Mohairy Christmas

From all the goats at Dry Creek Naturals.

Another gift of a sunny day

The days of December are usally short, cold and dreary. The last few  warm and sunny days have recharged my batteries. Decided to go ahead and shear the last two kids that have beautiful, long and silky red and black locks of mohair. I heard the wind blowing around 11 last night, since I had a window up, so down to the barn I went to fit a cashmere sweater on them. They were curled up with their mama, chewing their cud. My buckets of dye are ready to be used. My natural dyeing is the same procedure as my acid dyeing. Don't read the books, just do it. I threw in several things, black walnut hulls, pomegranites, mullen, all gathered around the farm this fall, into a bucket and left them. The rain filled the buckets and the tea brewed. I don't heat the stinky dye, just brew. Then strain, then simmer the wool and dye, cool, then simmer some more. I use dyes that have their own mordant, just makes sense to me.

Early Christmas Gift

Pealed down to the tank top while shearing yesterday. Just couldn't pass up a day of shearing when it was so beautiful. It will take a few days for the goats to adjust to the cold. When a fleece is ready to shear, it is time to shear. If I shear now, I can shear again early summer, the heat is harder on animals than the cold. I have plenty of barn space bedded down with straw and free choice hay to eat to keep their insides warm. And if there is a thin goat I trim with scissors leaving an inch of hair. As always they are fed grain in the winter to keep the inside fire burning. And a goat and sheep's temperature is 103-104 degrees, so they are warmer than us to begin with. Thanks to friend Sandy I have a huge bag of thrift store cashmere sweaters to dress the shivering ones in. Imagine giving up a heavy mohair coat for a cashmere sweater, has to feel good.

Character

Goats are loaded with character. Daisy is at the top with many others. Born a triplet, but she was not raised on a bottle, one of her sisters, Petunia was. Petunia is an escape artist, Daisy is just human-like. Goats are definitely different from sheep. Each goat is different from the other. Sheep are like most people, they don't want to be different, they follow the other sheep, and when they don't, they freak out when they get left by the flock. Goats are independent, stubborn and smart. They can be separated from the flock and it's okay. Sheep usually cooperate when caught. Goats will fight you if they don't want to be caught. It takes a few years to understand how a goat thinks. And it has taken quite a few years for the goats to understand how I think things should be done. It's bad to be out smarted by a goat.

Take me home Mama

Felt so bad for the ten goats left on the farm with 25 sheep and the crazy horse. There is still some grass but with the bad weather the goats need a little feed. Impossible with 250-300 pound sheep running over you. Couldn't sleep any longer, so I hooked up the trailer late one evening, pulled up to the gate, all the sheep and goats piled into the corral waiting for feed. I opened the gate just a bit and all ten goats ran out and most jumped on the trailer. Didn't take but a few minutes for the others to figure out the train was leaving and going home. Tiny Dancer and Delilah hated being at that pasture. Since their return they have been curled up in the barn together, with their eyes closed, thinking if she doesn't she us she can't make us go back to that sheep pasture.

On guard

Lots of barking and howling last night, it is the time of year that we hear a lot of coyotes running up and down the creek bed. There are a lot of deer carcasses left behind by hunters and the coyotes are teaching their pups how to survive. Shenandoah and Virginia are staying with the sheep and goats and are already barking when they see or hear another dog. At this small size and age they could easily fall prey themselves, but in the next few months they will grow into a big and loud deterrent. Livestock guardian dogs are mostly all bark and their big size is intimidating to other animals. Not many dogs or coyotes will challenge two working guard dogs on the opposite side of the fence. After patrolling the pasture and playing and digging they can be found in their pen sleeping soundly and safely.

golden days are gone

Looks like our fall is over, it has been the mildest, prettiest  and longest I can remember. Cleaned out the shearing barn yesterday so the younger kids and does and lambs could get in out of the cold rain and frost. They have a barn on the hill pasture but refuse to sleep there, instead  they prefer to just hang outside the gate of the shearing barn waiting to be let in. So after a couple of months I gave in and opened the gate. Goats are stuborn. Extreme weather can take a toll on the young kids, older goats have more fat on them and can usually make it. Sometimes you have to be their parent and make them come in out of the weather.

