- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
(This post is from SUSAN)
For the last couple of years, I haven’t done any breeding or selling of goats. One reason is because I’m having such a fun time with the fiber aspect (harvest, processing, selling, spinning and knitting) but the other one is lack of TIME.
< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I finally figured out that my energy is not endless and that there are only 24 hours in a day. Unfortunately, for those of us who goat farm on a small scale, it is not a business that keeps us fed and clothed (actually it’s more of a hobby that partially pays for itself). Therefore, like many other farmers across the country, somebody has to work off the farm to keep things going and to bring home an adequate salary and benefits.
During the business week, I drive 60 miles into Portland, and I must arrive there by 7am. Since I have to feed and water 29 goats, 1 guard llama, 14 chickens, 3 guineas, 9 cats, and 3 dogs (well, my husband does help occasionally with the dogs and cats and even the goats when I have a special project or have to go out of town), the alarm clock is set at 3:30am. Yes, it is an ungodly hour to rise – heck, the goats aren’t even awake when I stumble into the barn! At night, by the time I fight rush hour traffic out of the city, I don’t usually arrive back home much before 6pm. I don’t even stop to read the mail when I get home. I quickly change my clothes, put on my garden Birkies and head down to the barn to once again feed and water critters, finally getting a moment to eat some dinner and open mail sometime between 7 and 7:30pm. Soon after that I find I can hardly keep my eyes open and finally get to bed around 8:30 or 9pm at the absolute latest.
During the years when I was breeding goats, my days were even longer and, as a result, I was sleeping even less. My goats were never very cooperative when it came to delivering their kids at an opportune time. Nope, they wanted to do it at 2 am, or occasionally during the middle of the day, requiring me to use one of my precious vacation days from my employment. There were more chores than ever when there were 26 kids added to the mix! None of this left any time for my fiber endeavors so a decision had to be made. I’m really not a very good goat farmer in that it’s very difficult for me to part with them. They’re such engaging creatures and each one has a unique and fun personality, plus the kids are adorable. I have worried and fretted over each and every goat that I’ve ever sold, hoping that the folks that bought them will love them as much as I. So it seemed logical for me to quit breeding and concentrate on the fibery end of things and leave the breeding and selling to others. Selling fiber and fiber products is easy – no worry at ALL about it going to its new home!
However……..one day last October, a very determined young buck in full rut found the one weak spot in the fence between the buck yard and the doe yard. I’m quite sure he had a wonderful day – probably thought he’d died and gone to GOAT HEAVEN! I got out my bottle of Lutylase and gave each doe an injection ten days later to undo anything that buck might have done. But, unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that it will work 100% of the time.
Two weeks ago, while shearing, Terry happened to comment on a rather “round” doe that she was working on. When these critters are in full fleece it’s almost impossible to notice body shape. However, when Terry sheared off all her fleece, there she was in all her glory – big udder and all! I was shocked! All of a sudden I was remembering all those very late and cold, dark nights in the barn, waiting for kids to be born and worrying about whether things were going right. Darn.
The “oops” kids, all three of them, were born last Saturday evening. Both Terry and I were there to help if necessary, but “Chable” delivered all three boys (wouldn’t you just know it would be boys!) by herself. It was a classic triplet delivery – boom, boom, and boom. All I had to do was dip navels and clean up the kidding pen a little. There’s a white one, a brown one, and a pale caramel one with light gray points. All are adorable and will likely be tremendous fiber producers. They’re WONDERFUL!
To see photos (compliments of Terry, who takes very good photos and is not digital camera challenged), click these links:
Each evening I go to the barn to snuggle babies. They LOVE having their backs scratched and I must admit that I was missing the happy sounds of baby goat calls and little hooves dancing on wooden pallets. Mom has plenty of milk and they’re growing like weeds. But I already have plans for fixing any fence issues before the next rut begins in late August and, in fact, am considering some areas for DOUBLE fencing.
So I was being a major slug this morning. I don’t often get to sleep in and lounge….but am doing a fairly good job of it this morning. DH left to help youngest son with a remodeling project - AND I GET THE HOUSE TO MYSELF!! Don’t get me wrong, I love DH immensly - but aaahhhh! The house to myself - gotta love it!!!
The goats were crying for their breakfast, so I peeked out the window to look at them - they are so cute and loveable (and yeah, I realize some of you are probably sick to death of cute goat photos….but….here’s another!)
I noticed something odd over near the greenhouse- what the heck is THAT? Oh great - there’s Miss Pink Ear Tag (at least that’s what I call her). This is our neighborhood pet. I’m not sure who is responsible for her…..she’s very tame as you can see:
And….well…..um……being the goatherder that I am…..um…..I couldn’t help but look at her feet…..
and wonder if she’d let me trim those LONG hooves!!!
