Growing rapidly, in training, silly old goats!

They are still very cute, growing nicely, and have learned something already!  At night they get a bottle of milk last thing. They only get it once they are 'in bed', in the out building. Now when I say 'go to bed', they make a bee-line for it, where as before they did typical goat baby stuff and twined in an out of my knees, making walking slow, and at times dangerous. 

I have plans to do lots of goat training once they are a bit bigger. Food rewarded, natural behaviours. I hope to teach them to climb, jump, race, all on command, and if I can manage I will be holding goat races with teddy jockeys next summer. 

I have seen sheep jockeys and think it is just so funny.

Enjoy some more photos. You can see the little horns starting to grow through, one has dark horns, the other is lighter. 

Yes there is a HUGE snail, they are called Burgundy snails  helix pomatia
and apparently good to eat - not my thing though!

The goats will be named officially this weekend , thanks to all who participated in offering suggestions.

Tropical weather.

I'm not sure how hot it was here today, but it was warmer and more humid outside than in the house. Thunderstorms were forecast, but didn't happen, yet! Perhaps tonight.

I took the gruesome twosome for a walk around the garden this afternoon. Bigger kid is eating every leaf she finds and especially likes the fallen acacia leaves.  

Bolt isn't sure about the goats yet, he keeps well away.
 

Our oak tree is going to have a bumper harvest this year.  Here is a detailed explanation of how to use your acorns as food

Our rowan or mountain ash has berries for the first time. We brought this tree from Scotland to France in 2005 as a foot high seedling. It is now about 10 feet high. Hopefully in the next years it will have many more berries.  Scottish belief is that Rowans are magic!

Sitting quietly, two grasshoppers. These guys can grow really big - up to 3 inches long.

Our fig tree has been eaten by some form of caterpillar. I haven't ever found one of the culprits, but you can see their webs and where they have eaten holes in the leaves.

Thumb tastes best!

The summer is still here in central France, we had a few days that were colder, but today it is truly tropical.

The goat kids are growing well and onto 1.25 bottles, 4 times per day. They are nibbling at everything and anything, including rubber boots, stones, the dog!

This is our local Mayors  office in the village of Monts sur Guesnes. It is also the tourist office, library and has rooms for wedding ceremonies.

Just behind our home is the Ligne Vert which is an unused railway line. You can cycle, walk your dogs and ride horses here.

There are still wild sweet peas growing and the dew was still on the spiders webs when I took this photo.

This last photo is of an amazing ant nest, you can see from the grass just how big this really is. A fantastic engineering miracle from such tiny creatures.

14 days old.

The baby goats are 14 days old today.

They are doing well, drinking well, starting to nibble on leaves,  jumping and climbing. They become more sure-footed as each day goes by.

I had put them out on the patio which is fenced. Safe, or so I thought. I went into the house and 5 minutes later they came wandering by the front door. They had managed to get out under the gate. They will have to be securely fenced from now on.


I am still looking for ideas for names.I can't keep calling them goaties!

Here is one of our other family members

They all have such a hard life at our house, as you can see!

New born kids

9th September 2013 was a special day for at least two reasons.

No.1 My birthday.
No.2 our goat kids were born.

I had 'pre-ordered' the kids from a local farmer, I said I didn't mind what colour or size, I just wanted two females.

On the 11th September I went to collect them from the goat farm. It produces milk for the goat cheese business. There are about 200 nanny goats there and most of had birthed their kids.

I was handed two wriggling bundles and popped them into a moving carton. 
Dear Mr Farmer gave me 5ltr of milk which was all first milk, rich in colostrum and said I could go back for more as I needed it over the next two weeks.

So first night was spent in the box, in the kitchen (well where else!) and then I moved them to the outbuilding.

So I have a question still - what to call them?
Both females, one pink nose, one brown nose. Pink nose is smaller and shorter than brown nose.

Give me your best, polite and child friendly names please.