New Year's Day 2010

OK, I remember why I gave the white roosters away. The one that came home crowed every hour on the hour for the New Year, and the moon was NOT out,n due to the clouds. I got up at 6 am and said,. That rooster is GOING!" I mean, he starts at 9 at night. What a party animal!

Willow insisted on going to the farm with me this am. I decided the 3 inches of snow was not enough to keep me out. The roads were half plowed with a nice icy base and slush on top. I made it up over the worst hill and took it slow. We pulled in 15 minutes late to see just Mr. Boss there-Boss had left to pick up R since his truck wouldn't make the roads.

I set Willow to the wet barn floor with the broom and fed the chickens and headed to the wether area. Mr. Boss couldn't find the older Great Pyranees, Balloo, and asked me to crawl under the barn and look behind the silo. No dog. I cast around out back checking tracks-horses, then dog, which circled and returned. Mr. Boss struck out looking for Balloo with the other GP, Luke. I offerred Willow to go with him, and he declined, so I I told him to give me a yell if he needed me.

Ten minutes later I heard a shout, and he was across the lower pasture at the edge of the woods asking for some type of sling. I grabbed a couple of horse leads and a wide girth and sprinted through 6 inches of snow, climbed the gate, panted across the pasture, and met him in the woods. Balloo was trying to drag his back end. We tried to sling him, but he was exhausted and could not walk on his front legs. His color on his tongue was purplish, and then he retched and I thought he was having heart failure. I ran back to the barn for a tobaggan

TG Boss and R were just pulling in the drive. R left with a narrow farm plastic tobaggan-I had brought a wide sled for Willow in case she had a chance to sled, so I had Willow grab that and an old blanket out of the car. Then Mr. Boss yelled for the tarp and the firewood sling, so I grabbed those and told Willow to stay and help Boss clean. She wanted to come, but the walk was arduous for short legs.

Once back to the woods, I put the blanket on my sled and we managed to get the dog on it. (lifting and pulling) We pulled his front legs down to make him lie down, and I put the firewood sling over his shoulders and roped it and him down to the handles on the sled. R pulled him back. It went fairly well. After the bullmastiffs I have some experience moving non-ambulatory large dogs, and it was lucky we had some snow and I had happened to bring the sled since it was wider than the farm one.

We set him up in the tack room on some straw, and he wasn't too happy but with a huge storm coming this weekend, they can't risk him getting stuck in over a foot of snow.

He has hip problems, so he will probably be fine in a couple of days, or maybe not...

After that the farm chores were fairly normal. The roads were in better shape on the way home.

I decided to rip the side goat house off and rebuild it this afternoon, and I quickly realized why I had been putting that job off! PHEW! The worst part is the goats trying to destroy things while you are building them. I had the Firebird on watch at various times to drive them off. Hay down back? Who cares? Finally we finished at near dark. Much better storm shelter and no longer in the path of the large maple if it comes down in the storm.

We have another low pressure system moving into the gulf of maine to join the one that's there...conservative noon weather guy was predicting...yes he finally committed to a prediction...10-18 inches for our area. Really comig down tomorrow afternoon and evening. I am supposed to work the farm in the am-I am just worried about getting home if it hits early. Storms like that don't mess around and you can get 2-3 inches and hours. I told Boss I would make the call the in the morning...

Happy 2010! :D