I know that sounds so weird! Ha! Especially since I’m the WORST hoof-trimmer around.
Oh! Finally knit up a bit of our “English Garden” colorway (Rainbow Rovings). It’s not enough for an entire fingerless glove - will have to spin up a small sample of another colorway to finish. I’m really enjoying this stuff - very soft and springy and fun to knit!
Terry (who is seriously rethinking her gardening ideas for this year - Miss Pink Ear Tag is quite the browser!)
I think I’m still a little shell-shocked from our crash the other morning. I stayed home from work on Friday, too because the roads were still bad. I love living out in the country, but there are just days when it might be better to stay off the roads.
I had to convince Susan that our hill was bare blacktop Saturday morning, and she hauled her drum carder and bags ‘o fiber up to my place for a little carding party. We are busily processing our Pygora fiber and some really nice wool fleeces we purchased last year at Black Sheep. Good friends, good food, and um, of course the much-needed good wine
Here’s a shot of a very nice Pygora/Cormo/Silk batt that Susan made - it’s almost a lilac color (well, to me it is…)
And here’s a mess I made on the counter! It’s Pygora/Merino/Cormo and omigosh is it NICE! Not to toot one’s own horn, just really, really like this stuff. Woo hoo!
And here’s another color combination (same fiber content) in it’s cello bag ready for labelling… I like bright colors, eh?
And here’s a big box of bagged fiber!!
We had a fun day, the snow was still around, but was melting….
The goats were out enjoying the break from the blizzard-y weather
Terry
It’s too bad we were the first one’s down our hill yesterday morning. I had to be at work by 6 am, so we left at 5:20 am and slowly headed down the hill. We live on a VERY STEEP hill that has a few 90 degree corners on it. It’s a great hill for kids and their sleds this time of year. We had 10″ of snow yesterday!
I went out to the barn to feed the goats and decided this was a morning that I would weenie out and ask DH to drive me to work. He is more than happy to do this for me and off we go……
He tests the brakes/road slickness when he first gets out on the hill - we didn’t slip, so ok. As we approach the first nasty corner, he taps on the breaks and away we go into a slide. We were only going 10 mph, but it was so slick it didn’t matter. Of course this is the corner with the 6′ drop-off bank at a 45 degree angle and we both knew we were going to end up in it.
Here’s the first shot I took when we hiked back down to grab all the paperwork and stuff that we’d left inside:
It’s a darned good thing we weren’t going that fast! Have you ever been hanging upside down by your seatbelt in the dark? I’ve got to tell you - it was very scary!!! And I had heard breaking glass when we went over, so I was afraid to move. I really thought the windshield was below me. But no - the roof/sunroof thing was below me. After we decided we were both ok - I asked my husband to turn off the engine - and it took him awhile. I didnt’ know why until he finally got his door kicked open. When he got the door open the cab light came on. I was looking straight at the headrest of my seat and so had he. Somehow we ended up upside down and facing the the back of the Jeep. Weird. Very weird. I was just so eternally grateful that he’d been able to kick his door open because I knew mine was a mess of shattered glass. The windshield was smashed, too, but it has safety glass. I was surprised to find out that the side windows aren’t made of safety glass. Maybe that’s so you can escape?
Here’s another view showing the damage on my side.
And here’s a view once the tow truck drive got the Jeep upright. It had to sit upside down in the snow for 8 hrs until the tow truck could get here - the roads were too bad for him.
My poor Jeep! The tow truck guy said it’s highly likely they’ll total it. Needless to say, I stayed home from work yesterday. We are just both thanking the dear Lord that we escaped this mess unharmed!! Did I spin or knit on my day off? No. For some reason my mind was all freaked out and I couldn’t really focus on much. Am sitting here this morning, waiting for the roads to thaw out before trying to get to work. I may just take the day off…
Terry
Awk! As the more computer challenged of the two of us, I really must figure out where that rather odd bit of language is coming from. What am I doing? Sheesh, everything is such a challenge these days.
Susan
FIBERY THINGS…
No, Terry and I are definitely not the best shearers but we got the job and have several boxes of gorgeous fiber that are ready to be shipped to the mill for further processing.
< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Pygora fiber can be processed by hand, but man-oh-man what a tedious job! To do it by hand requires that you either pick out each individual guard hair while looking through a magnifying glass (something I would NEVER do – heck, life is TOO short), or you must comb it back and forth on mini combs, which leaves the shorter guard hairs and veggie matter behind on the comb and is then tossed. Although it’s not cheap, sending the boxes of fiber off to a mill is money well spent and results in the most stunningly gorgeous fiber you’ve ever seen!