Shenandoah and Virginia

There are two new guard dogs patrolling the pastures, Maremma pups, Shenandoah and Virginia. Only eight weeks old they are already checking out the perimeter. For some strange reason my sheep and goats are more afraid of a tiny dog than a large dog. Same goes for small children, if it's tiny they run, especially if it has on a hooded coat. It was a long trip to northern Virginia and home again, but these puppies came from working dogs imported from Italy. When looking for a good livestock guardian it is very important that they come from working dogs raised with sheep and goats, not a kennel or a pet. I switched from Great Pyrenees to Maremma because the Maremma is smaller, meaning less hip and leg problems as the dogs age. And the fact that these dogs have not been in this country long enough to be spoiled. These pups are required to live with the sheep and goats not on the back porch.

Plaid Friday

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And I don't fall for black Friday. Don't ruin my holiday with shopping. If I did shop I would follow the smart folks that created Plaid Friday. Buying products made or grown locally will help keep jobs in your town, state or country. It may be a small business but it is somebody's business you are helping stay afloat. Imagine if we buy only products grown or produced in this country. They can be hard to find. But how many jobs could we grow or create. It sounds like a good idea to me, wonder why no one else thought of it. And while I'm on it, how can something like say a bale of cotton is put on a barge to China, ( a barge gets about one mile per 4 gallons of fuel), is made into a shirt, (with buttons that fall off when you take it out of the plastic sleeve) or a pair of pants, ( that have the pockets sewn shut), then gets put back on a barge and makes that many thousands of miles trip back to the USA, how can it sell for $9.99? You better buy 2 or 3 because once you wash it, it will never fit again.

Feels like Thanksgiving

This fall has been the best I can remember in a long while. The weather has been great and the trees did have a lot of color in spite of the drought. To top it off Evan got his first buck and doe providing us with some of the best deer meat ever. I just don't feel like you can have fall and Thanksgiving without fresh meat. I eat fresh vegetables and fruits from the garden all summer, but come fall I want fresh meat, and I prefer deer. You can't buy anything this good and nothing could be better for you.

A different view

It has never happened to me before, in all the years of dealing with bucks in rut. There are 2 different breeding herds, with space between them. I let the outer pasture herd into the barn to eat grain, then ran them back out to pasture, as their were 2 does in that herd in heat. Bucks will fight through fences and tear them down if they come face to face. I thought everything was okay, I went into the dominant buck's pasture. I herd a stampede coming, I saw him out the corner of my eye, but it was fast. He hit me with all he had, I managed to climb over the fence, as he was still eyeing me, I lay on the barn floor, there was no feeling in my right leg for about 30 minutes, then I got up and hobbled about the rest of the morning. After all the morning chores I went to the house and checked my leg. It is twice as big as my left leg, looks like a whole pork tenderloin is strapped to it. The good thing is he didn't hit full force on my knee or bone. The best thing to do is stay off it, which means on my back looking up at the ceiling, I can't take that. The buck will be featured in a middle eastern stew by Saturday.

Are you gonna kiss me or not

The bucks are in with the does and this yearling buck is trying to figure out what to do. Ruben, son of Ruby, has the best handle of any fleece on a buck that I have. He has a lot of hair, very consistant from head to toe, no kemp, very fine fleece, not dark, just a creamy light red. I gave him five does and maybe he will settle down and go to work. Scott the two year old buck in with the larger band of does, has gotten very aggressive and downright serious about his does. Seems all of Ruben's does are coming in heat first and Scott is having a hard time waiting on his girls. I hope the fences hold him for the next weeks.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Lately I have had a few friends to help out with farm chores, fiber processing, marketing, and buying fiber to keep the local fiber farm afloat.  And I appreciate it. Now I'm one of those independent sorts that finds it hard to accept any help, since most of the time I work alone and I just go ahead and do what needs done when it needs done. I can't wait until someone has time to help. Sheep and goats need to be dewormed regular, shorn when the wool is ready, fed on a schedule, barns need cleaned, and all the fiber needs washed, dyed, picked and carded. After all that is done it is time to start again.

