From the Source Friday: Laughing Goat Fiber

The fourth Friday of every month is From the Source Friday! Show your appreciation to these dedicated fiber farmers as they teach you all about where your yarn comes from. Today we will hear all about life alongside goats (and more!) from Laughing Goat Fiber.

Life on the farm...
A typical day on the farm starts early in the morning, with the animals being fed and watered. We generally have anywhere from 60-90 animals, depending on the time of year. In cold months, the animals need grain and hay to stay warm and well-fed. When they are out on pasture, we provide water and a little grain. The animals are fed again in the evening. Daily tasks vary, but might include administering vaccinations, delousing, or trimming hooves.

Our angora goats are generally shorn twice yearly, in the spring and early fall. That gorgeous mohair fiber is “skirted” by hand - debris and dirty/damaged parts of the fleece are picked out - before being delivered to an area mill for processing. Alpacas are shorn once a year, like sheep.  The cashmere goats are combed, and produce only ounces of fiber, in contrast to the pounds that might be yielded by a single angora goat.

We use local and regional mills to process the fiber into one of two forms: roving, and yarn. Some yarn is processed further and made into finished products: gloves, mittens, and socks. The rest of the yarn is measured into skeins. This, and the finished goods, are then dyed by hand using food coloring. Vinegar sets the dye, and a cold rinse and spin in the washing machine finalizes the process. To create variegated yarns, we “paint” the skeins by hand.

A Goat Story
One of our most incredible stories happened last spring: we were eagerly awaiting the birth of a set of multiples from one of our angora mothers, Carli. She delivered a little buckling in the middle of the night (which we heard on the baby monitor). Lisa stayed with her for a while, and felt another baby still in the womb, but was concerned that it had died, as more time passed and labor seemed to stop. Fourteen hours later, while tending to other mothers and kids, we saw Carli deliver what we expected to be the stillborn twin. He was alive! Lisa turned to get a towel to clean him up, and by the time she had turned back around, Carli had delivered a THIRD little boy - ALSO alive! Triplets are exciting enough, but we’ve never had such a miraculous - and weird - delivery. Those little boys were named Floyd, Dr. Teeth, and Animal - for the Muppets’ Electric Mayhem Band, of course. Floyd, the oldest of the three, was also the smallest, and needed to be bottle-fed after a while. He’s now one of our friendliest, cuddliest fellas!

Have a look!

Just look at that little goat in the sweater! So presh! Thank you for the lovely fiber, goats! If you'd like to know more about Laughing Goat Fiber, you can visit their website, Etsy, Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks go out to the folks at Laughing Goat for sharing about their animals!

From the Source Friday: Joe's Camels

The fourth Friday of every month is From the Source Friday! Show your appreciation to these dedicated fiber farmers as they teach you all about where your yarn comes from. Today we are going to learn all about camels. Did you know that yarn can be made from camel fiber? You may have heard of the luxuriousness of camel hair coats. Just imagine how fun it would be to crochet with camel yarn! Joe of Joe's camels is here to tell us all about his animals.

Life on the farm...
We have a herd of 5 female and 1 male Bactrian Camels.  Camels have cattle nomenclature, so we have 5 cows and one bull, with a few calves due this spring.  There are two main types of Camels.  There is the one-humped Dromedary Camel from the Middle East, North Africa and India, with feral populations in Australia.  We, however raise the 2-humped Bactrian Camel from China and Mongolia.  There is a true wild Bactrian Camel and it is one of the most endangered large animals on the planet.  Domestic Bactrians far outnumber Dromedaries globally, as well as in North America.  There are supposedly only a few hundred Bactrian Camels in North America, versus a few thousand of their single-humped cousins.  The two types of animals can cross breed, with the offspring being large in stature and having a very large hump. 

They're pretty easy keepers and the management of Bactrian Camels is awfully similar to cattle.  They are easy on our electric fences, but are very susceptible to parasites.  Coming from a dry environment, their systems haven't been used to the parasites our livestock often carry.  Parasite control is the most important components of a camel management plan. 

The benefit of Bactrian Camels is their enormous fleeces, which luckily shed off in the spring.  No, there is no need to sheer our animals, thankfully it simply sheds off in the spring time.  We brush it out and they will often line up to get brushed.  I liken it to wallpaper removal, as it will often hang in big clumps off of our animals.  We often find the hair in clumps in the field.  It has been stated that one Bactrian Camel can produce as much as 30 pounds of fur, and it is so much hair that their fleeces will literally hang to the ground in the winter time.  The under hair of the animal is the desired product of the fleece and the guard hair is the least desirable.  We have our fiber processed and de-haired at Zeilinger Wool Mill in Frankenmuth, Mich. 

