So here I am in Dorset!!  Dorset?!  Not in the goat shed?!  Nope .. I have a day off.  A DAY OFF!!!!  Can you believe it?  No dedication at all.  I have left David and Fran at home in charge and I AM ON HOLIDAY ....  wooo hooo ..

As a member of the Goat Veterinary Society, I used to be able to attend their conferences regularly twice a year.  Then we got more goats .. and more goats .. and more goats ... and I just couldn't spare the time to attend, which was a shame as the conferences are always excellent and it is a great opportunity to network with people.  Where else would I get the chance to talk to Angus who runs St Helen's Farm or Roger who owns Delamere Dairy?  Serious goat businessmen ..

Anyhow, this spring's meeting is at Taunton racecourse today and David suggested that I should travel down yesterday and spend the evening with some goatie friends of ours in Dorset.  And so here I am .. 

Did a delivery to our Sussex wholesaler on the way and then spent a few rainy hours travelling down to the most beautiful (if a little soggy) part of Dorset down near Dorchester.  Rolling green hills, few houses, no motorway.  Idyllic ..

Having arrived late afternoon yesterday I then spent a few hours wandering round Richard and Sandra's goats, helped (or maybe hindered) with their milking and then settled down to dinner and lots of goat conversation.  The highlight for me was catching up with Geronimo who came down here as a male kid about 3 years ago.  When he left us in the summer of 2009, he looked like this:

 

And now he looks like this!  Grown a bit ..

Beautiful boy!  And he has some lovely daughters too.

Back at home, Twinkle decided to have her babies a couple of days early and so I was woken around 1am on Tuesday morning by her shouting.  Two females delivered without any problem and everyone was cleaned up and fed very quickly so I managed to get back to bed for a few hours.

Wednesday night was not so good as another of our little kids looked like she was suffering from bloat.  I was determined not to lose another one but had a busy evening ahead, in preparation for my going away for a couple of days.  I just couldn't stay in the goat shed but wanted to keep an eye on her.  Only one solution .. take her into the house with me.  So here she is, helping with my filing.  Notice Marmite in the right of the picture, observing from a safe distance on the table!  Baby goat was fine, by the way ..

And here's Figgie's two little men:

And finally .. I took a little girlie to the vet for disbudding on Tuesday morning and dropped in to visit the goatlings on the way.  They were very curious to see what the little bouncy thing was in front of their house!

So, I'm off for breakfast and then drive to Taunton.  Still raining ...