First snow!

 This is Skippy, the mostly worthless-as-a-livestock guardian dog. One day he might be able to be trusted around the goats and poultry, but not now.  He's slowly getting better, but I still can't trust him to not chase or attack.  We put up a poly tape electric fence along the top of the field fence.  I'm going to change that over to electric wire, that tape doesn't work very well.  It's old, got it from a friend who had it for years, and that was a few years ago that I got it. It kinda works, but the snow weighted it down and it's touching the fence in a few places, so I will switch it out to regular fence wire. Before the snow it worked ok, Skippy got shocked by it, so he doesn't try to go over the fence now.  The deer have been shocked, but they still jump over it into the paddock and yard area.  They have knocked it down a couple of times, too. Dang beasts. 

 An 8 ft elk fence would be ideal to put up around at least the driveway and yard area to keep the deer out and Skippy in.  Ideally around the entire perimeter of our place.  Then there would be plenty of food for the goats to eat.  It's amazing how much a deer can eat.  A lot more than a goat, that's for sure.  I would guess that a deer eats as much as 4 goats do.  We have a herd of them that comes in just about every night.  between 3 and 5 does, and 2 different bucks visit.  I got a picture of one of the bucks just about to touch the electric fence. I should've kept it instead of deleting it.  He must've moved pretty fast after touching it, because there were no more pictures of him that night.  

We had our first snow on Sunday and Sunday night.  Got 6 1/2 inches!  It's still here but slowly melting.  It's supposed to be sunny and in the 40s the next few days, so hopefully it will all go away.  I still have 40 miles to ride on my bike to achieve my goal for this year!  I'll do that in two rides.  The garden was still producing quite a bit of food.  The zucchini plants were still blooming, there were strawberries still ripening, and a few blackberries still to ripen. Got all the carrots, apples, onions and leeks harvested before the snow came.  I spent the afternoon chopping and freezing the leeks.  I ordered 20lbs of pears from Azure that I will get tomorrow.  I'll freeze most of them, too.  

The pullets have started laying eggs now!  There are nine of them, I get one little egg every other day. So far there are 7 eggs in the fridge. 

I have made some progress on my weaving project finally.  It's only been on the loom since May.  I don't get much weaving or spinning done in the summer, too many outside things to do. I might get this project done by the end of the month. 

Then, to make things exciting, we seem to have ETs checking us out.  John was going out to close in the chickens this night, and this showed up on the camera.  That white round light above him.  We have no lights that high in the sky, just solar lights on the ground and along the fence.  We've been checked out by them now.  Probably lots of times, but this is the first time caught on camera.  Interesting times we are in! 

We got new phones this last week.  I am learning all the finer points of this new phone.  It sure is a pain having to change phones.  I like things changing in my life for the most part, except for computers and phones.  It takes me a while to figure out the new ones.  My old phone was fine, even though I was being told by most people that it was time for an upgrade. I had no major issues with it.  Although I am noticing this phone is a lot faster than the other one.  Maybe a new phone is a good thing. :-) 

Well, that's it for this week. I am making a good effort to write once a week here now.  Every Tuesday is the plan. Have a good rest of the week, hope the weather is not too bad where you are.  I see there are storms in various places in this country and around the world.  Humanity is undergoing major changes and so is our planet.  Turbulent times ahead!  But we can make it through this and what is on the other end of this is going to be wonderful. Hang in there everyone! 
      

It's Fall already

 Here are a couple of pictures from the trail cameras I have set up around the place. This buck has some uneven antlers.  

 This fox is awfully close to the rooster pen!  Thankfully it didn't get into them.  This spring we got 26 rooster chicks to raise for meat.  It's about that time for them to go into the freezer now.  They are very close to being full grown, and rather noisy at times.  They aren't as big and meaty as the actual meat birds we've got in the past, but they are close. And we got a screaming deal on them.  Bielfelder, Welsummer, and a F1 olive egger are the breeds we got.  The Bielefelders are the biggest ones.  We also got 9 pullets and another rooster that is an F1 olive egger.  The girls are Bielefelder and olive eggers.  One of them actually laid an egg the other day!  They are 5 months old now.  Hopefully all of them will come on line in the next couple of weeks.  The older group of 6 hens and Henry the rooster are still around, they should be going into the molt pretty soon.  

