Egg Cracking Cold

That's cold!

When you bring in four eggs at 10:00AM and two of them are cracked open because of the cold - THAT'S COLD! Apparently a couple of the hens think that laying their eggs in the horses hay bale is better than their baskets. That's where the frozen eggs were found. Its is possible one was there since yesterday, and its the same hen hiding them. I found one there a few days ago. But these two look different shelled.And yes - its been more of the same. Snow to wake up to. Flurries all day. Single digits till midday.

The goats went out at noon for a little short lived sunshine. We were watching the Steelers play Miami to keep their play off hopes alive, so the animals got stuck until after the game. The sheds are a good wind break, but that sun didn't stay long enough to make things pleasant.
I have been under the weather and staying close to the teapot and fire whenever possible. I did crawl down to the basement, and carried out my traditional planting of seeds for the first of the year. Just a little basil. Felt good. Mia would like to join me by the fire, or at least indoors. She and Snickers got one of the frozen eggs after I washed, thawed and soft boiled them. I found them snuggled together today. It must be cold!

And to my goat friends: My visits to the barn have been few in this New Year. Last night some exciting news came from the barn, and tomorrow I will try and confirm it with pictures and my own eyes. Stay tuned!

Goat News in the Wall Street Journal

Yesterday the best piece of mail was right on top and I didn't even have to open it. The return address from my Princeton friend, a Ligonier native and Carnegie Mellon grad, had me smiling all the way to the house.

Inside was a real surprise. Goat news on PAGE ONE of the Wall Street Journal. Who woulda thunk?


"A Lehman-financed venture owes a company called Goats R Us about $53,000. The goats performed fire-prevention by munching shrubs and grass on a property the venture owns in Oakland, Calif."

The main point of the article is not good news for the Goats R Us people, but the story is informative and has some cute bits mixed in. It gives the goats personality, which of course, we goat owners already know about.

"Big land owners use goats for fire control because they are dependable and hard-working. They clear brush and poison oak, which two-legged landscapers try to avoid. The goats also are often preferable to herbicides, especially in residential areas, such as Oak Knoll.
"They were doing a good job at vegetation management,'' says Al Auletta, who was overseeing the project for the Oakland Redevelopment Agency. "The goats were pretty effective at that.""


If you want to read the whole article click below. Its pretty good.
Far Away From Wall Street, a Herd Gets Gored
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123276626553612633.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Terrible Towels

This is such a worthy story, I posted it on two blogs this morning.

For those of you who are not Steelers fans, you might be able to share the love and buy one of these towels for the cause anyway. I think I see a few becoming gifts. I saw the Division Championship ones that are glitzed up.

Any orders out there?

For Terrible Towels, a Wonderful Legacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/sports/football/30towel.html?th&emc=th

"Myron Cope left behind something far more personal than a legacy of terrycloth, a battle flag for a city and its team. In 1996, he handed over the trademark to the Terrible Towel to the Allegheny Valley School. It is a network of campuses and group homes across Pennsylvania for people with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. It receives almost all the profits from sales of the towels."