Walking partners and sleeping companions

Yesterday afternoon I decided to walk down and get the mail with Poppy, It's been sunny and dry, so no worries about getting her splint wet; I just put a few layers of Gorilla tape on the end to give it some protection. As we headed out the gate, Chuckie followed. He tried to do this once before, so I put him in the garage until we got back; he is so good about staying on the place, and I don't want anything to happen to him. This time I didn't want to go all the way back to the house, so I tried to discourage him. I thought it worked, but it turns out it just made Chuckie more sneaky. He still came along for the walk, he just hung back farther and was more wary if I looked back to check on him.

Fortunately he made it back with us; Poppy is making sure of it in the last photo.

Earlier in the day I called my folks. They mentioned that they haven't seen any Poppy photos recently (they haven't been following my blog), so as soon as we hung up I took a couple and texted them to both their phones.

Then I laid down for a nap. Brian was in his room (ever on the internet) and Rick was in the living room talking on his phone and apparently ignoring Poppy, because pretty soon she thumped against my bedroom door and whined repeatedly. I got up and up plopped her on the bed with me. She was hoping for ACTION, but soon settled down. She then burrowed under the covers and fell asleep against my leg. She's a little radiator!

That gave Brian the idea to take her to bed with him last night. I thought he might regret it, but this morning he said it went great – apparently for both of them! He plans to take her to bed with him again tonight and tomorrow night; we're not sure it would be a good idea after her splint comes off on Tuesday (yay!), at least until her leg strengthens significantly. 

A couple other photos from yesterday:

Poppy didn't see the bumblebee bumbling across our driveway, but she DID see the deer, and growled at them. The bigger doe on the left stomped her foot; I wouldn't want Poppy to tangle with her. Years ago a doe with a young fawn came after Jackson and scared him good; I think she might have gotten him with a hoof.

Only one photo from today, but I'm very happy with it. Fleece harvest has begun! I rooed Blake, and hit the "sweet spot" – his fleece came off with ease, and he had a nice covering of new fleece left. He is thin – thinner than this photo makes him appear. I let him have some grazing time afterwards, and he enjoyed that. He's such a good ram; he walked up the mounting block onto the stand, and stood quietly the whole time.

I was going to shear Bittersweet as well, but he is so skinny I was afraid he'd get dangerously chilled if I removed his fleece right now. I let him have some grazing time, too. I'm not sure why he's gotten so thin; all three of my boys have lost condition over the winter. Supplementation is tricky; it can contribute to urinary calculi and I've lost several boys to that over the years. I'm hoping once they are back in their wooded lot with some grass and browse as well as the free-choice hay they get now, they will pick up some weight. I'll worm all three before turning them out; they've been off that lot for 6-8 months so it should be clean.

That's it for today (Happy Easter!) from . . .