Pygora Kids Update

Lots of information about the kids and their parents has been added to the Pygora Goats for Sale Page.  There's still more to add: I want to say more about my herd in general, and to add helpful information about Pygora fiber and what the individual micron counts mean.

I always miss the best photo opportunities, but here's a keeper from this morning:

Kids and Tina 04-10-13

Pygora Babies

The babies started arriving 22 March.  Tina had a set of twins on that day, and Tulip delivered 23 March.  I had planned for kids to arrive late April/early May but my buck had different plans and his persistence paid off!  So far, it's all boys!  They have been disbudded already; neutering will be postponed.

Tina's Kids

It's likely that any kids that Lily produces will arrive on my schedule: late April/early May.  More details will appear on the Pygora Goats for Sale Page.

Tulip and Kids

A Pause...

During the last few months I've been reflecting on things and re-examining priorities.  Available time has been channeled into addressing the fact that a slow economy is turning my studio into a warehouse.  This can be ok up to a point.  When it gets hard to find things, there's no place to work on projects, and only narrow paths wind through equipment and wool, the situation is out of hand. 

I hadn't sold raw fleeces in years.  But since I have far too much clean, carded wool waiting to be dyed or sold as is,  I decided to sell the results of the last shearing at a very reasonable price in the Fleece Market forum on Ravelry.   Fleeces have been making their way to California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Canada.  I've also started listing roving in the same forum.  These listings will continue until I can move around a little in my studio!  I've added a page, listed on the sidebar of this blog, for photos of fiber that is for sale.  If you're interested and don't see the link it may be because you're reading this in Google Reader and haven't actually clicked through to this blog.  Click away!

It's not just a wool problem: I have more fiber equipment than I need.  So I'm looking with a critical eye at the equipment situation.  The Wolf Pup went to the home of a new weaver this week and The Big Wave will hopefully go to its new owner this weekend.  I'm trying to get to the point where my equipment better reflects the type of fiber work that I enjoy doing.  Not an easy goal for me!

I don't enjoy blogs that skimp on photos so it's time for one:

Japanese Indigo

I decided early this spring to dip try some dyeing with plant materials.  This is a small patch of Japanese Indigo, started from seed in my sunroom.  This month I'll be taking a three day workshop on the subject of natural dyeing at New England Weavers Seminar; indigo dyeing will one of the subjects covered in the workshop.

Finally, here's a farm shot of a few girls in my small kitchen flock.

Kitchen flock

And if you've stuck it out this far, you might enjoy a little video of my backyard chickens, produced a couple of weeks ago with my iPad:  Free-range chickens

Sojourner Design roving at WEBS

A couple of weeks ago I replenished the stock of Sojourner Design roving at WEBS.  It's always fun to stop by the store with a basket load of brand new colors... and even more fun to walk back out with an empty basket!  (If your plans involve a trip to WEBS, please look for my roving.)  But the MOST fun was visiting the WEBS Yarn Store Blog yesterday and seeing a photo of my roving along with a ball of yarn spun from it!

Chicken House on Wheels

Yesterday I captured an annual farm activity here:  my chickens' change of address from their winter  quarters to their summer house on wheels.  From now until sometime in October, they will lbe backyard nomads.  Every few days the house will be moved and the portable fencing will re-installed, providing them with fresh hunting grounds.  The house was built on an old trailer from wood framing and metal roofing, and can be hitched to my ATV.
After moving the chickens out, it was time to clean out a winter's worth of dust and debris.  It all got shoveled into the bucket of my husband's tractor and was deposited in our compost pit where it will mix with grass clippings, kitchen waste, etc.  This is very dusty work.

The photo is overexposed because the sun was streaming into the house... but it's clear that there was a need for cleaning!

And here's why: the fleeces from the last shearing in late February had been temporarily stored in the barn basement.  It was time to get them into a more suitable storage space.  I choose to store my raw fleeces in plastic bags.  The bags are left open for ventilation and are placed on temporary shelves constructed from cattle panels (metal fence sections) to facilitate good air circulation.  They will now be steps from my basement door, enabling me to pull out a fleece and get it sorted and ready for processing whenever I have the time to do so.  By midsummer they will all be sorted, skirted, and ready to deliver to the fellows at Twist of Fate Spinnery for washing and carding.

