Breakthrough

For the past few weeks, Adam has been trying to create a plan to get all the boys in one corral and all the girls in another.  We want to do this for a few reasons: to work with the girls without interference from the bulls and to prevent breeding too early.  Granted, the girls can usually start breeding at 18 months, so we have a little time, but it's better to separate early than risk accidents.  We feel like they are really not familiar enough with us yet to risk having to handle a skiddish and pregnant animal. 
So the layout of how to get all the girls on the left and the boys on the right has created a process that makes preparing for a middle eastern peace treaty conference look like planning a child's birthday party.  Bulls have to first be segregated inside the barn.  More fence panels must be purchased.  Gates must be opened at specific times in a certain sequence.  The girls have to be herded to one side, then gates must be shut.  Inside the barn, Vorenus has to be let out and then Pullo has to be moved to the other barn section. Then the boys have to be socialized with each other for a few weeks before Pullo can be allowed to the outside again.

And there was the glitch.  How on earth were two bulls going to react when put in the same corral together?

Well, yesterday we found out.  The inside door between Vorenus's pen and the open area that is partially roped off for Pullo mysteriously opened yesterday.  I think we need to start searching Vorenus for lock picks, seriously.  When Adam went to the farm to check, he opened the door to see yak head sized holes in the previously uneaten bales of hale.  And poop on the floor where there should be none.  And an open door.  And a once rebellious and full of himself Pullo cowering in the corner. 

So the yaks are again separated, doors are TIED shut, and we're a little less nervous about playing musical corrals in the future. 

In the meantime, Pullo has been on his best behavior. 

Maryland Sheep and Wool

This Saturday Adam and I will be at Maryland Sheep and Wool in West Friendship, Maryland.  Other than our (my) usual fiber fest activities of petting everything in sight and getting high off the wool fumes, we'll also be picking up two new animals for the fiber farm, provided everything goes well.  So we are tremendously excited.
In other fiber-related news, I also want to point out Maryland Sheep and Wool because this year, Adam's mom Mary Thumann, did the cover art for them.  If you go to http://www.sheepandwool.org/ you can see her design, which is wonderful.  She was chosen from a lot of entries but her design was, of course, the best.  It's also being done on t-shirts and tote bags, so even if you can't get to the festival, you can bring the best part of the festival to you.  Wool fumes not included. 

Spring Itch

The signs of spring can come in many ways:

New flower beds

New chicken barn for the baby chicks coming on May 10

Baby animals:

But if you're a yak, spring means one thing:

Shedding.

There's a lot of reasons to raise yaks.  They can be raised for meat, which is supposedly similiar to beef.  They can be raised for milk, if you are brave enough to climb under a yak to milk it.  Apparently, Tibet is full of brave people, as they use yak milk butter in butter tea.  The dung can be burned as fuel, if you're so inclined and far away from neighbors.  But here on Skirted Fleece, yaks are for fiber.  The fiber of a yak is a very short staple, around one inch or so.  It's also as soft and fine as cashmere and can be used for against-the-skin handknits.  When we got our yaks, we knew that they would be shedding sometime in the spring, but we didn't know exactly when. 

Apparently that time is right now.  Unfortunately, the best way to harvest yak fiber is to brush the yaks.  By this time next year, that should be no problem, as they will have had a year to get used to us and should have no issues being brushed.  Actually, we've been told that once they are familiar with their handlers, yaks enjoy being brushed.  But this year?  The last thing in the world Vorenus wants is someone trying to brush him.  Just petting his velvety nose comes off as an insult to his yak dignity. 

So we have incredibly cranky and itchy yaks, who are rubbing up against the barn, scratching themselves with their horns and grabbing chunks of beautiful wool in their mouths and spitting it all over the place.  Meanwhile, the local birds are just thrilled with yak shedding season, and around the property there are little bird nests lined with $30 an ounce yak fiber. 

Not exactly the way we envisioned this working.  While we gather up any wool chunks we see on the ground, we're thinking of trying to set up a "scratching post" with some plywood and brushes and see if that helps with the harvesting.  At the very least, it should help make them more comfortable. 

Octavia and Niobe

Gaia has claimed this corner of the bush as hers, and crams herself as far into it as possible. 

And then rolls around.  Not great for the bush, but it seems to be a lot of fun for Gaia.

Ally and Sweet Pea

Last weekend our friends Allyson and Ryan came up for a visit, and Ally, who lives a very sheep deprived life, fell in love with Sweet Pea. I think the feeling was mutual.



Sweet Pea still looks tiny compared to the other lambs from this spring, but is bouncing around, sneaking out of the fence, and otherwise doing well.

Changes

Updating any farmhouse takes some work. Making a 130 year old farmhouse wheelchair accessible takes a LOT of work, and a LOT of people. Since Monday, the farm has seen our general contractor and his crew, our electrician and his crew, the tile guy, the plumber and his crew, our heating guy, and our painter. The progress in three days has been pretty amazing.

