This crew decided that this beautiful, sunny, warm (10 degrees C) day was the perfect day to invade visit us! So glad they did!
They learned all about us and how they use our milk to make soap. We had great fun hanging out in the sunshine together. Have a safe trip everyone!
Until next time,
Gertie
Head Goat
Hello again readers!
This is the kind of news I knew I had better stay right on top of! After what the Humans did to their own home I hesitate to think what this is all about but I am comforted in the thought that it certainly doesn’t look like they plan on moving MY house anywhere!
This all started with a pile of lumber out beside the barn that quickly had a tarp put over it before a freakish November snowstorm dumped a pile of snow on us November 23rd and 24th. Warm temperatures and rain took the snow away but the lumber pile remains. Then the other day they dug some big holes and….
Now doesn’t the Farmer look pleased with herself?! She loves building so we just may be in for a real treat when this is over!
Good building weather…
And she has helpers!
or at least I think they’re helpers…
So I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress and report to you when I find out exactly what they’re up to. Rosemary is convinced they’re building a special “Unicorn Room” all for her, complete with canopy bed, HD TV, and an attached “spa room” with Jacuzzi, massage table etc etc… she has an imagination to match her ego that girl!! Personally I’m hoping for a senior’s suite with a chase lounge or two, some rocker-recliners and a big screen TV. The kids want a playroom with trampolines, some of the ladies are convinced it’s a greenhouse (like they wouldn’t eat any plant down to the roots in seconds!!) Time will tell I guess….
Meanwhile, in the not-so-close-to-home news, look what I found when I snuck into the shop:
A postcard from our friend Matt!!! Remember Matt, the summer human? He’s in France! We heard him talking French to people here in the summer but I’ll bet he’s talking more and better French these days! He’s having a good time over there and has plans for more good times before he comes back to Canada. We miss you Matt but I think we miss you even more knowing how far away to are! Stay safe!
I guess Jessie better send us a postcard from some exotic New Brunswick or Nova Scotia location now eh Jessie?! Maybe address is to “Gertie & The Girls in the Barn” so I don’t have to actually sneak into the Shop to eat read it?
Well lovelies, until next time,
Gertie
Head Goat
Greetings friends! I know it’s been a couple of weeks now since the big event here but it’s taken us all that long to come down from all the excitement. We had a great time, enjoying much attention from everyone who came. The kids loved the whole event, especially their own goat run, and Brigit and Chloe are still basking in the glory of their 1st place finishes!
I was going to tell you all about it but, since the humans have already taken the time to file an illustrated report, I’m just going to “borrow” theirs, originally posted on the Run’s website, and post it here.
A cool windy day did not deter over 80 runners from participating in the 2011 Great Canadian Goat Run. 50 runners registered for the 5K run and 34 signed up for the 10K.
Each runner got a T-Shirt with a special Goat Haiku written by the Company goats!
Once again, The Honourable Wayne Easter, MP for Malpeque, was our race starter.
CTV News was on hand to cover the event, here’s their news story:
Jeremie Buote and Olivia Craig took home a medal and Soap Shop Gift Certificate as our youngest male & female runners. The oldest runner, Rick West, won our “Old Goat” award that included a molded Goat goat’s milk soap bar and a CD by Ten Strings & A Goat Skin.
This year, along with our “scent matching quiz” that wins the observant runners bars of Goat’s Milk Soap, there were a couple of rubber chickens on the course and a special prize was promised to the runners who brought back the chickens. Both chickens were returned by the winners of each race. Edwin Gillis, winner of the 5K, and setting a new course record, crossed the finish line in 20:16 with chicken in hand.
Madeleine Crowell was the top female in the 5K, finishing in the new female course record time of 21:05.
In the 10K race, Billy MacDonald set a new course record, crossing the finish line in 36:57, chicken in hand
Dianne Watts Pye was the top female in the 10K in a time of 47:37.
As promised, the chicken retrievers received a special prize – an Oxfam Unwrapped Chicken and a Get Cracking hardcover Egg Cookbook.
Everyone in attendance was treated to the wonderful music of Ten Strings & A Goat Skin.