As much as possible, we combine and ship like colored fleeces together – all the whites together,all the browns/reds, all the dark grays and charcoals. The mill then washes it, dehairs it, and then cards it, and can also blend in another fine fiber if we ask. The natural colors are really quite beautiful and they can be further enhanced (actually it can be done to the whites as well!) by adding a small percentage of dyed Merino in a like color. By adding a little bit Merino to the Pygora it will give the finished yarn more “memory”. We never add very much, maybe 10% to 20%, or if we want to extend a small batch of a colored Pygora fleece, we might add up to 50% by weight. However, what we’ve found is that even adding up to 50% still retains some of the best characteristics of the Pygora. I have a mobius scarf I knit with a 50/50 blend of fine Merino and Pygora that I just adore. The yarn is still very soft against the skin and the Pygora fiber in it halos beautifully.
The last batch of white Pygora fiber that we got back from the mill weighed about 12 pounds and was in cloud form - or just the way it came off the large carding machine at the mill. It wasn’t in roving or batt form, just a big plastic bag of fiber that was without much form. Wave upon wave of fiber had flowed into the bag and I was afraid to take it out for fear that I would NEVER get it back in. But boy was I tempted! My first instinct was to remove the fiber from the bag and simply wallow in all that luxurious softness! Hah! My cats likely would have beat me to it! They LOVE to take their naps on my fibers, so much so that if I have any dyed batches in the house drying, I have to set up barricades around them to keep the cats off.
Although the naturally colored Pygora fibers over dye beautifully, Terry and I tend to leave them in their natural color, preferring to dye the white fibers. Pygora accepts dyes very well and, as already stated above, blends well with other fine fibers, too. I just finished up about 5 oz or so of a gorgeous blend of fine black Alpaca (70%) and rosy colored Pygora fiber (30%). I added just a touch of rosy colored Angelina for the teensiest bit of subtle sparkle. The black and the rose together, not overly blended, made batts that are a dark, rich and elegant amethyst color. Yum, yum!
The day we sheared was warm (55 degrees) and the night temps didn’t drop below about 42. However, a cold front moved in two days after shearing and the temps were forecast to drop into the high 20’s. I take very good care of my goats and have a supply of custom-made goat coats in a variety of sizes. So out of storage came the coats and, much to the dismay of the critters, they were fitted with an appropriate garment to keep them warm during the night. In addition, their water supply is heated so that they don’t have to use their body heat on warming up the water as they drink. And, to help keep a goat warm, it’s important to ensure that they have plenty of fuel to burn in the form of a high quality hay to eat. The goat’s rumen, that hot vat of fermenting hay and beneficial bacteria, helps keep them warm as it processes away. But the temps are back up into the 50’s again so the coats are back in storage and the goats are busy growing new fleeces!!
I’ve been interested in lichen dyeing for quite some time now. Maybe because of my genealogical interests, and the fact that some of my roots lie in
This is Lobaria pulmonaria, or Lungwort. This is the bag I filled yesterday, which is a lot of lichen! That’s my stocking cap on the right, again, full with lichens!!
I do harvest responsibly. I live at the top of a huge hill and when the winds whip up, lichen falls in my back yard. Lobaria seems to prefer upper branches of huge, old, mossy-covered maple trees, like this one in my back yard (notice that BLUE SKY!)
After I pick up what’s laying in my yard, I hike down the back logging road, which lies on the north-face of the hill. This means the shaded side, which has numerous old, mossy lichen-covered maple trees. I usually pick up what’s laying along the road. This time of year, I go “off-road”, hiking through some brambles to get the lichens that fell directly below the trees.
Today’s bounty comes via a wonderfully craggy old maple that fell during one of our recent windstorms. I didn’t harvest all the lichens on it as I couldn’t get to some of the tree parts (some were still rather precariously leaning against other trees). And I do think it’s important to leave some behind. Lobaria propagates via fragmentation.
I’ve tried dyeing with other lichens, mostly Usnea, which never gives me anything but beige. I’ve also tried (ooooh, can’t recall the name), but it’s the almost chartreuse-colored tiny liches that grow on the sides of rotting fir tree stumps. That gives a nice yellow.
Lobaria gives a very nice colored reddish-brown (almost Irish Setter color) in my case. I believe it will depend somewhat on your water (mineral content). And the nice thing about lichen dyeing is you don’t really need a mordant.
Will take some lichen dyeing photos soon. Oh, and one last parting shot at my boys enjoying some very nice weather yesterday!
Terry