pnfcashmeres.com Blog

It is very easy to set up a blog. If I can do it, anyone can! Just talk about what is important to you in your life.

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………

Here is Arnold, Cleo’s big kid. This was taken just a couple of hours after he was born! He’s a chunk. All the kids are doing fine now. They aren’t liking the weather we are having right now. It’s been snowing all day, and the wind has been blowing. The snow is sticking a bit, but not really accumulating a whole bunch. Hope it stays that way tonight, too. Rain would be okay. I’m really tired of it snowing. It warms up, one thinks for good, then we get cold and snow/rain. It’s hard on the goats. Some of them are starting to get a cold. I’ll be giving them some of the garlic/vit. c mix. That will cure them of whatever ails them. Works every time.

I had a busy week-end! People here every day. Friday some came for compost and visiting, Saturday, people came for compost and a visit, and Sunday a farm tour. That was fun seeing everyone. Even made some money, which is always good!

The hen that was sitting on the chicken eggs got off the nest on Monday and didn’t get back on. So that nest is dead. There were 21 eggs in it! I didn’t break open any, but shook them a bit. There were 3 that had dead chicks in them, and the others either sounded solid, or liquid, so I don’t know why they didn’t hatch. Now I’m waiting to see what happens with the turkeys. I have people wanting to buy some of those babies, so I hope they hatch. We shall see. They should be hatching any day now. The suspense is killing me! ☺ There is another hen sitting on a nest up on the hill. I don’t know how many eggs she’s on. I guess we will see in about 20 days or so. Somewhere around May 22nd I think.

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

Cleo finally had her kid. One huge boy! She pushed and I pulled really hard for about 20 minutes before he finally came out. I was starting to think I might have to call the vet, but we got it done. I named him Arnold, after the gov. of California, since he’s so big. ☺

I don’t think Emily is pregnant after all. She must have absorbed it at some point. There is not a drop of milk in her udder, and she just doesn’t look pregnant anymore. So, since she is 11 now, and hasn’t carried a kid full term for three years, she’s now officially retired, and will just be the herd matriarch. She is still the boss out there, so I’ll just let her live out her life as a grandma. She can keep everybody in line.

I got the dog hair I was spinning for a woman in Whitefish done, and delivered to her. She liked it, and was looking forward to making a hat with it. It turned out quite nice. It’s funny how the yarn never turns out the same color as the dog it came off of. This was a bit darker than the actual dog. It was kind of neat looking with it’s heathery varigated look.

I’m getting into the gardening mode now. I’ve been weeding and re-doing some of the flower beds. I’m going to start on the vegetable garden next. I stopped in at one of the garden centers today and found all kinds of plants I want to get! Those are dangerous places for me to go. I part with way too much money there!

Now I’m working on an afghan for someone. It’s going to look pretty neat. Then it will be back to spinning cashmere. I saved some of Rascal’s hair. He’s my mini horse. I’m going to see how it spins up. I have some of Nellie’s hair, too. Lots to spin around here!

Tomorrow, there are some people coming up for some compost. Then a friend is coming up to see the kids. Then Sunday the farm tours start. There is a group coming in the afternoon. Hopefully the weather is good. I’m debating on whether to do the Farmers’ Market this week-end. the weather doesn’t sound too promising. Cool and windy. I don’t like the wind, it wreaks havoc with the tent and all my displays. I think I’ll wait till May to start. I’m not quite ready yet, anyway. I haven’t had time to make much soap, so I need to get going on that again. Lots to do around here! I don’t think there is ever a dull moment here. ☺

