Tiddely Pom

 “What a snowy season we've had!” a local weatherperson gushed on Jan 20.

“Duluth has had over 70" fall already, which is double what we accumulated by this time last year! 

  And our current snow depth is over 2 feet.”

 

We’ve gotten even more since the 20th.

 

 As they venture out onto the icy, snow-caked driveway, the girls are wary

 – especially Planet Nine on her very first trip outside of the barn this winter.

 

 

 The Washington Post warns that mosquitoes & ticks are still active in winter.

 Flies were not mentioned, however, so it felt safe at long last to take down the fly strips in the barn.  

 As usual, the house Christmas decorations will probably hang around till March or April.

 

 All that snow slides easily off the steep metal roof of the house 

 (often at inopportune moments, such as when we want to get the van in or out of the garage)

but it’s been mounting up on the goat barn.  At morning chores on Jan 15 we discovered that a supporting beam on the overhang attached to the back of the barn had given way.  The roof was sagging and the entire structure threatened to collapse.

Barb posted a call for help on Facebook, and a good goat-lady friend sent her wonderful husband Ben (a super handy maintenance technician) to the rescue.  

After working his paper plant job all day, Ben arrived with 3 of his young sons in the dark and -10 cold.

Over the next two hours, he first chipped and shoveled tons of heavy ice/snow off the overhang, then hoisted up the sagging portion and screwed it into place with a new beam and supporting timbers.  

Two days later he and the boys returned and shoveled off the 7 more inches of new snow that had just fallen and most of the accumulation from the entire goat barn roof

(giving us some anxious moments as they traipsed around high on that icy surface)

leaving mountains of snow on the ground that will probably still be with us next June.

And Ben would accept no payment for all that work except a batch of peanut butter cookies.

We were amazed at the family’s kindness and generosity to a pair of totally impractical and helpless seniors.

Back inside the house, Barb continues to experiment with new soaps

available for viewing and purchase on her website.

And Dustin (who has been with us 6 years now this month) continues to do what he does best:

jump up onto the computer stand and eclipse the monitor.

He is maintaining his perfect record of hating everything we buy for him.

Because he is an inveterate lap-cat, settling in whenever Steve sits down to read, Barb thought that he might appreciate a “Zipper Sweatshirt Animal Pouch Hoodie” to cozy in.

He gave it a whirl for 10 seconds

and then hopped right out, never to return.

Maybe the mangled English made him suspect the shirt was manufactured by Chinese political prisoners in a sweatshop.

We tried to hide from him yet another cheery report from The Washington Post.

Back in the barn, Momma Kitty seems reconciled to her two odd bunkmates.

She now hangs out a lot with Orange, though the two sometimes spat like an old married couple:

The two ferals don’t seem particularly wary of Pepé Le Pew, even passing dangerously close to his business end:

We hoped all three girls were incubating cute little baby goats

but her blood test reveals that Planet Nine did not settle.

Cheeky is due on March 17

and Kuiper one week later.

Till then, Tiddely Pom.