Thornwood Farm

I don't know how it happened but my website has been included in some animal rescue search engines. This Thornwood Farm, here in Wasilla, Alaska, does NOT take in rescue animals, and is NOT an animal shelter. The only rescued animals I have taken in were the original herd of 16 cashmere goats I got back in November of 2007. There are animal rescue organizations and an animal shelter in the area here, just not at this farm!

I'm down to 23 goats, and really need to let go of a couple more but just can't seem to do it right now. Maybe I can after I get the fiber tested this winter.

I'm down to 35 goats with 15 more to find new homes for. Thank you, Kelsey, for wanting one as a companion for your horse! That is looking like it will work out well. I hope so! Three others are currently eating weeds for Virginia, but they will be coming back home tomorrow.

I'll have to take new pictures of the ones for sale. They're growing their winter coats and don't look like their summer pictures!

I have 46 cashmere goats right now, counting this year's 14 kids. That's way too many for me to care for on my own. Just think of the hoof trimming: 46 x 4!! So, I have made up a list of the ones to sell. It was a very hard thing to do, but has to be done. I'm trying hard to limit myself to 20 goats for next winter. So far I've decided the following are available:

(Note: since I haven't had the quality of their cashmere tested I'm referring to it as "underfur" in the following material. The best chance for good quality cashmere will be in the underfur from their saddle area. The rest of the underfur won't be as consistent in length, crimp, fiber diameter, or strength)

Anime was the first kid born on Thornwood Farm May 2nd, 2008. She was line bred, and has her sire, Geronimo's markings: the fancy brown knee and lower leg decorations, and facial stripes over her eyes that made her look like a Japanese cartoon when she was brand new (thus the name :). This was her second year to kid, and while last year she was terrified of her twins to start with, this year she has been a wonderful mom to her single doeling right from birth. Her kids have been small compared to others in the herd, but very calm, friendly and smart. She has given about 6 ounces total weight of medium gray fleece each of the last two years, and combs out easily.

Anime's doeling from this season is the most people friendly of all the new, non bottle fed kids. Curious and calm, she's quite willing to come up and see if you have food, or if the camera might be edible. She's a little smaller than the other kids, but she doesn't seem to notice. She has a nice, fluffy coat with just the faintest tinge of tan along her spine, which will probably fade. I'd be interested to see how her coat grows!

As a youngster last year, Anime's Lambchop discovered that when the does were eating their feed from pans up on the feeding bench, she could suckle from any of them by going along under their raised bodies. When one would notice and object, she would just move to the next one. The angelic look is entirely misleading! Her horns are growing oddly, heading off in different directions. It'll be interesting to watch what happens with them! Otherwise, she's a normal, healthy, happy, pushy little doe, quite willing to scrap with the best of them. She's not the coziest of the yearlings, but is willing to be petted some, especially if there are treats involved.

Chocolate is Anime's dam and part of the herd that I originally recieved. I tagged the members of that herd the summer of 2008, and Chocolate's number is 45. She was probably not two years old when she came to me, and Anime was, no doubt, her first born. Chocolate has short legs making her the shortest of the does, but she is very sturdy and has no problem standing up to the rest of the girls. She's very fond of being scritched and believes that's what people are for, other than bringing treats, of course. She has born generally smaller kids than the other does, only singles so far, and is the most protective of her kids against the other does of all them. Chocolate gives about 7 ounces of medium gray underfur altogether, and about 3 ounces of that will be from the saddle area.

Chocolate's Sparky was the last kid born last summer (2010) and was just too darn cute to let go of. His markings are just outstanding, and he has flecks of brown in his black coat that look like sparkles! He's small and will likely be small all his life, in the 80 pound range tops, I think. He is a wether, and is line bred (I would have sworn Chocolate was bred to Thor, but there was a fence mishap and apparently Geronimo's swimmers were stronger!). I expect that his facial markings will fade some with time, but they're so bright I don't think they will ever disappear. I just don't know about his sparkles. I was worried they wouldn't be there this season, but when I combed him out, there they were! He's sweet and friendly as well as still cute!

Chocolate's Epic Possibly A Moose was named for me by a young autistic friend of mine in New Zealand. Oh, the wonders of the internet! I am sorry to have to part with Epic but such is the life of a farmer! Epic was the first of Thor's progeny for Thornwood Farm and was quite the surprise for me with his coloring. It turns out that Epic is Thor's offsprings' other color pattern besides white. Since Epic's birth I've had two others born with that same brown with black spine, boots and facial markings. Being Chocolate's son, Epic will probably not get to more than about 80 pounds. He's a little shy; I haven't spent enough time with him. sigh. His undercoat is a light grey.

Dark's buckling just seems like a "Jack" to me for some unknown reason. He's one of the bigger bucklings, kind of big boned looking, and has one brown spot about the size of a dollar coin just in front of his left hip. You can just barely see it in the picture. I'm pretty sure that in a couple of years it will fade to where you'd never know it was there. He's a little shyer than the others, mostly because his dam, Dark, is the shyest of my does and passes that behavior to her kids quite effectively. Dark is also one of my biggest does, and passes that on, too. I expect that Jack will be good size (up to 150 pounds or so) whether left as a buck or wethered, either one.

Fanny's doeling was the last one born this season, June 11th. The only animals in the pen smaller than she is are the chickens, which she happily chases and tries to intimidate. At a month old she is finally at least sniffing noses with some of the other kids instead of just running from them! She's basically white with an interesting sort of wave pattern in light brown on her back end. She also has light brown top of the neck and spine, and some brown facial markings, too. She's torn between being curious about people and being happy to have another opportunity to run, but settles comfortably into snuggling when picked up. (wonder how I know that!)

Latte has born some beautiful kids here at Thornwood Farm. She is probably older than 10 years, and I've been told that she has great teats for milking. I have milked her a few times, when I needed to, and she is easier to milk than others of the herd I've milked as her teats are larger and easier to hold onto. She is a lovely cream color, and her underfur is a warm toned barely off white. She gives 6 to 8 ounces total underfur with 3 to 4 ounces of that from her saddle area.

Latte's buckling has gorgeous facial markings, and a warm cream coat that will probably fade to be the same light tone his mother has. He's a little smaller than the other bucklings, but has all the attitude they have. He's been shy with me, but lately has shown signs of being more curious than shy.

Matilda was born to Latte in 2009 and has beautiful warm almost white underfur. Next spring will be her first harvest of underfur at her full size. She's almost full grown and will probably top out at about 80 pounds. She was bottle raised so she's very people oriented and friendly. Matilda didn't manage to become pregnant this past season, but then neither did one of my original does, either. It's been an odd kidding season this year. I don't know about her prospects as a dam, but she's a lovely doe.

Nilla (at first we called her Vanilla) is a sweet, smart doe. She is pure white with not any colored hair on her, either guard hair or underfur. She produces about 7 ounces of underfur total, with about half of that from her saddle area. She also produces some of the calmest, friendliest kids of any of the does.

Nilla's buckling is sweet and chunky and pure white. He's healthy and happily plays the head butting, jumping and twisting games with the other kids.

Walk's buckling (and his sister, who I'm keeping) is a thick necked little bully boy who, even at a couple of weeks younger than the other bucklings, gets right in there in the intimidation contests. He has beautiful markings, is quite shy, and very fast. :)