Kidding - phase 2

And you all thought that kidding was over for this year!  Not so, my friends ... There were a few girlies who had the pleasure of Daramac's attention at the very end of the season and who are now about to have their babies.

We have not had any of them scanned so cannot be certain who is pregnant and how many kids they are having .. so it will all be a lovely surprise!!  But we don't have long to wait as it should all happen within the next couple of weeks.

First out of the blocks tonight was our lovely Chickweed who spent most of the day lying around looking exceedingly plump and expectant:

Then, just as we started milking, she began 'nesting' and chortling away to herself.  A short while later, out popped two lovely little babies ... a white boy and brown girl.  Up and about very quickly as you can see!

Proud dad was busy outside with his other ladies ..

Here's  a pic of me with Daramac this morning - check out the size of mummy's little chap!

And a lovely pic of Humphrey with his dad ..

We were joined tonight by an old friend of David's who is on holiday from Norfolk.  Neil and his daughter Leoni helped with the milking this evening - they made a pretty good team so I reckon that David and I can go on holiday now and leave them to it!
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Leoni was thrilled to be present as Chickweed gave birth and, as an avid follower of our little blog, she was keen to catch up with some of our characters like Husky and Ginger.

Talking of which .. yes, Ginger is still up to her old tricks ..  Hard to believe that she can still squuuuueeeeeze through that gate.  But here she is ..

And another of our little characters .. Fizzy ...

Still small and oddly-shaped but a real sweetie.  The kids who moved in with her last year are all goatlings now and have all grown bigger than her, even though she is 2 years older than them!  Soon she will have a new lot of kids to look after as the goatlings move back up to the main herd ready for mating season.

And finally .. one of those lovely photos that warms your heart on a chilly and extremely windy July evening ...

 The brown goat is called Hokey.  She had a sister called Diggle who died when she was only a kid.  For many months, Hokey sat on her own and was clearly missing her sister.  But then she made friends with a white goat called Hermione who also used to sit on her own.  And now the two of them always curl up together.  They spend their entire day together and even come in for milking at the same time.  Good friends indeed.