Some Pictures Finally!

Here are a couple of scarves I've crocheted since the beginning of the year.  The blue one is cotton, and the colorful one is kid mohair.  So soft! I spun it from some roving I bought from a farm over by Helena a few years ago. 

Skippy is having fun in the snow we had back on the 14th of this month. He loves playing in the snow and rolling around in it.  I call it getting a "snow bath" when he rolls in it.  

We had a dusting of snow last night.  It's all gone now.  It's supposed to get down into the low 20s tonight; I hope the plants all survive!  Everything is starting to grow, even though it's a good month early around here. 

 I figured out how to get photos on here! I downloaded the app onto my phone, put the pictures on here, then got on the computer to write the text.  I couldn't get the text to show up after I uploaded the pictures on here on my phone. So, I'll do it this way for now.  At least I can post pictures now.

I'm making progress on combing the goats.  Only have 10 (I think) left.  Tomorrow I will do at least a couple of them. I think tonight is the last cold night, so they should all let loose of their fleece now. It's good they don't all shed at the same time, or I'd be overwhelmed by the combing.  

Well, that's it for now.  Thanks for reading this and I hope you are having a great day!     

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! 

Winter Might Be Here Now

 After a fairly mild autumn, we are getting a dose of winter that looks like it's going to last for a while. Single digits overnight on Saturday!  The ground will finally freeze in the goat pen muck.  I am really looking forward to that.  We got a couple of inches of snow overnight last night.  Made for an interesting trip into the valley to get yet another bale of hay.  We could get at least 6 more inches over the weekend starting on T-Day and into the weekend. Although I've come to expect more than what they forecast. Last night was only supposed to be a half inch, 2" later...

The 4wd went out on the truck the other day, so it was a 2wd trip down the mountain and into the valley today.  I went diagonal a couple of times going down the forest service road, it's a bit icy with all the hunter traffic on it, plus the people that live up here.  The county road was icy off and on all the way to Kila. A slow trip to the highway.  At least the highway was bare and wet.  Coming home with the big bale of hay was better. All that weight (1200 lbs) made a big difference.  Although I did slip once down near the bottom of the forest service road coming home.  The steep hill that is our driveway was actually ok, I got a good run at it and made it all the way to the top without a problem. 

Skippy's new way to have fun is to take a flying leap into the back of the truck and slide into the front of the bed, then slip and slide back out and do it all over again.  Silly dog.  The first time he did that, the slipperiness caught him by surprise, and he whacked his jaw pretty good on the wheel well when he slipped.  He looked at me like I made him slip and I told him he did that all by himself.  So, he jumped back out and did it all over again.  Goof ball.  He has learned the word "treat" really fast.  Whenever he's starting to take off away from us when we're out working and he's with us, we call out "Skippy, treat" and he comes running.  He gets a little piece of jerky for dogs.  It's a high quality, no chemicals or icky things in it, bag of jerky. He really likes them. Now if I could just trust him not to chase the guineas or the goats, he could be out of his pen all the time instead of just when we are out.  We put up an electric wire around the yard and driveway fence, which he's touched a few times, so he's not getting close to the fence anymore.  

A bit of sad news. Ivory, my ugly duckling goat, died on Saturday.  She was my hard luck goat, always near the bottom of the pecking order, so she was always having to dodge the other goats.  Had both her horns broke off about 5 inches from her head at different times.  Blood on a white goat really stands out!   Her eyes were "bug eyed" so she always had runny eyes. She was 10 years old.  She had the nicest cashmere, fine micron even this year.  She only had one daughter, who also has nice cashmere.  I kept her. She's better looking than her mom. I could never keep a collar on Ivory. She somehow got every one of them off.  I do not know how she did that, unless Miracle (her daughter) somehow unbuckled them.  One less goat here now.  I'm down to 21 cashmere goats.  

I got my weaving and spinning mojo back!  For the last couple of months or so, I just haven't felt like doing much of either, had to force myself to do the weaving. I am going to get that table loom warp done by the end of this month! It's only been on there since May.  Sunday I all of a sudden got the urge to get back to weaving and spinning.  I got one ounce of cashmere singles spun and worked on the loom and actually got a good amount of weaving in.  Ideas for what to make with the cloth I've woven are popping into my head, too.  Some experimenting is going to be happening.  Now that it looks like outside projects are done till spring, it's time to get fibery again!  I will post pictures of the things I make coming up.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day to the folks celebrating it.  I have a lot to be thankful for this year; it's been a pretty good year despite a few interesting times. Stay safe out there, it looks like a wild weather week for most of the country again. 

