Every morning from August to April, eight goats at a time trit-trot up a small ramp to be milked in a converted carport in Amanda and Lindsey Goodman's back garden. And each week Amanda transforms about 500 litres of their creamy milk into cheese.
Watch a video of putting cups on Drunken Nanny’s goats here!
It all started six years ago when Amanda and her husband Lindsey took on a couple of pet milking goats when their children couldn't tolerate cows' milk and they were having to pay $60 for a tin of goats' milk formula.
"And then we got more goats and more goats and we didn't want to sell any goats and we decided we needed to find a way to use the milk."
They now have 200 goats they adore on their South Wairarapa farm and award-winning cheese.
It's the job of sheep and beef farmer Lindsey to milk the goats before he heads off to take care of the rest of the farm in the afternoons.
He enjoys the different personalities of the goats.
"It's a pleasure milking the girls," he says. "Some like a little pat and a scratch on the way in and on the way out and some are just nosy, always wanting to turn around and want to know what's going on."
Amanda says having pet goats in the herd can be a bit of a nuisance.
"We had one called Gracie and she was lovely but she has been known to find her way back to the house. One morning at 3 o'clock we were fast asleep in bed and Gracie managed to locate the cat door, get through the cat door and arrived proudly jumping on top of us in our bed...having come from quite a distant paddock."
Amanda and Lindsey say the ten-year dream is to have a rotary milking shed, a decent sized cheese room and more staff so they can have a day off every now and again.
