Tag Archives: goats

Goats and Diplomas

We have our first school visit of the year tomorrow. Having misread the calendar, I thought it was next Tuesday. Now, though I’m not exactly in a panic, I’m not quite as relaxed as I could be.

News just in from the allotment, that the comfrey patch has been wrecked, has helped to further elevate the stress levels.

You wouldn’t think it was hard to manage a site where you can see (and even shout) from one end to the other, but it is. You’d also think that most people, knowing that we have a butterfly garden, would leave buddleias as butterfly food. But they don’t – although they haven’t actually pulled any out this year they did try to weed them out several times in the last couple of years.

To be honest, I’m beginning to wonder if I’d be better killing a few of them and burying them in the bean trench. The volunteers, that is, not the buddleia or the comfrey, which, unlike the volunteers, are both useful in the garden.

The good news is that the goats are looking good, that the potato and leek soup went down well, that we are having home-baked bread on Wednesday and that we are embarking on an exercise in scientific poultry management.

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I am putting some kit together and by next week we should be in a position to monitor egg weights, bird weights and food consumption. We started by counting the birds today. We’re going to do it again on Wednesday just to be sure (they will keep moving!)

So that’s it, our customary halting progress, with one step forward and two steps back, but at least we’re doing it in the sunshine.

I will leave you with that positive thought, and a selection of goat pictures.

No, actually I’ll leave you with a picture of Julia and her new Diploma in Human Nutrition. I’m suspicious, but she seems to think it qualifies her to pass comment on my diet (apparently “chips” and “fried food” aren’t recognised as food groups by the awarding body) and who am I to argue? I’m at an age where I wouldn’t be able to find anyone else to put up with me if she kicks me into touch so looks like I’ll have to grin and bear it (at least until I perfect the art of slipping out for illicit burgers).

Note serious expression and scholarly spectacles.

Days of whine and roses

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Press this link if you want to see a rant in defence of rugby, which is currently under attack from various people whining about how dangerous it is for kids. It’s more dangerous for adults. I crocked myself quite badly during the practical section of the referee’s course where a child would merely have bounced up and carried on running.

Here are some pictures of the cookies we were given at the meeting yesterday, which were still warm when we ate them. They were from the recipe given at the cookery demonstration last week, but as I wasn’t there I’m not sure what the recipe was. My verdict – good and chocolatey and probably good for me as they seemed to contain fibre. As usual I didn’t remember the picture until the end. They were the best bit of the meeting.

I’ve been writing the minutes today, and still can’t believe we did so much talking about so little of importance.

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Today we took some photos of the new goats (seven born in one weekend – no I can’t tell you how it was done, and I doubt I could do it again).

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We followed up with soup (sweet potato, potato, onion, chilli and garlic) from the soup maker and made bath bombs with dried roses roses on top and Mother’s Day cards with foam flowers.

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And yes, I’ve been waiting for the right time to use that title! The only problem now I’ve used it is that I may have used it before – on going to find a link for Ernest Dowson it seems familiar. Not the poem, the finding of the link to the poem. If I have done it before I apologise, if not, maybe I should reassess my stance about sports which lead to repeated blows to the head.

End of term…

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It’s cold, it’s raining and it’s grey. I’m resisting the temptation to indulge in likening this to my state of mind.

Apart from the poultry the main task of the day has been the 500 piece jigsaw puzzle of the UK. It’s filled a rainy day and hopefully added a bit to the general store of knowledge.

We’ve also been making birds out of sheets of foam and reading horoscopes, so I’m also having to resist the temptation to tell people what I really think about horoscopes. I finally got drawn in and next thing I knew I was looking up horoscopes on the web. We now know what animals we are in the Burmese horoscope system – including tuskless elephants and guinea pigs. No, I’m not convinced by the guinea pig either.

Whether a system based on the day of your birth is actually more reliable than one based on date or year is open to debate. Well, not really, as they are clearly all inaccurate, but as a bit of fun it’s interesting to see a different system.

As I write, someone has very kindly made me a cup of tea, and in giving it to me they have laid a trail of tea across the pile of freshly printed papers on my desk. It’s been that sort of day.

The bird feeder has been crowded with goldfinches, which is a cheery sight. Unfortunately they are chasing off all other visitors and so far we’ve seen a greenfinch, a pair of great tits and a dozen chaffinches put to flight. As the others have no interest in nyger seed, and the the goldfinches show little interest in the rest of the food I’m not really sure what they are defending, but such is life.

