goatdays - Tumblr blog

[goatdays]

Dropped my girls off to meet with the boys! They weren't impressed but hopefully we'll have baby goats in September!

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Tried to get some good pictures of my goats while it was nice out, didn't really succeed so here are some silly pictures of the girls!

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I got to meet these two handsome boys this weekend! I've decided to breed two of my does this April for some late summer babies! I'm really excited to have baby goats again, and it will be fun to start expanding my herd. I think I'll get some interesting colors as well!

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I love this goat but she really looks like a used tissue most of the time.

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Cuties!

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I've had a hard time articulating to people just how fundamental spinning used to be in people's lives, and how eerie it is that it's vanished so entirely. It occurred to me today that it's a bit like if in the future all food was made by machine, and people forgot what farming and cooking were. Not just that they forgot how to do it; they had never heard of it.

When they use phrases like "spinning yarns" for telling stories or "heckling a performer" without understanding where they come from, I imagine a scene in the future where someone uses the phrase "stir the pot" to mean "cause a disagreement" and I say, did you know a pot used to be a container for heating food, and stirring was a way of combining different components of food together? "Wow, you're full of weird facts! How do you even know that?"

When I say I spin and people say "What, like you do exercise bikes? Is that a kind of dancing? What's drafting? What's a hackle?" it's like if I started talking about my cooking hobby and my friend asked "What's salt? Also, what's cooking?" Well, you see, there are a lot of stages to food preparation, starting with planting crops, and cooking is one of the later stages. Salt is a chemical used in cooking which mostly alters the flavor of the food but can also be used for other things, like drawing out moisture...

"Wow, that sounds so complicated. You must have done a lot of research. You're so good at cooking!" I'm really not. In the past, children started learning about cooking as early as age five ("Isn't that child labor?"), and many people cooked every day their whole lives ("Man, people worked so hard back then."). And that's just an average person, not to mention people called "chefs" who did it professionally. I go to the historic preservation center to use their stove once or twice a week, and I started learning a couple years ago. So what I know is less sophisticated than what some children could do back in the day.

"Can you make me a snickers bar?" No, that would be pretty hard. I just make sandwiches mostly. Sometimes I do scrambled eggs. "Oh, I would've thought a snickers bar would be way more basic than eggs. They seem so simple!"

Haven't you ever wondered where food comes from? I ask them. When you were a kid, did you ever pick apart the different colored bits in your food and wonder what it was made of? "No, I never really thought about it." Did you know rice balls are called that because they're made from part of a plant called rice? "Oh haha, that's so weird. I thought 'rice' was just an adjective for anything that was soft and white."

People always ask me why I took up spinning. Isn't it weird that there are things we take so much for granted that we don't even notice when they're gone? Isn't it strange that something which has been part of humanity all across the planet since the Neanderthals is being forgotten in our generation? Isn't it funny that when knowledge dies, it leaves behind a ghost, just like a person? Don't you want to commune with it?

[goatdays]

If you need to get a wpath letter for surgery, but do not have a mental health provider I highly recommend using this website as a resource. When I got top surgery my hospital decided it needed a wpath letter dated within 30 days of my surgery date for medicaid to cover it even though I had my consultation appointment and set the date a year before and already submitted letters that had been approved. And i was able to get a free wpath letter from one of these amazing counselors within a week. It was a life saver!

why is finding trans healthcare so complicated can’t someone just hit me up with boy juice and amputitty me already

[goatdays]

Well Nikki decided to drop all her fiber at once this year! It took about 3 days doing one hour sessions to comb this all out but it's nice to be done! I got a nice thirteen gallon trashbag worth of fleece off of her, wich for it's size is only 10.2 ounces of fleece! So next time you look at cashmere and think damn thats expensive just remember that the average cashmere goat only produces around 5oz in a year (also localy produced fiber is always a better buy ;)) So good job Nikki! I'm excited to process this to sell this year, though I'm not sure if i should process it fully into yarn or leave it as cloud for others to spin. Lots of decisions! I have four other goats to comb out and I'm excited to see how their fleeces turn out this year since Nikki's is looking so lovely!

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The goties are getting really fluffy over here!! It's almost time to start brushing out their soft undercoat of cashmere! Most cashmere goats grow their fleeces between the summer solstice and winter solstice, and in general begin dropping their fleeces around February. Nikki, my big fluffy black gal up there, always starts dropping her fleece early so this weekend I'm going to blow all the hay out of her hair and see if she has started yet. If she has I'll begin brushing out her fleece, if not I'll check back next weekend!

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I love these goofballs so much!

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The girls are getting fluffy! All goats (except angoras) grow cashmere, but cashmere goats have been selectively bred to produce more of it that is longer and finer, making it better for spinning. Cashmere goats start growing their fleece around the summer solstice and reach maximum fluffiness around the winter solstice, so my gals got a ways to go! I'm excited for the coming month of soft goat hugs! And then the hard work of brushing them all out begins!

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A goat, evolution

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hey!!!! remember standing rock water protectors and the dakota access pipeline?

the massive, poorly constructed environmental risk that spat all over the Standing Rock Sioux people's treaty rights? that dug up their sacred burial sites? the one where the oil corporation who owned it bought out a private company to do a sham of an "environmental analysis" and never consulted the tribe and STILL didn't actually get approval? the one that's literally operating illegally and without proper permits right fucking now?

yeah, that.

you remember that.

surprising absolutely no one, the army corps of engineers this week (September 8, 2023) released an EIS (environmental impact statement) draft for public comment that takes into account absolutely 0 of the tribe's concerns, and in fact did not consult with them once in the process!

they're going to officially approve the pipeline.

what's the good news?

IT'S A DRAFT. YOU CAN SUBMIT PUBLIC COMMENT RIGHT NOW UNTIL NOVEMBER 13!!!

This link RIGHT HERE (https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/dapl-eis-2023) will take you to a Lakota Law Project page where they've set up a form to make it easy to submit a comment.

All you have to do is add your name, email, and zip code, and it pulls up a form with a pre-written message you can just click and submit, listing the most pressing concerns. You can also personalize it if you want, but you don't have to. This will take you two minutes. Please.

you can also access the comment information on the USACE website here, email NWO-DAPL-EIS@usace.army.mil yourself, or call Brent Cossette, the contact for the draft, at 402-995-2716!!!

you can also donate directly to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe here.

[goatdays]

do NOT get into fibre arts!!!! you try one and then all of a sudden you have 10 hobbies and wanna try 10 more

[goatdays]

Some pics of the goaties! They are getting big! North American cashmere goats are not a huge breed, and does only get up to around 100-150 lbs. Goats reach full grown at four years old so my gals goat a ways to go since they are mainly one and a half except for Ophelia who is 2.5 years old.

[goatdays]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but

YOU DO NOT NEED TO START A NEW HOBBY!

STEP AWAY FROM THE TEXTILES!

YOU DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

THAT FABRIC IS NOT CALLING TO YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!