This year I got an Ebike back in June.  My goal is to get 300 miles on it by the end of the season.  I have 40 miles left.  Been so busy with all the other things, I haven't had all that much time to ride.  John hasn't either.  I'm hoping to get in the miles later this week and maybe next week.  

I also got a handpan!  I've been wanting one of those since I saw and heard one over 10 years ago.  I thought they were thousands of dollars (which the top-quality ones are) but amazon has some that are decent for under $500, so I got one of those.  It sounds good.  It's tuned good, and so far, is staying in tune.  I am really enjoying playing it.  YouTube has lots of videos of people playing them if you don't know what they are.  Just type in Handpan in the search.  It took a bit more effort to learn how to play it than I thought it would.  But now I'm getting the hang of it, so I'm starting to sound half-way good.  My mom was a music teacher, and I grew up playing almost all the things in the wind department.  Was in all the bands, even into college.  So, I was surprised that there was a bit more to playing this than I expected.  It's fun.  Not quite ready to make a video just yet, but maybe someday.

I'm acquiring another floor loom next week.  It will be a tight fit in this little house, but I will make it work.  It's a Norwood 4 shaft with 10 treadles.  Used of course, and it's free!  It's smaller than my Leclerc Nilus and lighter weight, so I think I will have fun weaving on it.  I think it will take a bit of work to get it restored and working great, but that's ok.  I like fixing up things like that.  

We had our killing frost for the garden Monday morning, so the garden is pretty much done for the year.  Still have carrots in there and maybe a stray bite of broccoli.  This was the year of the berry!  We had a bumper crop of raspberries from our little patch, the strawberries did well, we are getting a second crop from them right now. I covered them so they didn't get bit by the frost.  There are quite a few on the verge of being ripe.  Our blackberry bush that we've had for over 20 years finally produced a lot of berries, still some ripening there, too.  It likes it's spot up against the south side of the house. The birds got 99% of the goji berries.  The apple trees gave us a good amount; we just picked them on Sunday.  Honeycrisp, Cortland and a couple of trees we aren't sure what kind they are. 

I've been milling our own flour and baking bread and things.  I can actually eat this real wheat without having a reaction.  I've been gluten free for decades, but the freshly milled flour with all the nutrients still in it, I can eat without a big problem.  Good stuff!  

I still have the goats, but I am not breeding the cashmeres anymore, at least I'm pretty sure. I sold the buck I had. After 24 years of raising them, I'm starting to get tired of it.  I won't ever not have any, I do like working with the fleece, and their personalities are goofy, but I would say I've pretty much "retired".  I still have a couple of dairies does so we can have the milk, cheese, butter and all the good things, and I still have a dairy buck, but as one acquaintance said years ago, "there is more to life than goats". At the time I didn't agree with him, but now I'm starting to. :-)  I'm still very much tied to the farm with the dairy goats, it's very hard to find someone who can milk them, and especially these two I have now, they are scared of anyone but me getting anywhere near them.  John is finally able to walk close to them and hand feed them, but him milking them is out of the question.  Life is changing for me, and I'm rather liking it.  I still have my GoImagine shop with a few things for sale in there.  I have lots of ideas on what to weave next this winter, but I'm not pushing myself to try and sell things online anymore.  With all the cheap cashmere items that are mass produced or imported from other countries at low prices, and most people wanting low prices, not realizing just how much work actually goes into a cashmere handwoven or crocheted piece, I'm over it. Most people don't think about the whole year of feeding and taking care of the goats, so they do produce high quality fleece.  The hours it takes to process the fleece, from combing it off the animals, washing, dehairing, spinning it into yarn, then weaving or crocheting it into something wearable.  That takes a lot of hours!  I figured out one year that if I count everything, I make about a $1 an hour with the prices I have on the items.  So, if anyone buys anything from me you are getting quite a good deal!  goimagine.com/pnfcashmeres/   is where my shop is.  Hopefully that link works. 

Well, speaking of goats, it's time to go do the evening feeding of them. Hope you are having a wonderful day and enjoying life. 