Checking Things off the List

 It's almost that time of year to start the combing of the cashmere already! I can't tell from this angle who this is, it's an older picture, but they were ready to be combed, whoever it was.  

I got the dairy barn all cleaned out yesterday, new shavings and straw installed. Goats are THE biggest wasters of hay I've ever seen, especially dairy goats.  If it's touched the ground, it's inedible.  It seems the more goats there are eating in the same pen, the less hay gets wasted.  The cashmeres don't waste nearly the amount the two dairy does do. The 5 dairy kids aren't quite as bad. But, since we drink their milk raw, I guess wanting to only eat very clean food is a good thing, less things and flavors to get into the milk.  Since I keep the buck on the other side of the place from the girls, their milk is very good.  Nice and sweet tasting, no off flavors at all.  Back when I entered the fair every year, the milk and other products I entered always got a blue ribbon.  It doesn't taste "goaty" at all.

We have had a very mild fall so far.  We've had a couple of snowstorms, but it warmed up and melted away within a day or two and it's been just occasional rain since. That means the main goat pen is a mucky mess where I come out from the hayshed and into the feeding area.  Next year things are going to get really changed around out there.  I am tired of dealing with the mud and muck.  Luckily the majority of the pen is dry, it's just the flat areas where it's gross.  But of course, the flat areas are where I want to do the feeding and have the feeders set up.  I've had to move those a bit, so they aren't in a swamp while eating.

We still have a container of flowers blooming by the front door!  I have a bed of spinach, Swiss chard and lettuce that I'm still harvesting from.  The plants aren't really growing anymore, but the leaves are still green and edible. The spinach and chard, and maybe the one variety of lettuce, should come up in the spring and take off, enabling us to have early greens to eat next year.  

I seem to have a never-ending warp on my table loom.  I keep thinking the end should be coming over the back beam every time I advance it, but it still has a ways to go.  I don't remember how long it was when I put it on, but I didn't think it was this long. 

The only thing I have left to do on my outside list is finish trimming all the goat hooves.  I'm about halfway through them.  It sure is taking me a long time to get back in shape after being injured and not able to do a whole lot for over a year!  I just don't bounce back like I used to.  I'm getting stronger, though, slowly but surely.  I must say, except for the mud issue, I am enjoying the relatively mild fall we are having.  It's nice being able to get things finished up outside and actually be ready for winter to come. 

The outside world is pretty wild these days, but around here, life is going on as usual, more or less. This year is going by at a rapid rate; it's almost Thanksgiving already!  Seems like it was just Christmas a month or so ago. 

Well, it's time to go out and feed again.  The days are getting quite short; the sun is setting before 5 pm these days.  Hope you are doing well and enjoying life, it's an amazing time to be alive!  

Weaving

 Now that the gardening is almost done, and the goats are almost all trimmed, it's about time to get back to weaving again.  I can see the end of the warp on the table loom, the same warp that's been on the loom since May. After I get that done, I am going to get the Norwood all set up and get a warp on it.  

I've been making just long lengths of cloth with the last few weaving projects.  Once I get this latest one off, I am going to experiment with sewing up a top or two, or maybe a ruana, or even just a poncho or two.  Then I am going to start weaving with the cashmere yarn I've spun up. I think I have enough to actually weave a shawl.  We'll see.  

I've been contemplating getting a mini Nubian dairy goat buck so I can breed the two doelings out of Toffee and Sprinkles next year.  That will make quite a mixed breed baby!  Sprinkles and Toffee have about 1/3 meat goat breeds in them, so they aren't the greatest of dairy goats. Their kids are out of a mini Alpine buck, so they are more dairy than their moms. I could just get a couple of purebred dairy does and have a lot of milk again, but I'm going to do this the long way around.

Since today was Veterans Day, I would like to thank all the veterans out there for your service. I have a couple in my family, some friends that served in various branches of the military, and John's nieces' husband is in there now.  

With all the solar/cosmic energies coming our way, the earthquakes and volcanos building up for big things, I think life as we know it is about to change.  Be prepared for anything going forward.  We are living through the most amazing times that our planet has ever been in.  Exciting times for humanity!  

Hope the weather is not too drastic where you are.       

