I think we must have a sign on the gate that says "soft touches" or "suckers". Maybe etched into a tree in the way of the old swaggies or travellers as a sign to others, that a feed is to be had or a few odd jobs. Recently, we had been discussing with Laura about getting a cat and she was investigating breeds. Then on Saturday Martin went out to the shed and a little cat was calling to him, just perfect.

The Toggenburg Dairy goats have started kidding. We have been watching the udders and behaviour for a week now and thought it was never going to happen. Now, six kids have been born in the last two days and two does left to go. We have recently upgraded a shed, to give the goats a larger, healthier space and it looks like we will be needing every inch of it. Better get out the cheese book.

Woke up this morning to a changed landscape, snow. Forecast, rain and snow above 1200 metres and here we are at 1000 metres and one of the biggest falls we have had in the last few years. Very wet, very pretty easy to love where we live.

Our ewes are about to lamb and we have them all sorted and numbered to make mothering up and record keeping easier. Each ewe has her ear tag number stamped on her in the colour code of the ram she was joined to. We don't stamp the year prefix as we can tell that from the ear tag colour. We then either put a neck band on the lamb or tag it and record the mothers details. Then, enter the info into the computer and all the stud records are in order- one hopes.