As well, Katie had a variety of soups & teas on at her Lemonade Stand to warm runners up after the race and, once again, Robin’s Donuts in Winsloe supplied us with Hot Chocolate and a mountain of sweet treats.
Our selection of Door Prizes this year was diverse and delightful. We are truly moved by the generosity of our Door Prize sponsors. We hope you will join us in supporting these individuals & businesses who supported us! A full list of our Door Prize sponsors is HERE.
A Goat Run wouldn’t be a goat run without goats running so once again, after the people ran, the goats got their chance.
Male winner (also winner of the youngest male runner) was Jeremie Buote with Brigit
The Female winner was Sandra McConkey with Chloe
When all was said and done, a good time was had by all. Some runners comments can be found HERE . But as well as a fun celebration of Running & Goats, The Great Canadian Goat Run is about giving back, both locally and globally. To that end, we thank all the runners & neighbours who contributed to our Food Drive for the Upper Room Food Bank, here is what you donated:
Well done! That will make a difference to a number of Island families!
Teaming up with Oxfam Canada this year and working with the Oxfam PEI crew,
our fundraising to Give the Gift of Goats through Oxfam Unwrapped was a huge success. Because I was in Toronto right after the race I was able to hand deliver a cheque to Oxfam Canada for TWENTY Goats!
That’s a lot of goats!
Goats are one of the world’s heartiest animals, adapting and surviving in extreme climates and environments. A single dairy goat can produce almost 100 litres of protein rich milk each month for the recipients and their families. But these goats are not about food security – they are about providing the recipients with a marketable commodity (milk), and the skills needed, to earn an income. Two goats can produce 2 to 3 kids a year. With the first female kid of each gifted goat being given to another family, The Gift of Goats will keep on giving!
“Your gift also includes animal vaccinations, animal health training and instruction on marketing, meaning a single goat can create greater self- sufficiency, self-esteem and educational opportunities for recipients and their families. Each goat is purchased in the region where it is needed. Oxfam’s program officers ensure that communities have the resources and training to take on the responsibility of animal rearing.”
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for making this event such a great success. To each and every runner, volunteer, Event & Door Prize sponsor and all those who donated to the Food Drive and/or the Goat Fund thank you! Thanks to all the media who helped get the word out and CTV for covering the event. Thanks to the PEI RoadRunners for all they do with registration, timing and publishing the results. Thanks to the Department of Highways for supplying cones, vest & signs and to the RCMP for their presence, all this contributed to a safe event. Thanks to Oxfam PEI & Oxfam Canada for all their help & support. Thanks to Ben and the Goats of The Great Canadian Soap Co for designing the great T-shirts and the Goat Soap Gazette subscribers for choosing the colours for them. Special thanks to Jesse, Caleb & Rowen, the boys of Ten Strings & A Goat Skin for making such great music on a nippy Saturday morning!
And finally, thanks to The Great Canadian Soap Company, their staff & families who all took active roles and made this event such a great success.
We Goats of The Great Canadian Soap Company want to extend our thanks as well. Everyone was so nice to us. The thought of 20 fine goats like ourselves going to 20 families around the world and starting a cycle of giving – milk to drink and to market, along with marketing skills to ensure a steady income, and the promise that each goat’s first female kid will go to another family to continue, and grow, the cycle of giving, is quite a thrill!
We hope the herd created by the Give the Gift of Goats Fund grows over the next year. You can donate online and at the Shop.
From all of us in the barn, many thanks!
Gertie
Head Goat
Here’s the sneak peek of the T-Shirts for The Great Canadian Goat Run I promised!
Thanks to our Goat Soap Gazette subscribers who chose the colours for us in the October-November Newsletter survey. One of those survey participants will win $100. worth of Great Canadian Soap Company goodies just for telling us what colour shirts they liked!
The mens’ shirts are Sapphire and Cardinal Red, the womens’ shirts are Royal Blue and Violet and the youth shirts are Kelly Green and Tangerine.
Look pretty good don’t they?!
Gertie
Head Goat
Hello Luvies!
