Update Summer 2009

Shearing passed uneventfully this year unless you can count a lot of good laughs with the Mingles of Mt. Brook. Michelle was our able assistant as she learned the ins and outs of shearing. She did a great job as official head holder. We use one person on the head, one on the feet, one to pull off fiber and one to round up the next animals. Oh yeah, and one to actually shear. We do shots and toenails at the same time--it is quite well orchestrated and we are pretty good at it by now.

At the beginning of the summer, we said good-bye to Prince William, White Gold and Husaucar . They have a lovely new home with a young family who wanted fiber boys. Both have excellent fiber so they are a good fit.

After Dolores graced us with a lovely Guillermo boy, she went on to Maine Woods Alpacas to become part of their foundation herd along with Puella. In part of the deal, we took Tantric--a gorgeous white male with stunning fiber. It will be fun to see how he matures.

Shortly afterwards, Puella delivered a white male out of Captain Nemo from Sea Hill Farm. The male streak continued with Miracle out of Andromeda and Skye and Spofford out of Evie and Coyo Destini, followed by Cinnabar out of Sugar and Spice and Orion from Foss Mountain Farm. We have one more birth--let's see if the sixth one is the charm to get a girl!

Miracle was named because at one point at less than a week old, he appeared to be dying. He was curled in the death throws and everything. My son Sam and I went so far as to dig a hole in the back pasture so that Chuck wouldn't have to. After an afternoon and evening of distress--he got up and started walking around. He is now perfectly fine! We will never know what happened, but whatever it was, he is doing well now and his fiber is quite nice. Looking forward to his growing up.

Spofford's fiber is stunning in character, density and fineness. Just one detail--most of his blanket is fawn and the rest of him is white. Just not breeding material. We already have a few fiber folks who are interested in him.

I was delighted to take up spinning and knitting this summer. I love them both. I borrowed Cindy Mingle's wheel over vacation and got the hang of it. Still need to find a wheel of my own but have been having a heck of a good time with the knitting. Only problem is, I have sold all my yarn so I don't have a lot to work with. Since I am still learning, I do a lot of ripping out--oh well. It's the journey not the arrival that matters.

We got in just enough hay. It was hard to come by this year with all the rain. Farmers just didn't get first crop cut and then when they finally did, it delayed second crop. It is so much harder to dry hay in the cooler fall weather.

Open Farm Day was small this year--we opted just to do Sunday, since we had company visiting from Florida. Sunday turned out to be steady rain, but people came anyway and enjoyed the animals and my dear friend Dee and Michelle spinning away inside. As a side benefit, I got all my fiber sorted and ready to ship out for processing. This time I am going to keep a few skeins for me!

That is the update for now. Please write or call for a visit.