The traditional animal to do with Christmas in Sweden is the goat - the Jul Bok - well, we're having our fun with our own Christmas goats this year...

The latest step we've taken to try and control our energy usage, and to also make the home more comfortable, is to install an intelligent building management system. A little over the top? Maybe... but it's already proving its worth!

Now that we've got goats, and kids, and soon we'll have a glut of milk we need to make plans for what to do with it. What better than making your own cheese?

We bought the cultures and equipment, the only delay is that because Snövit has been on antibiotics we can't use her milk for a little while, so we've been practising on some store bought milk.

The latest additions to the Alledal flocks are some Swedish Yellow Ducks, or Svensk Gul Anka . These are a very local breed thought to be extinct until 1977.

We were told that goats give birth easily, not to worry, we'd possibly see signs of them wanting to give birth, then the next day come down to find one or two new arrivals in the pen, no problems at all.

How wrong they were.

It's just over a week since we took on our newest livestock to the Alledal farm - 5 dairy goats from the island of Ven/Hven.