Rainwater and little goatlings

No matter how many times I see the Shard, I never get bored of looking at it!  Joe had a couple of days holiday this week, so yours truly was on Borough duty.  An early arrival to beat the traffic was rewarded with an illuminated Shard ..

The weather has continued to be utterly atrocious, so we have all been living in wellies and waterproofs.  Husky decided that she fancied a bit of fresh rainwater and spent a happy few minutes licking all the rain off my jacket!

I spent a very pleasant day at The Food Market in Chiswick on Sunday as a guest stall.  The stallholders and customers were all very friendly and it was nice to see a few of the old familiar faces behind some of the stalls!  Hopefully, they will manage to find us a space there for a more permanent pitch sometime soon.

Yesterday was a sad day for myself and goatie Auntie Anita as we heard of the death of one of our heroes, David Bowie.  Both of us are great fans and I was lucky enough to see him many many years ago when I was a student.  Seems that Heidi goat was also a fan as she did her Aladdin Sane tribute makeup ready for evening milking ..

Meanwhile, we have another little visitor to the milking parlour.  Young Dolly goatling has not yet had babies but has come into milk already as a 'maiden milker'.  She is still learning how to behave in the parlour but is doing very well.  Such a brave little person!

And such a cute little goatie face!

Gracie Moos come home!

Why does it always pour with rain whenever we have to move the Gracie Moos?!  Yesterday was no exception as we spent most of the day trying to stay upright and keep our wellies on as they were continually sucked down into the muddy quagmire around the farm.

It's almost calving time again!  As you know, David becomes quite an anxious parent and he was keen to get those big old Gracie Moos back up to the farm and settled in well before they start to have their babies.  They have been living just a mile or so away from the farm in a very nice field with lots of grass and, as the weather has not been too bad yet this winter, they have stayed out there rather than come back into the yard.  But, now we need to keep a closer eye on them ..

David has been busy mending fences and putting up new gate posts ready for their arrival.  With everything back in place, we spread lots of straw in the back of their pen:

Everything with cows has to be big and heavy!  So, we had to pick up all the big cattle gates ..

Load them into a trailer and take them down the road where they had to be unloaded into the field:

And a pen set up, with the trailer at one end ...

Of course, as soon as we started doing all this, those girls were off and away down the far end of the field!

The way to a Gracie Moo's heart is through her stomach(s) ... Much shaking of feed bags and whistling ... and they reappeared over the brow of the hill!

And then the difficult bit ... A lot of coaxing, aided by a rather nice bale of silage, finally got everyone into the pen.  It can often take a very long time (sometimes days!) to get everyone in the pen all together, but they were very good girls and everyone was safely gated up within an hour ..

The first 3 loaded into the trailer pretty quickly and they were very soon home and back in their new house ..  Patiently waiting for their friends to arrive ..

Here they come!  The next load backs into the yard ..

And, just in case you needed to know just how muddy it was .. Here's a few boots for you ..

And a couple of pairs of legs ... David and Anita ..

It was hard work, but soon everyone was back home safely and tucking into a tasty 'welcome home' snack!

And here's the baby!  Our youngest Gracie Moo ..

And of course, we then had to do everything again in reverse ... load all the gates back into the trailer, bring them back to the farm, unload them .. and clean out the trailer.  I have to say that we were all absolutely filthy and very tired by the end of the day!

Happy New Year!

And a very Happy New Year to all from the humans and goaties at Ellie's Dairy!

Just a quick piccie of Sadie's little chaps ...

Not so little now!  But still staying close to mum..

Growing kids ..

I thought it was about time that we found out what all those youngsters are up to!  Most of the female  kids, as you already know, went to their new home in Herefordshire some time ago.  So, we just have about 8 little girls left now and they are all living quite happily with the little meat boys.

David was very popular this morning as he arrived with their breakfast ..

Especially as he rolled out some new straw for them as well!

Everyone likes to play in new straw ..

Whilst some prefer to wear it as a disguise ..

As always, there is one particularly special little chap ..

Yes, still on milk at this time of year!  He was not doing very well at all and was not eating properly, despite being given lots of attention.  He became so poorly that it was time for desperate measures and so I tried putting him back onto bottles of milk to try and get some nourishment into him.  And it worked!  He is fit and healthy again and growing stronger every day .. but he does still demand his milk at breakfast time.

Festive cheer!

We made it!  Over the past couple of weeks, Joe and I have both felt like we wouldn't actually make it to Xmas ... Extra days and long hours at Borough have taken their toll, even on a fit young chap like Joe!  I have a stinking cold and Joe is absolutely exhausted.  But we made it ...

Borough Market is such a fantastic place to be at Xmas .. all that wonderful food from all over the world.  The best of everything, right at your fingertips!

Even the Shard had a Xmas hat on this morning:

But that was nothing compared to one of the Borough staff, Phil, who has been sporting a different outfit each day in the run up to Xmas.  And, on Xmas Eve, what else could he wear but a Santa outfit:

Certainly added a bit of festive cheer to the place.

Our own stall was stacked high with goatie produce, beautiful gift packs, bars of soap and those wonderful kid skins hanging from our umbrella ..

But our little towers of goatie cheese were dwarfed by our fellow traders at Gorwydd Caerphilly:

and the stacks of Comte from Borough Cheese:

That's what you call cheese!!!  Apparently, they had 7 tons of the stuff in storage ready for Xmas ..

The last farmers' market of the year at Parson's Green last weekend was strangely quiet, so our very talented market manager decided that she would make balloon hats for all the stallholders.  I was presented with an excellent goat, whilst other stallholders had Xmas trees, tomatoes and reindeer!

