Snapshot before shearing

Snapshot was a bottle kid so it was easy to pick her first to shear out of the yearlings, since she is always under my feet. Blaze, her mother decided to stop eating about 5 days after her kids were born last spring, so her milk started drying up, I put her twins on bottles of goat milk from Tanner, after about a week Blaze started slowly eating and recovered. Sometimes having twins and triplets just takes too much out of the mother, even if she is fed well. Snapshot's fleece was a soft long lock about 6" long with an inch of blonde tip, but the other five inches are chocolate brown. Blaze has always been one of my favorite fleeces for spinning yarn for my shawls and now that she is getting older and retired, Snapshot can provide the mohair I need.

Afterwards

With all the hair coverage, I had forgotten Snapshot had a couple of white markings, just like her mother Blaze. I think Henna, Blazes mother, passed this trait on to every kid she had, and so has Blaze and her daughters. I was surprised to see Snapshot in such good condition considering the hot summer we had. It can be hard for growing kids and lambs to gain wait and grow in such heat, the yearlings have fared well.

Can't stop grinning

I think the sheep and goats are grinning, and I know I am, we love this weather, and no, I will never tire of it. Worked the afternoon in the gallery and came home to find a hen had hatched new chicks. She made it to the lambing-kidding barn and was just sitting there  on the ground. I cleaned out the chick waterer then made fresh chick starter of crumbled biscuits, egg yolk, egg shell, grits, corn meal, oat meal. Popped a pen up around them to keep the goats and dogs from stepping on them in the night. Hope the kittens don't try to catch them. This cool weather is making everyone hungry, the big hay stack is almost gone and the grain is going fast.

Everyone enjoyed the afternoon

The dogs and goats have stopped digging holes looking for a cool spot to lay in. You could actually see the sheep, goats and dogs out in the daytime enjoying the day. Wag loved sleeping in the sunshine. I managed to get in a few dye pots, skirt and a soak a fleece. Some of the leaves are turning yellow, the hickory and sweet gums, no orange or red yet, maybe the rain we had will bring them on.

Fallish day

Today was a perfect weather day, very fallish. Wanted to take some time off to enjoy it, but instead I enjoyed working in nice weather. It does make a difference when you work outside. Spent most of the day working on fences to keep the billies in. You could hold back a hurricane easier than a billy goat. No fence is ever strong enough. I've had bulls, rams and been around stallions, none of them are as strong as a billy goat. Hope they hold.

Sunday morning

Woke up at 4:30 Sunday morning, worried about Miracle. Miracle is a bottle raised doe that prefers to live with sheep because when she was a kid I turned her in with the ewes and lambs instead of the does and kids. She bonded with Midnight. Goats are mean to little ones that have no mother to protect them. So Miracle got along with the sheep and now thinks she is the boss sheep and likes to butt them, especially Midnight. Sheep don't always get in the barn when a storm comes, until it gets bad. Goats hate to get wet. I went out to find her, she wasn't standing at the gate and she wasn't in the sheep barn, after much searching and calling she came out from under a small stand of trees just before the bottom fell out. We made it to the hay barn and she spent the night there.

Shot of the gallery

Finally remembered to take a photo of part of my display at the art gallery. Sales are picking up, just small items like roving and dyed locks for spinners and felters. My other space needs replenished, so I am working on that tomorrow. I'll be taking my wheel and loom to the gallery next week to help bring in customers. Had a good time at the guild meeting today, the crowd was way off, but it is good to see two footed fiber friends at least once a month, and talk to something other than a sheep or goat. The bucks mostly get yelled at to get away from me and the does hardly ever speak to me, just want chin rubs. After unloading the fiber from my truck I hooked my trailer to the truck, went to the billy goat farm and loaded them up and brought them home. They need sheared, some need banded, and some need sold. I hope they don't tear the fences down before I get it all done.

