Play Station' for goats

I HAVE English dairy goats and they love their "Play Station", made out of old wooden pallets and a couple of washed-up-on-the-beach plastic bouys, which are threaded through an iron bar to make it mobile. It started out as a climbing frame for the kids but the whole herd uses it and the top tier is great for playing "Queen of the Castle". They also enjoy the ponies' "Likits" attached as a treat.

Margaret Richards, Orkney.

You know you are a smallholder when...

FURTHER to the Editor's Comment in the June edition of "Smallholder", I would like to share a few "You know you are a smallholder when..." statements that relate to my family: You know that your are a smallholder when -

  • your three-year-old asks for breakfast eggs from a specific breed of chicken;
  • your daughter has more pets that the rest of her class combined;
  • you think exchanging a house with no land for a field with a barn and a caravan is a good idea;
  • you inadvertently ask a car salesman how many bales of hay he thinks the estate you are test-driving will carry;
  • you reach in your pocket for a tissue and pull out a nest of baler twine;
  • you no longer attend country shows as you cannot leave your animals;
  • you bring more stuff home from the local authority recycling centre than you took in the first place;
  • pallets in your friend's skip are of more interest than their refurbished living room;
  • a bill hook is a must-have accessory;
  • you can spot a duck with a limp from two fields away;
  • a book on goat ailments is compulsive reading;
  • you are somewhat bewildered when a friend mentions that they need to buy eggs.

Julian Murfitt, Oxfordshire