Badger and Bailey...

Yesterday Bramble became a proud mother for the second time within 12 months! Last time she had twin girls - Audrey and Arabella. This time she had twin boys - Badger and Bailey...

Above: Badger - named for his white facial markings.

Below: Bailey - named after the whiskey and cream liqueur.

We have been feeding Bramble a high protein, high energy feed to provide all she needs to cope with the strains of motherhood, and to ensure a plentiful supply of milk for making our organic goat cheese.


Addendum (6 August): Barclay and Briar...

Low and behold, the very next day Audrey delivered Barclay (Buck) and Briar (Doe). She gave birth in their play pen during the night, and somehow she and Briar made it out into the paddock, but Barclay was left behind. We arrived to find him half-dead in the morning, probably suffering from hypoglycaemia. We gave him a dose of dextrose, warmed him in blankets in the sun, and bottle fed him every hour for the whole morning, then spent time trying to get him to latch on to Audrey. After a lot of coaxing Audrey started to bond with him (as she had appeared to bond only with Briar) and finally we got him suckling on her (Note - great lactation consultant as I make, the thrill of bottle feeding a goat QID for the next month did not enthrall me).

We penned them into a little pen with lots of hay and feed and today both kids are standing and walking and suckling well. They will go back into the paddock with the rest of the burgeoning herd tomorrow. Arabella also looks set to drop twins within the next few days. We will have gone from 5 to 11 goats in a week! Below is a short clip of Arabella with Barclay and Briar in their pen...

Addendum (11 August): Barclay and Bailey...

It is with much distress that we share the news that Barclay took sick the day after our last update and despite being bottle feed, housed, warmed and well cared for he died on 10 August.

It is also with intrepidation that I share the precarious position Bailey is in. Bailey, who like his brother Badger had looked so well for the first week, fell prey to a similar illness as Barclay.

However, between the 2 kids getting ill we learnt that this was most likely to have been 'FKS' (Floppy Kid Syndrome). So, with haste we turned our living room into a CICU (Caprine Intensive Care Unit). Bailey has been on a subcut balanced electrolyte infusion. He is also getting a third generation Cefalosporin injection IM BD (twice daily intramuscular powerful antibiotics), as well as Thiamine injections BD with Dextrose and Electrolyte boluses every hour.

He initially improved overnight and went from Death's door to Death's garden gate. We shall see whether this expensive scare (sorry, Intensive Care) wins out. We shall keep you posted. In the meantime he is curled out in front of the fireplace waiting for his next caring ministration...



Final Addendum (15 August): Barathea...

Arabella finally gave birth to a single doe kid yesterday, Barathea, who is now inside due to the freak arctic storm spreading up over the country. She is doing well. Bailey has also made a 90% recovery, and is back with the herd during the day, but is coming in every night until the weather passes. Time to get a new barn built I think.

Above: A new-born Barathea being sniffed by her mother Arabella. She was named after a friend's race horse Barathea Blazer, due to the pronouced blaze on her forehead.

Below: Half of the goat herd on a cold morning. Come Spring they'll get a good wash!

Border Patrol...

We have set out to create Gertrude Jekyll borders styled borders around the potager, such as the one above. They typify many people's idea of an English garden. This style was made popular in the late Victorian and Edwardain periods. Many of the English country estates which were still mainly in the 18th Century landscape style of Lancelot Brown and his ilk, were partially transformed to the cottage, natural style. Many such houses compartmentalised this look to one or two areas. As such, today when visiting these places you get the feeling of the transformations over time as you stroll from one garden to the next. This is what we hope to create at Willowbrook - over all a landscape styled park with 'rooms' or areas in particular styles.


Around the potager beds seemed a good place to develop a cottage style, and a more victorian style, the centrepiece one day being a Gothic Victorian Glasshouse (but in the nearer future a potting shed will have to suffice).

Here are some examples of the better English borders from various houses...

Above: An herbacious border at Hidcote

Below: The Red boder at Hidcote

Above and Below: The herbaceous borders at Nymans Gardens

When choosing the flowers for the border, we stuck to tried and true flower species...

Lupins

Stock

Euphorbia


Alchimilla mollis (Lady's mantle)

Hellebores

Delphiniums

Hollyhocks

(We collected seeds from my grandmother's garden last year - many of these sepcies have easy to collect seeds, so ask about friends and family at the end of summer before you go buying any vast amounts from your local garden centre).

Carnations

Digitalis (Foxglove)

Clematis

Allium species

Cornflowers

[Previous photo removed as was not in public domain. For more amazing photos however, please visit http://www.openspaceimages.com]

Campanula (Canterbury Bells)

Moluccella laevis (Bells of Ireland)

Dahlias

(again, many tubours came from my grandmother's garden. They divide every year, and take very easily as long as every tubour your divide has a neck to it)

Cerinthe major (Honeywort)

Meconopsis grandis, nicknamed the Blue Poppy (although it is not a poppy), of which there are 2 varieties, one native to Wales, and the other native to the Himalays (also known as the Himilayan Poppy)

And of course Nigella (Love in the mist)

We have also chosen many English roses for the border as well, which we shall share in our next post, a rose by any other name.