The day after tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving y'all! I wanted to write a few lines now as I will be very busy preparing for the big feast tomorrow and may not have time!

The day before yesterday, Sunday, Tinker and Prince were having a huge feud. They were both tearing up and down the pasture. Prince chasing Tinker. They both had their mouths hanging open in the most disgusting alpaca way, green spit dangling. Tinker would try to stop and hide at the end of the field among the prickly pear cactus but Prince would find him and start the chase all over again. I went into the field thinking I would split them up and slow them down. Yeah, right! For about 2 seconds. They just finally ran out of steam. Well, now, is a good time, I thought. The two biggest boys are almost exhausted so maybe they will be too tired to hurt any of the new boys. So I opened up the gate between the pens and let them all go! We had some running and lots of exploring. Prince and Kardigan did one big up- on- your-hind-legs-belly-neck bump and then it seemed to be over.

They don't seem to have bonded yet to make one cohesive herd. They are just trading sides of the field. Tinker and Prince don't much like each other but they are obviously still a "herd." Kardigan, Cimarron and Stewie are also still a herd. Having seperate feeding stations is working out well. I filled up water buckets yesterday. Stewie immediately dumped the whole bucket over! Don't ask me why! It turned out to be a good thing. I found out that plain old vinegar works just as well as bleach to clean out gunky water buckets. Vinegar is probably better for the animals too.

Caramel and Little Bones are playing alot together through the fence. They are both pretty frisky in the cool morning air. It will be fun to watch when I put them in the goat pasture. They won't know what to do with all that space. Hopefully, we will get everyone moved, I'm thinking, the first weekend in December. That way it is easy to calculate birthing dates and the weather should be better for kidding in April or May. Maybe I better figure in the shearing too. That is supposed to be around March 27 this year. Since goats gain most of their baby weight in the last couple of weeks before birth, they shouldn't be too uncomfortable for shearing in March.

Have a great Thanksgiving and be Thankful, if for nothing else, at least for the food you put in your mouth! Ha!