Hattie asserts her authority

Well, I've been waiting for it to happen. Timmi has been challenging Hattie too much. He's balked and tried to ram her once too often, and she really can't back down. If the sheep wins she will lose control over them all and lose confidence in herself. So when Timmi got belligerent yesterday and charged, Hattie did the only thing she could do and let him know without doubt that she was boss. She bit his leg as he charged her. He was limping then and I saw some blood so cleaned it up and put antibiotic ointment on until I could get something better for treatment. The skin was torn but there was no damage to the underlying tissue and very little bleeding. This morning the wound looked OK and Timmi fine, but we went to the feed store early and picked up bottles of Betadine and Farnum's Wonder Dust. No doubt there will be more cuts and scrapes in future so I might as well be prepared. 

Here's a shot of the wound, the black smudge on Timmi's right leg. Wonder dust is gray and you squirt the powder on so it spreads around quite a bit. The bite is a small area just to the right of the wire bisecting the gray. 

It's a bitter wind blowing today so despite the snow being gone it's still very cold. The boys will beg for a treat no matter the weather. Gimpy made a quick recovery from the pizzle rot, and just in time because Bob wouldn't have been able to manage treatment by himself. I am scheduled for surgery in two days and will be out of commission for four to six weeks.

Who can resist these cute faces?

The duck girls are wondering when I will fill their pool again. It had become a tiny ice rink so I tipped out the giant ice cube and put the pool away until warmer weather returns. In the meantime they make use of whatever puddle they can find. After a rapid molt period that made her cranky, Emmy is now looking for attention again. I don't want her hormones to kick into egg making mode yet so I can't dote on her too much. She was laying into late fall and needs a good rest.