We visited another angora goat farm today in South Hero. This one looked a lot like Bennie.
Seeing other angora goats is always uncanny! They look just like ours but not quite! Which feels weird.

The subject line “Other Goats” is kind of an inside joke. Like 20 years ago there were attempts at what was then the Fair to have angora goat shows. And this one year, we were the only ones who showed up. So the judge had to award us the ‘prize’ but she indicated that she really thought we should get “other goats.” (She had some kind of accent.) We have laughed at that ever since because she didn’t say “better goats.” Merely “other goats” – ANY “other goats.” Because our goats were pretty pitiful; they weren’t even purebred.

Zowie poses with her no-longer-needed overcoat, and three bags of fleece from her Mom, Aunt Janet, and Cousin Beatrice.

 

When that evening sun go down…

Off to Maine after just two more sleeps.

 

Zinnias & Zowie

Three of these goats belong together,

Three of these goats are kinda the same;

But one of these goats is doin’ his own thing…

 

Four more shearings today.  From left to right, above: Janet, Columbia, Beatrice.  Though who could tell!  Except Columbia is developing quite a curl to her horns.

Beatrice yielded 9 pounds; Zowie (not shown), 8 lbs. 12 oz.  Both of those will hopefully be sold straight to Green Mountain Spinnery; Beatrice and Zowie are the youngest at only 2 and 3 years old respectively, and they’d been coated all winter.

Janet yielded 8 pounds after I’d skirted (thrown away) a fair amount for filth and scabby skin – she had the bugs really bad.  Columbia also had bad bugs, but produced a yield that was beyond my little scale’s capacity.

Now just the big boys remain.

I can’t believe how much we accomplished this weekend.  We trimmed hooves on the entire herd, sheared this troublemaker, and unmucked the whole barn.  That’s like 2.5 weekends worth of work.