We’ve counted a massive flock of around 100 jackdaws (with a few rooks) in the field behind the feeder. They used to visit in numbers (up to 40 at a time) when we had the pigs (and pig food) in the field but we’re not sure what’s attracting them today. It may just be a rehearsal for a horror film. As the day drew to a close they took up residence in the “buzzard tree” before setting off to roost.

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We have had two new goats born. The mother is refusing to feed them at the moment, which is about par for the course with our goats. We are great with pigs and OK with sheep but goats have been a problem.

Anyway, it’s the end of the day and I’m in possession of a smile and a carefree attitude as the day draws to a close. We’re off tomorrow and neither of us are working until Monday so we are going on what we refer to as a “holiday”. This one involves a trip to Suffolk to see family and pick up two computers donated to the group by one of my brothers in law.

Tomorrow we’re having a big push on housework and odd jobs and I’m going to fill the fridge for Number 1 son. After that I’m off for three days sight-seeing and eating fried food.

Ups and downs

Wednesday (Part 1)

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We have new goats! They are pictured above, though you may struggle to make them out. When we have new animals we always have plenty of people wanting to use the camera and we try not to hang around and disturb them too much. The result is half a dozen rushed photos from someone who may not have held a camera for months. One kid isn’t eating so it’s a bit of a worry – we aren’t lucky with goats.

Apart from that it’s been a busy morning with the apprentice trainer coming and a professor visiting – yes, professor. We’re not as daft as we may sound from this blog.

We’ve done eggs, looked at the new goat kids, gone through the list of jobs, struggled with technology (that was me) and taken pictures of butterflies (me again – it’s a hard life).

Having said that, I’m still banned from playing hangman. I’m not happy with the decision because I feel it was quite an easy word and well within the spirit of the game (as It can be difficult pitching it right for the group) and generally not thought of as a “bad” word.

Trouble is that I failed to take into account the fact that a couple of the group would go home laughing and telling everyone that there was an antelope called a dik-dik.

I will say nothing more, just reflect that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing there is an animal called a dik-dik.

Wisdom is realising that when you work for your wife you need to remember she doesn’t always share your sense of humour.

Meanwhile I have a good photograph of a female Small White, which is on my list of things to do.

Female Small White

Also got a good photo of a Gatekeeper.

Female Gatekeeper

Both of them have their wings open, which can be tricky to get.

We’re making bath bombs with lavender from the garden at the moment, and then it will be time for lunch.

Is it really only half-way through the day?

The Goat Escape (apologies to Steve McQueen…)

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A couple of days ago I posted a picture of our goats on Twitter (@QuercusCommy if you’ll pardon me plugging it) with the words “Our goats exist in only two states – escaping or planning to escape. These are planning.”

Last night they appear to have disabled the electric fence (we’re not quite sure how but I have a vision of one lying down while the others walked across it like a bridge) and decided to browse the trees. They aren’t very ambitious, I’d have been halfway to Skegness by now but they just chewed a few leaves and waited for us to round them up.

We used to have one that was even more annoying than an escaper. She used to wedge her head through the wire (we didn’t have electric fencing for the goats at that point) and then bleat piteously.

Several times a day we’d have people come down to the office with the words “One of your goats has got its head stuck in the fence.” Then she wouldn’t do it for a few days, you’d relax and then there would be another knock on the door…

More statues

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It’s been a good week for birds, though a poor week for photography means I don’t have much to show for it. I do, however, have a decent shot of the kestrel and two jackdaws on The Neighbours. We’re still waiting for the nest box so I fear we’re going to miss out if we don’t get a move on.

Fortunately I borrowed Julia’s camera so I did a bit better than usual.

The smaller of The Sweepers appeared in the Nottingham Post today as a reader’s photograph, so it seems like the statues are taking on a life of their own.

We had another group out too, for more lamb fondling and such. Julia did a spinning and wool craft workshop to round off the day while I sat down to go through the list of allergens we use in the Saturday Cafe (open 9-1 on Saturday mornings if you are close enough. Don’t stay too long because I have a group of Guides coming down to make nettle soup and soda bread in the afternoon and I don’t want any hold ups. Yes, you’re right, I’m not a natural in the world of hospitality.