Pukeatua farmstay logo
Child cradling a baby goat in her lap

New critters have arrived

Two weeks ago two new furry furies have arrived and settled in quite well.

The newcomers are two Nigerian Dwarf Goats, born on 24th August, so they are still babies.

Two baby goats in a shelter
Twi and La in their shelter

Our 2 little baby goats are called Muddy Valley Twi and Muddy Valley La. They love bouncing around in their paddock and up onto the things in their playground.

We have been building them two houses in the currently unsused calf shelter for the still cold nights. Once they are bigger they can go outside and we’ll transfer the houses outside, too.

The work also involved “goat-proofing” the fences and gates. Seems to be still work in progress as they decided to just jump the 90cm high fences.

Gild sitting on a wooden fence around a tin shed with two plywood catches inside
Goat shelter building
Baby goats in front of a fence with a number of alpacas lining up behind the fence staring at the goats
Alpaca inspection committee

All the other animals had to get used to those strange newcomers. The cats needed more than two weeks to get close to them – they were just plain terrified.

The alpacas were just typical alpacas – nosy as – and were lining up to check out the goats.

Related Posts

Green paddock with some fenced off parts

The big break of the year is near

The goats decided to go through the fenced off area with shrubs and decimate them. No good. Turns out, the poly wires were too old and did not work any more as they should.
Car boot full of feed bags

Saturday morning shopping

The other type of grocery shopping.
A photomontage of 4 different wasp traps made from coke bottle hung up

Wasp and Hornet traps

We typically put a waap trap up around the house in summer to keep the number of wasps at bay. This year, they discovered a queen yellow legged hornet in the early stages of building a nest in Glenfield on the North Shore in October, while two males were spotted earlier in the year in Grafton and Albany. It is the first time a Queen has been found in Aotearoa.
Cows steaming in the cold air against the sunlight

Winter done and dusted

There was nothing extraordinary to write about this winter, really. It’s not been too wet and not too dry, neither too cold or too warm. We had a few frosty nights and a few pretty rainy days but all in all it was reasonably warm and okay from a mud perspective.

Sunshine, rain and lots of grass

The sun has been more prevalent and the odd shower has helped all plants to grow a lot. It’s nice to see so much fresh green in various shades
sunrays through pinetrees with a glimpse of blue sky through the trees

Springtime is here

The weather is getting warmer, and the days are stretching out longer, giving us more daylight to enjoy. The rain is slowly becoming less frequent, making way for sunnier skies.