Those we have loved .. and lost ...

Kidding season puts a huge strain on humans and animals alike and, although it is a fabulous time of year for new life and beautiful babies, there are also the inevitable losses.  Every goat is precious to us - they are all individuals and every single one has a name.  Every death is keenly felt and it always leaves another small goatie-shaped hole in the herd.

As we started our herd 12 years ago, some of our ladies are getting a little older and more frail and so it is not entirely unexpected that we will start to lose more of them.  But, in my own tiny mind, goaties should live forever .. and so every passing brings great sadness, especially for those we have loved for many years.

We have already blogged about our lovely Alice and her sad passing ... This season we have also lost our dear Oopsie (she with the enormous udder):

Maisea - Earth Mother and adopted mum of little Rubbish (remember him?)

Laurel - one of younger and more naughty goats.  Entirely unexpected and very sad

Maggie - David's favourite goat and a real sweetie.  It seemed that her wish was to have her two babies, see them grow for a couple of days and then say goodbye.  She literally just lay down and died.

Thelma - one of our oldest girls.  Thelma and her friend Daphne joined us as kids right at the very beginning of our herd.

Chickweed - another older lady.  She joined us many years ago as a companion for her friend Cilene (mum to our dear Beamish)

But the major loss this season was our dear old Wilma goat.

 Regular followers may recall that she had been very poorly a couple of years ago but had rallied round and was doing rather well.  In the end, it was her dodgy old heart that gave up.  She was fine in the morning but took ill in the afternoon, grew weaker by the evening and died in my arms around 9pm that night.  We were at the back of the barn under the big hayrack, and all the other goats just left us alone in peace.  It was a heart-breaking night.

Unknown to me, her sister Betty was standing nearby and, when Wilma had gone, she walked over to nuzzle her and say goodbye.  It is always really important to us to make sure that a sister or special friend is taken to see a dead goat.  They are fully aware of what is going on and they need to have the chance to say their own farewell.  Those people who think we are silly and sentimental have never known the true nature of an animal .. they have emotions and feelings just like us.  Their feelings need to be respected and it is always very moving to see.

Farewell my beautiful girls.  I hope that you are all together again in a lush green field where the sun always shines in goatie heaven!

  

Babies move house!

Cleo and Gilly are neighbours in the kidding pens.  And it would seem that Cleo's dinky little people like to sneak through the fence at night.  When I arrived in the barn this morning, I did my usual early morning walk round to make sure that everyone was alive and well ... and found this going on in Gilly's house:

Cleo's little Nubians all snuggled up in the corner next to Gilly's babies ..

As you see, Gilly was quite happy with this new arrangement.  Cleo, however, was not .. standing up on the gate shouting for her babies to come back home.  Poor Cleo!

This afternoon we hosted a visit from Hadlow College agriculture students.  A small group of enthusiastic students spent a couple of hours with us, chatting to the goats and learning a little about how the dairy works.

Some of them climbed in with the babies to have a little 'goat therapy' .. Here's Matt talking to some of our younger babies:

Most of them were also game for trying our delicious raw milk .. And it went down rather well!

Kidding season draws to a close

Two blogs in two days!  Can you believe it ...

Well, Cleo hung on to her babies until a very respectable time of the morning as we were milking.  Interestingly, her mum JoJo stood guard whilst she was in labour and wouldn't let any of the other goats near her ..  Here you see Margot (the white goat) trying to have a look at the babies.  JoJo will have none of it!

 Cleo had two little females .. one is a little Mini-Me.  Spitting image of mum and grandmum!  The other little diddly one is a lovely brown colour.  Mum and babies doing fine!

Not to be outdone, Gilly then started off as well!  About a week early .. I think she just wanted to get rid of that enormous udder!  So, one female and one male for Gilly.

Needless to say, those two are faced with a bit of challenge to feed off mum so some human assistance is required (and a strong pair of hands!)

So, that's it for this year.  Unless anyone has a surprise up their sleeve ... Kidding season is officially over!

One more night in the caravan so I can keep an eye on the new arrivals .. and then back home tomorrow.  Marmite cat will be pleased!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to the land of goatie blogging!

It's been a while eh?  As the dust starts to settle and sleep is no longer just a distant memory, I am hoping that I will find time to write our blog once again.