Sweet Pea

The Peachtree Handspinner's Guild meeting is coming up fast and I have been working on wool and mohair all week. Nancy came out today and we got a good deal of carded roving and some picked fleeces to offer. A lot of natural and natural colored rovings this month with a few soft fall colors. Everything is home grown and handmade from start to finish, fiber doesn't come on the UPS truck, not even sent off to be processed. Many, many hours go into my product. All my fiber is born here, shorn, washed, dyed sometimes, picked and carded into roving. Grown locally and made in the USA that supports a small farm of wool sheep and angora goats. The following pictures of some of the farm hands that work hard to produce natural grown fiber.

Silkie's Sister

Silkie's sister's fleece is just as silkie as her sisters. Say that ten times. A BFL-Cotswold ewe but feels like yearling mohair, only easier to spin.

Sunny Wether

Sunny Wether, Cormo-BFL-Corriedale cross, will provide very soft roving for next to the skin yarn or felt. Sunny, has tons of fleece to offer the discriminating fiber artist.

And eggs

Some of the hens and pullets are still laying so I will be bringing fresh eggs, from free ranging chickens. The chickens are enjoying grasshopper season. And a lot of people have compained about army worms eating their grass and pastures, chickens can solve that problem for you, not pesticides.

Cotton picking time

It's cotton picking time in Dixie. The cotton is fluffy and white this year, hopefully a good grade, the yield is not as good as usual, due to the drought. But the price of cotton per pound is up. That's the law of farming. If you have a good crop the price is low. If you have a bad crop the price is up. Either way, you just make a living farming, in the lucky years.

Cotton picker

This is a cotton picker picking cotton.

Module builder

Module builder hooked behind tractor, cotton picker, on left, dumping cotton in module builder, module builder packs cotton into a module.

Cotton module

The module builder makes this module, about 14 bales of cotton in one module, a bale of cotton is about 480#. A module truck from the cotton gin picks up the module and takes it to the gin to be ginned.

Back to normal

Today was back to normal and I got a lot accomplished. It took to 11 am to feed and water and check on the stock. Found a place to put the lattice panels left over from the festival. Shelled butterbeans, blanched them and froze 2 packs, cooked a whole chicken for chicken salad, made chicken-vegetable soup with the broth, found a dozen and a half eggs, picked okra, few tomatoes, peppers and muscadines. Baked cookies. Picked a BFL-Cotswold fleece and hope to run the carder tonight after it cools down a bit.

Two days of art festival

Two days in extreme heat was not a good time to sell wool and mohair. There were plenty of lookers and talkers and hopefully they will come to the farm to shop when the weather is cooler.  I met spinners, knitters, doll makers, felters and weavers in my area so it was a good way to meet other artists that are looking for supplies and talk about what we do. Evan and I couldn't wait to get home, unload everything and get the ice cream freezer cranking, it was the only thing that could cool us down. Tomorrow I will be unpacking and washing all the fiber, yarn and finished items that I brought back home to remove the dust, bugs, grass and sticky hands.

Good things coming my way

Being someone's favorite grandparent is a great accomplishment. Magi's school had a grandparent's dinner last evening and what a letter she had posted on the lunchroom wall along with a picture she drew of her and me. All the kids had letters and pictures of their favorite grandparent posted, only Magi's was different from the rest. All the kids wrote about when their grandparents visited and what they did, mostly played video games, watched tv, shopping, popped popcorn. Magi wrote about going to her Nana's goat farm and getting to feed the bottle goats and ride her horse Pennelope while Nana held the rope. I hope when they are my age they will have fond memories of the good old days. Another really good person has come my way, Nancy C. is now a sheep and goat  farm hand. What else can you ask for? After feeding goats  we spent most of the day hand picking a Cormo-BFL fleece, next week we will card the fleece and be ready for the next guild meeting.

Fall lettuce

Evan and I cleaned out the old dill stalks, added compost and worked up this raised bed, planted oak leaf lettuce on Wednesday and by Friday it was out of the ground. Trying to water it daily to keep it cool. I love having something fresh to eat year round. Alex is back from Maine, YAA, the water tanks were ready for scrubbing, she also picked the butter beans and okra. Where else can you find a girl like that? Sad thing is she is going to move to Maine. I'm happy for her. Started the sheep back on a little grain this morning since the weather is cooler, they really don't need it, but sure were happy to get it. They still have some grass to graze and hay free choice.