Calm before the storm

Barry wrecked my weekend. I was late for Peachtree handspinner's meeting because he was fighting. He was back at it early Sunday morning. He has always been so calm, but now that the does are screaming, he is ripping the place apart. First, I thought it was Tuxedo, so I locked him in the old barn, then I moved Barry because Miracle Gro was really pounding on him, but Barry crawled under the fence and started the fight again. So now he is in isolation and everything has calmed back down, for now. Then I remembered he has Rusty blood in him. His mother is Rusty's daughter, and Rusty could not be contained if there was a doe in heat. Rusty would take his horns and raise the bottom hot wire and crawl under to get to a doe. He was very powerful with that thick neck, but he was a Fabio of angora bucks.

Trailing of the sheep

The sheep were eager to return to their fall pasture. Moved the big horse out first, then opened the gate and they all funneled in. Returned to shut the gate and they had all returned to the old pasture looking for the spot where they bed down for the day. I knew the big horse would chase them, so it was back to get a bucket of feed and call them back down, they came, this time I ran to close the gate. The bottom pasture is their favorite, plenty of space and quiet, and the mini horse loves them.

Shearing

Now that there is relief from the heat I am shearing again. Not all the sheep are so good about standing on the shearing stand, but Sunshine's boy is happy. I have learned not to let the Cormo-BFL crosses wool get so long that it wraps around the drums in the carder. I also have to hand pick the fiber before carding, as the commercial picker makes neps. There is a learning curve with every fiber that you grow, how to breed a good fleece that is all usuable and little skirting ( skirtings are thrown away).  One that is easily shorn (not a lot of wrinkled skin, wrinkles slow you down), not to much dark grease so that it can easily be washed, picked and carded and will be a delight to spin into a yarn that can be knit or woven into clothing that will reflect all the work that the sheep and shepherd have put into it for a year of their life.

Sheep moving about

The sheep have not moved in the daylight for some time now. Completely nocturnal since it is too hot to graze in the sunlight. They did appear on the cloudy cool day for a short while. Can you imagine wearing a wet, wool coat when it is 100 degrees. Sheep don't sweat, they pant, and their heart and lungs can't stay in over drive forever. They will heat stroke if not cooled down. My job is to keep a vigil till this heat passes. Sort out the sheep that is not moving and find out why. Also the time of year to watch for blow flies.

Cat nap day

Cats seem to enjoy everyday, but especially a cool, cloudy day. We did have one such day last week and it felt great, if only we could have more in the 70's days. I would love a cat nap, but since I am so far behind on processing fiber, I spent the afternoon in the shop skirting fleeces for washing. I really enjoy processing good fiber, but I just can't make myself do it when it is 100 degrees in the shade.

Time well spent

Spent just a little time with the kids and lambs at the front pasture, sitting under the oak trees, watching them graze and play. Trinket doesn't like to participate with the other sheep and goats, she prefers to stay to herself and perch on a rock so she can watch them at a distance. Probably because she is so small, hence the name Trinket, she is picked on by the other goats, even her own mother and twin. So it earned her a place with the kids and lambs her size so she can have someone to pick on, until they get older and bigger, and Trinket will never get any bigger.

Cool Blue

It's hard to stay in the garage long enough to do any carding, but this blue Cotswold wool carded easily. I am dyeing any shade of blue since it does make you feel cooler. I'll get back to the reds when the temp drops a bit. Sales of wool and rovings drop off this time of year, guess it just gets too hot to think about wool. Like the heart of winter when I spin by the wood stove, the heart of summer can be spent spinning in front of the AC vent. I feel like I am wasting my day staying in the house, but when it gets brutal best to stay in and not fight it, you can't win. Now, onto the two bushels of tomatoes sitting by the door.

