Diary 2007
January 2007, saw the beginning of the construction of the four “Mums ‘n’ Lil Ones” houses and also the fencing in of their field in preparation for any pregnant rescue mums and/or orphan kids. As if Mother Nature was letting us know she was watching our progress we had just completed two of the houses when the first girlie decided to go into labour and produced twin sons to christen the new unit in style on the 14th of the month.
February 2007, not wishing to be left out our second girlie decided to produce twin sons on the 8th of February, thankfully she had the good manners to wait until the houses and fencing were completed at the new ‘maternity wing’. On the 13th of the month the vet called to castrate the four boys, it was a week or so before they greeted me at the gate again after that procedure !! Three more rescue goats arrived before the end of the month.
March 2007, on the 11th of the month two preggers goats and one female with kid arrived from another rescue. Having sat down and done the figures it was obvious that four individual houses were not going to be enough for the expanding maternity suite and so work commenced on the construction of a large communal house for the mums with older kids and also for any orphaned kids and it was also decided to construct to further individual units. The 21st of the month saw the arrival of one preggers girlie and two mums with a set of twins each. The 23rd of the month brought us two further male kids, both of whom were orphaned when they were younger and it also brought us another older male (the vet will be calling again soon!!!) The 29th of March was a chilly windy morning not that Jenny cared as she was too busy delivering her twin sons, thankfully it was a successful delivery and the newly acquainted family soon settled down on some fresh bedding for the rest of the day.
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April 2007, phew March was busy between births, new arrivals and construction. With just two females left to give birth it is hoped that April will see more time being available to prepare a section of the woods so that the older males and non nursing females can be moved onto fresh ground now that the spring growth has started which will cut back on the amount of manual feeding needing to be done and associated costs therewith.
On the 7th of the month Gertie gave birth to twin boys.
Shannon’s turn to give birth arrived on the 12th of April, two beautiful baby girls for a change, it is a relief to have the waiting and worrying of pregnancy & birth over with for another year, assuming that no more expectant mums arrive into the sanctuary in the next couple of weeks !!!!!
Things have been very busy and time has flown, on the 17th of April the electric fencing in the woods was finally commenced as it is really time for the boys to move now. Hopefully the big move will go smoothly and then it will be back to focusing on the mums ‘n’ lil ones as weaning the older kids is next on the list as well as preparing the fencing for their next field.
May 2007, dear god the heat has been something else. The first week of this month saw a complete slow down on outdoor work as hammering was causing too much suffering with this hot weather, not to mention that the ground has gone so hard now you would almost need a digger to dig holes for fencing posts. The plan is now to move the female goats during the third week of this month as the second week is completely taken up with other appointments and I want to be able to supervise the goats in their new location without any interruptions. On the 15th of the month we bid farewell to Tom as he set off to a new home to keep another goat company after her companion died from old age.
The second week of the month saw rain fall, yippee we have real growth at last. Of course this in itself provides the next hurdle in that I need to decide do I really want to move the females and their kids into the field I had intended as if I leave it then with a bit of luck hay could be cut in there at the end of June/beginning of July as was the case last year. On walking around the meadows I estimate I would have three of the fields at cutting stage by then. So back to the drawing board and bank balance to see where I can move them to as obviously the more hay I can save the better both for winter feeding purposes and also to sell some of it to cover the cost of saving the hay in the first place................. did I mention that I need to make some form of a barn to store the bales in too. That’s right there is no barn here, last year’s hay was stored under tarpaulin but due to the condensation drips it meant that I lost approx 20 bales (certainly not a viable storage method) and in 2005 because of bad weather the hay was changed to silage which was no good to me so I had to buy in hay as and when I needed it which worked out expensive, time consuming and not very efficient. In 2004 it did not really matter as there were not that many goats here so the grass was sold off as silage and by the time the winter arrived there was still plenty of grass in the fields and ration was bought in to get the goats through the winter. As usual so much to do ........ so little time .........
June 2007, “oh ye gods have ye no pity on me at all” .... I lost complete control of my stupid hayfever thanks to more hot weather with light winds which is the perfect environment for pollen to move about in and so I was restricted to very early morning and late evening for being out and about causing more delays in getting things straightened and moving of the ladies and their ever growing children. The neutered adult males were moved to a new field where hopefully they will eat back the overgrowth that has started to extend through the electric fencing around the boundaries of the field. Sadly on the 16th Jenny lost her will to live, she had become unwell earlier that week and finally decided to bid this world farewell with myself and her son by her side .......... god speed to the bridge Jenny.
