I love nature. I love animals. I love life in itself.

Today was my first day at Hay Dairy. In short, Hay Dairy is the only goat farm in Singapore, so i pretty much chose that place just to experience something different. I've had enough of sheep, cows, pigs and horses back in aussie....i haven't had any hands-on with goats and this was the perfect opportunity.

I can't decide what i feel about the farm's big boss. He can be really friendly and willing to share at times, yet on the other hand, he kept harping on the "fact" that it was pointless studying so much from books...it doesn't help even if you are a trained vet, a professor or anyone at all, because running a farm is about experience. On top of that, he went on and on about his theory that vets may know nothing more than his carpentry-trained worker (who has worked for 4 years in his farm), that i started to wonder if there was any innuendo in what he was saying......I guess he just doesn't want us to be too big-headed and think we know everything. I readily admitted that i knew nothing about goats. After all, i was only taught to handle sheep.

There was nothing much to do except watch the milking of the dairy goats. John taught me how to clean their udders before putting on the suction cups on their teats. I had to test the milk by squeezing the teats and observing if there were any unusual clots in it. I made a fool of myself...first, i couldn't get any milk out as i desperately kneaded on the goat's teat..then, i had to squeeze so hard the milk squirted all over my shoulder. ERGH!

The babies were absolutely sweet.

I bottle fed one little underweight kid which barely weigh 2 kgs. I cradled it in my arms while it drank hungrily from the milk bottle. One of the staff who is a Myanmar vet said i was doing well after he touched the kid's full tummy. I made the kid drink more until it kept pushing the teat of the bottle outta its mouth with its tongue. I read it as a sign that it probably didn't want more, placed it on the floor and felt its tummy again. This time, i felt the roly-polyness of a ball and i knew it was time to stop although i couldn't bear to put it back into its pen again.....i snapped a pic of the little one as it curiously held its head up for my digicam.




I think that baby goat really aroused my maternal instincts. I jokingly sms-ed dan and asked him if we could have a baby and he readily replied "let's have one then!"......heheeee...

Spending the day at the farm really brought tranquility into my heart. Watching the newborn kids waiting hungrily for their feed...being able to watch a young life thrive under the milk bottle which my hands hold...i felt a new lease of life within me as well. I'm looking forward to going back to the farm again tomorrow morning.