A Somewhat Rare Event

 After thinking Spring is here, we got a last gasp of winter over the weekend. 16" of snow on Saturday. That just happened to be John's birthday, and he's not a big fan of snow.  We spent a few hours digging out, and now most of it is melted, at least in the driveway and areas that didn't get extra snow thrown on them. We hadn't had any snow for most of the winter, then bam! a dump of it. That has only happened a couple of times over the years. This time was nice, we have a neighbor who does an excellent job of plowing, so he got the road all plowed, and even came up here and plowed down the hill so all I had to do was clean up the edges.  Years ago when it happened, we had to hire a guy with a skidsteer to plow a trail up the road just wide enough to drive through.  Couldn't even open the doors on the truck it was that skinny.  Luckily there were only 2 families living on the entire road back then, so no collisions or blocks or anything.  Now that wouldn't work at all, way too many people live along this road.  Ah, the good ol' days...

  60 degrees today.  A bit windy, which is helping to melt the snow. Luckily the ground wasn't frozen, so the water soaked in and didn't just run off.  I should say, it's soaking in, there is still a fair amount to melt. Watching Ryan Hall's livestream over the weekend, I was happy to have just a snow and not all the wild weather most of the rest of the country experienced. Or maybe still experiencing.  Even Hawaii has had a bad storm. 

The goats haven't been combed, well a few of them have, but the snow stopped everything.  Tomorrow I will get back to it, thankfully they aren't all shedding yet.  There are 4 out there now that really need it, so that is who gets combed tomorrow. I did Mini the other day.  Silly girl. She jumped right in the stand and started eating her treats, but the minute I grabbed the comb, she laid down and stayed down for most of the combing.  Last year when she had a kid that died, I milked her, so she thought she was just coming in for that, even though she is dry as a bone now.  She is a funny goat.  Always has a condescending look on her face, that whole line does.  They sure do have nice soft, beautiful cashmere though.  They are also pretty tame, so they are easy to handle.  Goats; the most lovable frustrating creatures on the planet. :-) 

I hope everyone is doing ok in the wild weather and your animals are all good.  Quinn, I did see your comment, but for some reason I can't reply.  I do hope your weather has straightened out and everyone is doing well and you can get the fleece before it's totally ruined.  A farmer's life is always regulated by the weather.  Whether that be farming crops or raising animals, it's all weather dependent. 

Thanks for reading this and I hope you are having a wonderful day.

 

Is it Spring?

 The weather sure is interesting this year.  There was a robin up here last night!  I heard him having a fit out in the dairy pasture.  I do believe that is the earliest we've ever had a robin up here.  They are showing up all over the Flathead Valley, too.  The mild weather has everyone confused.  I just noticed some of my Hellebores are starting to come up.  

Our forest service road has more soft spots in it this year than usual.  It's getting a bit difficult to navigate it, between the giant potholes, washouts and now all the boggy soft spots.  It really needs to be graded this year!  There is more traffic on this dead-end road than on probably all the other through roads combined. I am going to have to go down to the forest service office and once again complain.  They always tell me there is no money for grading a dead-end road.  I think they should just pave it and be done with it. When it does get graded, the washboards reappear within a month from just about everyone driving too fast up and down it.  I don't understand why people can't figure out that gravel/dirt and speed don't mix.  One little skip of a tire on a rock creates a little divot, then as everyone else goes over that, it gets bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, big stretches of the road are just a big washboard.  Especially around corners and in areas where it's slow going, people step on the gas when it gets smooth, and wa-la a washboard is formed.  Our Dodge truck is pretty rough riding anyway, and going over washboards just about breaks my back, even going very slow.  Then there are the deep potholes that are unavoidable.  I try not to leave this place more than once a week. :-) 

I am making my first top out of some of my handwoven cotton cloth. It even has sleeves!  I haven't sewn anything clothing since home-ec class way back in jr high.  That was a long time ago.  I just need to figure out the neckline and then it will be done.  Exciting times! :-) 

I hope everyone is doing okay in these times.  Observe, don't absorb.  Thanks for reading this.  One of these days I'll get the photo transfer thing down and post some pictures. One of these days...

Life is changing a bit around here.

