Welcome to Arthur Creek Farm.

Reading over my last post, I’m still a year behind. So, here is my super quick catch-up with photos. Of course!

Through March last year, life settled a little. The goats were enjoying eating their way through the paddock. We were trying to train the dogs, but Maremma’s are hard to do that, and we found they had a lust for chasing after kangaroo. So, we decided to harness them for the walks. Much better. We had peace of mind that they were safe. The goats however, found a bit of romance. Terry and Gandalf started speaking a very amusing goatee language as seen from Terry in this video! Needless to say, we were going to get busy in August!

27th March 2023 We had our first egg from Miss White! It cooked nicely and was tasty. Very eggciting!

Easter Sunday in 2023, was the 9th April and at the early hour of 6am, Jason yelled out for me to wake up! “Rosie is having her babies! Quick!” I dressed so quick and stubbed my little toe on the door frame as I made my way out of the bedroom. I hobbled and ran to the shelter just in time to see the third being born. Wow! How exciting that was. Our first Arthur Creek Farm kids! The first was grey like his mum and big sister Lily. We named him George after my dad. Second, a brown and black buck we named William after Jason’s dad. Third, a sweet little doe, another brown and black, we named her Bessie after my mum. Rosie, looked very proud and tired. She was an excellent mum. Tending to them and keeping them close. We were amazed at how she managed to make sure each kid, had equal shares of her milk. Then we were surprised at how quickly she took them out into the field to eat. Nature is an amazing thing. Getting into a more simplistic life has been our dream and this event topped it off!

Over the next six weeks, we watched the kids grow and all of the goats interact and play on the cubicles that Jason made from old pallets and a slab of wood that was lying around. Even the old bathtub, that was a bit too big for the goats drinking water, was repurposed as a stable base for more pallets and poles for the goats to play on. In June, we found another three saanen goats, brothers Tom and Jerry and a sweet little doe we named Pixie. All were six months old.

August was the start of our kidding season. Lots of spring babies to thrill the socks off us and our visitors. Britney was first with beautiful twin does. Our daughter named them Gertrude and Mocha. Terry was obviously the daddy here, giving the alpine gene a touch of the red boar.

Next Jasmine gave us a lovely girl that I named Latte. She is the sweetest doe who loves her mum and us very much. In the second photo she is 3 months old.

Daisy’s kid – Flint. What a cutie. Daisy is a miniature cross landrace and his dad, Gandalf the Grey, is a boar cross landrace. He’s now bigger than mum.

Kimba’s kid – Rand. Kimba surprised us by having Rand in field, whilst we went shopping. What a beautiful boy to come home and welcome to the farm.

After Rand was born on the Friday, Taffy then gave birth to our handsome Errol on Monday. He, like Rand, is such a cute buck, thankfully just a little bit lighter, so we can tell them apart!

After all the fun of having heaps of new kids at the farm, Jason found some more goats! So, at the end of September we bought five. Welcome to Atlas, Nancy, Blossom, Jeannie and her son Henry!

Shortly after we picked up a very sweet trio. Welcome to Gemma, Fred and Ruby.

And then we found Bucky! As soon as he arrived, he was a hit with the girls!

October, Lily gave birth to twins… Samson and Delilah.

And a week later, Lily’s mum Rosemary, gave birth to triplets. Only two survived due to a complication that was remedied and the one that should have come last, came first. I called her Destiny. The other I named Champion because he survived. It’s easy to see that Gandalf is the daddy.

Our November kid, is the cutest little doe, named Chloe! Pixie’s girl and we suspect either Tom or Jerry is the father.

Just when I thought we completed our farm family for the year, Jason found another five goats a week before Christmas. We brought Alpine Mary and her daughter Heidi, Honey and Peaches both Saanen does, and Prince a handsome, wethered, Saanen buck home to enjoy life with us.

And that concludes my 2023 catch up. It was a wonderful & eventful year!