History next

"My love of goats started when, at the age of 15, I moved to a small Surrey Village and met some elderly ladies and their herd of Anglo Nubian goats.  Full of fun and very friendly the goats living only a few yards away from our house were a special part of my early years in the village.  Years later visiting park farms with my eldest daughter I would hang around the goat pens before being dragged out by her - it became a standard joke!

Tragedy Struck the family in 1996 with the untimely death of my sister from Leukaemia.  I think it made us all realise that life is short and if there is something that you wish to do you need to do it NOW!  Although it was a few years later that we were to put our thoughts into action.

In 1999 Amy was diagnosed at 4 months old with eczema and I remembered a conversation that I had with my sister about goats milk being a good alternative to cows milk.  I immediately decided to try it.  To my surprise Amy was clear of eczema within two weeks - better than the steroids the doctor had offered! I guess most people would just buy the goats milk but at last I had a real reason for having a goat!

We had at the time being thinking of a lifestyle change and so it wasn't hard to have the dream of owning a smallholding and having a couple of goats for milk and maybe some ducks and chickens - you've got it "The Good Life" .  I started to work towards a complete lifestyle change.  Going to college part time to learn land management and animal husbandry.  I had kept ponies for a few years  in d.i.y. yards but had always bought hay and straw so looking after land would be new.  I also joined Surrey Goat Club to learn specifically about goats.  A little later we put the house on the market.  I also rented one of the fields behind us where the old ladies goats used to live and had my first three Anglo Nubian goats, Morgan, Suki and Saffron.  But then we had the awful news that Foot and Mouth had hit.  It was to be over a year later before we could move.
  next