Things are all a buzz around here as the humans get ready for the Great Canadian Goat Run. And the buzz isn’t just here…. look what we spotted when we were eating reading The Buzz the other day 
And here, in the Northern Star
And there’s plenty of buss out there on Facebuck and Twudder too!
Sparky has gone off on a romantic getaway to another farm for a few weeks. Can’t say as I’ll really miss him but I know a few goats around here who are going to go all doe-eyed when he comes back!
And then there’s Rosemary… Poor little Rosemary just went through the hardest time, in and out of hospital… I think they so spoiled her in there (she says they played cat music for her!), that I’m afraid she’s trying to find a way to go back! No sooner was she home and on the mend when she broke one of her lovely horns off.
Yes, Rosemary is now a Unicorn Goat.
She took quite a liking to that Royal Purple iodine! Now you know our Rosemary… once it’s all healed up she’ll be rockin’ that unicorn look! Besides, she’ll still have pretty much the same profile
The kids are all excited, even though they have no idea what a “Great Canadian Goat Run” is and the little white kids who ran in the 2010 Goat’s Run at the Goat Run 
are all grown up now!
They’ve been telling the kids all kinds of wild stories about what a “Great Canadian Goat Run” is! And you should have heard the story Sparky told the other night about those “Ten Strings & A Goat Skin” humans! It’s a darn good things the kids were all asleep! Gave poor Nutmeg nightmares! Sparky apologized before he left and assured her he made the whole thing up, especially the part about how they go about getting the goat skins…. According to the TS&AGS boys the skin came from “A very, very senior goat – (possessing a donor card) who died in his sleep of old age”
The chickens have a few tricks of their own too!
Round about Halloween they started playing Easter Bunny and hiding eggs around the yard. They weren’t much bigger than an egg themselves not too long ago!
The humans are now trying to convince them to lay their eggs in nesting boxes in the chicken coop, we’ll see how that goes… They keep insisting they want in on the Goat Run, I keep telling them it’s a Goat Run not a Chicken Run, but at the rate they’re hen pecking the humans about it I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a way of getting a chicken or two into the Goat Run.
Humans have been dropping by with food donations for the Food Drive and to pre-register for the Great Canadian Goat Run. A few have come by to drop off Door Prizes too. Next time I’ll give you a sneak peek of the T-shirts the runners are getting – we goats wrote a Haiku especially for them! For the runners who would rather have soap than a t-shirt, look what they have ready
Goat’s Milk Goat Soap!
Each bar is 26.5% Goat’s Milk
Well my dearies, this goat needs her beauty sleep. There’s much to be done before Saturday. I’ll pop back again before then and maybe I’ll even see you out here pre-registering for the Race or dropping a donation off to the Food Drive before then.
Until then,
Gertie
Head Goat
The pretty leaves and lovely weather inspired a little poetry jam in the barn the other day. I thought I’d share some of the Goat Haiku that came out of it.
There really needs to be a Goat Publishing Company out there because, let me tell you, goats negotiate with goats way better than they do with Penguins! We know our “Goat Haiku” book will easily make the New Your Times Best Sellers list, and we’re patient goats, so while we negotiate with those Penguins, we’ll just keep sharing a few of our gems here and there with you.
Here now are a few of our October inspired Haiku…
Leaves
The leaves are turning
red, orange, yellow and golden
and falling off trees
Apples
Apples by the door
In bags so you can treat us
Apple Season Rocks!
Halloween
A goat’s Halloween
Kids don’t go Trick or Treating
They bob for apples
Autumn
It’s getting cooler
leaves are falling off the trees
Fall on P.E.I.
The Great Canadian Goat Run
We’re so excited
Great Canadian Goat Run
Come celebrate Goats!
Until next time,
Gertie
Head Goat
Lovely to see you all again!
I had a little something I wanted to share with you all. Now, in all honesty, I see no reason for the “no Soap Company staff & goats” rule to that photo contest the humans run over on their Facebook Page ’cause I’ve got some winners here for their current “Autumn” contest. (But then again, we don’t let the humans on Facebuck at all!) At least we goats can wander around Facebook, (you wouldn’t believe all the farms there!!) and I do get to look at all the lovely photos that were entered (even if we staff & goats can’t vote either).
