In health and fitness news, this week I managed for the first time to go 2 hours on my exercise bike. Phew. That was a good work out. I’m hoping for 2 hours (at least) to be the standard come summer. But I am not quite there yet. I have managed to hit 100 minutes the last few times I have biked, though. It would be nice if that could be the tableau. The minimum. For now. I remember when hitting 30 minutes seemed like a giant mountain to climb. Now it is easily done. That’s a good feeling. I feel like it’s going well at the moment. I’m in that groove where I’m actually looking forward to exercising. Put on a good book, put in a good effort. Feels good. Vastly improved from last winter.

Also I have replaced milk with almond milk. Which is supposedly healthier. At least it’s not dairy. And I have started drinking Matcha green tea. Which is supposed to have mood enhancing capabilities, among other things. I feel like it has helped so far. You never know with my moods though, they tend to swing a lot. But so far so good. No cheese, bacon or cola either.

We shall see how it all goes.

Meanwhile there have been good times at the playground. It has been cold with snow on the ground, but nice bursts of sunshine as well. The goats are doing well. I think Mio might be pregnant again. She certainly is big. It would explain why she’s still producing milk. Which Mia is taking full advantage of. There was a visitor the other day who said she could see babies moving in her belly. It’s hard for me to tell. But it does seem likely. With Kamel I can’t tell at all. She is built oddly. She was around Preben as long as Mio was, and even more I guess because Mio was seperated for a while when she had Mia. So with all that time you’d think Kamel had become pregnant too. It would be a bit odd if she hadn’t. But I don’t know. I have been continuing my attempts to build her confidence and getting used to being handled. I think we’re progressing. She will rummage insistently through my pockets now if I don’t give treats. She’ll get up on the bench with her front legs for raisins. On Monday I tried grabbing her leg and raising it so I could rub her hooves. The goats usually like that. She seemed a little hesitant at first. But when I started scratching her in the “armpits” she really loved that. And then on Thursday she actually raised her leg by herself. Asking to be scratched. The first time she has ever done that. So she is learning that being touched doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I still have to hang on to her collar sometimes to stop her from backing away. But we take it slow and I give her treats to build positive associations.

Things are calmer now that Preben isn’t there anymore. It gives me more alone time with all the goats, because the whole pen is open for exploration now. So they take turns walking around and coming over to me. I feel like Bob is being quite cuddly now too. I like just stroking his back and sides. That soft, woolly fur. And he seems to like it. And I love how his tail wags sometimes when he’s jumping up on me. The way that Mia has learned that she will get raisins if she jumps on my back, Bob has learned that if he jumps up against me he’ll often get some too. He’ll jump up and I’ll grab his hooves and he’ll do a little goat dance and he’ll push off against my hands and I’ll propel him upwards so he jumps around for a few steps. And his tail wags and he gets a raisin. I probably shouldn’t be teaching him to jump up against people, but it’s kinda too late now I think. If he keeps growing bigger then I’ll probable end up being pushed to the ground if he keeps doing it! I think he would like to jump up on my back like Mia does too. But he’s too big for that. He’s a little jealous of her I think. He chases Mia off my back. He jumps up in front of the camera when I’m filming her. And I can hardly sit with her in my lap anymore without him coming over and jumping up on the bench and chasing her off. I like sitting with her in my lap. She’s getting bigger though and the bigger they get the less they like that. I can tell if she wants to sit in my lap because she will settle down and burp up some cud and start chewing it. If she doesn’t want to sit in my lap then she won’t do that, instead she’ll start squirming and jump off. But like I said, these days I don’t really get to sit with her like that much because Bob comes over immediately and chases her off. Silly furball!

But enough stories. On with the pictures now.

Bob sitting down when the sun came out.

Sitting on the ground and standing on the bench. That is goat logic.

Hugging Bob.

Mia nibbling at a branch.

And looking up.

Another day, another sitdown in the sunshine.

Kamel chewing or smiling. Or both.

Mia contemplating whether she can walk out on my arm.

Six months old but still drinking from mama.

Mommy, he’s taking pictures of us again!

On to the videos.

Firstly goatlog from Monday. Monday was Fastelavn. Or, I think it was Sunday actually. But they celebrated it on Monday at the playground. It’s a sort of Danish version of Halloween. One of the things we do is put candy in a barrel and have kids swing a bat at it until it breaks. I didn’t film any of it, but at one point in the video you can hear the banging on the barrel in the background. Sounded like the kids were having a good time. Plus the usual food fights and fun stuff.

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And goatlog from Thursday. Valentines day. I spent it with goats, of course. There’s Bob with his wagging tail and hay hanging from his woolly fur. Kamel putting her leg up on me. Mio growling. And Mia jumping on my back. And so on and so forth.

That’s all for the goats. Today was soup day. First soup of the year, first soup in my parents’ new place. Same old lovely soup. The surroundings change but the food and people is still jolly good. I don’t think I will ever get tired of that. Now the belly is full and the fridge is full and all is well with the world.

The ent.

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