 A deer checking out the trail camera at the beginning of this year.  I've got a few pictures of curious deer and their noses right at the camera.  

This is Simon, my Alpine/Nigerian Dwarf dairy buck. He is the hardest thing on fences and his houses.  He loves to butt things, and his horns are about twice as big as what they are in this picture now. He hasn't hurt me at all, he's actually a well-mannered dude, but he sure is hard on his surroundings.  We've rebuilt his house twice now, and I told him this time if he tears it down, he's just going to have to live with it. Dang buck.

 I am truly at a crossroad in my life.  I still love spinning and weaving.  I still love working with the cashmere, both the fiber and the animal. Cashmere goats have the silliest personalities of any of the goats I've ever had, whether that is dairy, meat, or fiber goats.  The kids are the cutest, too. This time of year, I love going out and just petting them, feeling their soft cashmere fleeces and seeing who has the softest fleece this year.  But, after 24 years, I'm kinda getting tired of all the upkeep and feed buying, hay hauling, pen cleaning, etc.  We don't have a tractor, so pen cleaning is done one pitchfork at a time into the atv trailer, hauling it to the compost mountain and unloading it. Living on the side of a mountain is rather scary for using a tractor.  Over the years I've had friends with tractors come up and clean out the pen, and they've all almost tipped over at least once.  I'd like to get a bucket for the ATV, they do make all kinds of implements for them, but they are rather expensive for us, so as of now, it's not happening.  It is on my list of things to get one of these years. I get in a good workout cleaning the pens by hand, but it's getting old, and as I get older, I can't do as many loads a day as I used to.

Since I dropped off social media, this is my only form of it now, and I closed my Etsy shop and moved to Go Imagine, I haven't sold anything for quite a while.  I don't really want to get back on any of the platforms right now.  With the costs of everything going up and up, discretionary spending is going down for most people. Buying something made from cashmere isn't high on anyone's list right now, I don't think. Watching the old systems crumbling is very interesting.  New systems are in the background waiting to come on board, but it's a slow process.  I am very glad we live where we do, and we don't have a huge mountain of debt to deal with.  A few years ago, we did the Dave Ramsey method, and that has worked pretty well, even if we didn't follow it exactly.  We're a long way from being millionaires, but we are comfortable now. I am grateful for everything we have and the way my life is. Most people couldn't live the way we do, but that's ok, I couldn't live the way most people do now, either. :-) It's all good.  I like going and visiting our friends that have big, huge houses, but I couldn't live in them, I'd freeze to death.  I like my little, warm house.  Although all the weaving and spinning (mostly weaving) tools are kinda taking over the place right now. :-)

This fall has been a bit different than usual.  We go from somewhat warm and rainy, to a colder spell and snow, back to warmer and rainy. We got three inches of snow the other day, but now it's calling for rain again. Makes for a mucky, yucky mess in the goat pen. Luckily, it's only in a small area of the pen that is mucky, but it happens to be right where I have to pull the wheelbarrow through to get to the feeders. I will be glad when the ground freezes and the muck is gone for the winter, to be dealt with in the spring again.  Next year we are going to change things up a bit around here, so this isn't an issue anymore.  

Well, that's enough rambling for now. I do hope you all are having a great day, and things are going well in your lives.  Take care everyone!  

Randomness

 Here's a picture of Bitterroot Lake by Marion, MT. A friend has a cabin there and we go visit every once in a while.  The energy of that lake is very peaceful and calming.  At least on their section of it. I don't like going in the summer, too many people on it, but in the Spring and Fall it is wonderful.  

With all the craziness in the world now, the bad weather, hurricane Melissa being the biggest hurricane to ever hit Jamaica, all the storms in this country, it's pretty wild! I am very thankful we live where we do. It's relatively calm most of the time. 

I just had a weird experience with this computer while typing this blog.  It all shut off mid-sentence, then when I turned it back on, it's all sized differently and looks very strange. It's not proportioned properly.  Not sure what's going on now.  It seems to be working ok.  It's a fairly new computer, so there shouldn't be any issues. Very strange...

The dairy does finally came into heat the other day.  Next cycle they will get bred.  April babies will be good.  It's warming up a bit by then. I haven't seen any of the cashmeres come in yet.  Which is fine, since none of them will be getting bred this year.