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

This week has been a busy one, with kids popping out almost every day. There are now 18 kids out there. One more boy than girl, so this is the year for girls, finally.
Lucy had hers, a little girl I named Carmel. Lucy didn’t want to be a mom at first. I had to tie her up and then keep sticking the kid in front of her, telling her that was her baby, and she had to take care of it. Her maternal instincts finally kicked in after about a half an hour, and now she’s a good mom.
Oreo had twin boys. They are cute. Toby and Wilbur. Sara had twin girls, Thelma and Louise. They are petite little things. Camilla had a big single boy, Walter. I had to pull pretty hard to get him out! Celeste had twin girls, Fancy and Licorice. They are both jet black, with Fancy having a big white blaze on her face and two white socks on her front legs. Licorice has a white spot on her head.
There are lots of shades of brown, and red-brown out there. Very pretty colors this year. I’m still waiting for Cleo to give birth. She is a first-timer. Doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to have them. Emily is due on Friday. Then it’s over for this year.
We had a spot of winter on Tuesday. We got 10 inches of snow!! Now it’s all gone and it has warmed up. We went from Winter to summer in the space of two days. Yesterday was 70 and sunny, today was fairly warm, too. There are just a couple of patches of snow left. Five of the kids were born during the snow.
All the kids are very healthy and strong this year. I think this is my best kidding season yet! They are looking quite good.
Today John and I put up another fence around the forest garden. It’s a 6 foot high wire fence that the deer should not be able to get over. We took down the old fence, put up the new one, and put the old wire back up in front of the welded wire so the goats don’t break the welds when they are rubbing along the fence. It took all day to do!
I planted a bunch of potatoes yesterday. We are trying the round potato bins that we used a few years ago. We didn’t do it right back then, so the harvest wasn’t very good. I’m trying something a little different this time, so we shall see how it goes. Hopefully we will have a good harvest this fall!
I”m going to do a final “clean-up” combing on some of the goats tomorrow. I combed them initially, but now I need to go back and finish it. They don’t completely shed out the first time, so I have to go back and do it again.
All that snow melting has turned the main pen into a swamp. I really need to get that cleaned out! Luckily the back half of the pen is nice and dry, so they can all be back there, and not have to be in the wet part.
I sure am enjoying my babies! They are more entertaining than a TV anytime! :-)
There will be pictures posted on the website one of these days. More as it happens….

It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting a birthday present from my goats, after all. Probably in the morning, Sara is getting ready, but not tonight. Oh well, maybe next year.

All the kids are doing well. I think Lucky and Mocha will be ones that jump into my arms when I hold them out. That will be fun. George and Bruiser like to come over and get a good body rub. They get scratched all over, and they like that! Rosie is kind of skittish, but I hope she will come around soon. Some days she likes to be handled, other days, not so much.

Dottie’s two boys are doing fine. They are both friendly. Dottie has a lot of milk! Sampson and Buddy can’t keep up with it now, so I’m milking her twice a day. I’m not taking it all, I leave some for the kids. I’ve been letting Dottie drink some of the milk and it’s keeping her udder nice and soft. Speckles two kids, Spot and Brownie are friendly. They are quite lean compared to the other two. But, they are full dairy goats, and Dottie’s are half meat goat. It’s nice that I finally have a replacement doe for the dairy girls. Dottie is 10 years old already, so I don’t know how many more years she will last. I hope quite a few! But, we shall see.

Well, that’s all for now. I had an okay birthday. I combed out the last three remaining yearlings, now they look much better. I also hauled down a couple of buckets of gravel to put in the mud hole in front of the gate. Why I didn’t do that a long time ago, I don’t know. I also finished one skein of the dog hair yarn. It’s looking pretty good! Fairly soft, too. One more good sized skein to go.

More as it happens…..

Dottie finally had her kids yesterday around 11am. Two large boys. The first one is huge!! She had a hard time getting him out. I named him Sampson. The other one is a little smaller, but not by much. His name is Buddy. They are both healthy and stout. Buddy had a weak knee, but it is stronger today, and he was out bouncing around with his brother just fine. Dottie has a lot of milk! Her udder is the biggest I’ve ever seen it. There will be lots of milk for us and the kids.

I made some goat milk ice cream yesterday. My birthday is tomorrow, so I wanted some ice cream to go with my chocolate cake. I can not have a birthday without that. ☺ I’m also making a marinated goat roast that will be in the slow cooker all day. Yum!! Hopefully at least one of the goats will have her kids tomorrow, too. A perfect birthday present will be some kids born that day.

I brushed and trimmed my mini horse today. Rascal has a lot of hair! I trimmed his forelock and mane a bit. Now he can see again. He’s a shaggy boy! I saved some of his hair to spin. After I’m done with the dog hair order, I’m going to spin up Rascal’s hair and see how that turns out. It’s pretty soft, so I think it will make a good yarn. It will be slippery, though. A fun experiment.

Well, that’s it for now. This week is the week when all but two of the remaining does are due to kid. A busy time! More as it happens……

Here are Brownie and Spot. I’m still waiting for Dottie to have her kids. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder and snowing, so I think she is waiting till then. Luckily she’s in a barn, so it doesn’t matter what the weather is doing outside.

I hope the other does wait till the week-end to have theirs. It’s supposed to be nicer then. I’m really hoping that at least one is born on Sunday, that’s my birthday. That would be an excellent birthday present!

