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.