled by hand to clear a space for the baby-barn. Yup, time to go, my fingers are almost numb with cold from typing in my cold studio - it's not freezing in here but it's cold just the same - doubt there are too many people sitting at a keyboard wearing a thick coat and a fur lined hat pulled over their ears to keep warm - I'll have to have me a Fireball (cinnamon-flavoured rum) a little later on - cheers, eh!
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