We had another winter storm watch but still no snow. It is d--- cold for us. All the water buckets have been frozen in the mornings. So I make sure they are filled up when it warms up enough.

Tinker turned up limping on Friday. He acted like his back was out of whack so I guess Prince finally got the best of him in one of their many violent fights. I am watching him. He does not seem to be in any real pain. He is walking a little funny but not as bad as the first day. He is putting weight on both hind legs and he is not staying by himself. He is not fighting as much with Prince although I see Prince still tries to engage him. Prince also started a fight with Kardigan so I think Prince is the aggressor in all the fighting. I guess he thinks he has to prove he is top alpaca. I also remember his former owner telling me that Prince's mother chased and harrassed the other female alpacas in her herd. So it may be that I will have to isolate Prince if he keeps causing trouble. I pray that Tinker will continue to recover too.

Steve cleaned pens yesterday, as usual, and then I helped clip goat toenails. You don't know how weak you are until you start wrangling animals! OH MY! How my back does not like holding goats for nail trimming. As soon as we can we need to get a goat staunchen so that this job will be easier on them, but mostly on us! Caramel did not like being on her back one bit either. Little Bones was very wiggly too. The job got done and then we put Caramel in with Falkor. They will stay together for a couple of weeks and then I will put Little bones in with him too. Little Bones seems a little lonely right now. I am thinking of putting Mouth in with her for company. He is fixed so he cannot impregnate her. He also seems a little abused and isolated being in with the 2 other young bucks. They are a bit larger than he is and boss him around alot. He and Little Bones are about the same size so maybe they would both be happier together. Don't know if I can accomplish this relocation by myself though. It may have to wait til next weekend when Steve is cleaning pens again.

We got our first 3 Christmas cards on Saturday and I am starting to hear from people who got mine already. So fun! Hearing from old friends and new ones. The Christmas Eve Party planning is going well. My daughters have assigned me only three dishes this year so my work is less. There is still the cleaning up before and the decorating but I am getting that sorted out in my head and all should go without a hitch! Well, maybe...