All the pretty horses

When life gets hard for me, ( worrying about all the sheep and goats in the heat and drought), I get quiet. I don't want to talk about it. If you don't say it, it ain't so. But it is a fact that it has been a tough summer and I hope relief is on its way, soon. Meanwhile, the new Gypsy pony, Road Warrior, is happy here at his new home. He has a long road ahead of him until we get where we are going. He enjoys walking in the creek and got his first water hose bath today, he danced around me in circles, but finally gave in and afterwards he felt so good he put on a show of running and bucking. It was pure magic on a hot Georgia Sunday afternoon. Just the thing to take my mind off all my worries. Many, many thanks to my friend Toni for sending this colt into my life.

Creek is almost dry

Magi and I took Pennelope to the creek for a bath. Wasn't much water but she enjoyed the cool water over her back, and the attention she was getting. We also found out her favorite treat is homemade ginger snaps. Pennelope has never cared for the horse treats in a bag, but has been spotted standing at the gate the last several mornings waiting for her cookie.

Still shearing

Got a real shearer out to shear the nine bucks and rams. And I was glad, I am tired and although my bucks are sweet, they are big and can really stretch you out, sometimes I don't spring back so easy and have to pay for it with a pulled muscle. So I am down to 18 more does to shear, most are older does with little hair and they are not hot. I can finish them up a few each morning and stop when it gets hot. By the time I get through shearing it will be time to start again. It just works better for me to shear a few a day and I still have time to do all the many things that have to be done.

Finally

Finally some rain and relief from the heat and humidity, but I know it will be back. The days are long and longer. So I am up early to cook breakfast then out to feed before the sun heats up the earth. It takes a lot of cleaning and filling water tanks and buckets when it is this hot, but I am doing everything to keep all the stock as cool as possible. It is cool at night so they are fine as long as they get a break from the heat. Vaccinated the lambs today, you can almost see lambs growing, they gain weight so fast with all the good milk they get from the ewes and now they are starting to eat a little grain and hay. Got the tails docked during the cool spell last week, they are healing well, so there is something good that came from the dry spell.

Wild things

I have never seen so many wild flowers, every seed must have germinated. This wild yarrow is all over the woods. Picked a bucket full and have it soaking in the dye pots, will heat it up today and see if there is any color to be released. If the rain holds up there will be plenty of plants for natural dyeing. Just be careful where you step, there is an abundance of snakes, ticks and chiggers out there.

Careful where you put your hands

I went to milk Tanner last Sunday evening in her pen. She has twins but still had too much milk for them and needed milked down a bit. I caught her and put the halter on her, but she wouldn't budge, just shaking her head and grunting uh-uh. After struggling with her for a few minutes I looked up to see what she was looking at, and saw this pair of snakes mating on the side of the barn. So, we moved to another spot for our milking. I don't mess with rat or king snakes as they won't harm you and they keep the rats under control. But I did kill a pair of very aggressive water moccasins racing toward me on the pond earlier that day.

Daisy before

Daisy was the last doe to kid and a week behind all the others. I kept a check on her every hour or two the last 48 hours. She was waddling around the last 24 hours in search of the perfect spot to drop her kids. She finally chose the right spot and got started.

Daisy during

One kid out , one to waiting to be born.

Daisy after

Daisy and her new twins, dark red buck and brown doe. Great mom.

Happy sheep

The wool sheep have enjoyed the wonderful and cool May weather. Perfect for growing new fleeces. Still have many goats and a few more sheep to shear before summer arrives. I am thankful we have had great spring weather here, so many haven't been so fortunate. Took advantage of the cool temperature to get everybody in to be wormed this week, it is time for parasite season to begin. Something the shepherd has to stay on top of, I will be watching everyone closely and bringing them in more often to be checked. I have been top dressing my feed with DE and it seems to be helping, it doesn't mean you can stop treating for parasites, but it might stretch out the worming schedule. A top quality fleece comes from a parasite free sheep or goat.

