Goat Peter

I would like to introduce you to our very own Goat Peter. Peter drives a cattle lorry and trailer for his living, and as you can see is a little camera shy (this was the fifth attempt at a picture). On Saturday, for the first time, he transported a load of goats.

Grace and I rode shotgun with him as we traveled from home, firstly to County Durham, where we had bought some dairy females. The farm was up on the moors, and Peter kept worrying if we were going to get there as the roads got narrower, and we even started going across cattle grids on single track roads. If I got Goat Peter the navigation wrong it was going to be difficult to reverse on these roads.
There were some nannys, some of last years kids and some of this years kids. They are all females and are all going to be bred to our Boer billy goats.
They are really nice animals and Simon, the man who sold them to us had made a really good job of rearing them. With luck they will be here for many years.

Goats in the lorry

From there we travelled to Thirsk, where some Boer Goats were waiting for us. We have bought goats from here before, and our first meat goats came from here, so it was good to meet up with old friends, Neil and Louisa.
From here we went home, after a long day's travelling. But before we could finish for the day we needed to unload the lorry.The lorry was easily backed onto our yard and the goats unloaded, however the drag (trailer)

Loaded and ready to go to a new home

was too long to reverse onto our yard off a narrow lane. So we backed up as far as we could and dropped the tailgate. The trailer was partly on the yard, but most of it and the lorry were blocking the Queens highway.
Just up the road, our friend Dawn was having her 40th Birthday party. By now it was 8-30 at night and people were starting to arrive for the party. Problem was, they couldn't get there. Because we were blocking the road.
There soon got to be quite a queue.
They were patient. They had to be, we were working as quick as possible. By 10 we were unloaded, washed brushed and at the party. Our friends were having fun at our expense, and the goats? They were warm and snug and had just been fed. Home after an adventure none of us would forget.