Drama on the farm!

Friday morning was beautiful! The boys all went out to feed and I hurried to complete another Christmas gift. At one point I thought that maybe I should go and check on them, they tend to get sidetracked sometimes, especially after a good snowfall.

Five minutes later, Jacob and Joseph carried in a screaming Joshua. Joshua was sledding, instead of feeding sheep. He had also been holding a piece of metal in front, to use as a brake. It had chipped off his two front, PERMANENT,teeth. Gary took him to the dentist immediately and I followed after organizing the rest of the family. Since his mouth was sore they will fix then in a couple of weeks. Joshua is the child who is always aware of how he looks, he even has his own look, button down shirts and vests, very preppy. So I think that having to be reminded that his looks are temporarily altered because he didn't obey won't do him to much harm.

Layah, my son's Springer Spaniel, has come in several times over the last two days with porcupine needles in her snout and paws. Poor thing! This morning, David pulled about a dozen from her lower jaw and one was buried about an inch and a half. He has gone out to track the porcupine and "relocate" it.

Porcupines are really prevalent here and really hurt our animals, it is hard to pull quills from a horse or cow. Also they strip the bark from all the trees and then the trees die.

One night, last winter, we were awakened by a very loud scraping noise. We looked around, inside the cabin, our parrots sometimes scraped their beaks but they were asleep. We wentback to bed, but it got worse, Gary knew then what it was. He headed outside with a rifle and I went back to sleep. A porcupine was chewing on the outside of the cabin! I slept through him shooting it. Because of their physique it is hard to do anything else, other than shoot them.

It is so beautiful out here, about six inches of beautiful powder. I think it is so magical!