2024 Check us out!
Greeting from Saoirse Pastures!
We’re excited to bring you a mid-year update and share what’s been keeping us busy at Saoirse Pastures. We stayed very busy this winter applying for many different grants. Some of them were successful and some were not. We would like to thank the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, The Joseph Robert Foundation, Microsancutary Resource Center, and Maguire Foundation. We have a few more we will be applying to this fall and hope for a positive outcome. With fundraising we have a few main goals: to cover the cost of our daily operations, which is feed, hay and straw, bedding, and cleaning supplies; veterinary funds; and ideally funds left to cover the cost of yearly infrastructure projects.
Our 2024 infrastructure goals involved tackling two fencing projects.The first was to enclose a multi-acre pasture for our large pigs. Thanks to the Triad Foundation, last fall we secured their sleeping shed. This was immensely helpful last winter, especially with Mabel battling cancer. Our hope early this year was to come up with the funds to get the fencing in place to move everyone to their new home. We had a few Caribbean trip vouchers gifted for fundraising strategy and had two trips bid on. Those funds combined with the fast response from the Microsancatury Resource Center grant, meant we were able to have the fencing complete by late April this year. This was just in time, as we were helping our friends at Chicago Pigland Rescue with three Guinea Hog piglets who were in need of permanent placement. We were a perfect fit for these three because Pebbles and Bam-Bam are also Guinea Hogs. The introduction between the five pigs was easy and they all settled into their new pasture beautifully.
Unfortunately, our second infrastructure project will not happen this year due to lack of funding. We had hoped to fence in a new pasture space for our Zebu herd and move them into the barn with our sheep herd. Their move would give them more space, give our horses and donkeys more space and also open up more winter pasture for our cows when wintering in the barn. We decided not to go through with this project because we did not secure all the grants we had applied for and we need to make sure we can get through winter. Hay prices, feed prices, shavings, etc. have all gone up and we would rather go into the winter knowing we have our hay costs secured. We have also seen major inflation with our vet care. Our vaccine bill this spring almost tripled from last year. We never know what medical issues will arise with our residents and we need to be prepared. However, we are extremely fortunate and grateful to have completed one major project for 2024!
In June, we kicked off our in-person, tabling fundraisers for the year with the Ithaca Festival! This was our third Ithaca Festival and we were overwhelmed by the support from our community. We met new friends, gained volunteers, and raised funds to support the sanctuary. The festival was a huge success and we appreciate everyone who said hi, supported us and is out there wearing a sweatshirt. We also offered a raffle this year, which was a huge success. Very special thank you to Angelhearts Diner, Northstar House and Gimme Coffee for donating gift cards and goodies for our raffle. These funds helped us secure 400 feet of UV-freeze resistant, chemical free hose that runs from our well to the cows’ pasture troughs. This was a huge help to our caregivers because last year we were filling five gallon buckets and transporting them back and forth. A huge thank you to Goodland for giving us a wonderful discount on the hoses. To our new friends, thank you for signing up to learnr about our happenings and WELCOME!
We are really looking forward to our fall fundraiser, which is our biggest event of the year. We will hold our 3rd annual Flea Market on Sunday, September 22, 2024 during Porchfest in Ithaca. The flea market takes place on the front porch of Northstar House (restaurant, 202 E. Falls Street). We are still looking for gently loved donated items (clothes, homewares, art, furniture) to sell at our market. We will also have our famous vegan bake sale! If you would like to help we are looking for donations, bakers and shoppers! Please email: saoirsepastures@gmail.com to get involved.
All our residents are doing well, despite a very hot summer! Thank you so much to those who donated on our Facebook and Instagram fan fundraiser. Our most challenging obstacle has been figuring out the right feeding formula for Orin and Linda, our horse residents. Linda is in her senior years and Orin middle aged. Combined with years of malnutrition, this has made the task of creating the perfect diet a challenge. Over the winter we learned Linda has HEAVES, which is chronic bronchitis. We shifted from free feeding round bales to three hay feedings a day of soaked hay. We are also using grazing muzzles for pasture grazing and restricting their grazing times from 7am to 10am when the sugar in the grasses are at their lowest.
