Happy New year!
5th January 2024
Today, the lab called to confirm that the goats are negative for MHE. As we were sure they didn’t have it, we already arranged with Céline that they would come and visit us on 6th-7th January to spend some time together and collect their new goats.
6th January 2024
Céline, her husband Xavier, and daughter Lily arrived this afternoon from Normandie to stay for a night. It was wonderful to meet them, as we’ve been talking with them for months about Angoras. Due to everyone’s schedules, it’s taken ages to set up this meeting.
The family is just starting with their Angora herd, so they were interested in seeing how we do things. We can never learn everything about these animals, that’s for sure. Lily, who is eight, had already decided that Smokey would be her goat and had been learning about his family tree, so she probably remembers more than we do!
The following day, Sunday, I kissed everyone goodbye and tried not to cry. Sunny, Savannah, Smokey, Tyl, Taouf, Taliah, Tiash, Tallulah, Theo and Tiana are heading to a lovely home where they will be loved and pampered, and that’s all that I could want for them.
8th January 2024
Celine has sent pictures and videos of the goats settling into their new life in Normandie; everyone’s hungry, so that’s a good sign, and they don’t look remotely stressed.
13th January 2024
It was freezing cold today but also hoof day for the donkeys. Our usual maréchal ferrant, Mégane, wasn’t available, but she sent her colleague, Valentin, who also did an excellent job. We’re so happy with how much weight the girls have lost. Valentin was surprised to learn that they were once so tubby, and he remarked on how good they look. It’s been a (noisy) struggle, but the results are worth it.
22nd January 2024
Mario has started a countdown to when the babies should be born (not that we’re excited or anything); every week on our calendar has the day count. Today, it’s 61 days to go.
During the last few months of the goats’ pregnancies and while they’re feeding the babies, we give the mamas-to-be a supplement to their usual hay and grass. Over a few weeks, we build up the amount that they receive. They love this stuff; it practically gets inhaled!
3rd February 2024
We’ve been taking cuttings from the trees on our land and growing them to about two metres in height before planting them out. We are fans of the moon calendar system to determine ideal days for planting trees, planting bulbs, taking cuttings, harvesting, etc.
Today was the recommended day for saplings, so we planted several acacias on the land at the front (north) of the house. Eventually, we want to move away from using the trailers to provide shade for the goats, but that means we will need a lot of trees, and today was only the start of that plan. There’s a long way to go.
Work Begins on Our New Shop
12th February 2024
A big day today! Mario started on what will be our shop! It is one of the buildings opposite the house, to the right, and attached to one of the little towers. While we’ve been here, its previous life was as the first stable for our rescue goats and then as a residence for our dear Remus and his pals while Remus was in quarantine following his arrival from another breeder in the Pyrenees.
Converting it into a shop will be a big job because, as with everything around here, the walls are built from local stone, and we’ll need to remove most of those walls to open up the space. That said, it’s exciting to think that, one day, we’ll welcome our customers there.
17th February 2024
Francis is back again today. He sheared all the girls and some of the boys (including two of the bucks, Maousse and Remus), but we have quite a few left that Mario will shear himself.
It was interesting to see the pregnant ladies without their fleeces. We have updated our guesses as to who is going to have twins. However, even when they’re huge, they sometimes only have the one. So watch this space!
7th & 9th March 2024
Six months have flown by so today it was time to clear out the stables again. We’ve had so much rain recently but the pressure is on to get this done, certainly in the mamas’ stable, before the new babies are born.
We cleaned out all the pens in the girls’ stable on Thursday (7th March); the shovelling was easier than it has been some years, so that’s good news.
The rain hammered down on Friday (8th), so we couldn’t empty the boys’ stable, but Saturday morning was clear, and we got it all finished.
With all the rain, the areas in front of the stables where we drive the machine in and out have turned into mud pits. The ducks took full advantage of the incessant rain to search for worms and bugs before heading off for a refreshing swim in one of the lakes that have formed around the estate.
15th March 2024
Given how many Asian hornets we had last year, we’ve been doing a lot of research and ordered some traps. According to what we’ve read, this is the time to put the traps out close to flowering trees. This is an attempt to catch the hornet queens before they start their colonies. In anticipation of this, we saved some hornets (dead, obviously) from last year to bait the traps.
We are hopeful these traps will work, as it was horrible last year to see the hornets carry off so many bees. We killed around 70, so you can only imagine how many were actually around.
18th March 2024
According to our moon calendar, today was a good day for seeds. So we sowed sainfoin on around a hectare of grazing land.
We’re always trying to enrich the pasture and encourage diversity of plants, and after some research, we decided that sainfoin would be a great addition. Goats like it, insects like it, and it’s drought-resistant, which is crucial here as, during the summer, we can go weeks, if not months, without rain. We’ll see how this hectare goes and then perhaps plant a few more.
First babies of 2024!
20th March 2024
Baby goats!!! Nouvelle presented us with twin boys about midday, and Pénombre followed in the afternoon with twin boys of her own.