 We've been having some changes around here lately.  I'm fully immersed in the world of milling my own grains and baking all kinds of breads and other things.  After being gluten free for almost 40 years, since starting the milling of my own grains, I can eat wheat again!  It's pretty easy to do, a bit of adjusting recipes and things, but it sure tastes a lot better than anything you can buy.  I started following a few YouTube creators on freshly milled flours and went for it.  Bread Beckers is a great one to learn from.  Sue Becker has a good podcast called "Sue's healthy minutes" that gives the science behind it all, plus lots of interviews from people who have cured all kinds of diseases with freshly milled bread.  The nutrients in the fresh flour are so much more than commercially made flour.  Plus, there's no additives or anything when you mill the grain yourself.  Electric grain mills are fairly inexpensive, and it's actually cheaper to mill your own grains and make the bread yourself.

We did a bit of remodeling in the kitchen, which added quite a bit of counter space.  It's like having a new kitchen! Next is redoing a closet into a pantry.  That will be a bit of a job, so that might be later this spring.

The two dairy does are both pregnant, due in mid to late April.  They are starting to show pretty good.  I've combed 1 cashmere goat so far.  We've had a bit of winter this last week or so, so I am waiting a few days till it warms up again to resume the combing.  The goats are all doing well.  No kids this year, I sold my cashmere buck last summer, and I reinforced the fence around the dairy buck, so he can't get to any of the does this year. I've pretty much decided to just let everyone age out and not do any breeding anymore.  I have some young ones, so it will be quite a few years before I run out of cashmere.  

Today I got an email from GoImagine that they are closing the platform in March.  So, I think I am going to more or less retire.  I'll keep my two domain names, but not have a website anymore, at least for the time being.  No online shop at all.  If I can figure out the photo transfer from phone to computer, I'll post on here the things I've been making.    Open a Venmo account to take payments and sell a thing or two here if possible.  Maybe this summer get into a local shop somewhere, we'll see.  I was going to just stop doing everything, but once the goats grew out their fleece this last year, I just can't give it up yet.  I love working with their cashmere, and I love the goats themselves.  I am going to keep on going with it, just make things to grow my inventory for now.  I like weaving with cotton, making towels, etc., so between the cashmere and that, I will stay productive and be in my happy place.

Now that my injuries from the dog have healed up and I'm feeling good again, I'm going to be getting my gardening going again this year.  The flowers are my department; the veggies are John's.  I do most of the harvesting and processing of the veggies, but he does most of the watering and weeding during the growing season.  I need to work on the flower beds; they got pretty neglected over the last two summers.

I was watching Ryan Hall Y'all's YouTube livestream today of the big blizzard that hit the east the last couple of days.  What a storm! 3 feet of snow in a few places, and some hurricane force winds.  What a mess back there.  That will take some time to dig out of that!  Smaller livestock like goats and things won't even be able to get around in that, the snow is too deep and heavy.  

The weather has been pretty wild throughout the country.  Atmospheric rivers in the west, giant fires in the south, blizzards in the mid-section and eastern parts earlier in the season, and now this.  I was noticing on the maps today, our area is in a little bubble of mostly nothing.  The storms are mostly going around us.  We did get snow over the last few days, and it's snowing now, but we are way milder than usual.  I'm pretty sure we have some more snow in store for us, but probably not much.  We are living in some very interesting times, an exciting time to be alive! 

Stay safe everyone!  Thanks for reading this.  One of these days I will figure out the phone and get some pictures on here!

Happy 2026!

 Another fast-paced year seems to be coming/happening.  We are having a mild winter, the mildest one in years.  There is just a little bit of snow and ice in the shady spots, and green grass on the hill behind the house. I have an idea we will get nailed the last week of this month and into February with some below zero temps and some snow.  I could be wrong, I hope we don't get that cold.  I am enjoying the mildness myself.  As long as it rains on a regular basis this summer, we'll be fine. The ground is frozen, so the goat pen is livable for them and easy for me to pull the wheelbarrow full of hay around to feed them. 

I've been getting some weaving done.  I'm on my second warp on my new to me Norwood 4 harness floor loom.  A run of towels, probably 4, maybe 5 towels on there.  The scrappy blanket turned out good, perfect size for covering me up in the recliner on the rare occasions I take a nap and it's chilly in here.  Usually with the woodstove going it's in the 70s and 80s in here.  I open a window or two most days.  A breath of fresh air can come in then.

One of these days I will figure out how to download my phone pictures to the computer without having to get yet another app or sync things up.  It's such a pain having to get a new phone every few years.  There are days when I wish we didn't have all the technology, life was more natural, and nature based back before all of this. Speaking of which...

