new year!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Well i am sorry i haven't been up to date recently, so much happened over December, that i am sure you will excuse me when you realise why.
December was not a good month for me, first my partner was made redundant, then one of my relatives died, then the illness in my back went into my hip(so now back on the pain killers and back in much pain using the walking stick), then and thankfully finally, someone vandalised our only means of transport on Jan the second, which was parked away from the house as we were severally snowed in, to the point where it has been now written off.
Some good points of December were, my son can up and built a great smoker from an old fridge, and stayed over Christmas along with a couple of friends, then a quick turn around and some other friends came up for new year.
My partner and myself had a good laugh that if we hadn't parked our car at the top of our lane, we would of been snowed in since before Christmas, it was waist deep along the driveway, i know , i had to try and walk through it at one point, but it only hit the news when England got snowed in three weeks after we had been, and it was total chaos down there. We all seemed to just get on with it up in Scotland! But at least my son got the white Christmas that i had promised him the year before! Phew!

Nothing much has happened on the small holding to be honest, we had too much snow to be able to do much outside, we had a duck living in the house for parts of the winter, she didn't seem to have enough down feathers for her to manage the snow and cold, she is a Saxony, and we also have a Saxony drake, we have decided to go from Aylesbury ducks to Saxony's, mainly as they are a better breed for meat and eggs, Aylesbury's are more a commercial breed for meat.
We have two Aylesbury's in the freezer already, with another two drakes soon to follow.

We are having an open fire fitted in the lounge next week, little after the snow i know, but we usually get another bout of snow in Feb and again around March/ April, so at least we will be warm then!
Out of all the goats that have been to our Sunny, we know one is pregnant, the other two we are not sure on, Rita we are fairly sure, is not with kid, Tuppence we are not too sure, it looks like not, her girth has got bigger, but not by much, Penny however, we are fairly sure is, her girth is growing each time we measure her.... wish it had been one of the other two in a way as she is a kicker when we get near her back legs, Tuppence and Rita will just let you get on with whatever you need to do as long as they have some food in front of them...still they can become pregnant yet, they will keep coming into season for a short while yet.

Pigs? yes well there are still pigs in the freezer, debating whether to get two more this year for a hog roast for our wedding menu...yes we are to marry in August, if everything goes well and i can get rid of my walking stick!!
But also we will need the space that the last pigs had, for the goats and kids....still no chance of getting next doors field while my partner has no job....will have to cross everything and hope!

I have set up a web shop that takes Paypal, although i am trying to sort cards side out still, but take a look and I do hope you like it and buy from it. www.thegleefulgoat.co.uk

Anyway, that's it for now, next time i will upload some photos to make the posts a little more interesting.