Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Very pregnant Florence

 

Florence, our boss nanny goat, is very pregnant. She is carrying at least two, if not three kids. This would not be unusual for her. We didn't breed her last year but in 2023 she had three kids, as she did in 2022. She is a fantastic mother despite being a bit of a bully towards the other nannies. Two years ago, one of our other nannies rejected her two kids and Florence adopted them. With five mouths to feed, we had to help her out by bottle feeding the five kids, as well as letting them all suckle from her.

My expectation is that she will give birth on Friday. Her milk sacks and udders are bagging up but she's not quite there yet.

Using up eggs - blackcurrant meringue pie

 

Our egg glut continues so we made another meringue pie. Instead of lemons for the filling, we used blackcurrants. This is something else we have in large quantities. The pie was a success and we made a tiny inroad into our egg mountain.



New fan club for the kids

 

We took our two new goat kids to the Whinnies Wanderers today. It is a parent and toddler group based in the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside. The children loved them! The kids now have a new fan club.

Saturday, 19 July 2025

How to make cherry brandy

 

I have started making preparations for the competitions at the Bowes Agricultural Show in September. First up - fruit liqueurs. I need 3 different liqueurs, one gin based, one vodka based and one other (we've gone for brandy). We picked some cherries in the local park recently so these have found their way into the brandy. The video shows how we make cherry brandy.

Sunday, 13 July 2025

Beech trimmings

 

One of my near neighbours had their beech hedge cut back earlier this week. I fed the goats on the trimmings for two days.

Growing kids

 

One of the goat kids has taken a shine to one of the water troughs!

Using up eggs - French fried toast

 

Our egg mountain continues so in an attempt to use up some of them, we made French fried toast. This is very simple to make - slice of bread soaked in beaten egg and then fried. The ketchup was homemade as well.

Sunday, 6 July 2025

Children and goats don't mix well!

 

I was asked recently by the Whinnies Wanderers, a toddler group based at the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside, to bring along one of our goats to their gathering on Thursday last week. I took Nettle and we settled down in the corner of the garden. Shortly afterwards I realised that the choice of a fully grown goat was not so good. Though some children were happy to stand next to Nettle and pet her, many of them kept their distance. It was hardly surprising looking back on it. Nettle is twice the height of some of the children! Next time I will take goat babies rather than goat adults.



Thursday, 3 July 2025

Goat feed windfall

 

A strong wind recently stripped lots of apples from local apple trees. This windfall bounty consisted of small fruit that had a few weeks to go before it would otherwise be ready for picking. The goats loved them.

And then there were 2

 

Penny was proudly lying down this morning with a baby next to her when I arrived this morning to feed the goats. She was chewing the cud but got up to have her feed. I assumed she was just having one kid. Though I was very happy she had had a baby, there was a hint of disappointment. The baby was a billy.

But when I came back at lunchtime, another baby had been born and it was a girl. Penny is our best milker and I was wanting her to produce a nanny to add to the milking herd. So well done Penny, great result!