Aah-uoooooo! Yip-yip-yip! The coyotes are close this morning. I went outside, turned off the holiday lights and just listened. They moved slowly down the hill, away from the chickens. Then I heard Buddy bark and know they must be off our property. I hope Mikey found a safe warm spot to hide from them. He didn't come in last night. I'll find out when I go out to feed everyone.

It has been crisp and cold since the storm passed. Caramel is not being very cooperative with Falkor. I guess she isn't ready yet. Little Bones on the other hand is "flagging" (wagging her tail) every time Falkor comes near. I will move her today into his pen. I will have to move little Mouth back in with his brothers for awhile. Maybe Caramel will get in the mood with Little Bones in the same pen with them.

Tinker is much better. His hind quarters are moving normally again. He is favoring his left front leg a little still. This has not stopped him from running around with the other boys. He startled Steve the other day when I was gone shopping. He started making this really "funny" noise, Steve said. I asked "What kind of noise? Was it a high pitch yipping noise? And was he standing real tall looking at something?" "Yes," Steve said, "It scared me cause I never heard that before! What the heck was he doing?" "Oh! That's just an alarm call!" I said, "You never heard that before?" Tinker seems to be the herd leader as far as alarm calls go. One day he started and I looked out the kitchen window to see if the neighbor's dog was out there again. I saw this huge tumble weed rolling toward the pasture! Ha! I was relieved there was no dog but I couldn't do much about the big tumbleweed! Sometimes Tinker starts sounding the alarm and I don't see anything that would cause it. I always check just to make sure though. Same thing when Buddy barks, I always at least try to check. I don't always at night because he barks almost non-stop at night. At night I listen for changes in his bark that would signal a real danger, like a snake or a person intruding. If I don't hear those subtle changes then I don't worry as Buddy is just doing his job.

Today is pen cleaning day and, since we will be moving goats again, we'll probably do some more toenail clipping. I can feel my aching back already! Ha!