Winter is here!! It is 0 degrees out and we have about a foot of snow. I have closed up the dehairing room for the week, it's just too cold to work in there. We did put insulation in there, but since the walls are only 2x4's, R-13 is the thickest we could use. That isn't warm enough for these temps. So I will do other things that need doing that have been put off since I got the dehairing machine.
The dehairing of cashmere really is one of the slowest processes on this planet! I enjoy it, though. It is pretty neat to watch a clump of cashmere go in one end of the machine, and come out a fluffy cloud on the other. Each batch of cashmere dehairs a bit differently, too. Just like human hair, no two cashmere goats are exactly alike in fiber.
I expect this to go pretty slowly this winter, then when the warmer weather comes next spring, I'll be able to really get into the rhythm of this process. Since we are off-grid, the machine works best when plugged into the household current. We've tried running it off the generator, but the engine speed fluctuates too much to run the machine well. It speeds up and slows down too much. That can't be good for the motors, so I will run the machine off the house for now. This machine takes quite a bit of electricity to run, too. We have a "true-sinewave" inverter, so the quality of the electricity going through it is very high and steady. The dehairing machine hums along nicely when plugged into that. We need sunshine to charge the batteries and this time of year we don't get much. We have to run the generator every day I use the machine. So I'm only getting between 5 and 6 hours a day on the machine right now. So if anyone of you reading this has cashmere to process, please bear with me while I get through the "start-up hitches and gliches" of getting a new enterprise up and going. The fleece I have processed so far is turning out really nice. I enjoy working with the cashmere, and am having fun doing it. But, it really is incredibly slow. Way faster than doing it by hand, though! :-)
We have started processing all our turkeys. No more raising turkeys anymore. They were fun for a while, but now that I have the dehairing machine, I don't have time to take care of everything anymore. Time to focus on fiber. I might even have to sell most of my goats next year, depending on how much time I have to take care of them. That will be sad if I have to sell, but the dehairing comes first. If I can't take the best care of my goats, I don't want to have them around and be neglected. So I might have a good starter herd of 13 does and 1 buck for sale in the Spring!
I am enjoying the dehairing of the cashmere. I love working with it. I am grateful for the opportunity to do this. A real dream come true!
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.....
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