Andi Lamb turned one year old in May and has quite the personality. She says good morning and good night each and every day with an adorable baaaaa. She is definitely keeping her three senior aunties on their hooves. The potbelly pig herd spent their first winter in their new barn and did extremely well. The success of their space is a testament to how important the infrastructure projects are to the animals. We said goodbye to Mabel In January as she lost her battle with cancer. I am terribly heartbroken that she did not make it to the new pasture, but I know she spent her last few months enjoying her old pasture and being close to the friends she had made at the sanctuary. She left a profound impression on everyone who met her and we miss her dearly. I can take solace in knowing she knew compassion, respect and love before she died.
As mentioned above, we welcomed three new piglets in April. Clarence, Zuzu and Jorge, who are the snuggliest of snuggle pigs. They love Pebbles and Bam-Bam and their giant pasture. They adore visitors and often come running when they hear voices because that equals belly rubs. We also welcomed Aspen and Chleo, two Jersey cows, mother and daughter in early summer. Both middle aged gals who have only known each other’s company, they have thoroughly enjoyed their new herd family. If you’ve been on a sanctuary tour with me, you might remember me gushing about the love that is cows. They only know love! When they see another cow they don’t care who the cow is, only that they need to be together and that was no exception with Aspen and Chleo. Now the herd of nine have been grazing away in their pastures and cooling off amongst the trees.
Thank you to our amazing, dedicated volunteers for their ongoing contribution to the care of these amazing animals. We could not do it without you and we appreciate you beyond measure! Each one of our volunteers becomes a part of the Saoirse Pastures family. Some have been with us for years and some for short periods of time. In June, we said goodbye to Jaehwan, who was with us for a year before graduating from his PhD program at Cornell. Thank you Jaehwan for your dedication, handiwork and friendship. We celebrated our volunteers and Jaehwan's departure in April with our first volunteer appreciation party.
Among our amazing volunteers are the LACS middle and high schoolers who come every week in all types of weather to muck poop, etc. We will be heading into year three with our partnership with LACS in September. A few of our students who started year one are now going to be juniors and seniors. We cherish our relationship with LACS and these kids. I am also happy to report that the GIAC peewees (four-year-olds) are coming back for year two starting this fall. Linda and Orin love the peewees and so do we!
We will be closing in on August by the time you read this! We wish you all a joyous rest of your summer. We have upgraded our donation platform to accept recurring monthly, or weekly donations. Many of you have asked so that is up and running: https://www.saoirsepastures.com/. We also plan to have a sponsor an animal resident platform up by the end of the year. If you would like to book a tour or need to reach us about Porchfest donations please email: saoirsepastures@gmail.com
Till next time, from the pasture,
Shannon
Saoirse Pastures End-of-Year Newsletter 2024
We have new residents!
We have three new goats and one new sheep!
Please help us welcome Chance, Constance and Lady. These three senior boar goats have been with us since mid summer. They had been cared for by a family who was moving out of the country and were looking for sanctuary for these ladies to live out their senior years. Their family has been generous enough to financially support the goats while residing at Saoirse Pastures. Each with their own personality, of course, they move around their pasture as a trio and bicker like three sisters who have lived next door to each other their whole lives. We have really enjoyed having them here.
Volunteer News
Thank you to Embark for spending their employee volunteer day at Saoirse Pastures! We mucked out the entire potbelly pig barn full of last winter's straw. We greatly appreciated the extra hands on such a large project and such good sports as this was a very dirty job. Thank you all so much!
We have had some great volunteer involvement by multiple Cornell students this fall. They have a lot to balance and we are so grateful for their time and energy.
We have also had the pleasure of connecting with the Cornell Animal Advocacy Club. Some of the members have come out and volunteered with us.