So, without further ado….
Autumn at The Great Canadian Soap Company, October 19th, 2011
The Kids
Rosemary
Some of the Ladies in the Barnyard
It’s been a glorious day today but there a bunch of rain in the forecast – I can feel it in my bones…
That human guy Alex who works here looks to have some sore bones too. There’s all this talk that he ran a Marathon…. Apparently it started just up the road at Brackley Beach and ran clear to Charlottetown! He didn’t take the direct route either and he wasn’t alone, there were over 250 of them! They think goats do strange things??! They do all this for a shiny necklace, a shiny blanket & pizza!)
Our Alex was the 11th guy to get to the end! It took him 3 hours, 12 minutes and 45 seconds. Yesterday a bus full of school girls visiting The Great Canadian Soap Co. on a field trip all cheered for him. Bet he told them how much he likes his Sore Muscles Whipped Shea Butter!
I wonder how Bridget is liking here Achy Joints & Sore Muscles Prize Pack.
Not *our* Brigit, Bridget Roy from Nova Scotia – The humans put together a box of “Post Run Relief” and gave it to the PEI RoadRunners Club to give away at their booth at the Prince Edward Island Marathon Expo. Bridget won it! The Farmer met her at the Finish Line of her first ever Half-Marathon and presented her with her prize
Here she is with her best friend in a CBC story
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2011/10/17/pei-mothers-marathon-584.html
Mothers set example with marathon
Laurie Ann Brown and Bridget Roy of Liverpool training for the P.E.I. race in part to set an example for their children. Laurie Ann Brown and Bridget Roy of Liverpool training for the P.E.I. race in part to set an example for their children. (Ryan Hicks/CBC)
For two mothers, best friends from Nova Scotia, Sunday’s P.E.I. Marathon was an opportunity to set an example.
Bridget Roy and Laurie Ann Brown of Liverpool spent a year training for the event, both losing more than 60 lbs.
“It really does mean a lot,” said Roy.
“We both have young children and we’re role models for our children now, to have a healthy lifestyle.”
Roy and Brown, who ran the half marathon, were amongst more than 2,500 people who took part in marathon events Sunday.
Phys Ed teacher Stan Chaisson sees the event as part of the growing popularity of running growing on the Island.
Just last week I was at Eliot River School with my St Jean Consolidated cross-country runners. Oh my goodness, there must have been about 800 runners there between grade three and six, just in our zone,” he said.
Mike MacKinnon of Miscouche, P.E.I. had the best time in the marathon. He did it in 2 hours and 45 minutes, more than a minute ahead of the second place finisher.
Runners who finished the P.E.I. marathon can use it to qualify for the Boston marathon.
========================
The day before all that the Farmer and her little girl went to the “Kids Spud Run“. They both love to run too. They ran around in circles for 1 Km. They can both run much farther than that.
Now I’ve seen all the photos and I must admit to a bit of disappointment. Despite the name “Kids Spud Run“, I saw only small humans with potatoes on their shirts. Not a real kid or a real spud to be seen anywhere. No wonder there were SO many humans there – promise them goats and/or spuds and they just can’t resist! I wonder if the humans have spuds on the menu this year for their Great Canadian Goat Run…. They sure have Goats!!
That’s right, it will soon be time for The 2nd Annual Great Canadian Goat Run and this year it’s got more goats than ever! We are all really excited with this years plans! It’s a Food-Raiser for the Upper Room Food Bank and a Fund-Raiser to buy GOATS!! from Oxfam Unwrapped!
And look who is coming to play us all some tunes!
http://tenstringsandagoatskin.com/
The human’s have a webpage with everything you need to know about the Great Canadian Goat Run, it’s here: http://greatcanadiangoatrun.wordpress.com and the event details are here: http://greatcanadiangoatrun.wordpress.com/event-details/
Everything you need to know except whether spuds are on the menu…. They say they’ll have:
Everything you could want in a race…. and Goats!
