It's Harvest Time!

I am combing goats already!  I've done 5 so far.  I am going to be able to dehair them by hand this year!!  At least these I've done so far.  There are very few guard hairs in it.  It looks like it's been run through the machine about 3 times already.  So with a little time, I can get these dehaired myself.

I am on Instagram now.  Cashmereannie is my name. :-)  Please follow me if you are on there, too.  You can see more pictures of things happening around here, than what I take with my regular camera.  Technology.... My smartphone takes pretty good pictures, and it's easier to just post on Instagram than download the pictures from the camera onto the computer and then put them on here, or my website, etc.  I might be getting lazy in my old age. :-) Not that I'm old or anything, but you know...

I have 16 pregnant does out there!  That's going to be somewhere around 20 to 25 babies!!  What was I thinking?  I'll have some goats for sale come July.  I'm even going to sell some of the moms and babies this year.  Time for a major downsize of the herd.  I'm not going to get rid of all of them, but most of them.  I have some new plans in the works and am not going to have time to take proper care of this many goats.  I'm keeping my very favorite ones, and the rest will go to new homes.  I don't want to take them to the auction, their fleece is too good for that, they need to be in a fiber person's home.  Even though I have this many, they all have names and are my babies. ☺  So if you are thinking about getting into cashmere goats, keep me in mind and come July there will be a good many for sale here.

I've been doing a bunch of needle felting.  That is really fun to do!  I'm spinning more yarn, too.  Between combing the goats, needle felting and spinning, my days are pretty full now.  I'm staying home for the next week or so and really getting a lot done around here.

Happy full moon!

More Needle Felting

The latest bunch of critters made.  These guys are heading for New Zealand in February!  I am really having fun making these little creatures.

I'm also spinning up my cashmere  from last year's harvest.  I was trimming goat hooves a couple of days ago, and noticed they are starting to release their fleece already.  Time to start combing!  I was going to seriously downsize the herd this year, but after seeing how nice the cashmere is looking on most of them, now I'm having second thoughts.....  There are 14 pregnant does out there all together.  Celeste got bred yesterday, so she's going to have the last babies in June.  The first week in April is when the majority of them are going to pop out.  A fun time!  It's always exciting to see what comes out. :-)  

It's snowing again today.  We are supposed to get 2 to 4 inches.  We have about 10 inches on the ground right now, so a couple more won't be too bad.  The road coming up here is looking the best it ever has.  It's plowed nice and wide with plenty of turn-outs, so even if we get a lot of snow, we should be able to get up and down it with no problem the rest of the winter.  Usually we end up with a narrow tunnel the last mile and a half by spring.  The snow line is about that far down the road, so it's always deeper up at this end, and the road is narrower to begin with.  This year it shouldn't get bad at all.  Yay!!!

Well, back to the spinning wheel.  It's a good day to be inside!