pnfcashmeres.com Blog

Finally the turkeys hatched on Saturday afternoon. 14 of them survived. I found a couple of dead ones in the nest after the hen took the live ones away. 12 eggs didn’t hatch. I sold 10 of the babies, and will keep 4 for Thanksgiving. There is another hen sitting on a nest with probably 3 eggs in it. Hopefully there will be another nest sometime this summer. I’m thinking I should just get an incubator and hatch the babies out that way, but I like letting the hen do all the work. ☺

I had a pretty good first day at the Farmers’ Market. Made $5.00 more this year than last, so that is good. I just about froze to death, though. I had on my long johns, hat, scarf and heavy winter jacket and was still cold by the end of the market. Just standing or sitting in one place without being able to move around much doesn’t lead to keeping very warm. There was just enough of a breeze to make things chilly, too. I hope it warms up pretty soon!

The goat pen is slowing getting cleaned up. We had a young guy come up on Sunday to get compost that was driving a 2wd flatbed truck. It didn’t do well on our road. It had rained/snowed most of the morning, so the mud was slippery on the hill. He didn’t get quite up to the compost pile, so they had to take it shovel by shovel over to the truck from the pile. Then he backed back down the hill and tried to turn around at the bottom and got stuck. I had to get our truck and take it down and pull him back a bit so he could get out. Then as he was leaving, he caught the edge of the bed on the one side of the gate and tore the gate all up. I doubt he’ll be back any time soon. He’s probably so embarrassed that he won’t want to come back. ☺ We don’t hold it against him, though. He just needs to bring his own pick-up next time so it will make it up here. I needed to re-build the gate, anyway, so this will get it done faster, that’s all.

I got the afghan done for Susan. It turned out pretty nice, I think. It was a pattern I made up as I went. I should write it down so I can do it again. Now I can get back to my cashmere spinning. ☺

I have found a way to get rid of the cashmere from last year that didn’t turn out very good when it was processed! I shouldn’t have even spent the money getting it done, but I was expecting miracles from the mill. One should always remember that if you send junk in, you get junk back. It had too much dander in it, the goat’s skins were really dry in 2008. But, it turns out that the hair soaks up oil really well, and there are volunteers down in the Gulf making miles of booms out of all kinds of hair to soak up the oil. So I am donating all the fiber that I don’t want to use to that cause. Hopefully I can have a small part in helping clean up that mess. www.excessaccess.com is the website to sign up to donate all kinds of hair, human and animal.

Since the companies that are to blame for the whole disaster aren’t taking responsibility for it, the cowards, it’s up the people, as usual, to do the dirty work. It’s just another wake up call that oil isn’t the answer any more. It’s time to really get serious about using alternative methods to create the energy. There are plenty of solutions out there just waiting to go, if the Big Oil money wasn’t blocking them. It’s time to change the way we humans do things. I’m not talking about global warming and all of that. There really isn’t a man made cause to the warming of the planet. That is just a planetary cycle that we are in. We just need to take a little better care of this wonderful planet we live on before it’s too late to fix it. Humans need clean air to breathe, clean water and food to eat, to survive. Not toxic everything. Well enough of that! You get the picture, I’m sure.

Now that the rain/snow has stopped for now, it’s time to get back to seriously cleaning out goat pens, and getting the garden ready to plant. Someday it really will warm up enough to start planting things up here! The asparagus is slowly starting to come up. Yum! The strawberry plants are starting to grow a bit. We might get food yet. ☺

Well, that’s it for now, more as it happens…..

I am still waiting for the turkeys to hatch. I don’t know when that is going to happen. Every morning I go check and the two hens just sit there blinking at me.
We have had yucky weather this week again. Wednesday we woke up to 3 inches of snow, which didn’t melt all the way till Thursday late afternoon! Today we were having some snow showers in the afternoon, but it didn’t stick, thank Heavens! Things are slowly growing and turning green.
There is going to be quite a tulip show by the fiber shed if it ever warms up so they can bloom. The bulbs I planted last fall by the battery room are slowly growing. The flowers are pretty small this year. Hope next year they are bigger!
I’ve been making progress on cleaning out the main goat pen. There are some pretty big piles forming in there. I’m making windrows of all the goo, then I will go back in there with the ATV and trailer and start picking it all up and taking it to the compost pile. This fall there will be literally tons of great compost! There are probably at least three big dump truck loads just in the main pen, with about 2 loads in the other pens.
I’m doing all of this by hand. I decided not to rent a tractor after all. I’m paranoid about tipping over, and it’s so wet, the tractor would probably just bog down and get stuck, so I’m shoveling it pitch fork by pitch fork. It will get me in shape for hauling hay later on this summer.
I’m almost done with the afghan for Susan now. Three more rows and it will be done. I think it’s looking pretty darn good. Hope she likes it!
I’m starting to spin cashmere again. I’m almost out of last years’ harvest, so I’m going to have to start washing and preparing this years’ fleeces. I’m about to hatch a new thing here, so I’m getting rather excited about it. I can’t say any more till it’s a done deal, but watch for an announcement pretty soon!
The 18 kids are doing great. Little Carmel, Lucy’s kid, is really becoming my little buddy. She comes up to me and jumps in my lap every time I go out there. So does Lucky. They and their moms are both for sale. I might have a hard time giving them up! They are too cute and friendly. Both of them look like they are going to have nice fiber, too. Oh well, I can’t keep everyone. Now I finally have enough does that I can start to sell some breeding stock, so these two are the first to go. Bridget and Lucy and kids will make someone a really nice little starter herd. They are easy to handle, have good fiber, and the kids are cute! ☺
Tomorrow I am going to the Farmers’ Market for the first time this season. The weather should be decent, if a little cold. So I’m going to wear layers, and stay warm. Hope a lot of customers come! I broke down and ordered some egg cartons tonight, so next week, or whenever they come, I can sell eggs at the market again. A new rule this year says you can’t sell eggs to the public in used cartons. Even though the cartons I use aren’t dirty, look brand new, and have only been used once, they aren’t acceptable. What a waste!! Now I have around a hundred cartons that I can’t use. The government is really getting out of control on things. Treating people like a flock of sheep that can’t make decisions for themselves. We should be able to decide on our own if we want to buy eggs in a gently used container. But no, there might be a germ in there! Even though we don’t eat the shell, the egg is cooked and doesn’t even touch the carton, it doesn’t matter. Silly people on a power trip is what it is. Oh well. That is all going to change in the next few years. Government as we know it will cease to exist. A new and better one is coming.
Now that I’ve ranted about that, I feel better. ☺ Hope tomorrow goes well, the weather stays nice till after the market, and lots of people come through.
I’ve been kind of a mentor to a newbie to the goat world lately. I wish I would’ve had someone like me when I was first starting. The first kidding season would have been so much easier! I’m glad I can help someone. It is a good thing to do. She has two done and one to go. Two boys so far. In the dairy world, girls are better. ☺ More useful, anyway. In the cashmere world, wethers are just as good as the does. They have good fiber and don’t go through the hormonal changes that the does do.
Well, that’s it for now. More later………