Yesterday, we did our weekly laundry-and-showers journey. It is always a lovely thing to wash off a week’s worth of smoke and sweat from hair and clothing. This time, we took an extra ‘person’ with us. Dulcinea.

Being as Maggie learned abusive behaviour from Lucy, and is displaying it to Dulcie, we can’t pen them together. And Dulcie is too small and too young and too used to being in with other babies for us to leave her alone for an entire day. So we took her along. She is better potty-trained than some dogs. She didn’t mess at all in the car, but would wait for a stop and use the grass. She also discovered that Dandelions are delicious.

Mom has three big dogs. One of them is actually ours, and none of them are particularly livestock-safe. They get overly excited at a new animal. So, of course, we can’t just have her loose in the house. Besides the mess problem, she’d get killed through overenthusiastic play. So, mom made a wee pen in the smaller bathroom with floor protection and straw, hay, water.

She doesn’t handle being alone though. Not *Quietly* anyway, and boy does she have lungs on her. So Mr.Mommy spent a rather boring afternoon, perched on the toilet. Jeffers (one of our cats), who was a barn cat in his early life, was delighted to hang out in the straw with them. Dulcinea didnt seem too keen on Jeffers. As long as “mommy” was there with her, she was perfectly happy.

Last night was a different challenge. The animal end of the barn is neither insulated nor heated, and last night hit freezing. The lack of other goats to snuggle with could have been very dangerous for our tiny little lady, so for the duration of the dark hours, she was a house goat.

She’s small enough that we could contain her in the chick brooder. It won’t work longterm, so hopefully either the nights will be warmer, or Maggie will sort herself out. But for now, this allowed us to keep her inside near the stove, which I kept stocked through the night.

Man, oh man…it has been awhile since we had a baby in the house. One forgets what nights with the extremely young are like. Every couple hours, she would cry and need to be soothed down, just like a human baby. I didnt have to nurse this one, (which I am very grateful for), but they arent much different. My coffee cup was VERY welcome this morning.

She went back out to her stall this morning, and she is NOT happy about it. She has a pile of hay as big as herself, has had her grain, has water and a few little leafy twigs to nibble on, but she wants to be where the people are. I’ve been out probably 8 times so far this morning, talking and petting and supervising (hostile) encounters with Maggie through the stall gate.

In between babysittings, I have the usual chores. Water, toilet bucket, hanging laundry, placing the solars, tending the garden, hauling wood, keeping the stove burning, cooking, dishes…the basics. But also, we started homeschooling again today. In the bus, we simply didnt have the ability. No table. No chairs, nowhere to store books or supplies. So the kids have been ‘off school’ for 8 months. They were very happy to get back to it

They’re smart kids, and are all somewhat ahead of the requirements for their age groups, but one always worries about them falling behind. Moms can always find things to feel guilty over or to fear for our kids.