The first kids of the year have arrived! Miss Astrid had twins on the 10th. The tan one is a doeling and the black one is a buckling. Christie and Cupid. Christie has her mother's personality, an escape artist extraordinaire. She's only a week old and already going anywhere and everywhere, dragging her brother along for the ride. Astrid has her hands full with her. Now I'll have 2 goats that always check the gates to make sure they are latched and closed securely, or out they go, taking most of the rest of the herd with them. I hope they have as good a fiber as their older siblings! They all have the softest, best fiber around.
Well, I've put myself out there again. Rather scary, but I'm to the point of either folding or expanding. So I started a fund raising campaign on Indiegogo to raise the funds to expand. The link is at the bottom of this page. I really want to start a fiber arts retreat center up here, also a farm stay vacation experience, plus expand the dehairing ability so I can dehair more cashmere for producers than I do now. There is also my own cashmere to work with, combing, dehairing, spinning, crocheting, all that good stuff.
Starting with new batteries for the solar power system, so I can power all of this! Then a guest cabin to start the farmstay with. A strawbale dehairing room with a washing and drying area, and room for the machine, too. I plan on having the farmstay and dehairing provide the income to get the retreat center started. Big plans I know, but this is really what I want to do, and I think we live in the perfect spot to do it.
Remote, close to Nature, a great place to come and de-stress from the real world, relax and do some spinning, or knitting, weaving crocheting, dyeing, whatever fiber related activity suits you. Take a break from the fibery stuff and go for a little hike through the forest, or visit with the goats, or take a nap in a hammock hung between two trees. I want to bring in talented instructors to teach new techniques, and also have unstructured week-end get-aways for a few to just get together with friends and visit and do your fibery thing.
There is such a great need for a good cashmere dehairing facility or three that I want to be able to do more than I do now so I can help more producers get their fiber processed in a timely manner. I am not set up right now to do any more than I do, especially with the worn out batteries we are working with. The machine takes quite a bit of power, so new batteries are the most important aspect of the whole operation right now.
Obviously this all won't happen overnight, but I want to get the farmstay thing going by the end of this summer. Fall is the prettiest time up here, so that would be a good time to start that end of things. Next Spring will be the new dehairing facility. I'd like to have that up and going by May. Then by the Spring of 2015, I'll be ready to get the retreat center building started, and have that going, at least in a small way, by July. Since my husband really loves to garden, he will be in charge of growing all the food to feed everyone. We have lots of garden space to expand to, always a work in progress around here.
I have a good network of friends and helpers willing and ready to chip in where needed. It's going to be a fun, very busy couple of years getting this all up and running! If you would like to donate some money to this adventure, that would be wonderful, or if you could please spread the word to people you think would be interested in this, I would really appreciate it!
www.indiegogo.com/projects/338509/x/937189
Back to the goats; the next kids are due around March 10th, then the first week in April is going to be really busy, that's when the majority of the rest of them are due. Christie and Cupid will be the "boss" kids this year. They will be older than all the rest of them. Glad Astrid had twins!
Well, that's it for now. Thank-you for your support!