Summer

 Today was my almost annual trip up to the Eureka Fiber Festival in Eureka, MT.  This year it wasn't as big, a few of the regular vendors weren't there so I didn't get to visit with them and catch up on things.  The weather wasn't as hot as it usually is this time of year either.  That was nice.  We've had a somewhat cooler than usual summer with a bit more rain than usual, also.  Compared to most of the rest of the country who are baking in the heat, or flooding, or both, I feel very fortunate to live where I do.

After not wanting any kids this year, Miracle, a cashmere doe, who also is very easy to milk, decided to jump in with Simon, my dairy buck back in February, and gave birth to twin boys on July 18th.  They are cute little buggers.  One is white and the other has a gold tinge to him.  At least I can tell them apart. John named them Waffle and Whiffle.  Not sure how he came up with those names, but there you go. :-)  Since Miracle has excellent fleece, I'm hoping these boys will have at least nice cashmere.  We'll see next summer what they look like.  They have the somewhat wavy hair of a cashmere now, but they are only two weeks old, so we'll see later on if they have decent fleece.  I'm back up to 32 goats with these two.  I have quite a few older goats, a few middle-aged ones, and only a couple of 2 and 3 year olds.   After 24 years of raising goats, I'm contemplating just letting everyone age out without having any more kids, or maybe find another cashmere buck to breed them to and continue on. I haven't made up my mind yet on that. 

I'll post a picture of the kids one of these days.  I haven't transferred the pictures from my phone to the computer yet.  With these two boys being nice and healthy, I'm not milking Miracle this year.  I do have two dairy goats that I am milking in the mornings.  Next week is kid weaning for them, so then I'll be getting more milk, enough to sell to a friend for cheese making, and for me to make a bunch of soap. Also use the cream separator so I can get some cream to make butter with.  

This year has been the year of the raspberry.  We are getting more raspberries than ever before.  I've been freezing most of them. Made a couple of cobblers, and a failed attempt at jelly which became syrup instead.  The only thing I don't like about the raspberries is the seeds.  Otherwise they are great.  The berries are nice and big, and if I pick them at the right stage of ripeness, very sweet. We also have some yellow ones, which I think I'm liking the taste of them better than the red ones.  We also have a "Doyle" blackberry bush that is around 20 years old that is finally going to almost live up to its promise of 20 gallons of berries per bush.  Might get a couple of gallons this year, instead of the handful or so we've always had up till this year.  I hear the huckleberries are plentiful this year, too.  I haven't picked any of those in years.  I'm thinking I might hike up to the top and see if the patch that was there years ago is still there.  Our place is covered in Oregon grape so I am going to make some jelly out of some of those.  A friend made some and gave us a pint, it was excellent, so I'm going to try making some.  

Well, that's it for now.  The garden is starting to produce a good amount of veggies.  Nothing better than going out and harvesting some veggies and having those for dinner along with homegrown meat.  There aren't a whole lot of people that can eat a complete meal grown on their own place and made within an hour of harvesting.  I feel very fortunate.  There isn't anyone on either side of our families that are doing that.  We have a very wonky alternative lifestyle compared to the rest of the country, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  There are some minor inconveniences, but I've lived with them for 31 years, so they aren't anything to get excited about.

I hope everyone is doing okay in these wild times.  If you are anywhere in the western half of the country, I'd get some extra air filters for your vehicles.  If one of the many volcanoes erupts along the cascades, the ash will cover everything and will gunk up your vehicle pretty fast.  I remember back in 1980 when Mt Saint Helens erupted and the ash from that.  We just got a dusting where we lived at the time, but where I'm at now got quite a bit more. So being prepared will be a good thing.  

Take care everyone!      

July 5th

 I'm going on a bit of a rant today.  It's about fireworks on the 4th.  The big booming, sparkling loud rocket kind should be outlawed except for the commercial shows, like towns, etc. I don't even know what they are called. Bottle rockets?  Just think of all the animals that get scared out of their wits every year because of those.  All the horses that run through fences, the dogs that run away and get lost or run over on the roads, the goats that pile up in the corners of their pens and almost squish each other.  Might be cattle stampedes, I haven't been around cattle on the 4th. But for sure the more sensitive animals get quite scared. Not to mention the wildlife.  Plus all the veterans that have ptsd that get triggered by the fireworks.  As you can tell, I'm not a fan of fireworks.  It was nice living up here in quiet for all those years, but I guess as usual, all good things must end at some point. 