A day enjoyed

I really enjoyed this day. The weather was right and I got some things that were overdue accomplished. Started with deworming the mama does and kids and a few older does. All the herds need an eye check, that is how I determine if they need wormer. After the morning feeding I went on a walk with the goats in the woods and found a tree loaded with muscadines, after dinner, (lunch), I went back up there and picked about a gallon in a short time. Checked the fences on the way out and finally found where the electric wire was touching a post and has been grounding it, the same place I fixed about a month ago. Now those kids will have to get retrained, one time touching that hot wire and they will learn to stay in. Yearling mohair fleeces are washing and 2 dye pots going, one was an overdye on a scarf that turned out beautiful. Getting my stuff pulled out of containers and repacking for the art festival. Still working on last minute items and trying to figure out how to display it all.

Creek's dry

Yesterday and today have been miserably hot and dry and now the creek is dry, luckily I don't depend on it to water the sheep and goats, but a LOT of wildlife get water from that creek. One of the Sandhill cranes came up to the pond beside the house to water, but it is just a few more days until it is dry. That's when they will travel a mile or so over to Hill's creek for water and some will visit my water tanks down in the bottom pasture, maybe they already are drinking out of them, I know that band of goats is not drinking 150 gallons of water a day. Enjoyed a nice visit with fiber friends Sharon and Cheryl this morning and I hope they enjoy their fiber purchases. Felted three scarves for the art festival and ready to move on to more washing, dyeing, picking and carding, never a boring day here.

Looking for the sheep flock

Wanted to check on the sheep flock this morning, found 12 at the barn, saw a few others on the hill walking away. When I got to their spot no one was there, so I followed a fresh trail over the hill and into the baack pasture, no sheep there either. Followed my trail back to their spot and they were on the hill grazing.

Sheep grazing

The candidate

I've put it off long enough, this little guy was the first kid to be shorn. Evan was here to help me get started, if it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have started. He caught Blazer's buck kid and had him on the trimming stand waiting for me. He also trimmed his hooves and I found out he is an excellent hoof trimmer. Now if I can get him here more often, there are many more to trim. We got 3 kids shorn and our noses were full of mohair fuzz and had to head to the shower. It's time to get the deed done. This is also the busiest time of year for fall harvesting and processing fiber for fall shows. The local art festival is just days away, as usual I am working on scarves and yarn at the last minute. The daylight hours are getting shorter and I'm not able to get everything done before dark so I am keeping a lot of late night hours.

Still beautiful

The weather is still beautiful and so is this fleece from Badger. So busy the last few days, picked up the grandkids, we had a dove shoot, followed by a big dove supper, fried doves, made gravy and tons of biscuits, with everyone bringing a dish or two to share. Everyone had a great time. And the small kids have something to remember. This is a tradition in the South that is disappearing. Fish fries, dove shoots followed by a big supper, ice cream socials, birthday suppers, hog killings, quiltings, any excuse for getting friends and family together for a meal was big in this community. It brings back memories of all the elders that passed this down. Kind of sad, but a good feeling to share with the younger generations. I hope they will have fond memories of their grandparents, that's really all you have when they are gone. I was beyond tired yesterday, cleaned up and washed a mountain of dishes. Hopefully, we get to do it all again next year.

Just about perfect

The weather is just about perfect. It was 61 degrees this morning, gets hot in the afternoon then cools back down. I can live with that. And, I can work in that. This is great skirting and washing fleece weather, just a little breeze and lots of sunshine. I am down to the Blue Face Leicester spring fleeces and a couple more Cormo-BFL cross yearling fleeces, and I'll never get caught up with the mohair. Can't believe all the requests for natural white roving, so that is in the works, and some natural colored. Fine with me, I love to dye fiber but it is time consuming. This kind of weather makes me want to wander, to the mountains to get apples and cider, or check out antique and junk stores, go to art and craft festivals and galleries, but it is good working weather, and I've got to make money for winter hay and feed. So I am back out to work for these sheep and goaties.