Annual 2024 Flea Market
We had a huge, successful Porchfest Flea Market in September! I would like to give a round of applause to the amazing weather. This was our third annual flea market and the only one without rain. We had so many amazing donations and a great turnout. This continues to be our biggest fundraiser of the year. Our dedicated volunteers were there all day long from unloading moving truck loads of goods to setting everything up, pricing, working the event and then tearing it all down at the end of the day! Thank you to Angelhearts Diner for setting up a doughnut booth and donating their proceeds to the sanctuary. What an amazing community we live in!
Preparing for Winter
We have been very busy this fall prepping our residents for winter. We insulated the goats’ shed. These ladies are 14 years old and need the extra warmth and draft-free sleeping quarters. We also added an awning to the front of the goats and large pig sheds. This helps to keep wind, rain and snow away from their doorways. We would love to add some weather stripping doorway protectors to keep the weather out of open doorways, but give the animals access to the outside. This is particularly important to us in case of a barn fire. We are looking for more funding to be able to finish these projects. If you would like to help I will add how to donate at the bottom of this newsletter.
TLAER Training
Speaking of fires! Nancy Cusumano (one of our board members) and myself attended a two-day training at SUNY Morrisville through Cornell Cooperative Extension. We had two emergency situations last winter with two of our cows and while both were rare and extremely random we want to make sure we are prepared to assist these animals in an emergency. The training covered a lot of areas, but the biggest takeaway for us was how to assist a down or stuck animal and fire safety. We now have quite the list of needed items to assist an animal as well as needs to take our barns to the next level of fire safety. As I stated above we are in need of extra funding to obtain these materials. See below on how to donate!
Welcome, IC Friends
Eleanor Henderson has joined our Saoirse Pastures Board. We have had the honor of getting to know her through her weekly volunteer shifts at the sanctuary. Eleanor is an invaluable part of our team and we are so happy to welcome her!
Eleanor has also taken the lead on setting SP up with a writing intern through Ithaca College, where Eleanor teaches. Eleanor and I have been working with the incredibly dedicated and talented Sasha Roter this fall semester. Sasha (shown in photo), a junior Writing major and Education minor, has been creating marketing, fundraiser material, educational material, and social media posts, as well as researching booking platforms for our website and potential grants. We’ll miss Sasha as she studies abroad in Prague next semester! This has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to continuing this partnership.
Community Support—Thank You!
A huge thank you to the Triad Foundation for their continued generous support. Thank you to Greenstar for their ongoing produce donations and of course the great pumpkin donation. We would also like to thank Wegmans for their recent weekly produce donations and pumpkin haul. Thank you to Ovid Pumpkin Patch, Indian Creek, and Canopy Hotel for offering their season’s end pumpkins as well.
We were recently featured in the November 27 Ithaca Times publication! You can access the writeup here. Thank you Kinsey Burr for the beautiful coverage of all of these wonderful organizations in our community.
We are ending 2024 with a huge honor. The students of Cornell University’s Philanthropic Leadership Course awarded us with a grant at their Philanthropic Leadership Giving Ceremony. I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the students during a tour of the sanctuary and it was because of their request to honor animal welfare organizations that this grant was possible. Thank you to Vera, Jerry, Chloe and the other students who see what we are doing as valuable.
Holiday Market Fundraiser at Pressbay
Our last fundraiser of the year will be held on Saturday, December 7 at the Pressbay Alley Holiday Market. We will have merch (cozy sweatshirts) to sell and beautiful donated work from local gems like Gary Rith. Come adopt a cute holiday plush for a special someone, or donate to Saoirse Pastures in honor of someone else this holiday season. Your continued support is the heartbeat of this organization and we see and appreciate each and every one of you.
May Your New Year Be Bright!
As the community around us grows we can only become a stronger, more resilient organization. We are rooted in ethical choices and compassion for all. We are here for you and feel that you are here for us!
To our volunteers, your dedication is saving lives and making an impact on so many others. You are my heroes and Saoirse Pastures family—we love you!
