On Christmas eve we went out early to do the chores - not very early, after lunch-ish. There were a few surprises waiting for us - first of all, the pigs HAD gotten through the electric fence (I thought they were behaving themselves very nicely - too nicely), and were in the garden. Luckily we caught them just in time, and there was hardly any damage. We had to chase them for a long time, though, to get them safely into the orchard. They did a great job rooting up the weeds from the old summer garden. As soon as it looks like it will rain again, I will scatter some cover crop seeds of oats, rye, and clover. It was HOT on Christmas eve. I was pouring sweat chasing the pigs. It felt like August.
There was another surprise, too:
Geranium had her baby!
She seems to have larger ears than I remember the other calves having, but she is beautiful and healthy. Geranium let us come close and even pet her a little.
It was decided that she should be named Holly. And that gave us an idea of what to name Chestnut's baby....no one could agree. Ethan wanted to call it "Spats" for some reason. Rose wanted it to be called "Proudfoot" after a character in a book. But I pointed out we should call him Mistletoe - whatever made him his lovely ruddy brown color "missed" his one white toe. It even has a pun in it, for Ethan's sake. Mistletoe was so happy to have another calf to play with. He's been trying to play with Sappho, Ninja, Lichen and the other calves from last year, but they are too grown-up now and aren't very interested.
On Christmas morning when Ethan went out early to do the chores, Holly was up springing around playfully already:
A wonderful time for a birth!
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