I've been milling my own flour and baking quite a bit of bread the last year or so.  I've discovered that I can eat the fresh milled wheat breads without having a reaction like I do with store bought breads.  It also tastes so much better it's not even comparable to store breads.  We go through a lot of bread around here. John takes two or three sandwiches to work with him 4 days a week, plus has toast most mornings for breakfast.  I think my favorite bread is the Hawaiian rolls I make.  I used to love the ones you buy in the store, till we started label reading and went organic for 99% of our food.  Now I found a recipe for homemade ones, and they are great!  I can change up the taste a bit by using different kinds of wheat. Using the freshly milled flour is a totally different experience from the store-bought flours.  I'm getting fairly good at turning out edible loaves now.  

The goats are doing well.  It's nice to not have to worry about kidding this year.  They sure have some nice fleece this year!  Some of them are starting to let loose of it a bit.  I always think it's way too early to comb them when we still have a couple of months of possible cold stormy weather coming.  But they still have their guard hairs so at least they aren't bald like they would be if sheared.  I will wait till February to start combing, then the whole body lets loose and not just the back end, which is what is happening now.  I'm getting quite a lot of fleeces that need dehaired.  It's been about 5 years since I've sent any out to be processed.  I don't have that many goats anymore, so it's not a huge pile, but it is building up.  We shall see what happens in the coming months.  

I have 15 roosters that need to go to rooster heaven soon.  We had 26, I've already processed some but am letting these guys grow a bit bigger.  After researching, it seems the boys will reach full-size at around 18 months.  I don't want to wait that long; they are about halfway there.  They are big, just need to fill out a bit more.  The weather is perfect for doing that now.  Sunny and in the upper 30s low 40s.  No flies or yellowjackets are out now.  It takes me 20 minutes from catch to fridge, so it's not long.  

Skippy is starting to mature finally.  He likes his treats, he ceases whatever he's doing and comes running when we call out "Skippy, treats".   I also make those at home.  The batch I made last had apple and carrots in it.  The goats like them as well as the dog does.  I'll be making that kind again tomorrow.  I still can't trust him around the goats or poultry on his own.  He chases the goats and tries to catch the chickens.  He's finally leaving the guineas alone, but the others are still fair game to him.  So annoying.

Well, thanks for reading this.  I hope you are having a great day and 2026 is a good year for you!        

Wild Weather!

 Are we having fun yet?  This weather is a lot different from last year. We've been in the 40s and last night we had some gale force winds that blew over a set of solar panels and completely blew over one of the goat condos!  Thankfully we only lost two of the solar panels, so not a huge drop in production.  The goat condo we got back upright and roof back on.  I was outside last night around 10:30 making sure everyone was okay and nothing was blowing away.  The gust of wind that took everything down happened later around midnight.  It was a bit scary out there with the wind blowing so hard.  All the trees were bending pretty far over.  Thankfully none broke.  "Grandpa Doug" our biggest Douglas Fir tree on the place lost a few branches, but nothing major.  I did hear a cracking sound while I was out there, but when I walked around the place today, didn't see any trees down or anything.  The cracking must've been one of the bigger branches that came out of Grandpa Doug.  We are supposed to get some more high winds on Thursday, so hopefully everything will withstand them.  When I checked on the Guineas that roost up in a tree next to the hay shed, they were clinging on the branches for dear life.  The one guinea who lost his toes last year in the cold, spent the night on the ground in the crook of the tree roots, which is a pretty sheltered place.  

The guineas are some of the smartest, yet dumbest birds I've ever seen.  They are very good indicators of what the weather is going to do during the night.  If it's going to snow, they go up a tree that is more open without as many branches, and if it's going to be rainy or windy, they go up the thicker branched tree.  That's the smart part; the dumb part is they forget they have wings, and they will pace the fenceline up to about a foot away from the open gate, then turn around and go back and forth instead of going just a little bit farther and getting out to where they want to be. Silly birds.  They do a good job of keeping ticks and grasshoppers under control.  They are very good at bug control. Which is why we have them.  Their eggs taste good, too.

I do know for sure that we are tearing everything down in the goat pens next summer and rebuilding a more efficient setup this time around.  One thing about it after all these years, I know what doesn't work, so now it's time to build something that will work better and easier.  

