Joy and Sorrow

It's been an interesting couple of days here at Roberts Roost. Monday night our doe Big Mama gifted us with two new babies. It was a cold damp night and the barn is quite open and drafty. The little ones got quite chilled and she couldn't get them warm or dry. We spent a good part of the night on the kitchen floor drying and warming babies and trying to get them to eat.

Wednesday dawned bright and clear and warmed up nicely. The kids, dubbed Daisy and Shakespeare by Julia, were reintroduced to their mom and seem to have adjusted well. (We'll see how they did last night. It was pretty cold, but they were dry, full, and a lot stronger.)

We got the chickens moved out onto a section of pasture that needed to be cleaned up from the fall. We only had three young goats last summer and they couldn't keep up with the grass. The chickens will shred all the old grass in a couple of days and then move to a new spot to get it ready for the grass to green-up. We still have a few bugs in our mobile coop moving system (The wheels rub and that makes it a bit difficult for one person to move.) but overall it is working well.

Tuesday afternoon Julia and Rowan saw something black and white laying on the road in front of our house. It turned out to be Sally, a kitten they had saved this past fall. She had been hit by a car and was dead. We all had a good cry, and will really miss her. She was a fun loving cat. (I don't even like cats and I liked her.) She was always on the porch to rub your leg or play. She loved to tease Sandy (our dog), and they spent a lot of time chasing around the yard or snuggling in a sunny spot. She would curl up under his chin and sleep. Her brothers (also rescued by J and R) will miss her too. We will miss her.

We got some work done on the greenhouse yesterday and hope the rain holds of for a while today so we can finish. I'll post some pictures when we are done.