a day in the life of a goat farmer

We wake up early-ish with the sunrise. Since moving from a rather crappy old dust-filled trailer to a delightful wooden cabin built looking out down the valley towards nearby mountains in the east, the morning sun rises above the horizon viewed directly from our bed. At night we can see the brilliant stars through the same window. A quick wash with a bucket of cold water then we head to the goat pen. The pregnant does are checked through and the herd is let out for the day, free to roam wherever they please with their guardian dogs to protect them from coyotes, bears and wolves. Very expectant mothers are kept at home and those who have already given birth are milked. At the moment this is by hand but soon there will be too many and the machines will be used. Milking is pretty hard work it turns out. Then we head in for a massive breakfast, mostly pancakes or waffles or something similar. We take it in turns to cook and clean and despite the large number of wwoofers there is always so much food around, everyone likes to experiment with making various cookies and cakes so there's always great snacks throughout the day. After breakfast food is laid out for the goats when they return at the end of the day, the animals and gardens are watered and the day's projects begin. Some days this is processing cheese others gardening or moving animals. Recently we've been really busy with birthing, it's amazing to watch and even better when you get to help out, pulling out babies which the mother is struggling to deliver. After a couple of days the kids are keen to play; undoing your shoelaces, nibbling your knees, jumping on your back and even better you get to help feed the smaller ones along with the two little lambs that are here (now getting a little demanding). Today was a sadder day as we had to thin out the herd by slaughtering some of the newly arrived little bucks, they aren't kept as this is a dairy herd so only females can be used. Seven were killed by cutting their throats. We then removed all the edible organs including the brain and the rennet from the stomach was put aside to make cheese with later (this is how all cheese - except vegetarian cheese - is made, who knew?). The carcasses were given to the pigs. We normally have a couple of hours off after lunch, every few days we heat some water for an open air shower, you just have to hope the weather is on your side as a warm day can be 16 Celsius but when it's cold it's below zero. In the afternoon there is more milking and feeding and checking the babies and mothers then a huge dinner. Often some of the other wwoofers play guitar, violin and clarinet in the evening in the large (very much working) kitchen, full of dirt and jars containing anything and everything, should you attempt to look, with the company of Coco the very elderly and decrepit retired Maremma dog.