We lost Gloucester this past weekend. None of the animals we love and use live very long at best. For goats, 12 years is a good life. For llamas, 15 years is all you can expect. Some animals will live longer than that but the average lifespan is just that - the average lifespan. Dogs and cats have similar life spans. It's always hard to say goodbye. With goats we always worry about parasites. They can knock a healthy animal to its knees pretty quickly. That's one of the reasons we watch our animals as closely as we do. In this case it was something much more unusual. Lung cancer. I noticed Gloucester on Sunday morning when he walked through...
We check fecal samples every 6 weeks or so on all the fiber animals. The goats are particularly susceptible to parasites. The llamas are less so but still need to be checked. The parasites are less active in the winter so we can go longer between checks but need to check more frequently in the summer. What that all means is that parasite control is always a moving target. We pulled samples the beginning of last week and had an interesting range of results. The scale goes from Negative to 4+. Because goat parasites tend to become resistant to wormers faster than do horse or cattle or llama parasites, we are particularly careful about treating. Negative, 1+ and 2+ goats...
I'm taking a short break from year end inventory to talk about what's on the weaving horizon. I have three floor looms and they are all actively involved in the weaving process. They say you should never leave a loom empty. Once you weave off your warp you need to get your next project on the loom quickly. This is the kind of thing we weavers will tell the new weaver. You are certainly a better weaver the more you weave so encouraging new weavers to keep going is a good thing. When I tried to google this advise to see where it comes from, I couldn't find it. What I did run across is the following poem. IfIf you...
Yes, welcome to 2020. It's been a very busy winter so far. Ladies Night Out was the first week of December. We had the same booth as last year at the Live Oak Art Center just off the square in beautiful downtown Columbus, TX. We had good sales and a great time. Peggy was able to get there - we thought she might have to miss the show - which was wonderful. The Small Show was the middle of December in Fayetteville, TX. Fayetteville is just 40 minutes west of here so it's easy to get to and we love the venue. The Red & White Gallery is on the square. It's a wonderful old building with creaking floors and...
I was getting ready for bed one night last week and when I went to take my earrings off I only had one of them on. Well, rats. I love these earrings. My daughter gave them to me long ago and I wear them almost every day. They remind me of her but also they are a great weight in my ears and they have long wires so generally they stay put in my ears. They came from James Avery so they are beautifully made. I love those earrings. I had to replace the wires this past year because one of them broke. When I checked the other one it had worn almost as thin. Fortunately, I didn't lose the flower...
