Saturday, May 19, 2012

This is a Test, This is Only a Test . . . .

 OK - Blogger has informed me that they no longer support my browser and I have to switch to Google Chrome.  I'm not sure what that means and, as it's 11:00 at night and I am not 100% at this hour, I'm not sure I want to download Google Chrome without researching it a bit.  (Anyone that knows something about this, please feel free to chime in here - I'm open to any and all advice).  But, my blog SEEMS to be working, although it appears a bit funky, so I'll try a short post here and if it works, maybe another post in the next day or two.

Since my last post, I have skirted about 50 fleeces, which have been listed on the web page, if you're interested.  And I've sold a bunch, which is the idea, but it does take up time that I could have been using blogging or researching this Google Chrome thing.

And I have been dyeing yarns and rovings for shows.  In mid-April, we did the Wisconsin Spin In, which looked like this from the balcony at the Waukesha Expo Center - that's our booth down there - the first time we had a double booth and we finally had room for both the staff (me) and the customers.


The week after that we did the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival, which was at the Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI.  The alpaca shows were going on in the show ring without me while I was manning the vendor booth in the mezzanine around the outside of this picture. 

And meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were lambing and kidding.  I think we have about 45 lambs and kids on the ground.  One of these days I should total up the reports and see how we actually ended up.  There is one lone ewe who still has the opportunity to lamb, but she doesn't look bred, so I'm guessing we are done for the year.  No lamb pictures in this post, since I didn't want to get carried away if Blogger is just going to delete this since I don't have the almighty Google Chrome.  But here are some kid shots to entertain you this go round.  I'm not sure who this is, but he/she is cute regardless.  He/she is a Nigora kid - that's a cross between an Angora and a Nigerian Dwarf.

These three are Hermione's and Sequoia's (there are two black and white ones there and a brown one.  They are often sleeping together is this old feeder.  They are also Nigoras).  And I do mean they belong to both Hermione and Sequoia, as the mother/daughter pair kidded at the same time in the same corner of the barn, without witnesses.  When I went out to the barn that day, there they all were and I didn't have a clue as to who really belonged to whom.  So the two does are sharing the three kids, as best I can tell.  But it's all working out, so, as they say, "all's well that ends well"!


And last, but not least, my bottle baby for the year.  This is one of Manya's - a little black and white Angora doe.  When she was born, she couldn't stand on her front legs, so I tube fed her and put her back in with her mom, thinking she probably wouldn't make it.  Well, Manya fed her for a day or two, she managed to get up on all four feet and then her mother abandoned her.  So she became my bottle baby for the year.  She's still walks a little funky, but she manages just fine.  She plays with the other kids, goes out to pasture with the rest of the herd.  And she is my most colorful Angora kid.



3 comments:

Michelle said...

Your bottle baby is adorable! I didn't know angoras could be piebald like.

Lael said...

Her coloring was a surprise to me, too, as I don't know much about the Angora colors/markings. And last year the kids were all more solid.

Kelly said...

Hi Lael,
I have used Google Chrome for quite a while now and I love it. Takes a little while to get used to the new set up, but it's got a lot more to offer. Don't be afraid, it works well and the security seems to be a bit better with this version. Not nearly as much spam and junk gets through.