Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Today was a very strange day: no new births and no waiting for new births!! It was SUCH a joy to walk down to the barn first thing this morning and find eight, happy, lively pygmy goat kids bouncing around in the straw whilst mothers looked on or, in Sage's case bleated anxiously, and in Nutmegs' case ignored completely. What is fascinating for us is watching how different the mums are with their kids and then seeing if that affects how the kids themselves behave. More on this another day!
But we should make a special mention of Onion who after the trauma of her Caesarian and having a still-born kid on Tuesday, is doing remarkably well. Her very sore and bruised back end is healing well as is the rather enormous scar on her side where the vet cut into her to remove the kid. She is now coming over for a head rub and a nibble of our clothes which is a huge sign she is getting back to normal.
Her bonding with Garlic and Mushroom is fantastic and we are sure that because she cuddles up with them and is accepted by them, this is helping her get better. Garlic is not Onion's birth daughter but when Garlic's own mum got mastitis back in the spring of 2013, Onion took on the job of providing milk for her. We subsequently sold Garlic's mum and so Onion and Garlic have been close ever since. This is why, despite now being a mum herself to Mushroom, Garlic is still happy to have her own 'mum' around!
Apricot, second photo, pictured climbing on top of mum, is definitely the most photogenic of the kids - her eyes are so blue aren't they.
We are trying to spend as much time as we can with the kids so they become lovely and tame: it's not a hard job!!!! No really, it isn't!!!!