Goatherd’s Joy and Cheesey Days

After a while, a certain routine set in. The days started early and ended early — but everything in between was anything but boring:

🐐 Goat Days – In the Rhythm of the Herd Link to heading

05:00 – Coffee. Always. Without it, nothing works.
05:30 – Milking. The goats don’t wait — and otherwise they just do whatever they want.
08:00 – Breakfast — with plenty of hunger, but usually little time.
09:00 to around 15:00 – Herding goats. Sometimes calm and grazing, sometimes stubborn and wild. Some days they followed nicely; other days, they made the schedule.
15:00 – Lunch. Well-earned, necessary, sometimes almost forgotten.
16:30 – Second milking round.
19:30 – End of the workday.
21:00 – Bedtime. Or more accurately: straight into deep sleep.

Every goat day brought a new surprise. Once, a gate had been left open — after breakfast, suddenly all the goats were gone. Heart attack. Search mission. But the whole herd was just standing together, happily chewing away on someone else’s pasture. Drama for us — spa day for them.

🧀 Cheesemaking Days – Where Milk Turns to Magic Link to heading

On other days, everything revolved around the dairy. Here it was less about goat chaos — and more about precision, patience, and the unique “cheese flow.”

05:00 – Coffee (of course, here too).
05:30 – Into the dairy. Press fresh cheese, fill yoghurt cups, roll Formaggini. Every now and then, I got to make cheese myself — slowly starting to understand the process: temperature, timing, instinct. In between: checking the brine, tending the cheeses, delivering to Saas Fee, restocking the little shop.
15:00 – Lunch — usually accompanied by a bit of fatigue and a strong smell of cheese in my nose.
16:30 – Second shift: hang fresh cheese, make yoghurt, or scrub everything spotless again.
19:30 – End of the workday.
21:00 – Eyes closed, dreaming of milk.

Dairy days were quieter, but full of detail. Sometimes it felt repetitive — but there were so many small things to keep an eye on that it was never boring. And best of all: at the end of the day, there was always cheese.

📌 Highlights & Lowlights Link to heading

Not every day was the same — and sometimes the highs and lows were just minutes apart. Here are some memorable moments, in no particular order:

Gvera (goat) plucks a chicken.
Francesco injured — so several days in a row of herding, herding, herding.
Cuddling with Ysop (goat) while out in the pasture.
Fog and rain — program: do nothing. (Almost.)
Found cheese in the brine after… let’s just say far too long.
Forgot to hang the fresh cheese.
Goat festival — with everything that entails.
Market stand — selling cheese and answering lots of curious questions.
Milk weighing — hand-milking all the goats. Sore muscles guaranteed.
Clueless hikers want photos with the goats, put their chip bag on the ground → goats pounce on it.
Oblivious hikers walk below the herd taking photos, despite rockfall danger.
Confused hikers ask how many sheep we have (spoiler: none).
Careless hikers leave the gate open.
Hesitant walkers too nervous to pass by the goats.
Goats wander everywhere — no desire to head back, happily spreading out.
Lots and lots of visitors — sometimes lovely, sometimes stressful.
Mice eating cheese — no, that was not meant as a tasting session.
Yoghurt that simply stayed milk — you can’t win every day.
Nouk (the dog) kills a chicken — bad day for everyone.
Sourdough starters dying — but at least: sourdough bread and cake!
Rockfall hits Enja (a goat) in the hip — we carried her back with tarp and sticks. The next day she had to be put down (shattered hip joint).
Goats super calm, enjoying the weather — one of those moments when everything feels right.
Goats in the fence in the forest – cozy, peaceful days
Goats not in the fence but scattered all over the forest – one full hour of pure chaos until we got them fenced in again
Milk can rolling down the mountain

📸 More Impressions Link to heading

More photos can be found here: photos.burkhalter.one