21st March 2024
Scarlette had twins today, a girl and a boy.
We’ve been doing quite a bit of research on natural solutions to varroa mites, which can have a devastating effect on honey bees. There is a chemical that can be used to kill the mites, but we prefer to find other remedies. So, we have made up a blend of oils, and started treating with this today; fingers crossed, it’s effective.
23rd March 2024
Around midday, Paquerette gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
24th March 2024
A busy day for babies! Silène kicked things off at about 1 pm with a boy and a girl, then Stella at about 6 pm with a single girl. We thought that was it for the day as Angoras usually only give birth during daylight hours. However, Princesse decided to buck that trend and delivered a boy and a girl at 8 pm.
26th March 2024
Perle was restless all day and wouldn’t settle, so we decided to put her in one of the baby pens. At about 6 pm, she had twins: a girl and a boy.
27th March 2024
After lunch, Orbitale started pawing and grinding her teeth, so we knew the birth was coming. She finally had a boy at about 3 pm and was so fixated on cleaning him that, although a second baby was on the way, she seemed to forget about it.
I started worrying when the little one’s head was out for a while, but nothing else was happening. I rolled up my sleeves and tried to determine the baby’s position. It turns out he had a big head, his front legs were folded back, and his shoulders were too broad to pass through in that position. So, I had to push him back, get a front leg forward, and then pull him out as Orbitale wasn’t pushing. It was very stressful, but thankfully, everyone is fine.
2nd April 2024
We’ve been very concerned about Paprika as she’s been enormous for weeks. She is very sunken on her back and looks extremely uncomfortable. We expected her to give birth about ten days ago, but no. Finally, very early this morning, she gave birth to triplets, all girls.
That’s the last of the births, and everyone is healthy. Now comes the difficult part – deciding on names for all the new-borns.
The Rest Of April..
It’s been such a busy time, and I’ve neglected this blog, so I’m writing this in July! Anyway, here goes with what’s been happening at Pouzatel.
We decided on all of the babies’ names this year. They all begin with V, which is not the easiest but way better than last year’s U. Names as follows in the order of their birth along with mamas’ names:
- Nouvelle – twin boys Vinnie and Vitto.
- Scarlette – a boy and a girl, Vivaldi and Vivienne.
- Pénombre – twin boys Valo and Varjo (shortened to Joe).
- Silène – a boy and a girl, Valerian and Violette.
- Paquerette – a boy and a girl, Vartan and Vanda.
- Stella – a girl, Vesper.
- Princesse – a boy and a girl, Valentino and Valentina.
- Perle – a boy and a girl, Viliami and Vaiana.
- Orbitale – twin boys, Verne and Valiente.
- Paprika – triplet girls, Vanille, Viola and Valencia.
We try to find names that correspond in some way to the mother’s name. We don’t always manage it, and, of course, there are some names that we love, so we use them anyway.
So, for Silène and Paquerette, we found floral-themed names, and for Perle, South Pacific ones.
Vesper is an evening star, and Valo and Varjo are Finnish names meaning light and shadow, respectively. I thought I was extra clever with Scarlette’s daughter. Scarlet is the lead character in Gone With The Wind, and the actress playing her is Vivian Leigh, with an adjustment for the French spelling of the female name. Well, I’m happy with it.
3rd May 2024
We had a surprise today. One of our adopted goats, Bianca, presented us with a little girl. We suspected Bianca might be pregnant as she escaped from her paddock in December and attracted Remus’ attention. Usually, Angora bucks are completely disinterested in non-Angora females, but Bianca is half Angora, and in winter-time, she was, apparently, fluffy enough to catch his eye. So, just in case, we had been giving her supplements and keeping an eye out.
After much deliberation, we named the baby Jasmine, as she’s a beautiful little white flower.
This month, we also sent 150kgs of mohair to a small company called Lanivendole, based in Italy. They sell beautiful yarns dyed in-house. Working with the ladies, Giulia and Stefania, was an absolute pleasure, and we very much hope to meet them in person one day.
June 2024
This month saw Mario up in a nacelle (cherry picker) cleaning the roofs of the house and all the outbuildings, towers, stables, etc. and then applying anti-moss stuff, plus replacing any damaged tiles.
Plus, this month saw the usual donkey and goat pedicures and the trimming of goat bits.
July 2024
The babies are growing so fast, especially our little Jasmine. Despite being born much later than the pure Angoras, she’s way ahead of them in terms of her size and her independence from mum. She is cheeky though, so we’re going to have to watch her..
Poor little Viola had an ear injury. It looked suspiciously like a bite, so we have two suspects, Orbitale and Paquerette, who resort to nipping other goats’ ears at the slightest provocation. We bathed it regularly in warm saline to draw out any pus and infection, then applied iodine and an anti-bacterial spray to dry it so the flies leave it alone. Viola’s doing fine but will end up with a notch out of her ear; she’s still a beauty though.
