Alright Treacle!

Has anyone seen that car advert that features the goat with attitude? The tag line is “Born Confident” and this pretty much sums up our youngest goat, Treacle! (go on google it, it’s a VW advert)

Treacle was born on the last day of January 2020. By coincidence, she shares her birthday with the day on which the UK withdrew from the EU. “Brexit” We really should have know that she’d be trouble!

Way back in September 2019 in the days of the old normal, before the planet tilted, we bought a sweet little goat called Didi. Now, Didi has species identity confusion (do you like that? I made it up ????) she would prefer to be a dog as her favourite thing is to cuddle up and get head snuggles, she also loves to be taken for walks. Didi, however, doesn’t chase tennis balls, she’d be quite insulted if you thought she’d chase non food items. Unfortunately for Didi, she has to make the most of her snuggly time in the stable as she isn’t coming in the house. Did you know that goats constantly graze and to keep healthy they need to drink a lot of water. Where there’s an input there’s an output, and I’m not kidding, they pee and poo A LOT!

I’ll speak more about species identity confusion in another blog, it’s a common theme on our farm. It’s a good job we don’t have neighbours as we would be subjected to mockery should anyone see our dog walks, with the entourage including cats, chickens, goats and llamas (and dogs, we’re not completely mad!)

So, Before Didi came to the llama farm, she had lived life in the fast lane. A natural born leader with beauty and sass, she’d been out on the tiles and found herself in the family way. We all have a story on this farm, not this particular story I might add, Didi was welcomed and never looked back.

Fast forward over the next few months, during which Didi took leadership of our flock of three baby goats, made sure the llamas knew she was the boss and generally made herself at home.

Throughout January, we waited for signs that Didi was ready to give birth. We didn’t know the date that the tile hitting had happened, so we googled, watched and waited, to the point that Didi who is normally very happy to be centre of attention, was getting just a bit on the narky side with us.

On the morning of the 31st, we knew that the time was a-coming, bets were taken; Nigel bet the next day, I bet the weekend – flipping ‘eck what planet were we on! Within an hour, things were starting to happen. I very excitedly messaged a friend to share that Didi was having the baby, they asked to come over as they were at the local shops. “At the shops?” I kid you not, I asked them to buy a bucket and bring it, I’m quite surprised I refrained from asking for hot towels.

Didi was the most awesome giver of birth, birther… what do you even call this? Anyway, she done really well and her baby was born quickly, with no problems. So why the name Treacle? I hear you ask. Was it because the baby was a hot sticky little mess? She was, but no, it wasn’t.

Typically, I missed the birth as I had to go to work, so I’d asked Nigel to video it for me. On watching the video back, the moment that she was born, the audio crackles to life with Nigel’s Lancashire mockney tones “Alright Treacle!”