Once again it has been another week since I have braved the computer without a crisis happening in the middle and now finally can give you a catch up. First and foremost of course is that for the past 3 weeks Beccie has been threatening to give birth to her litter. We were concluding that she was enjoying abundant food and having the bed all to herself so much that she was actually just very fat and there were no babies at all. This morning she proved us all wrong by presenting us with 11 piglets, all very strong and healthy looking and fighting noisily over teat placement. She had her head in a bucket of food and looked mildly alarmed at the thought of going back in the pen with them (who wouldn't) but eventually managed to lie down and feed them without squashing anybody...
Woody continues to recover and after spending the weekend with his brother and a friendly golden retriever called Charlie is hopefully on the road to not mistrusting every large dog that decides to say hello to him. He spends much of his day trying to round up Coco who doesn't understand at all. We are waiting for an influx of local dogs as she is in season and as nobody castrates anything over here I am pretty sure that we are going to have a lot of farm dogs attempting to climb the fence and have their way with her. The thought of cattle dog X springer puppies doesn't really appeal to me so I am going to buy a large padlock for the gate and hope that it is sufficient.
Woody continues to recover and after spending the weekend with his brother and a friendly golden retriever called Charlie is hopefully on the road to not mistrusting every large dog that decides to say hello to him. He spends much of his day trying to round up Coco who doesn't understand at all. We are waiting for an influx of local dogs as she is in season and as nobody castrates anything over here I am pretty sure that we are going to have a lot of farm dogs attempting to climb the fence and have their way with her. The thought of cattle dog X springer puppies doesn't really appeal to me so I am going to buy a large padlock for the gate and hope that it is sufficient.
Dora continues to give me over a litre of milk a day, not always happily but being a goat she can't really kick me in the same way as a cow so I just ignore her threats. I was lucky enough to be shown the cheese making process on Saturday by a local cheesemaker who kindly allowed me to ask many stupid questions and didn't mind at all. At the moment under our very professional cheese press (4 tin cans on top of a saucer) is our first Saint Maure goats cheese. The fridge is building up with the next batch of frozen milk and I think my next goal is to make fetta, which will keep for a long time and I can add to the growing number of jars in the cupboard. Initially in the cheese making process I asked John, the cheese maker, how I could tell if Dora's milk was any good. He looked at me slightly strangely and then said that I must taste it. I will be honest and admit that my initial response to this was supressing a strong reflex to gag however he and James both tasted it and declared it excellent so I felt I must. Very skeptically I took some off the spoon and surprisingly, it was very good and not at all 'goaty' (the trick apparently is getting it cold quickly). I am now pondering perhaps getting another doe and having a good excuse for my milkmaid arms.
Archie can be seen above living happily with his giant brothers and sisters and not growing at all. He still weighs 2 kilos despite our best efforts. Its not all bad though, he continues to provide much amusement to anyone visiting the farm as he is still incredibly tame and will happily attempt to take a chunk out of your foot if he mistakes it for a teat and you are silly enough to go up to the paddock in flip flops.