The snow is completely gone for now.  I think we are supposed to get some more this week, but every time I check the forecast, the amount goes down.  I do believe we might have a brown Christmas this year.  That's ok, I am enjoying the lack of snow and warmer temps.  We will probably get nailed in January and/or February with some seriously cold temps and snow.  At least the dairy goats aren't due to kid until Mid-April, so they should be warm enough by then.

I am finally getting a warp on my new to me Norwood floor loom!  It's a short warp, and I am going to use up the collection of partial bobbins that have accumulated so I can use them again.  One of these days I will figure out how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer so I can show you more things.  

I hope anyone who is reading this is having a good day and the weather is not too bad where you are.  Thanks for reading this!   

From Dogs to Weaving

Skippy having fun in the snow sliding down the driveway. He is the most rambunctious dog I think we've ever had.

 He's also one of the smartest ones we've ever had.  If only I could trust him out there with the goats and poultry by himself, he'd be almost perfect. Maybe one day...

We are getting a lot of rain the last couple of days and nights.  We are getting the edge of the "atmospheric river" that the PNW is getting.  All this snow in the pictures is now slush and well on its way to being gone.  I think Christmas might not be white this year.  

I finally got the warp all done on the table loom!!  I took a picture of it with my phone, but I can't seem to get it to upload onto my computer like it's supposed to.  I got a new phone a couple of months or so ago, and it's not cooperating like the old one did.  When I get it figured out, I will show some pictures of what I've been doing in the fiber world.  Now to get a warp on the Norwood loom I recently got.  I got all the pegs in the sectional beam installed, got a new reed for it, and now I just have to figure out what I want to weave next!  So many choices.  I think I might weave a little lap blanket using all the partial bobbins that have built up, I'm almost out of empty ones, so it would be a good idea to empty all the partials.  It will be a colorful fun addition in either our house or someone else's. 

I got all the cashmere spun up I've had sitting here from the last time I sent some to the mill to be dehaired.  Now I either have to dehair the raw stuff by hand or find another mill to send it to.  I'd really like to get a dehairing machine of my own.  I really enjoyed using the one I had back in 2010-15.  Too bad it used so much electricity that I couldn't use it except on sunny days, which in the winter aren't very plentiful. It was a slow enough operation that I couldn't make enough money to make steady payments on it, so it went to a new home.  I had plenty of other people's cashmere to dehair but just couldn't run the machine enough to make it worthwhile.  I was scrambling to get my own cashmere dehaired before it left.  Off-grid living has a few drawbacks.  Very few, but a few. I wouldn't go back into the grid world though. 

The weather is wild in most of the country this week.  From polar vortexes and blizzards to rain deluges, there is a bit of everything.  Stay warm, stay safe!  Thanks for reading this!  

A few pictures

 I am pretty sure this is a father son duo. They both have odd antlers, one is bigger than the other, and they aren't fighting. I haven't checked the cameras since hunting season ended this last weekend.  I hope they both survived. 

We now have about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  The mucky goat pen finally froze. Our neighbor has plowed the road for the first time.  He did such a nice job! I did our driveway and the trails around here. Plowed with the atv, snowblower, and shovel. Wrestling with the snowblower is hard work.  My shoulders and back are complaining today, or they were this morning. It's always the 3rd day after an activity that the body is the sorest it seems.  

The 4wd drive went out on the pickup a week ago.  We had an appointment with the mechanic yesterday.  I made it down the mountain and to the shop in 2wd Tuesday evening.  The roads were a bit icy till I got to the highway, then everything was bare and wet.  We got it back today. Luckily the part was under warranty, so we only had the labor charge to pay. Whew!  It's nice to have the pickup back.  It's starting to show its age (1998), but it still runs good.  If it can get to 300k miles, then I will be ready to get something a bit newer.  The body on this one is really starting to fail in places.  Only have about 20k miles to go, so sometime next year I might be getting a different truck.  We shall see.

Since I am no longer posting on Instagram or other social media, I seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.  I haven't sold a single handmade item all year.  Just some goats.  I do still have my Go Imagine shop, but nothing is happening.  Etsy wasn't working well for me anymore.  I wasn't willing to lower my prices to match all the cheap imported stuff.  I did, and still do, offer free shipping on everything in my shop. 

 Times are changing, people are changing, the whole world is changing!  I do think next year is going to be a whole lot different than this one has been.  A ton of things are happening behind the scenes that we aren't aware of and won't be aware of for a while.  The next few weeks are going to be very interesting, I think. It's rather an exciting time to be alive and witnessing all of it! 

Thanks for reading this.  Have a great day!