6/7/2010 I am very pleased at how the cashmere fleece harvesting and selling went this year. Once again, my huge thanks to the Valley Fiber Arts guild! My final count on fleece volume out of 27 goats this spring was:

Type A      69.7 ounces

Type B      90.1 ounces

baby fluff   17.5 ounces

The "Type A" fleece only had the possibility of being Type A since I haven't had any of the fleece tested for quality yet. But, that fleece I combed from the area of each goat that is supposed to produce the best cashmere the goat can produce, so it had the best possibility of being Type A of any of the fleece. The "Type B" fleece might have some Type A in it, but it's from all over the rest of the goat so it's all kinds of lengths, diameters, and messiness. It's still soft, and it's still spinnable just like it is, but some sources say it is better mixed with other fibers, or felted. Cashmere felt. hmmm Sounds ok!

The "baby fluff" is the very first fleece a kid produces. It won't have the tensile strength of an adult goat's and the tips of it is weathered quite a bit, but... it is sooooo soft! The following year's fleece of that kid will be the best the goat ever produces, with the quality going down slightly each succeeding year after.

(Can you tell I've been studying??)

I sold the fleece "raw" this year, and probably will again next year. Here, "raw" means not washed and not picked clean of guard hair or debris, just combed off the goats. A lot of what I combed was pretty clean and people didn't seem to mind buying it like that. I'm still on the shearer's list so if I ever come up with a way to process the sheared fleece I can give him a call!

We have yet to have our first stud fee business transaction, but that, too, is on our agenda. We have two cashmere bucks, a black with brown markings and a white. The two mature bucks produce beautifully coated babies, mostly of each buck's particular basic color. Each buck has sort of a standard pattern that he produces, but then has a lot of other colors and patterns that come out, too.

Geronimo, my black buck, is getting on in years so I have been interested in trying to have him produce a replacement by one of the does that I think least likely to be related to him. This spring Stripe produced two bucklings, one of which will be moving to Homer and the other will, hopefully, be my Geronimo successor!

I have a white buckling from last year, 2009, that I hoped to have a kid from this year, but that didn't work out. I have another white buckling born this season, so now I have to make a choice. I'm thinking I have to spend the money for dna testing to see how Thor and the two does are related so I can keep the least inbred buckling for stud.

If for some reason you'd like to raise some dairy or meat goats with thicker coats, or start your very own cashmere herd, our bucks can provide you some furry genetics. The black buck, Geronimo, is larger and has made nice big yearlings, and I suspect his successor will, too. Thor, the white buck, makes light colored babies, but I haven't seen how his babies compare in size to Geronimo's at yearling size yet. Thor Jr. and the new buckling are question marks at this point!

Our basic stud fee is $50 per doe. We only accept for servicing does from certified disease free herds, since our herd is disease free, and we'd like to keep it that way!

The process for the stud service is for you to bring your doe(s) to our farm, where we will carefully introduce them to the buck of your choice. Hopefully, the whole process will be quick and easy. If not, we'll do the best we can!

To find where we are in Alaska, you can use the map on the Contact Us page!

Our other enterprise idea for our goats is to "farm them out" to eat weeds and brush for other people. Goats are now being used more frequently as an environmentally sound method of invasive weed and brush control to improve fields for other livestock, clear overgrown landscapes, or enhance wild place restoration. I now have two 160' electric mesh fences and a battery powered charger. Thanks to Janice and her overgrown side yard, the goats and I got to experience this process this past summer!

... The idea works just fine! For pictures see Weed Eaters 2010

Five young goats take about a day and a half to finish off the edibles in 1600 square feet. Currently I can haul up to 7 goats semi comfortably. They eat leaves. Stems and small trunks will be left standing; trees will be cleared up to as high as the goats can reach, about 4 to 5 feet, depending on which goats I bring. If you would like to have the stems and small trunks taken down, I can do that for an additional $25 per 1600 square feet. The goats will fertilize the area, too, with organic, almost odorless, hard-to-see manure, that they cheerfully mostly mulch into the ground for you at no extra cost! And, they do all this while growing cashmere. Amazing multi-taskers!

Pricing for this service is $35 per 1600 square feet of area to be cleared, plus 20 cents per mile mileage fee.

See the map on the Contact Us page to calculate your distance from us! 

The idea is, for the price of a year's worth of feed and care, you would get not only the fleece from that goat, but a calendar with pictures of your sponsored goat to show your friends, the privilege of visiting your goat at our farm whenever you would like and learning all about goat care, and updates about your goat's life on the farm. When the time comes, you would be welcome to help comb the fleece from your goat, too (but, only if you want to)!

As much as we would like to be able to afford all the goat care ourselves and work at growing our business, our budget is stretched pretty thin with all the building we need to do (and vehicle repairs! argh!). So, this is a way for you to help us get our farm established, and get to tell all your friends about "your" goat, which you don't have to house, feed, trim hooves, or give shots!

Feed and care comes to about $300 per goat for a year, and we have a monthly payment plan, too!

Matilda has a sponsor! Stephanie B. of Palmer, AK, has chosen Miss Matilda as her goat to sponsor for the year 2010. Thank you, Steph! And Matilda thanks you, too! 

Since cashmere goats are not slaughtered for meat unless they are being culled from the herd and don't have other homes to go to, we thought we'd offer 4H members the opportunity to lease a baby goat from birth through the time of the State Fair goat show. We would keep the kid with it's mother and the herd, and the 4H member would come to the farm to learn about caring for the goat, and to train the goat to lead and in show ring behavior.

We're trying to make the 4H experience with livestock available to people who are unable to keep livestock at home, or who are not interested in adding a cashmere kid to their menagerie!

For leasing of a kid from birth (in April) through September, with lessons in care and training, we'll be asking $100.

 Please contact us with questions or for more information!

Have you ever seen the line of people waiting to get in at the petting "zoo" at the State Fair? Have you ever stood in that line? I can bring two to four baby goats to your party or other occasion for you and your guests to admire, pet, love on and enjoy. My goats are socialized to be friendly and expect kindness and attention from people (and sometimes treats, too!). While I don't have the variety of animals they have there at the State Fair, I can bring the ones I have to you!

I have portable fencing to set up an area where the goat kids will be safe and easy to interact with. I will stay with the kids, and clean up when we're done.

For the Mat-Su Valley the price will be $50 for an hour, not including travel time. For Anchorage the price will be $75 for an hour, again not including travel time.

See for yourself that goat kids rival kittens for cuteness!

If you have been thinking about moving out where neighbors live farther away and you can grow your own food or have all those lovable "Ol' MacDonald's Farm" animals, try it out first. Go help out on a farm. Really. I can't pay you actual money for your time, but I have lots of experience just waiting for you to show up and experience, and LOTS of good, healthy exercise! If not mine then volunteer on some other, better established farm, and learn what's what BEFORE you dive into farming, homesteading, sustainable agriculture, permaculture... etc.!

I HIGHLY recommend the book

You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise by Joel Salatin.

There are so many things I want to do here at Thornwood. Hardly any of them are "traditional". I want to build using papercrete, a rocket stove, a Clivus Multrum composting toilet, a Living Machine sewage treatment process, a permaculture forest system for year round feeding of my goat herd and other livestock, and for producing people food, too.

Contact me for more information. :)

If you'd just like to help out sometime, that would be welcomed, too!