What can I say?  It's been a tough kidding season this year for many reasons that I won't bore  you with.  But in a nutshell - an 'abortion storm' early in the season brought us the sadness of several early losses (for reasons which the vets still cannot advise), a number of our older ladies passing on (more about those in another blog as they all deserve to be remembered), dairy fairy Julie with a knee replacement (still recovering) and young Joe with a very sudden and serious illness (now back, almost fighting fit!) ... Lots of new babies to deal with, all that lovely fresh milk coming back on stream and tons of cheese to be made and packed .. and sold.  It's been a slog but hopefully we are coming out the other end!

As I write, we have just two girlies left to have their babies and then the season is over for another year.  Gilly still has over a week to go but is struggling with the most enormous udder.  We are wondering if we can construct some kind of goatie bra to take the strain off her back .. Dolly Parton, eat your heart out!

The babies seem to grow so quickly and the first lot went off to their new home in Hereford earlier this week to join many of our other goaties already living with Andrew and Diane.

Always sad to see those little faces peering out of the side!  David made it there in good time and reported that all the girls came skipping out of the trailer quite happily at the other end.

Shares, our gate-jumping goat, had two little chaps a couple of weeks ago.  Not usually the maternal type, for some reason she has decided that she does not want to be parted from her babies this year.  We returned her to the milking herd as usual after a few days with them but she kept on leaping over the gates to go and find them.  She refused to stay in .. And so, we moved the little chaps back in with her and the rest of the herd ..

She is a very attentive mum but happily wanders off and leaves them behind from time to time.  Several other goats have taken it upon themselves to babysit until she returns.  Minnie, Ladybird and Serena check that the babies are safe and follow them round to make sure that they don't get up to any mischief.  And sometimes, Milly just settles down next to them and everyone has a little nap!

Most of our babies this year were sired by young Fenn, but the last few belong to our dear Hugo and so we have a selection of those wonderful ears again .. Here's two of the latest beauties ..

The big man himself has just been taking it really easy.  He has put on quite a bit of weight recently and has taken to sitting on his bottom like a dog from time to time!

Very attractive!

And so it's time for me to return to my little caravan outside the goat shed for another night.  Cleo looks like she may be thinking about having babies so it could be a long night .. or she may just hold everything in for David to deal with over the weekend while I am out at markets!

Coming up for air!

Hey!  Remember me??? Just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and kicking (just!).  It's been a bit of a busy time with all the new babies arriving.  As with all kidding seasons, there has been a great deal of fun and pleasure but also a fair bit of trauma along the way.  I will fill you in on all the details in due course but just wanted to say Hi! and here's a few goatie pics to keep you going ..

And they're off!

Finally, after a couple of false starts, those goatie girls have finally got their act together and started to have their babies.

First out of the blocks this afternoon was Freddie who produced 2 girlies and a little chap:

Virtually at the same time, in another corner, Patty was busy with two more little girlies:

And just as we were finishing milking this evening, our first goatling Bathsheba popped out two more females:

Not to be outdone, the Gracie moos have also been busy.  We have had 3 more calves in the past couple of days - the latest arrival got me out of bed around 4am this morning!

One of our older girls, Persi, is looking suspiciously like she has something on her mind tonight as well.  So, I'm back up there in a few mins to keep an eye on her.  Could be a long night ahead!

Cows 1 - Goats 0

Whilst we all wait anxiously for kidding to begin, Gracie Moo 206 decided that she would start the ball rolling out in the cattle yard.  Late this afternoon as I walked round to check on them, I could heard that low 'mummy moo' which cows reserve for their calves.  Sure enough, as I rounded the corner, I was met by a small wobbly brown thing with enormous eyes.  Another beautiful little Gracie Moo.

Mum is very protective of her new baby and decided that she was a bit camera-shy ..

But after a while she went off to eat whilst little Gracie had a little snooze.  It's hard work being born!

David has been busy mucking out the goat barn and trying to get everything sorted ready for kidding to start.  So, the maternity unit has been installed:

The extra large pen at the end has been nicknamed The Lindo Wing and is intended for larger ladies, triplets or older goats who want a bit more space!

The hay barn has been shut off with huge straw bales,, expertly stacked by David in his tractor.

And there will be an infra red lamp mounted up on that pillar to the right so that babies are cosy and warm if the weather turns nasty (as it always does during kidding!)

So, we are ready to go .. just playing the waiting game now to see who will be first.