I milked a goat for the first time since I was about 10 or 11 yesterday.  It's like cycling a bicycle... it all comes back after the first few snigs.

Excited and Delighted

Although we had goats for a very brief period when I was a child, I've haven't had the responsibility of a goat's welfare while kidding until this week.  I am so delighted that 'Star' has kidded naturally and that she and her kid are in perfect health. I was away on Friday when the birthing occurred - wouldn't you just know it?.  Eddie had housed and bedded her and Alara by the time I returned. He told me the news by showing me a photo on his phone, saying he hadn't dared send it to me in case I got a speeding ticket on my way home.

Milk

We will finally have milk - not pasteurised milk... but milk!  I refuse to use the word 'raw' for milk in it's natural state - it's milk!  Any form of milk that is not in it's natural state is processed milk, requiring a pronoun to describe this as it's lost a lot of it's nutritive value and beneficial bacteria.

I can boil this milk, without fear of it cracking.  We will use it in the house, at the table and for baking and cooking.  I can make cheese and soap maybe even butter, if I ever get the time - a steep learning curve lies ahead!

The New Arrival

Alara, the new arrival had only one day in the house to find his next meal, his feet and adjust to the outside world.  On day two, he was introduced to the great outdoors in the company of his mother.

Nature is the most amazing thing to watch at every level.  'Star', the mother goat, although she had to submit to the indignity of being milked by me, was at all times alert to the whereabouts of 'Alara' her kid, while he regularly called to her.

First Trip Outdoors

She grazed close to her house, keeping her kid 'Alara' in sight all of the time. In this video he is  playing, leaping and falling over.  He copied her by smelling the grass and picking the tip of an odd blade, here and there but was more interested in finding his legs through bouncing about. His father is a purebred Anglo Nubian and his mother is a Toggenburg x Anglo Nubian cross, making him three quarter Anglo Nubian.  I'm particularly fond of Nubian goats, their appearance and temperament, plus their milk is particularly suited to cheese making.