
We had the sheep shorn over the long weekend in May ~ Jerry came by and had the 14 done in a little over an hour. The sheep were so happy to be naked - and from the weight of the fleeces, I can understand why! Buckwheat (the ram) gave us 14 lbs for his first clip.
May 28 was alpaca shearing... Rob and his team from AGR Shearing showed up bright and early (in the new bus!) and by noon we had shorn 16 of ours ~ Michele and I had already shorn little Rudy and Phoenix when Jerry had come by, and Santana was still feeling the effects of being sick so we postponed his shearing until he was stronger. Those 3 fewer animals gave us enough time to shear Leslie Comfort's 6 new females and still have lunch at 1215. The shearing bus left at 1:30 for another farm.
We were thrilled to have Peggy-Sue Deaven-Smiltnieks from the Peggy Sue Collection come and help out. Her amazing company sources not only locally-produced fibre, but supports local processing and craftsmanship. We are so excited to be part of her journey. Her story can be found at www.peggysuecollection.com.
We've spent the weeks since sorting and classing the fibre (white is almost done) and creating more things for our farmer's market.
May 28 was alpaca shearing... Rob and his team from AGR Shearing showed up bright and early (in the new bus!) and by noon we had shorn 16 of ours ~ Michele and I had already shorn little Rudy and Phoenix when Jerry had come by, and Santana was still feeling the effects of being sick so we postponed his shearing until he was stronger. Those 3 fewer animals gave us enough time to shear Leslie Comfort's 6 new females and still have lunch at 1215. The shearing bus left at 1:30 for another farm.
We were thrilled to have Peggy-Sue Deaven-Smiltnieks from the Peggy Sue Collection come and help out. Her amazing company sources not only locally-produced fibre, but supports local processing and craftsmanship. We are so excited to be part of her journey. Her story can be found at www.peggysuecollection.com.
We've spent the weeks since sorting and classing the fibre (white is almost done) and creating more things for our farmer's market.

We have been building Felt-Your-Own soap kits, which give you the opportunity to do a craft, while making something practical as well as pretty.
We are also in the process of starting up our own Etsy Store! I have to admit that it's hard to find the time to really take advantage of social media and all the amazing tools the internet has to offer when we're busy taking care of animals (not to mention mucking out the barn!) and making stuff, but we are progressing slowly. It's exciting for us to imagine getting our awesome fibre out to people who are looking for raw materials for their own work, or finished products that echo their own beliefs in how we should live in this world.
We are also in the process of starting up our own Etsy Store! I have to admit that it's hard to find the time to really take advantage of social media and all the amazing tools the internet has to offer when we're busy taking care of animals (not to mention mucking out the barn!) and making stuff, but we are progressing slowly. It's exciting for us to imagine getting our awesome fibre out to people who are looking for raw materials for their own work, or finished products that echo their own beliefs in how we should live in this world.