I got my new loom all set up now.  Yesterday we spent the afternoon re-arranging the living room/studio so everything will fit, kind of.  I seriously need a real studio that is big enough to hold all of the fiber tools and things related to this endeavor.  I got a new reed for the new-to-me loom that came today.  It's nice and shiny and looks good on the loom. Now to figure out a project to weave on it!  

We had another bit of snow on Sunday.  It's mostly melted away now.  I just have a couple more sections of flower beds to clean up before winter and I'll be set.  Then I have to do goat maintenance like hoof trimming. Some of the goats have faster growing hooves than the others.  They are all past due for a good trim. 

 We also put up an electric fence just inside the perimeter fence to see if that will keep the dog at home.  So far, so good.  He touched it once, yelped and doesn't get too close to it now.  We'll see what happens when he hears the neighbor boys out and wants to go play.  Now that Skippy tried to kill their cat, they aren't as keen for him to come over and play. Before they didn't mind him coming, they liked playing with him, but when he didn't listen at all to the mom and went after the cat, that kinda changed things. Which is good, I don't really want him going over there. I don't want him leaving this place at all. 

Well, that's it for now.  I have a lot more I could say about a lot of current events, but I won't.  Sending prayers for all the people affected by the weather events around the planet.  Things are getting pretty wild now, and it will probably get even more wild before it calms down again. Stay safe out there!    

 From snow to good fall weather again, at least till Friday night. Then it's back to rain and snow.  Got a few more garden clean up things to do, then the ground can freeze so the goats aren't walking in muck.  It's actually just a small area of their pen that's mucky, it just happens to be in front of the feeder barn where I have to walk and pull the wheelbarrow through.  I did get it cleaned up a bit, at least the muck is gone in a good-sized trail so we can all go through that area now.  It was only about 3" thick, but it's pure yuk, as any of you know that have livestock on flat ground.  You'd think living on the side of a mountain that wouldn't be an issue, but any little flat spot gathers water. 

We are slowly but surely improving things around here.  Now we are building a shed to put the two atv trailers, plow, grader, wagon, woodchipper and atv in, along with anything that comes along. This will also use up a lot of the metal siding we have around.  A win-win all the way around.  The roof is on, finally at a steep enough angle that the snow will slide off.  I still don't know why all of our roofs are almost flat.  Living in snow country that isn't a good idea.  Last year we did get an electric mini snowblower to use to get the snow off the roofs.  It actually works pretty good! Sure beats shoveling it all off. 

The goats are growing their cashmere nicely.  It's interesting, none of the does are coming into heat. Usually by now, they all have had at least one cycle.  Maybe they listened to me when I told them no babies this year. I did sell the cashmere buck I had.  I still have the dairy buck though, and he's in a pen right beside the cashmeres. Last year all the does were going around him when they came in heat, ignoring the cashmere guy. This year no activity at all.  The only goats I want to get bred this year are the two dairy girls. They aren't showing any signs either.  All the shifting energies must be affecting them, too.  

I got a new-to-me floor loom last Friday!  It's a cherry Norwood 4 harness. I ordered a new 40" reed for it, so when that comes next week, I will get things going on it.  I am going to use it to weave my cashmere on.  I'm always scared to use my big Leclerc Nilus floor loom because it just seems too big and heavy to use on somewhat delicate cashmere. I've always used my rigid heddle looms to weave the cashmere scarves and shawls I've made. A new adventure awaits! :-)  I will post pictures of the things I weave on it.  I still haven't finished the project on the table loom. I do see the end of the warp coming up on the next rotation of the back beam.  Almost there!

I'm spinning a skein of cashmere that I dehaired.  Almost done with the fiber I got back from the mill a couple of years ago.  Then I have going on 5 years of raw fleece to deal with.  I will have enough cashmere to keep me busy for a few years anyway.  I also like weaving cotton and cottolin  kitchen towels, so I have a good collection of those.  One of these days I will put some in my Shop for sale, maybe someone will want one, who knows.  

Well, I think that's all that's going on around here for now.  I got a new phone and I'm still figuring it all out.  I think I got it down.  Except, the Kindle app has none of the 30 some books I have on there!  I can't find them on the Amazon account or anywhere.  Good thing I have them on my actual Kindle. It would be nice to be able to get them back since I did pay for them.  I read the help section, the questions and feedback section, and I didn't see any information on how to get them back.  Just new books that don't download.  Maybe that's a sign to go back to buying the real books printed on paper instead of the digital ones. Who knows.  That's it for now.  Hope you all are having a great day! 

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!