[Lesley Silvester]

   Hi and welcome from sunny Shropshire.  What a lovely lot of animals you have although I did notice a distinct lack of goats.  Mine is a micro-holding aka a back garden but I grow fruit and veg and have my three (soon to be two) goats.  Two are Sanaans, and are mother and daughter.  The third, called Curry, is a SanaanxBritish Alpine, son and grandson of the other two, and is 8 months old so won't be around much longer.

[Pedwardine]

Blimey what alot of lovely replies and welcomes!
I'm afraid the law of sod dictated that it wasn't my turn to get up when I couldn't sleep t'other night. It was supposed to be my turn for a lay-in. Typical huh? Usually up around 6-6:30 to light the fire, get the kettle on and let doggies out for a widdle before chook, donks and sheep duty and finally a cuppa to wake the other half with.
I have too many nights when I just lie there willing myself to sleep, having internal conversations and thinking 'don't look at the time'. It's fatal when you look at the time. It's just countdown mode then.
A goat called Curry hey? Bet he hasn't grown up feeling paranoid! We do have a distinct lack of goats. I'd love goats but all our animals are ill disciplined, don't goats have a head start on being cheeky? We've also not got enough land for what we've already got and are in the reluctant process of scaling down our lovely flock of Gotties. So hard to choose who goes and who stays.
Some of my lot look to be moving to Aberdeenshire come Autumn with one of you lot. Three of my girls now live in the Borders (see Tweedside Jacobs blogsite for their progress). Damara, Dew and the very naughty Dorrit went away with their new mum and dad last August and are due their first babies sired by the very splendidly named Cornelius any time soon. Dorrit was a tiny tiny thing but a proper kick-ass feisty girl. She did nazi kicks to be precise to get your full attention. Her Aunty Bronte who is still with us does the same thing-just the left leg, a full in the shins straight kick. Bloomin' hurts! Dorrit and her new mum have sneaky cuddles whilst the others are eating. She's in good hands. Three little 'uns have just moved to Shropshire, and more are in Derbs, Essex and other bits of Lincs so I'm trying to spread the breed about a bit. We Gotland breeders are a bit far flung I do admit. We had to travel down to Somerset to get our starter flock and I've been down to Devon twice for rams and unrelated ewes to bring new blood in.
Keep meaning to find time to do creative and practial stuff with the willow. Got loads waiting for me to make baskets, hurdles and wigwams for beans to climb around. I want to do a big wigwam down by the pond. It'll remind me of making dens when I was a kid. Anybody else do that with bedsheets and the dining chairs?
I look forward to more chattings...