Changes again

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much!  For once I was very good and did not over eat.  I felt so much better! :-)

Another change has happened around here.  I found Sam a new home.  He is a great guard dog for 4-legged critters, but he is way too friendly towards people up here.  Plus with his sister living right next door, it was too much to have him around.  Every time the neighbor would let her out, she would come over here and get Sam and off they'd go for the whole day.  Sam was gone two days in a row, and that was the last straw.  The neighbor has all of a sudden started letting their dog loose every day, and she comes over here to get Sam.  I think I have the fence all secure and that he can't get out, and he finds another spot to squeeze under and away he goes.  So, since he's no good to me if he's not here, I called a friend who works with animal rescue groups, and she found him a new home.  It's perfect for him.  He has a family with 2 girls to love, and they love him.  They have an energetic Standard Poodle for Sam to play with, and some animals to guard.  I think he will be quite happy there.  It's a relief to not have to worry about him taking off from here now.  Nellie has her confidence back, thanks to Sam, so she can keep the predators away.   She also doesn't like the neighbor, so that is good, too. :-)   Plus, with Sam's 1/4 Australian Shepard in him, his herding instincts were a bit too strong and he was biting the backs of the kids (goats) as he was herding them around.  I kept getting after him about it, but he wasn't quitting.  So, after some deep thinking, I decided it would be better for everyone if he wasn't here anymore.   Next year I'll get a full blood LGD and then Nellie will have help again.

It looks like it's going to be another winter of up and down temperatures.  We had a very cold week, then it warmed up again, and now by tomorrow night, it's supposed to be below 0!  That is rather hard on the animals.  I'll have a bunch of shivering goats out there.  I'll be feeding extra hay again.  We did have about 8 inches of snow on the ground, then it warmed up and rained the last two days.  Now it's almost all gone.  Our road is pretty icy.  I had the chains on going down, but made it home without them.  I had a big round bale of hay in the back, so with all that weight, I didn't have any problems.  I'm glad I plowed my driveway so the steep hill part was bare dirt/mud.  I really don't like having to put on chains.  It's not hard to do, but when I've got my "going to town" clothes on, I don't like crawling around the muddy tires trying to put the chains on without getting all dirty.  I think it's time to get some studded tires!

Well, that's all for now......