After 29 years of peace up here, we have neighbors that have decided the last two years to launch the big, loud, booming, crackling kind, also waiting till late to do it.  I don't mind the smaller ones that most people have, those are fine, but the big ones should be allowed only at the commercial settings.  Last year we weren't prepared, so all the animals had panic attacks.  Skippy broke out of his pen and hid somewhere.  Luckily he didn't run away, but he sure was scared.  He didn't want to come in the house, he didn't want to stay in his house, he was a basket case.  The goats all piled up in the top corner of their pen shaking so hard they were holding each other up being packed together so tightly.  The deer went running by heading up the mountain as fast as they could go, snorting and whistling all the way.

  We live out in the forest far away from civilization, so not having those going off close by has been exceptionally nice.  It's a good thing it was raining, one little puff of wind as those were falling could've caught the trees on fire or fallen in the grass and started a big forest fire. It had dried out pretty good up until yesterday, then it started raining.   If that ever happens because of their stupidity and even one tree torches on our place, I will own them lock, stock and barrel, as the saying goes.

This year I was expecting it, so I was out there talking to Skippy and explained what was going to happen, same with the goats.  Skippy stayed in his house and didn't panic, and the goats weren't as scared.  It was raining and the dummies still shot them off.  What a waste of money, too.  Because of the rain, they didn't go up as high, which was nice, but it was still loud and scary for the animals.  

On another note, I sold 10 goats on Monday.  They are now over in Idaho.  I sold my cashmere buck, too.  Now I have to figure out if I want to continue breeding them or just age them out and not replace them as they die. On the 13th I will have been doing this for 24 years! Time flies.  I'll have to find another buck if I want to continue on, one with short guard hair, no wattles, and excellent fleece coverage.  Color doesn't really matter.  

I got an ebike on June 4th.  I like it!  I can go up hills without an issue, and I can go up faster than John.  I have to wait for him now, instead of the other way around.  It's been quite a few years since I've had a bicycle, at least 10 I think.  It's taking a bit to get my balance and agility back.  But it's coming back rapidly, and I am enjoying biking again. Fun times.  The other day we went on a ride up the county road below us and saw a moose and her calf, that was cool!  Good to see they are still around the area.  Only got dusted 3 times by vehicles, so that was nice to not have much traffic on the gravel road. It was a good ride.  Couple days before that, we went with another friend on part of the network of bike paths in the valley now.  That was also nice, although it was a hot day, and she had a bit of heat exhaustion at the end.  Surprisingly enough, I didn't have any heat issues, which is unusual.  I don't like the heat, but since I wasn't over working myself, there was a breeze, and I drank a good amount of water, I was ok.  It was around 90, we were in the middle of the afternoon with the sun blazing down on us.  Each ride I do I go another mile or two farther, so I'm building up slowly. 15.4 miles is the farthest so far. a whopping 65 miles on the bike as of now.  For only having it a month, and only riding a couple of times a week, that's not bad.  My bike has a range of around 60 miles, depending on how much I use the assist on it. Hills are the only time I really use any assist, flats and downhills I just turn it off or coast, so I don't use much battery power.  I don't know if I'll ever go that far. John still uses his regular bike, he only has an ebike for commuting to work, which he's only done a couple of times this year. 

Well, that's it for now.  Hope you had a good 4th. Sending prayers out for all the people affected by the flooding and severe weather around the country.  It's getting worse every year.        

Memorial weekend already!

Got some kid pictures finally.  Only the two dairy goats had kids this year.  Tara and Samson are out of Toffee, and the triplets are out of Sprinkles. 

