New Arrivals

At last we have finally got the goats and very cute they are as well. The goat hotel is not completely finished but the walls are all up and it has a roof to keep out the rain so they will at least remain dry and out of the wind. Evidently goats just hate getting wet! You can see just how high the grass is in their paddock area so i doubt they will go hungry although we have been advised to give them a little feed supplement and fresh hay. They have a mineral lick in their quarters and i hope will be very happy here. Still no idea when she will be due to kid but we are reading everything we can about birthing. Seems though that she will just get on with it and we will go to see her one morning and find the newborns....here's hoping........
They are still very wary of us as they have not been used to much contact just living in an enclosure with 6 other goats. Occassional food and new hay being brought in. Luscious is perservering and after a week she has them approaching her and taking food which she has placed about a foot away from her so we hope that in a couple of weeks we will be at least able to get them to feed from our hands. This will be an important step as it will make things like vets visits and hoof clipping a lot easier. So from goat heaven it is goodbye for now as i have to go out on a "gig" with the band and it has just started raining after a week of temperatures up in the 30's...bloody typical...........

Goat Hotel

This is the start of the goats new hotel. We have managed to utilise some timber that we had left when we put the new roof onto the house so that was useful and it will be clad with offcuts of bark planking from the local sawmill so that won't cost too much either which is just as well really. The weather has been absolutely crap over the last ten days with almost constant rain or drizzle and when the sun has managed to put in its ever so brief appearance one or both of us has been working so we have been unable to finish the hotel! It would appear after a telephone call earlier this week that the finishing of the hotel is now extremely urgent, the man we are getting the two goats from seems to be telling us that he is almost 99% sure that the female is pregnant and not that far away from giving birth and he would rather that she was here for this event. This would mean that we could possibly be in a sort of profit mode as we have paid for two goats and could possibly end up with FIVE!!! I will keep you informed on what happens and of course pictures will be a must. We could be parents very soon........ scary huh?

Goats & Tripe

At last the goat fencing is almost finished. So far we have put up 220m of grill type fencing which involved digging some 58 holes and putting in 58 new fence postson a 1 in 3 hillside! We have where possible re-used the original fenceposts to try to keep down the costs which have quickly mounted to highs not originally thought about when we were offered two "cheap" goats! I have now made the gate into the field and we just need to run an electric wire around the top of the fence to try and discourage the goats from jumping over the top of the fence! All that now remains is to build them a shelter of somekind as evidently goats don't really like to get wet, i know how they feel after finishing off the fence in the rain! They should arrive sometime next week so i need to get a move on otherwise they will be here before their new home is ready. "cheap" goats have now cost around 500euros which is around 350 pounds sterling and that doesn't include actually paying for the goats!!!!!! The upside is though that we will at last have something to keep the weeds down and something that will eventually become food? maybe?
On the pleasure front the bandas season has started again and to celebrate the end of one of our first "gigs" we had a communal meal of a local delicacy... Tripe & potatoes..errrrr yuk yuk yuk! It may look nice but for me the smell is just about enough to make me sick... of course most people cleaned their plates and went back for second helpings..even though it was flashed over with Rhum i just couldn't eat it....i am pleased to say that i was not alone in my feelings, two other band members are of the same mind as myself and instead we tucked into local jambon...yummy...i am really sorry but i just cannot eat tripe..i tried i really did but just putting some on a fork was enough to start me gagging......thankfully i was rescued by the chef who placed the jambon in front of me and whisked away the tripe. Needless to say i needed a drink after this experience..local red wine..slurp, gulp thats better.........