Black German Litter!

Voodoo, our IAGARB registered black German doe, kindled 8 babies yesterday. Six of the eight are pure black! The sire is a purebred black German as well. He has only been here about a month; brought all the way from Ontario Canada. He is fantastic and has an excellent pedigree.

We are looking forward to see how these babies develop.

Back to Ontario

One day, Leslie took me to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market.  It’s huge and surrounded by farms and dairies.  You can get just about anything here.

Here are a few shots of the many fruits and vegetables offered at the Market.

Rhinebeck

Rhinebeck was amazing.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  The booths and aisles were packed with people all day on Saturday.

I ran into many old friends, including the infamous Marcy!

The Fall colors were outstanding!

IAGARB had a booth with Shearing demonstrations and IAGARB Registration Testing.  Here IAGARB Vice President Sheri presents Michaele with a prize for winning Highest Wool Production for her buck Basketful Gustav.

Trip to Rhinebeck

October, 2009:  I drove with my friend Leslie from Sacramento, California to Ontario, Canada before we left the following week for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.

We had a blast.  Laughed and ate our way across country.  We seemed to miss all the storms that either occurred behind us or ahead of us.

Nine states and one Province in four days.  Whew.  We were glad to finally arrive in Ontario to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving on October 11.

Along the Continental Divide in Wyoming.

At the Ft. Cody Trading Post in North Platte, Nebraska.  Make sure you stop if you ever pass through!  Quite a place.

While you are there, don’t miss the two-headed calf!

Just In From the Mill

This luscious Pesto Green is 50% German Angora and 50% Polwarth.  Yummy to spin!  It will be available at Lambtown in the Fiber Confections booth.

Also new is the Trumpetvine Roving.  Same Angora/Merino blend and equally as luscious.

Trumpetvine

Both rovings are a dream to spin!

Trumpetvine Roving and Skein

Pals

Here are Ole and Korbl, two young bucks from Ouija’s litter.  They looked so cute, I had to snap their photo.  Korbl is pure black as his mom is.  Both are purebred Germans.  Mom is from black German stock and threw five black babies (out of a litter of 10) with no spots.  Korbl is the buck I am keeping here at Bungalow Farm from that litter.

Pattern Contest!

Just a reminder that September 1st is the deadline for the IAGARB Pattern Contest.  Design a pattern using the IAGARB angora yarn–either the Angora Blizzard or Frost yarns, and you have a chance to win!  Details are on the IAGARB website:

www.iagarb.com

or click here for details:

http://www.iagarb.com/ppcomm.html

Dye Week

I have traded in the canning pots for dye pots this week.  I am off and running getting fiber and yarns dyed for upcoming shows and sales.

Here is some of the fiber outside drying.  At least our hot weather is good for getting this stuff dryed fast!

Summer Jam

As angora breeding and litters wait for Fall and cooler weather, things heat up here in the kitchen.  It’s time to make jam!  A friend brought me some Olallieberries from her farm in Humboldt County.  She also brought a huge bag of Chandler strawberries, but those didn’t make it to the jam pot.  Yum!

I made a couple of batches of jam here. I had some blackberries from a neighbor so I added those to the olallieberry mix.  I guess you can now call that boysenberry.  The second batch is pure olallieberry.

I love hearing that popping sound!!!

Summer Litter

I lucked out with this litter.  The last three weeks have been 10 degrees below normal.  Perfect weather.  This litter was born yesterday to my purebred German Black doe Ouija.  She had 10!  One was born a half a day before the others and was dead.  The rest were born on the wire.  I was there, so I managed to save them.  Mom is only just six months old, so a bit confused by all of this I think!  She hasn’t eaten pellets in weeks, but has been eating hay and bits of veggies.  I had an idea by that alone it would be a large litter.  And by the fact that she was huge.

There are 5 rew and 4 “other”.  Not sure what color these are!  Some appear agouti-ish (light bellies), others solid.  The color appears to be the same on all– a very light gray or blue.  I was hoping for black, but they don’t look black to me.  Any ideas?