 Toffee had quite the time giving birth.  She had Samson first, a fairly easy birth, although I had to pull a bit, he was a big baby!  Then almost a whole hour later, Tara came out. When I went back in to check on Toffee and Samson, here was another thing laying behind Toffee.  Looked like a capsule. Tara was fully inside the birth sack, legs folded, still attached umbilical cord and all.  I quickly opened the sack so she could come to life, which she did, and all was almost well.  Since Toffee had Samson an hour earlier, she decided that was her only kid.  She pretty much ignored Tara, barely licked her, and didn't want anything to do with her.  Still barely looks at her now at two weeks old.  The only time that I can see she lets her nurse is when I tie Toffee up in the milk stand and feed her some grain.  Then Tara jumps up there and gets her belly full.  I do that morning and evening. She must be getting a little more than that, or she wouldn't still be doing well. She must sneak a quick drink when her brother is drinking when I'm not around.    

The triplets are doing quite well, almost two months old already! With only these 5 kids, I am spending time with them, and they are friendly.  I must say, it's been nice taking a break from kidding on the cashmere side.

  I am selling the buck I have now.  I just don't like the looks of most of the kids out of him.  For one thing he has wattles, and I totally dislike those.  For over 20 years I've had clean necked goats, I don't want to start in with wattles in my herd now.  He's only 4 years old, very lightly used, so he has plenty of breeding years left in him.  He does have impressive horns, I will say that.

 You can't see his wattles with all the hair on his neck, but when he's shed out, and also with his kids, they are very visible.  Being white, he doesn't stay clean with his buckly antics.  He's hard to catch, but once caught he is easily handled.  He'll eat out of your hand if you are on one side of the fence and he's on the other. Once you are in his pen with him, he's elusive.   His fleece is nice, he's too nice to go to the auction, but that is where he is headed in a couple of weeks if he doesn't sell.  I have an ad on Craigslist, nothing so far, but one can hope.

Now I am going to be on the hunt for a new buck with short guard hairs, no wattles and lots of cashmere. Color doesn't really matter. Sam is the first white buck I've ever had.   Others have been black, red, badger, and a tan color. My herd has all colors in it. Including white not from him.

It has warmed up nicely today.  Sunny and near 70 degrees.  I'm heading out now to work in the flower beds.  I relinquished control of the veggie beds to my husband John so I can get the flower beds looking good again.  So many things to do, and I want to take better care of the animals and get this yard looking nice again.  I can't do it all, and since John loves to garden, he can do the majority of it.

Here is my latest weaving project.  A set of pinwheel kitchen towels.  Very soon they will be listed in my GoImagine shop.  This time of year, there isn't much time for spinning or weaving, I'm outside more often, especially now that I'm feeling better and my body has recovered from all the injuries Skippy caused running into me.  Never take walking for granted!  It is so nice to be able to move freely again around here.  Still a bit stiff but getting better every day.  I can get down on my hands and knees again for the first time in over a year.  Life is good!!

Hope you all have a good weekend, and the weather is behaving itself wherever you are. Thanks for reading this!
  

Happy May

 April went by fast!  Spring is here, it seems.  We usually get a June cold front around the 8th, which sometimes means snow, (sometimes a lot), and other times a mild cool down for a day. Right now the grass is green, the daffodils are blooming, the wild Glacier Lilies are in bloom, and I see lots of buds on the Oregon Grape that covers our whole place.  A sea of yellow pretty soon!  Smells good, too.  The dang deer are coming in and eating every blade of grass as soon as it comes up, so the goats don't have anything to eat.  I have to feed them hay till the grass is growing faster than the deer can eat it.  Skippy isn't much help; he rarely barks at them anymore.  Someday I want to put up an elk fence around the perimeter, which is around 8 to 10 feet tall, to keep out all the deer and other critters and then the goats will have plenty of grass and things to eat. We are surrounded by literally thousands of acres of forest service land, with plenty of food for the deer, but they come in here on our little patch of 20 acres and eat this. They feel safer in here with the fence that mountain lions and other predators don't go over.  A bear did breach it last fall.  Squished it right down to the ground almost.  Before I do start letting the goats out into the big world, I will have to go around and check the whole fence line and do some repairs.  The deer also land on it sometimes and push it down.  We had to rescue a deer last week that got caught in it.  At midnight we were out there in our pjs and bathrobes releasing a deer that got its back legs stuck in it, jumping and pulling its legs forward too fast and sticking them through the wire. Skippy was barking fiercely at that incident. He let us know something was amiss out there. We have a woven wire field fence around the perimeter of our place. The deer is fine; she's back to jumping again and coming in the yard and everywhere.  Just had some hair missing on the underside of her legs.  

