Editor's Note
Hello spinners!
The holidays are rapidly approaching and I'm am sure all of you are busy! Our meeting this month is the holiday party - just a gathering of spinning buddies for an afternoon of good snacks and fellowship. And maybe a little stash exchange. As I tidied up and rearranged to make room for the Christmas tree, I realized I have a lot of fiber piling up. If you have a little extra fiber or other good stuff that isn't likely to be used, wrap it up for a white elephant gift swap at the holiday party. Your trash stash may be someone else's treasure.
Your skills may also be just what someone else wants to learn. Consider what you would like to learn or possibly teach at a guild meeting or study group next year. I've created a survey to collect your thoughts about programs. You can enter it online or print it. Please send your ideas so we can make it an exciting year for spinning!
Happy Spinning,
- Angela
Since
we were going to Las Vegas Last November, I decided to see if I could find
any goat farms along the way. Ab is a good guy, but I need new lines and color
in my little goat group. I searched the internet for angora goats in Arizona
and came across Hideaway Homestead that raises colored Angora's. It was ironic
that this farm is only ten miles of the I-40 freeway on highway 93, heading
towards Phoenix AZ. When we had driven to Vegas in the past, we had passed
just north of the Aquarius Mountains where the ranch is located. Joanne and
Roger have lived on the ranch for about three years and have a running journal
on there website which is quite interesting. (Joanne also decorates gourds
and is quite an artist.) I had e-mailed a request to see if they had any yearling
bucks for sale and was quite excited when the answer was "possibly".
They had a black buckling that had just turned 11 months which they had wanted
to keep, but decided his blood line was too close for breeding. They had not
considered selling him until I had e-mailed the request. We arranged a time
to visit and see "Chaco". Everything coincided quite well with the
trip and we would be at the meeting point just at the time and place when
we would be driving past the area. We met Joanne on the road and left the
car to drive up to the ranch in their 4x4. I haven't been on a road like that
since we left Vegas. It brought back a lot of memories of rough roads and
many a picnic in the desert and mountains of home. We traveled back 8 miles
through washes and over hills full of pinion pine, manzanita and cactus. There
were Corinte cattle roaming the area, a tough, rough breed of cow that is
used for calf roping in the major rodeos. We finally got to the ranch and
was met at the gate by quite a group of goats both colored and white. It was
great fun to wander through the crown and meet the goats, hearing their names
and history. Chaco was everything I hoped he would be. His daddy is a red/brown
buck from MoHare Farms in CA and every kid he sired last spring was a colored
goat. We stayed much longer that we should have visiting and looking over
the farm and all the accomplishments that Joanne and Roger have been able
to complete in the short time they have been there. This is a place I could
call home and never leave. We finally made a deal for Chaco and Joanne would
be taking him to the vet on Monday for his health exam and Certificate. (Which
he passed with flying colors). We would be meeting them the next Friday to
pick up Chaco and head home. We had a dog crate in the back of the SUV full
of straw for the ride home. Chaco was very content to stay in it and hide,
poor baby. When we had been home a week we introduced him to the rest of the
goats, and Chaco is definitely the boss, even at his young age. They are great
to watch together. Sugar, Princess and Gretchen had been bread to Ab in November,
so that left Precious. I was not planning on breeding Precious or Chaco so
early, but things happen. Next summer I will be looking for two colored angora
does to complete our little colored angora "herd". Chaco is registered
with the Colored Angora Goat Breeders Assoc. so I will be looking for registered
does also. Please visit Joanne and Rogers web site, under "goat pictures"
about the middle, you will see Chaco, and further down, his daddy Maxwell
and his mama Crystal. Also read the Journal, I found it quite interesting
plus there are more pictures of the ranch. We hit it off quite will with Joanne
and Roger and hope to stay much longer on their ranch next spring when we
go back to Vegas.