Monday, March 31, 2014


Saturday I went to the annual Log Cabin Spinners fiber fair and Templin's Best Western hotel in Post Falls.  I love going, have been nearly every year since it started.  Vendors from all over come to show their beautiful wares.  Lots of local farms with freshly sheared fleeces, our new local mill that did such a beautiful job on my alpaca fiber, farms and businesses with supplies, finished yarns, door prizes.  Its always so much fun and I get to see lots of friends.

One of my most treasured friends I saw was the wonderful lady who bought my first two cashmere goats, Hope and Faith.  Janice takes such good care of them and now has around 20 I think.  She has these girls bred and just sent me their photos.  They look just beautiful.  Hope is on the right, Faith on the left.

I am hoping to visit Janice's farm this summer, and of course the 'girls'.  I guess I should call them 'ladies' now though.  Hope's picture shows her huge tummy.  She is due to kid today!  I can't wait to see what she has.  Janice and I agreed she looks like she will be having triplets!  Ouch.

I'm not sure if Faith is bred or not.  But they both sure throw beautiful kids.  There is a picture near the top of my blog on the right showing two kids born a couple years ago to them.

I never did have them bred.  First they were a little young, then I sold them.  I almost (Almost) wish I'd had them bred when I had them, but I know nothing about animal birthing and didn't want to have to head out in the snow and cold and dark of winter in case one came early.

Guess I'm just getting too old.  I'm happy to just be a grandma to them.

No pictures of our new puppy this time.  She has discovered the joys of rolling in chicken-poo.  Go figure.  Fortunately the other two have given up that since they grew up.  P-U!  And my niece and her puppy are doing really well at puppy training on Sat mornings.  Right now they are working on 'come', 'sit', all the cool things that would ordinarily drive you crazy.  Walking off the leash is also a big step.

It would be nice to be able to take at least one of our dogs for a walk without the dog taking Me for a walk.  When we had our other Great Pyr, Jessie, I put both him and Bella on leashes and when they saw the guys working on our woods behind the house, they pulled me face-down through the bushes to get to the men.  Those guys thought is was funny.  Me, well not so much.  Oh well.  I won't try that again.  Over 225 lbs of dog(s) is a little too much for me to handle.

Friday, March 21, 2014

 Here on our little farm we are all about animals.  Big ones and small ones.  We just love them.  In past years my daughter has played foster mom to around 300 motherless newborn kittens.

On the right is a recent picture of Willie.  He was one of our first foster kittens and we couldn't part with him so he is also one of our rescue animals.  I just love him.  Very sweet, very calm, except when it comes to our kitty River, also a foster and rescue.

They just don't get along for some reason.  River is a girl, you'd think they would like each other.  For some reason Willie thinks he should be the main kitty that gets to sleep in my bedroom.  River is actually the one who lives in there because she is such a nervous Nellie that she doesn't like being around other cats.

Then we have Bella, our Great Pyrenees.  She also sleeps in my bedroom because she is so noisy at night.  As a natural guard dog she should be outside guarding our little goats but Noooo, she is guarding me.  Guarding me consists of her sleeping on my bed, sometimes nearly on top of me, and growling from time to time to keep the boogie man away.  I've almost gotten used to having her in there after 2-3 years, but not quite.

Our new little rooster, Kung Pao nearly became chicken soup the other day.  For some reason he decided to play attack rooster and when I went outside to do some chores he came flying directly at me.  He tried several times and finally succeeded in hitting me with his tiny little spurs on the calf of my right leg.  I still have two little bruises!  We seriously didn't think he would do that, he's been so sweet.  After I kicked him in the chest the next several times he tried it he finally walked away.  Then he tried it on my daughter and my niece, both who succeeded in dissuading him in the same way as I had.

So far since then he's been great.  I think he's just in love with those sister wives, one in particular.  The two of them are always in the chicken coop together while the other two hens are cleaning up bugs in our yard.  We have started getting eggs again but are reluctant to take them into the house unless they are ice cold.  We're hoping at least one of our hens will get broody and we will have some spring chicks pretty soon.  So far the hens haven't figured out that part yet.  Guess I'll get a couple wooden eggs so she can get the idea.

Spring is finally here, always an exciting time around here.  Lots of work to do, clean up from the winter, re-doing some projects and yardwork that looks pretty bad after the wind / rain / snow from winter.  But at least we can put away our snow shovels and the rest of the snow-type stuff that we have all over.  Our snow blower will be the first to go back into the garage until next winter.

 Here's my wonderful neighbor snow plowing our driveway.  Now this is the way to do it!  I am upstairs taking his picture, in my jammies, drinking my coffee.  What a life!  Thanks Adam.   :-)

This is the only time we had to plow this winter.  Not too bad for north Idaho.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Our newest addition to our little family is a little Polish Crested rooster the girls have named Kung Pao.  I cannot remember his name.  Sometimes its Kung Foo Chicken and sometimes its something else.  Seldom can I call him Kung Pao.  Oh well, I'm sure he doesn't care.  He is a sweet little guy, a little on the thin side compared to the Sister Wives, those black and white Mottled Java hens we got last summer, but he is a good rooster and takes very good care of them.

He will herd them around the yard clucking softly like he's talking to them.  So funny and so cute.  If I go out there he will side-step towards me giving me the stink-eye look off to one side of his head.  As long as he doesn't play attack rooster we will be fine.  He will walk the chickens all around the yard in different places, and if one heads off in a different direction he will go after her and bring her back to the rest of the flock.

I just love him.

And with the onset of Spring with all the snow melting away, there's always the dark side -- mud.  Our driveway is gravel but the more we drive over it the muddier it gets.  Then the road from our house down to a larger dirt road that heads down to the paved highway, well you can imagine all these well traveled dirt roads turning into big mud puddles.  Here is a picture of the road that heads down towards the highway from our house.

But I guess its better than the summer dust.  There's not a season that something isn't irritating about that dirt road.  Winter, Spring or Summer.  Its all good though.  It gets us home.

This is a picture from last week when it rained every day.  Quite a little stream heading down the hill.

Believe it or not, here is our little black goat Smoky.  His fiber is coming is so beautifully and it is much lighter than the black guard hairs that keep him clean.  As you can see on the tips of his horns, the soft cashmere is just about ready to be combed out.  A few more days and I can tie him to one of the corner posts in the pen to comb the cashmere.  We don't shear them so we don't have to de-hair the fiber.  Much easier.  They are somewhat itchy right now so I think they will enjoy this, even though it will be their 'first' combing.

He is so sweet.  These guys are nothing like the Naughty Boys we used to have, those pesky little Pygoras.  They would jump up on me when I would go in the pen and knock the feed dishes out of my hands.  Cute little faces though.  But these boys are much nicer.