It's almost time to start getting the garden ready to plant.  I usually don't plant anything till late May, even as late as July and we get a good harvest of everything.  Of course, there are always one or two almost crop failures.  Not a total one, but not a good one either. 

Finally got all the goats combed, except one.  He won't let me catch him for some reason.  He's always cooperated before, usually coming into the combing room and jumping up on the stand with no problems.  For some reason this year he doesn't want to get combed.  Maybe he knows his fleece has gotten too coarse and he'll end up in the freezer, who knows. It's very annoying. I can't get him into the smaller catch pen, he knows what that is for, so he stays back even with food offered and won't get within arm's reach of me. He's a big goat, too.  One of the 4 big wethers I have.  He's the biggest one.  You can tell he doesn't miss any meals at all.  He is quite fat.  The other three are of a good weight, but he's verging on obese. Last year his fleece was still quite soft. He must know something I don't yet. Oh well.

I've been doing some spinning and weaving lately.  A friend and I did a weave-along, and we both actually got our projects done in the allotted time! Towels are what we both made, with a pinwheel pattern.  I will be adding the two I made to my new Go Imagine shop pnf cashmeres.  Gotta get some good pictures of them first.  I really struggle with taking good product photos.  

Time to get to work.  Hope you are all staying safe in the areas that are having all the bad weather, and everyone have a great day!   

Some pictures

Finally got some pictures on here!  This year I took a break from kidding any cashmeres and just bred the two dairy goats. Sprinkles had triplets on March 30th. Cute little squirts. Toffee, Sprinkles' sister, is due mid-May.  They are a total mix of breeds. The Doe is a mix of just about every dairy breed, plus a little Kiko and Boer thrown in. The buck is an Alpine Nigerian Dwarf cross. I think these kids have a bit of everything.  Their ears sure are cute! 

Here are the baby blankets I wove on the floor loom, (they are just displayed on the rigid heddle loom), for John's niece who had a baby boy on the 4th of this month. Got the "happy baby" 8/2 cotton color kit from Cotton Clouds and wove these up using my own design. Hopefully they get well used!   

This is an interesting cloud formation in the valley below our house. I took this picture from the hill behind our house.  I swear this is a real photo, taken with my phone, no photo shopping or AI used.  It was kinda spooky, very cool, the ETs are here!  

And lastly, here's a fairly recent picture of Skippy at about 18 months old.  We got him to be an LGD, but that he is not.  He chases the goats whenever he can, he goes after the chickens.  I can't trust him around any of the animals.  John likes him, otherwise he'd be in a new home.  He might end up in a new home anyway if he doesn't shape up.   

I do have a new online shop up and running.  I gave up on Etsy.  They have become too big, too focused on shareholder profits and don't seem to really care about handmade anymore.  Just who sells the cheapest, most product. I'm not selling my items cheaply. I'd rather keep them myself or give as gifts than lose money just to make a sale.  I put way too many hours and work into making these to sell at a loss, that doesn't even make sense.  I get very little profit as it is at the prices I do sell them for, just slightly above breaking even.  So I closed my etsy shop and moved to Go Imagine.  

Go Imagine is only in the USA so far, but since I haven't sold anything to any other country for a couple of years, that's ok. Everybody is squawking about the tariffs here, but other countries have had pretty steep tariffs on goods from here for years. Customers pay way more in taxes and shipping to get my products than the actual item costs. The link for it is: New Shop   I have 10 items in there now, and I plan to add 10 more soon.  Adding a listing takes a while, there are a lot of things to fill out, pictures to add, and all of that. I still don't seem to be able to take a good product photo for the life of me.  I can get pretty good photos of scenery, animals and all of that, but my creations? Not so much.  Don't know why that is, but I keep practicing.  One of these days...

Well, that's it for now.  Please check out my shop and let me know what you think about it. I'll make myself a note to check back here for comments, which I always forget to check.  I write a post, then forget about it till the next post.  Not a good way to do a blog. 

 I'll be adding some more things pretty soon.  Maybe some handspun cashmere yarns, and some kitchen towels made out of cotton.  

Have a great day and thanks for reading this!