Sweet mince pies

 

I found an old jar of homemade sweet mince in a cupboard recently. It did not stay full for long. One batch of sweet mince pies and the jar was empty!

Early trees

People give us their Christmas trees to feed to the goats (and later use as firewood). The first trees normally start to arrive on Boxing Day with the majority arriving in early January. This time however, people have started early by giving us their tree stubs! The goats are having an early treat.

Still milking

 

Penny, our best milking goats, has been lactating for over 2 years. There was a short period of a few weeks in winter earlier this year when she stopped pumping out the milk, but by spring she was back into milk production. All this without her being mated.

We had been hoping she would stop lactating this autumn. We have reduced her frequency of milking to once every three or four days but she still produced two litres each time. We want her mated as any nanny kids will be very valuable for future milking. So we have put her in with the billy. She went in a week ago and to ensure she's pregnant, they will stay together until early January.