Disappointment in myself is unfair but I do feel I coulda /shoulda done more this year especially in the garden. Comparisonistis is also pointless and unhelpful. This Spring and Summer have been all about the goats – and very probably so it should have been – they are sentient beings and bringing in 7 tiny kids 6 on bottles from different parts of the country into the small group we have was always going to be a big deal especially as two of the original group were also going to kid – early and late May – our herd went from 6 to 20 and most of them were young.
The requirements of young don’t really vary – safety in their environment – lack of chills and damp or excessive heat or wet and cleanliness and correct routine feeding. Mixing age groups is not best practice and neither is bringing kids into group housing with other age groups and mixing those kids together – diseases caused by cocci. worms and housing and weather conditions become very challenging to keep under control and keep the little guys alive, growing on and giving them a body to feel safe with is time-consuming – problems that they lived with in their birth environments might have lain dormant but for the stress of long journeys and the stress of herd establishment.
The late kidders suffered the fact that there was no palatable forage around in May and June – and it was wet so though there was grass they did not go outside to eat enough of it – combine that with one of them being a three-year-old first kidder ergo ‘a year too fat’ and she, particularly, worked her back off with triplets – the last one to kid just peaked her yield at the time the new hay came in and had better weather – and wasn’t over conditioned in the first place – so ‘looks’ better. Janet, who kidded as I hoped they all would back in Feb, has weaned her two lads, is putting herself back in condition and is providing sustenance for the other kids. It remains a juggling act and the herd is far from a cohesive group of 20 and are still 20 individuals and cannot be medicated routinely or fed as a whole ie vaccinations and neither of the late kidders look like I want to put them back in kid this season Not the way I hoped the plan would go but not the end of the world either. For a first-year back in home-dairy goat keeping and establishing a foundation group, I don’t think we have done too bad – so far we have all survived 🙂 
The garden was stopped in its tracks this year by 6 weeks of morning frosts end of April through May – we don’t have a greenhouse – and my coal bunker where I start the seeds is in the shade so I waited and the garden sat waiting – then instead of a few weeks without frost but dry weather we got wet and that is where I lost control as the fallow garden simply exploded to 8ft tall and I realised there was not a chance in hell I could stop it bolting into chaos. Currently waiting for it to die down before I attempt a recovery and clean up for next year – so my bag of seeds remains on the shelf and even the seed spuds – now sprouted to hell – sit there and the garden is a jungle – the birds are loving it, I look past it but Gordon hates it with a vengeance – unfortunately as I was planning on planting it there is stuff everywhere under the foliage so machinery should not be applied to it. It will be the two-legged tractor – Moi.
The same weather conditions hit the farm too and this is the first year in my memory that the farm did not make pit silage here – they did get a lot of very nice haylage and two fields of hay – though I bought back one of them – back to the goats again!
The orchard has lots of pears and lots of rather small plums but some apples got caught by the late frost – the good cooker in the car park for one but others like ‘Hoary Morning’ are fine. The damage caused by hanging bird feeders remains awkward on several levels adding to vermin problems of feathered and fur kind and canker is rife but we like feeding the birds and husband enjoys sitting watching them – as do I.
The soft fruit remains unpicked but the birds are enjoying it and it all looks like a heavy crop. We have not touched last year’s.
A produce area remains vital – even more so for handling goats milk – this year the kids have had it but with a potential 12 milkers next time we need to sort meat markets/storage out and also a produce area for garden. orchard and dairy – not for selling the stuff but somewhere not carpeted, without heating but insulated, cleanable and vermin free with water and power.
Due to the fact the goats kidded late we are carrying kids over this winter that would have been sold as breeders or meat -if they were older at this point – and that is going to make the shed very tight for space with 5 of them being entire males and me not wanting the girls to breed this year. So a small male goat house is being put up soon where the old pollytunnel was in the old garden – the willow tree in that space has died and is being felled soon so we will have to clear the space anyway – including the timbers from the old barn – again!!!
WE will also lose am old Bramley and that apple tree that ripens in August and possibly two cider trees that are non productive anyway. We always thought we would move the hens down there – but that was before the willow died this spring and it is close to the bridle path and to our vehicle parking so is unsafe to leave – we will miss that old tree with it’s autumn flame colour but we can plant a replacement somewhere after – away from the male goats.
We will have come full circle with goats back in the orchard area it seems. As ever the seasons are what they are and the wheels of time turn. Next year the garden will look great 🙂
