The goatlings are all settled in their new pen in the hay barn:
And the little meat boys are all happy together in their own area:
I have told the little men that they will all be with us for Xmas so they can all hang up their stockings on the wall! The chaps destined for the butcher over the next couple of weeks are the youngsters who originally went to live with Uncle Phil at the Museum of Kent Life so my lot will still be around until mid January.
The big boys are settled in one corner of the milkers' area - Fremlin, Daramac and Beamish (you can just about see him in the back left corner!):
Whilst Max is still out with all the girls - for another week or so, anyway:
David has moved a load of straw into the barn so that we have easy access to it in case of bad weather:
And we also have direct access into the hay stacks without needing to go outside:
As we are located right on the very top of the North Kent Downs we do tend to suffer quite badly if there is heavy snow. In past years we have had to dig through 10ft drifts just to get into the goat barn and so moving hay and straw around by tractor would be virtually impossible. We like to be prepared .. just in case!
The milkers rarely venture outside these days and are very content just to wander around in the barn eating hay. At this time of year, there is an awful lot of lying around going on!
These are a few shots taken this morning. Goaties just lounging around ...
Snuggled right under the hayrack (centre of pic!):
Or, in Martha's case, right IN the hayrack:
And I have managed to book our scanning man for next Tuesday, so we will find out then who is having babies and when we are due to start kidding. Doesn't seem 5 minutes since we did it last year.
So, off to bed for me. I leave you with a fab pic of Fremlin doing that 'male-goat-smelling-girls-curly-top-lip' thing ... Handsome boy!
No comments:
Post a Comment