This whole process of moving chickens out and fleeces in has developed a rhythm and is a spring ritual!

New Fiber... On The Hoof!

My new herd sire... hard to believe this cute little guy will soon be a stinky billy goat!

 They’re here!

A truck and livestock trailer that had travelled a long long way rolled into my driveway today and we scooped up four little fiber babies. They are Pygora goats, six months in age, from Hawks Mountain Farm in Oregon. Pygora goats are a breed that combines the fiber length of Angora goats with the downy undercoat, stature, and temperment of Pygmy goats.

The doelings.  Don't you love those ears?

Pygora goats can have fiber ranging from soft kid-like mohair ringlets to cashmere; each goat ideally produces one type of fiber along this continuum. The fiber from Pygora goats remains soft as the goat ages. More information about the breed and fiber can be found here and here.

I have started my little Pygora herd with three doelings and one buckling. My intention is to have an easy-keeping herd of yard care experts traveling between our house and that of our neighbor (thus, the portable goat house), and to breed these goats when they are old enough.

Conferring about the new digs

Why did I purchase THESE Pygora goats and incur the cost of shipping them all the way across the U.S.?  Especially when it's so important to support local agriculture?  The easy answer is that there are few Pygora goats locally so I knew I would need to go some distance to buy.


But there's more to it...Hawks Mountain Ranch is another farm that has certified status in the USDA Voluntary Scrapie program. As long as I maintain my own certified status, any future kids sold here will be certified free of Scrapie as they leave the farm.   I've known about Lisa from Hawks Mountain Ranch for years and have been aware of her dedication the breed.  I wanted to support that dedication and have the best genetics possible for this little herd.

Oh what a fleece.

More to follow!  Please feel free to comment by clicking on the  comment link below.

Getting Ready...

We needed a portable shelter for the mystery critters.  Here is my husband Bill creating the shelter from a primitive sketch I had given him:

Starting on the frame

Starting on the uprights

Looks like a roof

Time to add siding

Looking great

Today I pulled it to its first location with my ATV; now all we need are the mystery animals!

Certified...

Sojourner Farm: MA #14

I am pleased to share the fact that my flock has been certified as a scrapie-free flock, effective 06-19-10, in the voluntary scrapie program conducted by APHIS (Animal and Plant Inspection Service).

Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. The USDA would like to eradicate scrapie in US flocks because its presence decreases the economic viability of flocks and prevents the exportation of sheep to some countries. More information about this disease can be found here; click on Fact sheet (PDF) in the Related Topics column to the right for a brief overview of the disease

Farms participating in the voluntary scrapie program have annual inspections by a USDA veterinarian. Farms that have been found to be scrapie-free for five years and whose animals have not been exposed to potentially infected animals obtain and maintain certified status.

I’ve been in the program since 2001 but the addition of sheep from farms that were not certified has set me back in the program twice.

I do not sell sheep for breeding stock, so why am I doing this? Back in 2001 I wasn’t clear about my goals for this flock. At this point my sheep are a motley crew comprising a fiber flock and I do not sell breeding stock.Yet...the USDA vet tells me that it’s still good to be certified because it contributes to the overall health of sheep in this country.

Glad to know that, but it doesn’t really have any impact right now on my little operation.

However, as alluded to earlier this summer, there will be some new arrivals in September and being a scrapie-certified farm will carry a little more weight here in the future.  More to follow...

Summer is ending.  On my morning walk with the dogs I looked for hints from Mother Nature that this is so.  Hope you enjoy these photos, as well as Dar William's melodic poem about this time of turning.  If you right click or control click you'll be able to switch back to this tab and enjoy the photos while Dar sings.

                                                End of the Summer
                                  by Dar Williams

I don't know what this plant is, but at this time of summer its flowers create a pink haze that captures the morning dew like tiny diamonds.

The Staghorn Sumac leaves have just begun to turn; soon they will be brilliant ruby.

Some, more enterprising souls than me, make a sort of lemonade from the fruits of the Staghorn Sumac.

Goldenrod, a flower that yields lasting color on wool.

Wild grapes.  The sheep love them!

 Thanks to my daughter Amanda for reminding me about Dar Williams.

What signs of summer's passing are you seeing?   Please click on the word comment below to share your thoughts.