The goats have finished kidding! The last one “popped” yesterday. A fine little male. Just two sheep to go and they won’t be long by the look of them.

We took down the kidding pens yesterday and cleaned out the whole section where they were standing. A great sense of satisfaction to see clean floor again after 6 weeks!

The triplet Angoras are thriving and I have, at last managed to get all three to take a supplementary bottle. Their mum at 8, is too old to cope with three very hungry babies all clamouring for milk.  I had to give a pair of Bowmont twins a bottle start for 24hrs the other day as their mum’s milk had not come in. I was astonished at how much more easily lambs take a bottle than goat kids! It seems to be a constant fight to persuade kids that it isn’t neat rat poison. It’s been  two weeks of work to get the last triplet to accept it.

My mind is now turning towards other things. We have the possibility of a television crew here next week, a course  here the following Saturday on raising goats for meat, the rest of the combing of the cashmeres to complete plus a request to provide a pattern for a book using my yarn to fulfill. It’s got to be unique and unpublished of course. Just an ordinary week then!

Below a picture of two of my bucks enjoying some early grass. Cuthbert and Brandybuck are their names. We don’t name all the goats (too many) just the boys. It  makes breeding time easier.