Hi all, I hope this month’s blog finds you well. I am sorry that it is a bit later out than usual. No excused, other than life has got in the way!
It has been lovely to see the warmer weather creeping in. I’m happy to get some downpours and April showers along the way, as long as there is a balance, I’m happy. At least it helps all of the plants grow to support all of the wonderful wildlife around us.
Don’t forget to have a little nose at the YouTube channel. One of the most recent ones, is connected to my potato test. It did not start off quite as planned! Let’s just hope that the actual test makes better progress than how it started off!
If you do watch the videos and enjoy them, it would be much appreciated if you could click the subscription icon (which does NOT cost you anything, it just helps the channel to grow) and a like would be fab. Also, if you click the bell, you will be notified every time I make a video. That way you won’t miss anything. No worries if not, I know that it isn’t everyone’s thing.
Well, following on from Snow, Storm had twins but all did not go as planned! She had a little girl first and she was a mini me of Storm, with extremely similar markings. Little Rosie came out fine. Storm focused on her, and all seemed well but then I realised that she did have another to kid. I saw a foot poking out and on examination there was another foot. However, I wasn’t sure if they were from 2 different kids! I couldn’t see or feel a nose. I had to investigate further, just in case there was a tangle of kids! However, what I did find was that there were two legs and a bottom! Not only that, but the bottom was facing up ( which I thought was the case, due to the direction of the feet). So eventually, after a lot of tugging, out came a gorgeous, big, boy. Storm hadn’t been too pleased with the intervention and showed little interest in him. I dried off both kids and then left her to it. Unfortunately, she rejected him. She was pushing him away with her head and biting him, if he went near to her. So, the poor soul just stood, not moving and not knowing what to do.
As you can imagine, we had to take care of him, as she had made it quite clear that she wouldn’t be. He then began a short life, living with us, we used a dog crate to help him understand that was where he slept. To be honest, he was amazing and became toilet trained in not time. I had just put a box on the floor with straw and some of his soiled straw etc. and he walked over to it and did what he needed to. It was much easier than training our dogs. He also had a surrogate mum, in the shape of our dalmatian. Initially, he wouldn’t take the bottle as he didn’t seem to like the teat. However, we found a new one, from Mole Valley Farmers, that was much better, and he eventually took to it. Not before, I had to feed him off his mum to ensure that he got enough food.
Anyhow, he is doing really well, thank goodness. He wolfs his bottle down now. I can’t believe how quickly he can swallow that milk! As he became stronger, he progressively spent more and more time outside with the other goats. Always ensuring that he was safe, as his mum still didn’t want him anywhere near her, and initially her other kid, Pongo’s sister. This did not work. Rosie, Pongo’s sister seemed to know that he was her brother and always found him out. They have a lovely relationship and are often found playing together and racing around the paddock!
Snow and her kids are doing really well. The kids have really grown, and she is already weaning them, so all is good.
I have now separated the kids at night, from their mums so that Storm’s rejected kid, Pongo, has others to sleep with. When he moved from being with us, I thought that would be the best option. What it has allowed me to do, is milk both Nanny goats in the morning and then I don’t need to milk them for the rest of the day. Pongo, then gets enough milk put aside for his feeds through the day. We have milk to drink and make cheese and or butter etc. Also, the kids still get enough milk, due to them being weaned anyway. I also think the mums, quite enjoy the rest, now that they know that their kids are safe and that they can hear/see them through the night. The kids, sleep or play amongst themselves so all seems to have worked out well. This didn’t come easy, I had lots of ideas for the best option and also you second guess yourself. Is it going to cause trauma to the animals? What is the best way to deal with Pongo? Etc. But thankfully all worked out fine.
We have had some problems with our lawnmower, or should I say lawnmowers, as we are on our second one! Therefore, we are using the goats to the best of their abilities and the Nanny goats come outside of the paddock and clear some of the areas. We do have to keep an eye on them though as we do have quite a few fox gloves and as we know, they are deadly, so we keep an eye, but they seem to know, not to eat them. The weed trimming and browsing by the goats has helped a lot, but we still need to get the mower sorted at some point. A friend was having a look at it for us so hopefully it should be working pretty soon.
The alpacas are all doing well. They had seemed to be looking a bit hot when the weather was on the warmer side. It was good that the alpaca shearer gave me a ring to say that he would be coming to shear them in the second week of April.
When he came, all went well, although they do look rather odd once they have been sheared. However, it does allow us to have a good look at them. You are able to see the two that are pregnant. They are all healthy though and we continually care for their needs. We are expecting the two pregnant girls to unpack, anytime from 24th June to 24th August. So, I have the birthing kit all ready. It is more or less the same pack that I had organised for the goats, so it isn’t too bad.
It is great to share that the chickens have been released! They are very happy to be out and about. Even though they are out, I have been informed of some incidence of bird flu, but they have generally been in Wales or more north! The chickens really help to keep the field clean. They eat all of the bugs and grubs, which could possibly cause illness to the other animals. Also, if there are any ticks around, they don’t get a chance to get onto an animal, as the chickens gobble them up. I think they make a great clean up crew. All of the bugs and grubs, also mean that they need to be fed less and we get some wonderfully tasting eggs. Win, win all round.
The plants are growing well, and I have added the addition of a small polytunnel. Thankfully, this was added after the terrible winds that we had at the beginning of April. I am bringing on lots of seeds in there, which should make great food for us and the animals. The animals relish the produce! They always keep a watchful eye on me when I am in the growing area, just in case there is something coming their way.
We were lucky enough, to be given, by our daughter and son-in-law a Ninja, Foodi. One of the easiest recipes that I have made, which is absolutely amazing is banana bread. The recipe can be found here: https://forktospoon.com/air-fryer-banana-bread/ The only changes that I made were that I swapped the milk for goats milk, and I did not add the cinnamon. I would highly recommend this recipe. It has now become a family favourite.
Another recipe which we really enjoyed was one from Tesco. It is spinach and goat’s cheese fatayer. Fatayer, is very much like a pizza. These are so easy to make and taste absolutely amazing! You can find the recipe here: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/spinach-and-goats-cheese-fatayer.html I kept to the recipe on this one and they tasted amazing. You could make a large one or probably two large pizzas with the mixture. They tasted scrumptious, both hot and cold.
I hope you are enjoying following along with us and reading the blog. If there is any feedback, I would very much like to hear it, good or bad haha.
So that is that for this one. Better late than never! Don’t forget, if you feel that you need a Pintail fix, before next month’s blog, pop on over to YouTube to see what is going on, and also watch out for updates on both Instagram and Facebook. I do try to keep them as up to date as possible.
Take care for now,
Cathy
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