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On the 18th we welcomed two new arrivals, the first being Snowflake who is a very pretty white lady and the second strangely as it may sound is a first for us here at the sanctuary ........... Shawn ........ a little baby lamb :o))
(Click on my name to check out my very own page)
Much to the disgust of the 10 entire male goats the vet was summoned and the 19th of the month saw the boys feeling ever so sorry for themselves with their hopes for rutting season dashed, they went from being well endowed fertile hunks to nothing more than handsome organic lawnmowers :o))) With this “job” out of the way the boys and girls can now be kept together ‘safely’ which is good news for me as I will be able to let them run as one big herd now instead of having a few here and a few there. With all the delays in the planned move for the beginning of the month to the woods it means that a lot of overgrowth has developed around the electric fencing which means that before the big move can take place I shall have to get out my clippers otherwise the fence won’t run at full strength and breakouts would be frequent. Onwards and upwards as they say ......... oh nearly forgot to mention the the lovely grass which is growing stronger everyday and should be ready for cutting in about another 2-3wks ....
July 16th, okay guys the joke is over now so could whomever is partaking in rain dances please stop immediately. Needless to say the hay has not yet been cut due to the weather, the goats are still waiting to move also due to the weather, the amount of ration being bought had to be increased again as goats do not like to be out in the rain and so have not been grazing enough therefore I am back feeding ration fulltime, surprise surprise this is also thanks to the weather... Suffice to say we are all unhappy creatures here THANKS TO THE WEATHER ....
August 6th, saw the arrival of Raymie, our second lamb, into the sanctuary ...... check out Shawn’s Blog to see more about him ;o) The goats did not need to feel left out when they saw Shawn getting a new buddy as the 11th brought them two adult females and one neutered male kid. The hooves of the females were horrific and so it was decided that it was best to call in the vet for the job to be completed safely. Thankfully it was a big success and the two ladies have been happily grazing and romping around since.
 
September 30th, what a month ........... so strange to be saving hay at this time of the year but beggers can’t be choosers and so when the usual fine weather arrived as the children were heading back to school the hay got cut. It wasn’t a complete success unfortunately due to the hay mower breaking down midway through the cutting and then the rain reappearing just as the bales were being finished, I cannot begin to describe the despair and upset at seeing the rain falling on my hard work. I suppose I should be thankful that half the bales were in before the change in the weather which should be enough for winter feeding, the other half which got damaged will be used for bedding and/or composting over the coming months. In the middle of the month a new male arrived to the sanctuary after causing trouble in Loughrea, unfortunately for him he has to be kept in solitary confinement as he is displaying all the joys of rutting season and so is very anxious for females of any species to pay him a visit. He will soon be getting a visit from the vet to “numb his sexual desires” as his injured foot has now healed, it will be necessary for him to remain in confinement for several weeks as he will continue to be fertile for a while after ;o()
The long awaited haybarn is obviously almost complete, now I just need to find the money to pay the associated bills ....................
€580 for timber for roof and €1300 for the galvanise sheets :o(((
October, November & December Updates ;o))
Sorry I fell behind on updating the website so you’ll have to make do with a brief summary on events I’m afraid. I suppose the main news which will most likely produce a population increase in the Spring was that ‘someone’ very kindly left an entire male into one of the fields either during the dark of night or when there was no one around and due to the fact that he was white like so many of the other goats in the field I did not notice until he had been in there long enough to have his ‘wicked’ way with the girls in that field. At the beginning I was less than impressed with this but I have started coming to terms with it now and once Christmas is over I will start preparing the ‘maternity unit’ for the girls who find themselves in the family way. I suppose being honest with myself I already suspected that some of the girls may already have mated as due to the bad weather in September/October the feral goats came down from the mountain and paid a visit to the woods beside the girl’s field and a hole was made in the fence at the far side of the field out of my view which was large enough for comings and goings.
It has been a particularly busy year with each month bringing new arrivals to the sanctuary and unfortunately not as many goats were rehomed as was the case in previous years so this in turn has increased the amount of mouths calling for feed everyday. Thankfully to date the winter weather has not been too harsh which makes feeding less cumbersome, hopefully our current dry spell will continue through the Christmas holidays so that I find time to relax in the midst of all the madness that is associated with this time of year. I wonder if Santa delivers sheep feed ;o)))
Once the children have returned to school and life settles back into some form of ‘normal’ routine I will start deciding what areas of the sanctuary will get attention first. Naturally there is still lots of fencing needed and more field shelters required for the rain hating goats. Perhaps springtime might be a good time for me to attempt to organise a fundraiser which would help any planned projects along.
For now I will end this update by wishing everyone a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year from myself and all the residents of the sanctuary.
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