Don is amazed by the unexpected turn in his career path

My parents have been feeding goats! And getting pretty darn good at it, I must say…

Glenda, our prime Saanen milker, gave birth to little Eira three weeks ago, and a more charming creature it would be difficult to imagine. She’s like something from a children’s fairytale – delicate, beautiful, smart and affectionate! She loves to cuddle and sit on laps, and house trained herself from day one. She definitely fancies herself as an indoor goat…

Eira prefers watching quality telly in the evenings...

We separated her from her mother so that we could carry on milking Glenda, so now Eira has to have four bottles of milk a day. Luckily she’s a good feeder, energetic and uncomplaining, but any way you cut it, four feedings a day is a lot! But my mum has come up trumps – stepping forward to take over most of the feedings most of the time.

mom takes the swing shift

Dad pours flaming brandy, while Taid looks on and hopes for the best!

In the meantime, we’ve been enjoying the unexpectedly beautiful weather! We’ve had some wonderful barbecues (my dad is the barbecue king!) and some lush desserts – he even made us Bananas Brenin one night, a wonderful dish with bananas, brown sugar, butter and flaming rum poured over ice cream. Daddy also finished a beautiful book of his poetry, and we had a candlelight reading of it in the lounge. Mom has been writing as well, and finished a fabulous piece that she titled “The Afterbirth Chronicles,” about our adventures during lambing season! It made me both laugh and cry as she read, which has to be the highest praise! All in all, it’s been a truly lovely month while my parents have been here. It can’t have been easy for them, dealing with the noise, fuss and chaos of our full farm contingent! But they’ve been brilliant. We’ll miss them so much much when they leave on Monday for their voyage back to the states on the Queen Mary. As Benji said, “I’m going to cry my brain off when they go!” Bon voyage, Ana and Far…We’ll miss you – come back to the farm soon!