A Camel Story
Calving time can and has been much more time-consuming and even emotional.  My wife (Marcia) and I were in Europe last spring and we had a calf born.  The calf had a rough start at life and was also born all white.  White Bactrian Camels are extremely rare.  This calf's mother was not raised on our farm and isn't the most friendly of animals and she calved out in the field a snow white little bull calf, we named Olaf.  He was too weak to stand but he had a strong will to live and was definitely hungry.  My folks, who daily manage our animals, worked around the clock to ensure Olaf pulled through.  He was still too weak to stand after the first day and was taken to Michigan State University Vet. Clinic.  He spent a few days at the Clinic and received blood transfusions from another one of our camels and made a great turnaround.  The work of my folks and the MSU Vet. Clinic saved Olaf's life.  He definitely looked forward to his around the clock bottles and even loved to kick a soccer ball.  Olaf was placed in a loving home near Philadelphia.

We have names for all of our camels including; Emma, Gracie, Barbie, Camella, Bonnie, and Eugene.  Bonnie and Gracie are the stars of the barn and one can't come into the barn without saying hello to those two.  They love ginger snaps and Gracie is trained to kiss you for a treat.

Have a look!

So cool! Wanna see more camel pics? Check out their website. Joe's Camels also posts a "hump day" picture on their Facebook page every Wednesday. How cute is that?? Camel fiber and roving is available on Etsy. Thanks for sharing with us today, Joe!

From the Source Friday: Pronkin Pastures

The fourth Friday of every month is From the Source Friday! Show your appreciation to these dedicated fiber farmers as they teach you all about where your yarn comes from. Today's featured fiber is alpaca. Originally from South America, alpacas have become popular with fiber lovers for the soft fibers that they produce. LeeAnna of Pronkin Pastures Alpaca Ranch on Whidbey Island, Washington is here with us today to tell us about her furry friends.

Life on the ranch...
We started our business 10 years ago with the purchase of 3 pregnant female alpacas, 2 gelded males, and a rescue llama.  Over the years our herd has slowly grown. We currently have 36 huacaya alpacas, 2 suri alpacas, and the llama.  We raise them for their fine fiber which is harvested once per year - usually in late May /early June.  This timing  gives the animals relief from the summer heat and allows enough time for fiber to grow back before it gets cold again.  With 38 alpacas, shearing is a full weekend of work.  We hire a professional alpaca shearer - a husband and wife team that have become personal friends to us.  The shearer brings all the tools, equipment and expertise needed, and we have several friends and family members that help us over the course of the weekend, so we try to make it as fun as possible.  I look forward to shearing as it is always exciting to see the fiber our animals have grown - especially the new animals that are being shorn for the first time.  We save as much fiber as possible and depending on the quality and other characteristics decide on how it will be processed.  The fiber from each animal is evaluated and processed individually.  Ideally, we like to have the fiber processed into luxurious yarn and roving, but not all fiber lends itself to that end.  The lesser quality fiber is not wasted though; it is processed into batts for felting, or into actual felted sheets.  We use 3 local mini mills to process the majority of the fiber, but hand process the cria (baby alpaca) fleeces.  The cria fleeces are generally tender and quite dirty, so we take extra care with those and process them by hand from start to finish.

Day to day with the alpacas is pretty low key.  Alpacas are not the type of animal that crave human attention or interaction, so feeding, watering and cleaning up after them is really all that is required on a daily basis.  Alpacas are not washed or groomed, but we do trim their toenails on an ‘as needed’ basis.  We always trim toe nails at shearing time, but some require an additional trim once or twice in between shearing.  Since we are breeding alpacas, a little more is required during the summer months when new arrivals are due.  We like to be on the farm when the moms are close to their delivery date so that we can be on hand in the event that she or the newborn baby require assistance.  Alpacas are generally trouble free in that aspect as well, so most of the time we are just on hand to witness the miracle first hand.
 
An Alpaca Story
I think my favorite farm story is that of the conception and birth of Destiny.  My blog post dated 9/8/14 gives many of the details.  What is not in the post is that Caelia (Destiny’s grandmother, and female that we had to have put down) was one of the first 3 female alpacas we bought when we started with alpacas 10 years ago.  Lily (Destiny’s mother) was the first born female on our farm – so she holds a special place in our hearts.  Destiny is now 4 ½ months old.

Have a look!

My website is www.pronkinpastures.com.  My blog is also on my website at http://www.pronkinpastures.com/blog .  I don’t maintain an Etsy site – most of my sales are done at my shop (located on the farm premises) or by vending at local fiber related events and spin-in’s.  I usually participate in the St Distaff’s Day Spin In, Whidbey Island Spin In, Whidbey Island Fiber Quest, Whidbey Island Farm Tour, and Fiber Fusion Northwest.  I’ll be adding a few additional vending opportunities  this year as I am enjoying the off-site vending experience and reaching a wider target audience.

Wow! Thank you so much for all of the detailed information and wonderful pictures, LeeAnna! A major high five goes out to you and to all the other alpaca farmers out there for providing fiber lovers like me with awesome yarn!