Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

Jane the Cheese sent me a text last night at 10.20pm 'Happy New Year!  Thought I would catch you both before you retire'.  Shame we were in bed and asleep by 9.30pm!!  Must be getting old ..

New Year's Day is once again like any other day as far as the goats are concerned.  Only the added excitement for me of doing the VAT return.

Here's a quick video of David feeding the little people.  See how everyone runs about - it's always very exciting getting your breakfast!  Both David and I have been knocked over on previous occasions but this morning he did manage to stay upright, despite the hordes of wee goaties.

Milking time is getting quicker as more goats are drying off - the down side is that there is a lot less milk in the tank!  Fortunately, January and February are usually fairly quiet months for cheese customers and so we manage to keep all the liquid milk customers happy with some left over for a bit of cheese. 

There is also less naughtiness in the parlour at the moment as Tinky Goat is dry and so does not come in for milking any more.  She was scanned for triplets (though Michael thought that one of them might either be extremely small or not viable) but isn't due until 3rd April, so she has dried herself off in plenty of time ready for those babies!

GinnyPink, our huge great British Alpine, is always first into the parlour at the moment and David almost gets flattened every time he opens the gate.  Noone gets in the way of GP - she is by far the largest goat in the herd, apart from the smelly boys of course!  Here she is at the hay rack - she is the black goat behind.

This photo was taken by our great friend and artist Sue Clinker when she first met GinnyPink as a goatling in 2008 - GP is a bit larger now but still has that nice smiley face:

Bank Holiday for most people tomorrow but I will be busy making cheese.  There is only a small amount of milk in the tank after a mammoth bottling session over the weekend for our wholesaler, but I need to get another batch of our lovely Shaggy's Beard camembert into store and ripenening ready for later this month.