Run for the hills: Clock shock, orphans and the feminine side

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Clock shock, orphans and the feminine side

Yesterday the kids were taken off their mothers. This means that they are now bottle fed. There are two reasons for subjecting ourselves to this ordeal - firstly it makes the kids more human friendly when they grow up and secondly it gives us chance to get the milking goats used to being milked while the volume of milk production is on the up.

But it has radically altered our routine. Currently milking 7 goats, 4 of whom have never been milked before is taking nigh on two hours. Then the kids have to be bottle fed - this takes over an hour or more - and we've discovered why its a good idea to bottle feed kids colostrum. Those that were have taken to the bottle well. The rest are reluctant drinkers. Hopefully they'll come round but right now its patience straining stuff and takes a long time. I've no idea if making soothing cooing noises helps - but soothing cooing noises seem to be an involuntary response I have to bottle feeding kid goats.

Our routine this morning was: Jussi got up at 5am, breakfasted and went up to milk the experienced milkers. I got up at 6, had a cup of tea and lit the fire and went up to help milk the inexperienced ones (this also calls for soothing cooing sounds). Ailsa got up around 8 and came up to help bottle feed the kids. At 9 I came down for a cup of tea and breakfast (and to re-light the fire) - mainly because I was starting to bite Ailsa's head off for no particular reason. By 10:30 all the feeding and watering and haying was done and Ailsa came down for breakfast. Jussi had finished bottle washing etc by 11 and came down for coffee. At around 12:30 we'll all head up to bottle feed the kids again.

At five we'll go up to milk the goats again and feed the kids. At sometime after 9pm we'll go up and feed the kids again.

This regime began yesterday - but milking and feeding started around 5 and didn't finish until around 8. Things like child care are being a bit neglected - Ailsa is a goat orphan (like a rock 'n' roll widow only much much more cool ) even cooler than this). Just as well she is on holiday for the next two weeks.

And then Jussi will get up at 5 in the morning and it'll all start again.

But what's this? The *U*K*N* CLOCKS HAVE LEAPT FORWARD!! *U*K ME!!!!!

3 comments:

Jussi said...: But the goats don't know about the clock changing yet - we're hoping to keep it a secret for a wee while.; 29 March 2009 at 15:35
townmouse said...: That's what I was going to say. If you don't have to be anywhere important (er, school?), just make a gradual change...

I'm sure Ailsa's teachers will understand; 29 March 2009 at 20:57
The Speaking Goat said...: askgb asdfhi asd asd[iha a f[dsgihg askdjd gh*

But it's scrambled me brain; 30 March 2009 at 10:58

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

Things I"m going to miss

Run for the hills

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Clock shock, orphans and the feminine side

3 comments:

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