That Stunning Pygora Fiber!

Okay, if you can’t already tell, I LOVE PYGORAS! I love everything about them…their fun-loving personalities, their sweet, people-friendly dispositions, their happy goat “chatter” as I putter around the barns at chore time, and their very amusing attention-stealing antics…but, most of all, I love their luscious fiber! I’m about a third of the way through my fall shearing, and I’m excited! I have such lovely colors this year, between my new spring kids and the arrival of my newcomers…black, various shades of gray, browns, reds, lots of caramels, and natural whites…YUM! I sent my first batch of kid fleeces off to the processor this past Thursday, and I can’t wait to see what I get with all those wonderful Pygora, Merino and Silk blendings. Here’s a glimpse of some of my “babies” just prior to their clippings…

The Madness Continues...

The month of November brings with it another kind of madness here on our goat farm…BREEDING SEASON! Anyone who raises and breeds goats of any kind knows too well about the “special” madness that runs rampant throughout the males of the specie as the shortening days of fall arrive…a madness affectionately known as RUT! As a new breeder, I’ve actually only experienced this phenomenon twice, but I must say, it’s a unique and highly entertaining event! Never before have I seen a group of males act quite the way mine do this time of year, all for the sake of “getting a girl” (well, maybe when I was in high school) …grunting and snorting and making oddly human-sounding noises, with their tongues wagging out the sides of their mouths…and hey, what’s that SMELL??? Throughout most of the year, my bucks are a very gentle, mild-mannered group of men who are happy and eager to see me as I walk down the road toward the pasture for their morning and evening feedings. They greet me at the gate with gentle nudges and kisses in anticipation of the head rubs and back scratches they have come to expect from me. However, just like clockwork, when autumn arrives, everything changes! Suddenly, they don’t care about my presence anymore…”Just drop the hay in the feeder and be on your way” is the clear message they’re sending as they follow me around with their slurpy-sounding tongues flapping and foul, malodorous, stenches. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my bucks! Their antics really are the “life of the farm” and I wouldn’t trade them for the world! But, I’ve learned that during the autumn breeding season, it’s definitely best to stay out of the way of their stinky “love sick” madness!

Shear Madness

On our small fiber goat farm, autumn is one of the busiest times of the year. It begins with preparation for the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in September, and continues with fall shearing and breeding during the months of October and November. In fact, that is when the real madness begins...
As a fiber goat breeder, the task of shearing the herd can be challenging, to say the least. In past years, it has always been a race with time for me to harvest each fleece at its prime before it mats or felts on the goat. (Sadly, I am very experienced with this dilemma!) This year is no exception. However, for the first time since I started raising these wonderful goats four years ago, my herd size has nearly doubled to 36, so that’s a lot of potentially ruined fiber! Now… there are several things for a fiber goat herd keeper to consider when it comes to shearing, and for me, living in northeast Washington state, the weather is at the top of my list of concerns. It plays a huge role in the timing of my harvest. The changing weather conditions always seem to interfere with my best laid out plans. It seems that every year, just when I’m ready to brandish my shears, the evening temperatures drop below freezing and all of my prime harvestable fiber is ready to be shorn all at once…NOW! (I really think Mother Nature gauges the drop in temperature by my shearing schedule.) However this year, with so many new animals, I’m trying harder than ever to beat her at her own game, and so far (to my amazement) I seem to be winning with the help of my very cooperative herd. To my great delight, they’ve kindly decided to come into “prime fleece” one goat at a time. Hallelujah! What could have been a potential shearing nightmare, is turning out to be one of the most pleasant fall harvesting experiences I’ve had…simply by having the luxury of shearing one or two goats each day. I’m not sure what’s causing this miraculous phenomenon to occur, but I’m thankful for it! This year especially, I’m truly enjoying the quality time I spend shearing each of the animals I love so much! I know…I must be crazy!

A Small Victory

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, Oregon is a highly anticipated event for fiber enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest. For the past few years, we’ve packed up a few of our beloved goats, and made the pilgrimage south to Canby in hopes of having a fun-filled weekend of socializing and showing off our finest animals and boxed Pygora fiber. In the past, we’ve done quite well in the presentation of our boxed fiber, and have been very pleased with our fiber show results. (My dear husband has declared this to be the result of my meticulous, and apparently annoying, habit of “primping”!). However, the highest our goats have placed in the show ring was 2nd…not too bad, but… I was ready to do better! The day prior to our departure, I spent several hours grooming my show kids in preparation for the BIG EVENT! Their fiber was blown out and brushed until they looked like angelic balls of super-soft fluff. Then, out came the tweezers! Nothing else I’ve tried works quite as well for picking out all those tiny little hay and straw seeds from that downy-soft fleece! All three kids looked beautiful. Now, if I could just keep them that way for the road trip. It was then that I decided to put sweatshirts on them to keep their fiber clean…and surprisingly it worked! After 8 hours of traveling on a bed of straw, my kids arrived and needed only minimal grooming before the show…a small success in itself. The following day, my first-born Cattail Meadows kid, who had now grown into a very handsome young buckling, placed first in his OFFF Junior Buckling class! I was ecstatic! For many, this would be considered a small victory… but for me, it was as good as an Olympic gold-medal win! I can’t wait till next year…

A Year To Remember

To say that 2008 has been a memorable year for Cattail Meadows is an understatement. The fact is this past year has been monumental for me, and it started with the anticipation and great expectations of our first goat kiddings…
Mid-April arrived in the blink of an eye. There was still a frosty chill in the air, but for the most part the snow (2nd heaviest on record for our area!) had pretty much melted off with the warming days. My expectant Pygora goat moms were round and happy, and I was anxiously anticipating the arrival of our first goat kid…a Cattail Meadows kid, the first born on my farm! And I was ready! My husband Mike (AKA the Cattail Meadows’ “build-it” guy and “fix-it” man) kindly set up a “barn cam” for me so that I could comfortably watch the doe barn goings-on from the comfort of our home. I could keep an eye on the birthing stalls, without having to live in the barn 24 hours a day with my does. Great…especially since nights were still below freezing! My supply table was all set up in the barn, and everything was ready to go... Then, on April 12th at 4 AM I awoke to check the barn cam monitor. It was happening without me! Our Pygora doe, Lindsay was in active labor and I wasn’t down there to help her (you know…by pacing and worrying!). I put on my glasses, threw on some warm clothes and fumbled for my boots. By the time I got down there, her water had broken and the first kid was on the ground. As I was drying him off, along came a second…WOW! It was so dark and peaceful at that hour, and yet so exciting! Never before had I seen a 5-pound, newborn baby goat kid! He was the cutest thing I’d ever seen…and then there were 2 of them! Not bad for two first-time moms (okay, Lindsay did all the work, but I did all the worrying)! By the end of April, our five does blessed us with a total of 9 happy, healthy bouncing Pygora kids. It was a month I’ll never forget…and it was just the beginning of a memorable year to come!