Pandora

After a day of pacing and up and down, up and down, Pandora decided to have her twins about 1:30 this morning, it was pretty exhausting waiting on her, I know how fathers feel. The birth was normal with average size ram lambs, both healthy. She is the best cleaner upper with that rough tongue until they were washed white as snow and talking to them all the while. They were up within minutes to get a drink of colostrum, she has plenty. Every cat and chicken that comes near her is chased back out of the pasture. Very protective, she worked hard for those lambs.

Busy week

I thought Badger was going down on me Sunday night, she just wanted to lye stretched out in the barn in front of the fan. She would eat her grain but was not interested in grazing. I was sure she was going down with ketosis and had at least triplets in her, so I started her on Sheep drench and propylene glycol, she felt better right away. But, I was shocked when she lambed Monday afternoon, it was a 17 pound ram lamb that was making her uncomfortable. He was covered in yellow amniotic fluid that shows how stressed he was trying to get out. Mom was a bit stressed too.

What's time to a goat?

What's time to a goat? We had no storm damage Wednesday night, just a little rain and wind. But it looked like we were going to be hit by the tornado. It was a beautiful morning after, cool, sunny and pleasant, so I decided to take a little bit of my day and spend it with the goats in the top pasture, just watching them graze and grow mohair. It was not wasted time, I checked the condition of the pasture, the fence and the goats while enjoying the beauty of the day. It was time very well spent.

Scenic View

Pasture Scene

Tara's kid

As always, I was nervous waiting on Tara to kid. I usually go down to the barn and she has twins waiting for me. I noticed that morning she looked dropped and then she left the flock and went back to the barn to be alone. While lying down in front of the fan  I could tell she was starting to have contractions. After lunch she was standing in the back pen with hard contractions but had not passed a water bag or started hard labor. About 4 oclock she passed the water bag, was lying down and pushing hard and started sceaming. I went in to check her and one foot was turned under, so I cupped my hand under it and flipped it up, in just a few more strains she had it out. A very nice big black buck kid.

First drink

On his feet fast to get that first drink of colostrum.

S l o w fiber

Part of the slow movement is my shearing. Everyone asks how long does it take you to shear a goat or sheep. What difference does it make? There is no prize for killing yourself trying to get everyone shorn in one day. It is an experience between the shearer (also shepherd in my case,) and the goat or sheep. First I select the animal that is ready to shear, I can tell by looking at them if the fleece has just the right bloom, called halo in mohair. That's the day that fleece needs to be shorn, if you have to wait for weeks or months for a shearer to come by, that bloom is lost, it turns to felt, matted, stuck to the skin and then shedded, then thrown away. After I wrangle the goat onto the stand it takes much time to pick out the fleece for any hay, straw or sweet gum balls that may be hitching a ride. Some animals must never lay down as they are spotless, then there are the pigs that roll on their backs until the fleece is useless except for mulch to fill up all the washes created by all the heavy rains. After they are shorn, they are given a physical check up, hooves trimmed, deloused, wormed, vaccinated if needed and given a kiss if they are one of my pets raised on a bottle. If they are mean, try to stomp, bite, kick, or horn me, they probably will get an ear full of choice words, like I am going to put you in the truck to Mexico.

Morning sun

It was a little chilly last week when Daisy, Tara and India were shorn, but they really enjoyed getting their mohair coats removed and deloused. It was good to see that they were in good condition and making really nice milk bags. They are probably carrying twins, Daisy worries me as she was a triplet, triplets begat triplets, most of the time. When I went to feed the next morning they were soaking up the sun that was beaming through the barn window.

Water Pony

Pennelope was happy to move with the older does to the pond pasture. She has bonded with this flock and gets along with everybody, even K the Pyrenees tolerates her. She is very careful about not stepping on anyone while they are resting. She spent the day digging out the pond, better that than the water tanks.

