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June has been a wonderful month for the goats - warm and sunny. They have been able to go outside into the fields virtually every day.

The food is plentiful - Ash is particularly bounteous at the moment - and a favourite of the goats. The Rosebay Willow Herb is also now out in flower so I’ll be gathering those plants this weekend.

The goat is an amazing animal for turning seemingly annoying weeds into a useful product. Their ability to devour large numbers of branches in a short space of time is fascinating to watch.

A number of my lettuces are getting a little old now but they will not be thrown on the compost heap - just into the mouths of the “girls”

The hens are also keen on pecking at lettuce so no leaves will be wasted. 

It is a pleasure to see that the seeds lovingly sown in the small window sill trays just a couple of months ago have grown into plants that can be utilised by both the family and also the animals.

This year we even have a good crop of raspberries - from bushes purchased last year at a local discount supermarket.

My herb plants are also thriving. Sage, parsley oregano, rosemary  and thyme are all so easy to grow and I would recommend anyone to buy a packet of seeds and get sowing.

My son was inspired to buy some chilli and sunflower seeds and they are also doing well.

The plants also make great gifts for family and friends without costing much money  - just a little care and attention (They need watering often during this dry spell)

Vegetable and herb growing also means that a shower of rain is appreciated as useful rather than just an inconvenience.    

In these recessionary times, a low cost food supply with the added benefit of lifting the mood  when those seeds initially emerge is “all good”.

It is definitely not my imagination. I have seen the sun, and on more than one occasion this week.

The caprine girls are delighted; they run about, play fight and lie in the sun. 

The elder branches are showing lots of new leaves and each day during my early morning walk with  the dogs ( and Ben the cat) I try to break some off as a treat.

The girls love the succulent new leaves.

This morning they were in the field as I returned with some large branches and they immediately told me in their usual manner that I had been spotted. My mother and daughter Toggenburgs were at the head of the herd, their front legs situated well up the fence so as to get first pickings.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly goats can devour such large branches.

I have planted three fruit trees recently and if even one goat was able to get access to them, -well bye bye fruit.

I have also sown some lettuce seeds. They started off in two cold frames, admittedly those inexpensive hard plastic ones, but one blew away in the gale force winds. Hence one set of seedlings is now protected by a pallet.

An advantage of keeping goats is that if any of my sown or soon to be sown vegetables become a little “worse for wear”, the goats will enjoy them.

With the chickens as well, our vegetable peelings are well and truly recycled.

The rain has kept off so I think it’s time for another walk.

My youngest son has returned from England with a skin rash around his neck and dry scaly skin on his arm.

The arm was itching as he is allergic to some of the evergreen branches in the fileds surrounding our house.

Instead of leaving it to clear up with the help of the soap products that we have, he kept scratching it and whilst in England he did not use the soap and it has gotten worse.

Now back in Ireland, he is showering twice a day using our shower cream and shampoo - sometimes just the latter as it is made of natural oils which are good for the skin and the hair - and the skin is becoming more moisturised and should hopefully return to its normal state in the next week.

It is difficult though to stop the scratching. I lathered up a plain bar of goats milk soap this morning and applied the bubbles to his neck and this helped soothe the itch.

Th sun is shining here again today so I’m off again to collect more branches for the goats. After milking we’ll let them out in the field and they love to see the branches strewn around. It doesn’t take them long to eat them all. They get more at lunchtime and more are left in their pens for when they return in the late afternoon.

We like to think our goats are happy goats.

The sun is shining here in the South East of Ireland. The goats are out browsing and we are taking advantage of the weather by cleaning out another of the goat pens.

Only 4 left to do.

Tomorrow promises to be another dry day so hopefully we’ll get another cleared out.

I have been learning the best way to make a compost heap with layers of “brown” then “green”  

Yesterday the lawns were mowed and provided a “green” layer. Today it is the turn of “brown”.

This afternoon, I will probably amend my website to improve the picture quality. We have recently introduced liquid soaps and foam baths, all made using goats milk, and I would like the pictures to better reflect how good the bottles look.

Penny, our newest goat kid is still being bottle fed so we’ll have to make sure she gets her “tea”. She is eating leaves now although we have to make sure they are low enough for her to reach. It won’t be long before she is fully weaned.