This morning after I was done feeding the cashmeres, I sat on a rock that is in their pen and all 5 kids came over and climbed in my lap and jumped all over me. They are so cute at this age. They are cute up till about a year old, then they are goats. Still cute, but not as cute as babies.

I’m spinning up an order for yarn made out of dog hair for a woman in the Valley. It’s Golden Retriever hair. It is spinning up really nicely. I think it’s going to be a fairly soft yarn. Kind of a heathery beige color, if there is such a thing. I’m spinning it straight, no wool or anything added. So far, so good.

I’m starting to get quite a bit of milk from the goats now. I’ve started milking Speckles, along with Belle. The cheese factory will be starting up soon! As soon as Dottie has her kids, if she ever does, then I will start making cheese again. Butter, ice cream, and yogurt, too. Plus the soap, of course.

I’ve been getting up quite often during the night to go check on Dottie since Sunday. Good thing I can take a nap or two during the day! I’ve learned to sleep when I can during kidding season. It’s almost over. This next week will be when all the rest of them come. If Emily is actually pregnant, then she is due on the 20th. That will be the last one till July, when Molly, the un-planned pregnancy is due. Hope there are a lot of girls! So far it’s even. Or it would be if Lucky’s sister had lived.

The turkeys are sure laying a lot of eggs! The nest box has at least a dozen in there. Hope one of the hens starts setting soon. There is a chicken hen sitting on 5 eggs. Those should hatch around the 21st. The turkeys are staying in their yard now. Only the two crosses are getting out, and that is just at night to roost. I should trim their wings one of these days. Actually, they should just go in the freezer, except they aren’t big enough yet.

It’s funny to watch the two toms. They strut around together all day and are buddies, then every once in a while, they get in a big fight, both come away with bloody heads, then they are friends again. One thing about it, the critters around here are more entertaining than watching TV any day.

When I was coming home from getting grain today, I saw a red fox out in a field fairly close to the road. That was neat. I haven’t seen one up here for a few years. Now that we have the perimeter fenced, we aren’t getting much except deer in here anymore. Nellie keeps things away, too. We used to have foxes coming through all summer. They never bothered the chickens at all. Went right past them. The guineas even chased one down the driveway one day. The fox was just coming in for water, it was a dry year. There are springs all over this mountain, except right in this area. The animals have to travel a ways to get water when they are here. Which is probably why we don’t have a predator problem here. We are too far away from a good water source. Luckily we have a really good well.

Well, I’d better go check on Dottie again. I sure hope she has them in the morning, anytime after 9. ☺ More as it happens…………..

Speckles had her kids on Tuesday. She had twins, a boy and a girl. I had to help get the boy out, his one front leg was back instead of coming out together with his other front leg. The little girl slipped out easily. Spot and Brownie are their names. Now there are seven kids all together out there. Dottie, my 10 year old dairy doe is due to have her kids on Monday, but I’m hoping they come on Sunday so I can go to town on Monday. Plus then I’d have Easter babies.

We woke up to 4 inches of snow on Wednesday. Lucky didn’t like the snow. He took one look and smell of it and started yelling and went back to his little kid house. That was cute. Mocha liked it, she was out bouncing around all over the place in it. The others didn’t really like it, but they accepted it. They are all so tiny, the snow was knee deep on them.

It is snowing a bit tonight. I hope we don’t get very much accumulation. I am ready for Spring. The grass is turning green, and there are a few flowers starting to pop up out of the ground.

The rest of the kids will be born between the 10th and the 20th of this month. Then there is Molly, who got in with Rusty and will probably have a kid around July 1st. I was just congratulating myself on no accidental pregnancies this time, when I went out the next morning and here was Molly in Rusty’s pen, with both of them looking pretty pleased with themselves.

There are 7 eggs in the turkey’s nest box, and there is a broody chicken hen in the chicken house setting on 5 eggs. So we should have baby chicks around the 21st of this month. Hopefully one of the turkey hens will start setting one of these days. Then we will have turkeys big enough to eat by Thanksgiving.

The Red-tailed hawks are back. It must really be spring now! They were circling around here today, looking for easy pickings. They didn’t get anything, so they left. The turkeys have really sharp eyesight and can see those birds way up in the sky. They sound the alarm and everyone pays attention and the chickens go hide in their house or under the brush and trees in their pen. As long as they all stay alert, we shouldn’t lose any this year.

That’s all for now. More as it happens……….