Head em up, move um out

It all went smooth this morning, moved the sheep to the bottom pasture, the does at the bottom to the side pasture, and the does at the side pasture to the pond pasture. Everyone was ready for a fresh pasture so they all cooperated with us. I moved the younger does into the big barn to be shorn first, their mohair is longer and better quality, than the older does, so I will start on them, hopefully tomorrow. I don't like to shear too early in the spring because the mohair will grow fast and they will be hot again by August. It helps moving go smoothly when there is a bottle baby in the herd. They always follow me, their mama, and the rest of the flock trails behind, my reasoning for keeping all the annoying bottle raised kids.

Shadow

Shearing has begun again with Shadow the first to be relieved of all that winter hair. Shadow is a very sweet and friendly doe, with tons of very soft and silky hair. She can hold her own with the older does she lives with, this group gets extra feed. The older and the younger get a little more grain to keep some extra fat on them, if that is possible in a goat. They live in a  barn with a small pasture close to the house, making it easier to keep up with them, the young and the old can get lost or tangled in briars sometimes. After shearing it was clear to see Shadow had wintered well.

Finally made it to the top

Spent three days shoveling and hauling but we got the big barn clean. Rented an excavator that dug down two feet deep to loosen all the years of hay, straw and poop. Then we spread a layer of DE and lime, turned on the fan to dry things down, hauled three loads of pine straw and leaves from the woods to cover the floor, kind of antibacterial. Looks so inviting, like living in the woods with a cover overhead. I will have to put down a layer of fresh straw but will wait a few days to let the ground  breathe.  I'll let the pile compost for several months, then spread on the pastures. Chickens are upset, all their nests were cleaned out.

What sheep do

, This is what the sheep were doing while I fed, watered, hayed, and started cleaning the big barn, and hauled and scattered the goodies up on higher ground. I do all those things and they grow wool under the shade trees, some of them grow wool and lambs. I've always wondered why they couldn't do something to help out in all their spare time, like spin or knit their own wool while ruminating under a shade tree. Sure would take the load off me.

Feel good fibers

Fiber grown and processed in a positive environment of contented sheep and goats makes feel good fibers. Not only are they fed and cared for by a gentle hand, they have secure pasture with space to rest and sleep,  and  good shelter from the storms that come. Stress can take a toll on good fiber, so it is important to stay on a schedule of feeding, watering, worming, shearing, hoof trimming, etc. Today is the day of the big barn cleaning, it may take several days, but it is a major part of growing good fiber and keeping it clean. Another factor in the cost of growing feel good fibers.

Spring tonic

Ready for my spring tonic. I picked Poke Salad greens for me and wild greens for the goats. They come running when I bring the pine boughs, sweet gum, privet, honeysuckle, vetch and wild grasses. I know it makes them feel good as it does me. This time of year I am tired of winter food, canned and frozen vegetables or heavy fried meat, I am ready for something fresh and green. I have enjoyed fresh eggs every morning for the past few months, now fresh greens for dinner. Just a few more months of waiting for that first home grown tomato.

Handspinners and Friends

Friends David and Martha and lots of handspinners from North Carolina came for a fiber farm and woolen mill tour. It was a beautiful day and well spent visiting and talking about fiber and fiber animals. Everyday is a workday here so I am happy to take a break and enjoy the company of other fiber producers and handspinners.

The story

There is a story in every birth, the fiber that is shorn, the yarn that is spun, the garment that is made. Every sheep and goat has a name and a face that I recognize. To produce such a fine fiber they have to be well care for. It is a labor of love between ewe and lamb, doe and kid, sheep and shepherd. When you touch the finished product you can feel the months of feeding and care, you can see the many hours of washing, carding, spinning, knitting, weaving or felting. You can feel the difference of fibers that are alive.

Sleep tight

Worried

I didn't sleep at all Tuesday night during the thunder storm and rain. I had turned Pennelope out that evening with the goats, on the backside of the barn, and with Kay, the Pyrenees. I could just imagine Kay barking at Pennelope, who would be trying to get in the barn and out of the storm, and all the goats running to the top of the hill, to escape the horse monster. The goats, and the dog, on that side of the pasture have never been pastured with a mini horse and usually won't go near the barn when a horse can be smelled. I ran to the barn early the next morning to find everyone sound asleep, even Kay.