Thursday, January 9, 2014

Happy New year 9 days in

  I hope everyone is surviving the wild weather around the country and world!  Here in NW Montana it hasn't been too bad.  We've had a couple of cold spells, then it warms back up into the 20's and 30's again.  There is just enough snow to be winter, but not enough to be a hassle.  I am very grateful for that!

   The cashmere harvest is beginning already!  Seems a little earlier than usual, but the fiber is letting loose, so I'm starting to comb them.  I love this time of year.  The goats are so soft and my hands stay warm while combing, buried in all that wonderful fleece.

  I am sure glad I have LGDs!   We have all kinds of predators around here this year.  A couple of wolves have been seen in the immediate area, although not by me, by the neighbors.  All I ever see is the tracks.  There are a few mountain lions around.  A big Tom and a mama with a couple of cubs.  Those four eat a lot of deer!  We are down to 2 deer up in this area now.  The lions have moved down lower. following the food source.  With the dogs barking all night every night there for a few days, I'm glad the predators have moved on and things have quieted down a bit.  I can sleep again.  Sam does not like deer, so he barks at them, but only until they run off.  A deer has figured out to watch and wait till the dogs are sound asleep during the night, then she sneaks into the garden area.  Sam caught her in there last night, so in her haste to escape, she tore down the upper part of the fence up in the upper garden.  Dang beast!   There really isn't anything to eat except a few dried leaves still hanging on the trees.  There is more food out in the woods and no dogs, but no, she has to come in here.  She sneaks in through the front gate that I have open just a little ways with a piece of baling twine holding it in place so the dogs can come and go.  Now I have to figure out something else to keep her out and yet let the dogs come in.  I'd like to get a picture of her coming in, she must crawl through the opening.  Someday I'm going to get one of those trail cameras and set it up in various places and see what's going on around here.
  A deer got hung up in one of the cattle panels around the dairy weaning pen last night.  It got itself out by itself, bending up the panel pretty good.  I didn't see any blood, or even hair, around there, and there weren't any drag marks in the tracks as it was leaving, so it must not have got hurt, surprisingly enough.  One nice thing about snow, you can tell what's gone on when you're not around.  There are more rabbits and hares around here than I thought, too!

  After adding up my income and expenses, I've come to the conclusion that I either raise my prices, or get out.  Even with selling all the cashmere I wanted to last year, just saving a few ounces for me, I didn't make enough to pay the goat expenses.  Then I started looking around the internet at cashmere prices and found a wide range of prices.  Mine have been in the lower end of things.  Since I don't have an outside job to subsidize this operation, this is a full-time job itself, I need to make the money off of the products I have here on the farm.  I am raising my prices some.

  I also have come up with a new product.  I am making throw pillows out of the tanned goat hides, stuffing them with the waste from the dehairing machine!  (The waste is the guard hair and short bits of fiber that get separated out of the good cashmere as it's going through the machine)   They are pretty cool!  I've only made a couple so far, and they are nice looking.  One side is a tanned hide with the hair on, and the other side is a tanned hide with the hair off.  I'm sewing them by hand since my sewing machine doesn't do leather.  My fingers are a bit tender!  I made a prototype out of the very first hide I ever had tanned, a half cashmere, half dairy cross young wether named Spot.  It turned out pretty good.  I could've put a bit more stuffing in it, but other than that, it's nice.  The second one I made today.  I did put more stuffing in, and it's great!  I can get two pillows out of most of the hides it's looking like.  I don't have very many hides, either, so these are very limited in supply.  
  Now I have a good way to use almost the whole animal.  I've always hated the thought of taking goats to the auction, it's just inhumane to me.  I know it's a necessary part of life to feed the masses, but not for my goats.  Now the ones that don't have a big enough cashmere  yield, or not really great cashmere can still be useful to me.  I can butcher them for meat without them having the stress of leaving the farm. Their last thought is "oh boy, I get some grain to eat!".  I'll have some of the best meat in the world to eat, the dogs will get some bones, and the hides can be used, too!  There are two tanneries here in Kalispell, one does the hide with the hair on, the other one with the hair off.   I finally have a use for all the waste hair out of the dehairing machine, I don't like just taking it to the dump, it seems like such a waste. (No pun intended) ☺   I'm not going to be making a lot of pillows, I don't get rid of many goats in a year, maybe 6 at the most, and there isn't that much waste in the dehairing process,  but at least I have a neat product and another source of income from the goats.  I'll put a picture or two on here pretty soon, once I get a couple more made.

  Well, that's it for now.  Happy 2014!

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