Meanwhile, David has been keeping the goaties in order.  The hideous wet weather has turned the farm into a swamp ..

So the girls have been spending their time indoors, chomping on their hay ..

and generally being extremely lazy!

And so, all that remains is for me to wish you all a very Merry Xmas!  As is now traditional, I leave you with a delightful piece written by a goatkeeper in Wales.

ooo-0-ooo

There is a very lovely ancient tradition that holds that on Christmas eve, at midnight, animals are given the power of speech. I’ve even heard it said that at midnight, all the animals sing songs of praise.

Walking into the warm barn, coming in from the icy, windy dark outside, it’s easy to believe this lovely story. I look into the slender faces of my familiar, much loved goats, with their dark eyes and knowing expressions, and I can easily imagine them opening their mouths to sing at midnight. Glenda, Wandi, Patsi, Juliette – I know all their names, and I can tell them all apart, as identical as they might seem to a stranger. I can imagine just how each of their voices might sound, raised in the choir. Juliette rears up her hind legs to have her cheek scratched – just there, by the hinge of her jaw –and to rub her head lovingly against my shoulder.

I come here every day, twice a day, to milk these goats and commune with these lovely animals, and they have taught me a thing or two about miracles.

They have taught me about dedication, and patience, and discipline. Waking up at 6 am on a freezing morning, and going outside sounds like a punishment when I’m wrapped in my duvet. But as soon as I haul myself up and out, and into the barn, I realize the truth of it – coming into the barn is my reward. The teaching really is in the practice – putting my hands on the goats, tending them and receiving the healing milk that they give me, is all I need to know of magic.

The Christian tradition holds that the king is born in midwinter. The pagan tradition too, speaks of rebirth in the time of darkness. It is a principle as old as man, when we were frightened and crouching in the caves, waiting for the light to return. Peasants have milked goats as long as humans have been around, and I follow this time-honored tradition with gratitude now, as the warm streams of milk hit my pail in a fragmented melody.

In that song, I can hear everything I need to know about rebirth. These goats are pregnant in the darkness, gestating new life. In the spring the kids will be born, and the milk will be freshened. The life force dies back, and blossoms up again. New life. It is a miracle that we few – who are lucky enough to tend the farm – learn over again with our hands and feet, arms and eyes and hearts, every year without fail.

Christmas eve, in the darkness – the goats and I wait together in the silence. We wait for the rebirth that is certain. It is certain as life, certain as breath, as certain as the knowledge that someday, spring will come again and light will return to the world.

ooo-0-ooo

Mountains of cheese!!

Just got back from the Borough Market Evening of Cheese.  And what a fantastic evening it was! Virtually all the cheesemongers from Borough set up their stalls in the Green Market.  Wall to wall cheese.  Mountains of the stuff!

There was hot mulled cider on tap from New Forest Cider and the festive Porter brewed especially for the evening.  The crowds of customers were in high spirits and there was a great atmosphere

We had a good spot right next to the Xmas tree ..

And took the opportunity to showcase our wonderful festive gift packs and truckles:

And the little wooden boxes of perfectly ripe Shaggy's Beard camembert!

Marmite Cat and I are off to bed now for a few hours of well-earned rest.  Night all ...

Rafia, boxes and bows

Wrap, wrap, wrap .. bits of rafia and ribbon everywhere.  Stacks of gift boxes and little wooden camembert boxes all over the place.  It must be that festive time of year again!!  Yes indeedy folks, the Ellie's Dairy team is currently hard at work making extra cheese and making it all look pretty for your delight.  Dairy Fairy Julie and Notting Hill Marketeer Rosie have been spending their evenings wrapping our wonderful soap whilst yours truly seems to spend every spare minute tying bows round little boxes!

So, no excuse for lack of blog ... Just one of those festive things.

Quite a lot has been going on (apart from the wrapping) since we last met.  Our little stud boys have moved on to their new homes.  Massey and McLaren went to join our girls in Herefordshire and Ferguson and Landini went to Somerset to work in one of the big herds down there who have had many of our boys in the past.

We also said goodbye to our lovely boys Fenn and Clark as they moved to Somerset with the two younger boys.  Although we are very sad to see them go, we know that they will be very happy (and very busy!) in their new home.  We have used both of them so much that it would be difficult for us to keep them working after this season and so it makes sense for them to move whilst they are still young and enthusiastic!

I hope that Clark is getting lots of hugs in his new home as he was a bit of a mummy's boy and demanded quite a lot of attention.  So, that leaves us just with Hugo as our solitary working male for the moment.  He had a bit of a rough start in life at his previous home and it took him a long time to settle down with us and start working.  It would not be fair to move him somewhere else as we know that he would not be happy.  Although we have used him an awful lot, we should be able to find a few ladies for him each year!

Farmers markets have been moving along very nicely, although we have had some particularly challenging weather to deal with.  West Hampstead last Saturday was horrendous and, after one gazebo took off in the wind, many of the traders took their awnings down for safety.  Fortunately, it stayed dry but we did all feel rather naked without our covers on!  It all looked very bare!

Borough Market is beginning to get that busy festive feel to it and it all looks lovely with the decorations up now.  Tomorrow is our Evening of Cheese and we are really looking forward to being part of it, along with all the Borough cheesemongers.  It's going to be just one HUGE cheesefest!  Can't wait!

The goatie girls have just been taking it easy as usual.    Not inclined to go outside at all in this windy wet weather, they have been spending their days just lounging around in the barn. Comfy straw and big yummy bales of haylage are just too tempting!

And finally ... this is how Marlin scratches her bottom after milking!