The weather this week has got better and better, on Monday we had brief glimpses of the sun; today it shone all day in the midst of a fabulously blue, unbroken sky. The ground is wondrously hard too because of overnight frosts and this is making mucking our so much easier as field shelters are all bone dry and wheeling the 2-wheeled wheelbarrow round on mud-free ground is fab!!
We have been encouraging the goats to start to go back outside and are happy to report that on the whole, they have needed very little persuasion. Today Pickle and Onion even grazed on the grass for a while - wonderful. Back in their stalls we have tied up lots of bunches of willow (pollarded from one of our many willow trees) and in the evenings, these are providing both entertainment and good roughage as the goats either play head butting games with them or nibble the tips and strip the bark! As with the willow back at Lamorna, once the goats have had their fill, we will remove the branches and then use them for kindling for the fire. Stripping the bark leaves dry sticks which burn really well.
Relationships amongst the goats are okay-ish. Pickle continues to throw her weight around a little bit but as long as there is enough space for everyone to find their own corners or hay racks etc, life is reasonably calm and quiet. There is no real interaction between the Boers and the Dairies and so we are not quite sure if they will ever be best buddies but for the moment, we are settling for quiet ignoring where we can.
Curds is next due in season on 28th – a mere week away. It would be sooo nice to think she or Pickle could be pregnant but we won’t hold our breath!!!