We have hauled our hay for the year. With all the winter rain, the hay crop was abundant, and the prices a little lower than last year. We purchased enough grass hay to feed the goats until our planned move to Arizona in the early part of next year. Some is presently stored outside and will be used first. The rest is stored in our big box van that I kindly refer to as our moveable barn. Last year we drove the van over to the hay, loaded the van, drove it home, and parked it. What a convenient way to get the hay and only lift those bales once. The moveable barn will need to be empty come next year, as it will also be our moving van, filled to the brim with furniture and boxes. Once there, it will become our storage facility until we can build.

The goats are beautiful. Their summer fleeces are coming in very nice, and they are staying very clean. The last kid has been born, a doe, which I promptly named Pinky, as she was a light faded red, and looked pink when she was born. She also has the ice blue eyes of her mother. We have been lucky again this year, with 10 does and only 2 bucks. We have already sold two of the doe kids, and a yearling buck, but need to sell a few more before we make the move. We will be selling Kudos, the big black buck. Although his fleece is not the best, fine but little curl, he has been great in throwing color with our white does. It is time he was replaced, as we now have 13 does from him, and need to introduce some new blood into the herd. I am taking my time and doing lots of looking. We also don’t need a replacement until breeding season in 2004. This fall we will be using Midas, the brown buck, and Skipper, a registered white.

Summer has arrived, and with the exceptions of a few very hot days, the weather has been wonderful, warm days, and cool nights for sleeping. I picked the first ripe tomato the other day from a plant called Manitoba. It wasn’t very big, but how delightful to have a ripe tomato before the fourth of July.

Roger had set up a new watering system late last summer, using some poly pipe and the overflow from the domestic water. Prior to this the excess water not used by the two homes on the property flowed down a ditch and out to the stream across the road. The water is caught from the overflow into a bucket that has a pipe inserted in the bottom, and powered by nothing but gravity, we have an abundance of water for outside watering, and at this time, our lawn, the garden, and both pastures are staying as green as the hills of Ireland. The goats love the grass that keeps growing, and I am going to love their clean fleeces this fall.

As for me, it seems that time just goes too quickly. I still need to fringe the second shawl, and then it will be done. I have done some more rainbow dyeing of fleeces, and want to start spinning some, but now I can’t decide which batch I like the best. The colors are brilliant and jewel-toned, and the latest batch is always my favorite. I am getting more intense colors, and getting away from the pastels. I taught myself to Navajo ply the other night. I kept hearing that it was a good way to ply when using the rainbow dyed fleece, but didn’t have a clue as to how to do it. I went searching on the Internet, found some instructions, which seemed very confusing, but when I sat down and started to do it, it was amazingly easy. It is a process where you use a single ply, and by looping, it becomes a three-ply yarn. I can’t wait to use the process for the next rainbow dyed fleece to be used in another shawl. No more candy striped yarn…..

We attended the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene this month, a BIG event if you are interested in goats, sheep, fiber, and fiber things. I went all three days, one day with my friend Alexandra, the next with Alexandra and her husband Stan, and the third day Roger was able to go with me to see the goat judging. I had a wonderful time, and wore myself out to the extent that I came home with a cold. It seems that I am not the only one to have contracted something there. Two of the people I know that purchased goats there, came home with sick ones, infecting their whole herds, now on a course of antibiotics. It brought home to me the fact that regardless of where you buy your goats, they may be infected with a contagious disease, and perhaps a prophylactic course of antibiotics might be a good idea before they are introduced to your farm. I used to do that routinely when buying animals from the auction, but never considered the necessity of doing so when buying animals at a market where they are all bearing health certificates, and were supposed to be inspected by a veterinarian.

I am still baking bread on a regular basis, but have to admit, that some of the days were simply too hot to do so. The remainder of my days is spent doing chores and yard work. I did manage to fill an order of painted gourds for a friend of mine. They attend rendezvous’ (mountain men, and historical re-enactments), and thought they might sell a few. I will be starting my next order soon for the gallery in Tubac, and also MUST get some done for our web site.

My how time slips away when you are having fun. Spring finally sprung after much needed rain, and the days have warmed up considerably. The garden finally got planted, though not as big as before. It will be mostly a salad garden this year, and we are trying out several new types of tomatoes. This is the time of year that the grass grows faster than the goats can eat it, and they are getting some help with the aid of the lawnmower and the weedeater. I got a couple of new geraniums, scented ones that I have been wanting for some time, one a rose scented, and one a lemon-rose scented. I thought I had lost my star jasmine to a heavy freeze this winter, but was delighted to recently find some new growth. I guess it survived after all.

Now for the big news. We have our new homestead. We closed the deal of 61 acres of land in NW Arizona. It is in the Aquarius Mountains, at 4400 feet in elevation, which will moderate the hot temperatures in the summer. Winters will be chilly, and at snow can be expected. It will be a new adventure for us, learning to garden in a new environment, and herding the goats while they browse on the mesquite and scrub oak that cover the hillsides. There will be much to do, but we are very excited, and our days are spent discussing the move, planning on the move, and what to do first after we have moved. We are not planning on moving until the spring of next year, but should we be able to get ready sooner……both of us are ready to leave right now….

There is also much preparation to do before we make our move. Eliminating some of our many treasures to lighten the load. Roger is finalizing plans for building a trailer to haul the goats, that will later serve as a barn for them in Arizona. He plans on moving the travel trailer later this summer, which will serve as our home while we build. I am still convincing Roger that a house of straw bale construction is the only way to go. Of course I also want an outdoor kitchen, a sleeping porch, and a wide veranda. I know my wants are much larger than the pocket book, but I am a patient person (sometimes).

We are waiting on one last goat to deliver, and then all the kids will be born for the year. We have quite a crop of youngsters. I took them for a walk down the driveway to browze, at the end of which is a rock pit with steep sides. Those kids had so much fun climbing and jumping like a bunch of little mountain goats. If they lost their footing, they would slide to the bottom and immediately start climbing again.

I have almost completed my second shawl on my triangle loom. It is a made of a four ply yarn of rainbow dyed mohair fleece. I wove it in a reverse 2/2 broken twill which gives it a nice texture. My friend Alexandra tried to convince me to enter it at the Black Sheep Gathering, but I think not. I am still not confident that my weaving skills are up to the caliber seen there. We are looking forward to the event coming up next month, as it gives us a chance to see many friends, who like us, are busy with their animals, and little time for traveling to visit. My problem with going there, is that I want everything. It is a show no fiber enthusiast would miss.