Sounds like there must be spuds in there somewhere…
And just wait until you see the T-shirts! We wrote a Haiku especially for the occasion! We’re just waiting to hear what colour our Goat Soap Gazette subscribers think they should be. Have you taken the newsletter survey? Pick your favourite colours and you’ll be entered in their draw to win $100. worth of Great Canadian Soap Company stuff!
They’re having a Food Drive too, from November 1st to 11th ( 1/11/11 – 11/11/11 ) so I hope lots of humans will be dropping by with non-perishable food for the Food Bank and love and affection for the ladies and the kids in the barn. And you can come by and see us after November 1st and Pre-register in the Shop for the Goat Run too. Bring some food for the Food Bank and you’ll save $5. off your race registration!
The Great Canadian Goat Run is November 12th. I’ll try to get back with some “behind the scenes” sneak peaks between now and then.
Until then,
Gertie
Head Goat
Oh Canada… we love your diversity! However, you outdid yourself with the diversity, and enthusiasm, of your weather here in the past 24 hours! Already this morning it has hailed on us and something resembling that flaky stuff that starts with “S” fell out of the sky too. (Couldn’t have been though, I hear we’re going to have a nice, warm, sunny weekend.) By milking time last night over 67 millimeters of rain had fallen on us! And it wasn’t falling straight down, it was falling sideways – some parts of PEI saw wind gusts of 200Km/hr!
But we all survived! We don’t have power in the barn or at the resort to lose and the humans didn’t lose their power. The kids are back from camp and Ginger & I are on a special Spa vacation at the resort at the moment. The kids moved out of their little kid-cave and into the big barn to weather the storm. I expect the goats will be a little sluggish and cranky after all the sleep they lost through 2 noisy nights of pounding rain, howling wind and excited kids!
Good thing we packed up the hammocks, they’d have never survived the wind. Just look what it did to our beautiful big flags!!
Oh, Canada… not the flags… again. Every spring the humans put up these big, bright, beautiful flags.
Everyone knows where we are because of these flags. Even the Royal Couple must have looked down from their helicopter as they flew by, attracted by our beautiful flags, to see the goats & humans all looking up waving (except maybe Clover who was kidding at the time and one of the humans who had her arms full of newborn kid!).
Every year hundreds of humans stop and get their picture taken with these flags. Then, every autumn, Mother Nature turns them into these Performance Art pieces. Now the humans will take them down and it will be next spring before the new big, bright, beautiful flags go up again. At least our sign is still standing so you’ll still be able to find us if you drive by. But don’t drive by…. come baaaaaaa-ck, and drive in!
Until next time,
Gertie
Head Goat
Well hello again!
I’m excited to report I’ve solved one of those mysteries on my To Do list! You’ll recall I was telling you just the other day that there was a mystery building out by the path into the woods. This one:
The other night there was much action around it as they straightened it all up, raised it up a bit and even put a window in it!
I snuck a peek in last night and what do you suppose I found? It wasn’t goats, though the new residents, a little unsure of their new home, suggested perhaps they could just share the kids house and pretend they were goats. The kids weren’t too keen on that idea….
No, it was….
The chickens! The mystery building is a Chicken Coop!
Well dearies, I can’t stay, I have to go batten down the hatches. I could tell by my poor aching joints there was a storm coming and a quick check with the Weatherman tells me PEI is under 3 weather warnings!
If you ever wondered why we goats don’t have a trampoline it’s because we didn’t flip it over before one big storm and it blew away, never to be seen again. So, I’m off to round up our hammocks….
Until next time,
Gertie
Head Goat (& mystery solver!)
Remember? –
Well just look at her now!! –
She’s a pretty good match for our red Prince Edward Island soil!
The chickens are loving these September days on PEI just as much as we goats (and even the humans!) are.
And speaking of *love*… would you look at these two…
It seems it will take more than a 6 foot wall to keep Sparky & Rosemary apart! Silly young’uns!
Hope our October is as nice as these September days have been. I’ll let you know.
Till then,
Gertie
Head Goat
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