I'm back and peeping Pygmies

Let's just say, I always had it in mind that marrying an electronics technician would be quite handy...

My new hard drive worked. Kevin was able to get it up and running late last night. My old hard drive is off to Mass. so my friend can get the information off it for me. Soon I should be back to 100%, maybe even better. Kevin was able to get my laptop hooked up to the printer in the office wirelesses too, so I can just hit print now instead of sending him stuff and asking him to do it for me. I'm moving up in the world of technology out here in the bush. 

I'm so glad this hasn't turned out to be quite as heartbreaking of a situation as I first thought. Sad and frustrating...but not devastating.... and my Fantom drive will be backing up my computer every day again so I don't have to go through this.... ever. I might loose the hard drive or laptop but not the data. 

Our Wild turkey Tom's have been multiplying. I'm starting to feel like there is a sign up here somewhere that reads "Bachelors welcome and well fed." 

The January thaw came early and it's not like the usual thaw of just warmer temps - but rather it feels like late March and like things will start blossoming any second. It's a little much. I'll take it for now, but I'd like winter to return once we catch up on outside chores and get more wood in. It's been nice to be able to get the barn cleaned up and to be able to get out into the bush again with less struggle. The weather man says we have until Wed to get caught up while it's nice before the temperature drops slightly - not too much but at least to below freezing again. 

One thing I don't think we'll be doing much of this year is ice fishing. None of the deer have even walked on our pond and it's so warm now that it's darned near clear. I wouldn't go near the lake for walking or fishing, unless I wanted to go for a swim, and I can't say I've really had the urge to go swimming lately. 

The other morning I noticed that someone had chewed a hole into the dividing wall that separates Rose and Dahlia's pen from Sammy's. At first I thought it was Sammy, but then I noticed it had been chewed from the other side and it was also not Sammy's height, but it was perfect Pygmy goat height. 

I'm thinking either they are really interested in whether or not his evening meal is the same as their meal, or they have a huge crush on him, or of course there is always the possibility they are spies... Then there is the small chance they are taking photographs of him to sell to the gossip magazines to make extra money on the side. 

Dahlia's behavior has always been fairly questionable. 

Dahlia: I see you in there with that Sammy goat. 

You are eating in there, aren't you! I knew it! Give me some of that!

Rose: I can see you, and I can almost fit through this tiny little hole! You are lucky I can't get in there... yet.

I'm keeping my eye on you.... especially while you are sleeping.

Sammy: Ma, seriously, can you please control these girls? It's getting out of hand. 

This afternoon I made a big batch of cookies for Kevin to thank him for his help, and also for reinforcement purposes. Just like with puppy training, cookies always work for good results. 

Deer Norman showed up without his antlers. We were off the farm most of yesterday and didn't see him. Judging by the fact the blood was all dried up we think he lost them early yesterday or maybe even the night before... so that means they could be a lot of places. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to spend some time looking around for them. 

Shortly after Deer Norman showed up, Torn Ear showed up in the yard. He had both of his antlers until right in front of Kevin, Deer Norman whacked him, and one of Torn Ear's antlers fell off right in the yard. 

Torn Ear was a little shocked and confused afterwards. The first antler he lost this year was on the same side he lost his eye on. 

It bled for a while, which is normal. I can't imagine it feels great. I think it's much better when they loose them when it's cold outside, since it heals faster. After he had a snack he wandered up by our old barn and lied down for a while. We watched him for about an hour until he got up and left, still holding his other antler. We were really hoping he'd drop it close by. We've seen them hold one antler for up to a week, although they usually loose the second one within 48 hours of the first, if they don't loose them both at the same time. We hope we'll be able to find the second one again this year so we'll have a match set again.

His antlers this year are thicker than last years - we had assumed he was past his prime, but he did manage a bigger set of antlers this year which is amazing. As I've said before, we've known this deer for 8+ years.

As for what we do with the antlers, we do keep them for house decorations, coat hangers, etc... we probably have about 50 or more antlers we've collected over the years. With the antlers we are lucky enough to find from the deer we know, like Torn Ear, or Deer Norman, we tag them with a name and year and save them to document the growth of these deer, and we just keep them and display them. 

I made Paneer cheese to go with dinner. It's super easy and fast to make. It's similar to cottage cheese. 

For dinner I made kebabs with grilled vegetables, lemon rice, and fresh Lavash bread. I love the Lavash bread and it's also really easy to make and so delicious. 

The dogs did their usual things, slept, played, and followed me around in the kitchen. Roald was very good today, his training is coming along nicely. Except while I was making cheese and he peed on my foot as he was walking by. Both of us were quite surprised. Since he is still dealing with PADD (puppy attention deficit disorder) he just pees sometimes while he's doing stuff and doesn't even know he's doing it.

Oh to be a puppy and have so few worries in life.