Gigi and Dawa

Since a phone call midmorning yesterday, we have been fairly busy.
Setting up a warm, safe home.
Finding feed bottles.
And a whole lot of playing, watching and falling in love.

We have two new arrivals in our family, and yes, in our hearts aswell.
Gigi and Dawa.
Toggenburg kids.


The gem in the crown of this story is that we are sharing the love and care of these goats with our lovely friends and neighbours around the corner.
F has the land to graze them and has the knowledge and experience. We have none of that but we do have a perfect shed, enthusiasm, a lifestyle that has room for the extra responsibility and wide, open hearts.
I needed a mentor in animal husbandry and she wanted a helping hand. A perfect match.

For a while now, Gunter and I had been wanting to find a way to nurture ours and the girls' relationship with animals. We wanted the animals we chose to be part of our whole garden/food producing design. We get excited not just by the possibilities of milk, cheese and eggs but also by manure. We are also excited by all the sensory magic and hands-on skills we will learn along the way.
Right now, we are just excited by this new relationship, seeing them throughout the day, taking good care of them and getting to know each of their personalities.

As you can see from the load of books I got on a recent trip to the library, there is a lot of animal talk in general this Spring.
Gunter is half way through building the chicken tractor and we are waiting patiently for one of F's chickens to get broody.

The Top bar Bee Hive is also just about done and then we will take our next step towards keeping some bees.
And there are always other possibilities.
But for now I need to put my jacket on, grab my torch and the prepared milk and do the late night feed for the kids in the shed.