New ramp from the living room to the master bedroom



New ramp from the bedroom porch to the kitchen porch and the kitchen porch to the driveway

This ended up being way longer than we thought- four and a half years in a wheelchair and I still haven't grasped the whole one foot run for an inch of rise concept. This went up yesterday while we were at work and totally blew our minds. I can't wait to see the top put on it so I can use it.

Future master bathroom


I just got a call from Dale, who is our general contractor, asking what side of the bed I sleep on so the electrician can install an additional lightswitch, so I can turn off the lights without having to transfer into my chair, cross the room and back into bed in the dark.
This guy rocks my world.

And on the animal front: Adam got a few steps closer to making friends with his Niobe.

Vorenus and Adam

After two and a half weeks, and only a few days outside, the yaks are settling into their new life on the farm. Partially, this is because they are being desensitized very quickly due to the multiple construction crews working on the house right now. They are being inundated with strangers walking around carrying equipment, saws in the driveway and hammering from 7am to 3pm. But they've also calmed down a lot because of Adam. He's spent hours there every night talking to them, allowing them to get used to his smell and inching ever closer. Last night Vorenus ate out of Adam's hand. This was a huge deal, especially for Adam because it's only been a few weeks since he arrived, and we were anticipating at least a month before he would be able to work with them like this. Vorenus is our biggest boy, about 800 pounds, but he's also been a little standoffish, so it was great to see him warming up to Adam.



Pullo also let Adam come into his corral last night to do some cleaning up, although there was some bluff charging and some fleeing for the hills on both sides. In the end, about half the corral got cleaned; we'll call it a win.

Pullo, Gaia and Eirene (Left to Right)


Octavia and Niobe:


I know that it's not nice to play favorites, but Adam and I both each have a favored yak

Gaia is mine:

Gaia is the smallest and the youngest, and she gets pushed around a lot. She's our underdog. She's also very shy, and I really never got to see her much until she was out of the barn.

Adam loves Niobe:

Niobe has the facial whiskers of a little old man, and she's adorable. She's also just dying to come up and make friends with Adam, but Vorenus won't let her yet. He's waiting for the day when the boys and girls get separated and he can finally approach her.

Zoomies

It's spring, it's warm, and if you are a yak who has been cooped up for two weeks, it's apparently also the perfect time to run wildly from one end of the pen to the other.

Release the Yaks!

Ok, so it doesn't have the same ring as "Release the Krakken!" or "Release the hounds!" but releasing the yaks was pretty exciting. And anticlimatic. Actually, it was mostly exciting because it was anticlimatic.

When we started talking to yak breeders we were told a lot of horror stories. "They'll bust through any fence and you'll never see them again!" "You'll have to shoot them if they escape, they'll never come back" "A bull can lift stock fencing with his horns and throw it 100 feet!"

Ok, so we were a bit nervous about letting them out of a secure building with walls and locks on the doors. But when the doors opened



a nose poked out.

And then a head...


And then Pullo took his first bite of Pennsylvania grass. Soon he was joined by another head...

as Eirene got brave enough to come outside.

Last to explore was Gaia


In the other corral, several hours later, Niobe and Octavia braved the big outdoors (again, since they had been part of the escapees on Thursday)


And then the meet and greet, across two corral gates and a sidewalk, began:

The Great Escape

Yesterday Adam's dad went over the house to get some work done on the fencing before Adam came home. And this went well for awhile, until he turned to pick up a tool, looked up and was met by three pairs of yak eyes staring at him from the other side of the green corral.
Yaks outside = bad
Yaks outside the barn but still inside the corral = less bad,still not good
How on earth did the yaks GET outside the barn?!

Somehow the door from their enclosure to the outside get open. Whether it blew open or Vorenus has learned to open doors, we're not sure. I'm hoping it's the wind. That's a little less nerve racking.

At any rate, at some point yesterday afternoon, Vorenus, Octavia and Niobe meandered out of the barn, into the corral (which was thankfully finished and secured) and milled about for a few hours before meandering back into the barn. We weren't planning on having them out until this weekend, when we could be around to make sure everything went ok, but apparently the yaks had other plans.

The yaks are back inside the barn (with the door tied shut) and other than scaring Adam's dad and our heating guy, everybody seems to be ok. Except for Adam, who is now having nightmares of working on fencing with yaks breathing down the back of his neck.
Tomorrow: The Releasing of the Yaks

Sweet Pea

Last spring, twin white Shetland/Babydoll Southdown ewes were born on Adam's parent's farm and were given a future place at Skirted Fleece. A few days ago, one ewe threw a beautiful black lamb.
Meet Sweet Pea:


Sweet Pea is living up to her name and is a darling. She likes to be held and loves having her face and chin scratched. She's being bottle fed right now and will join the ranks of Schnibbles and Ramster, other lambs that are also being bottle fed this spring. We hope that they will be coming to take up residence at Skirted Fleece and be good ambassadors for the school kids who come to see the farm and mill on field trips.

Spring

The birds are back, the spring peepers are peeping, and it's spring on the farm. I think we're finally safe from snow- although having said that, I'm now expecting a three foot blizzard.

Adam and his dad spent Saturday securing the green corral for Vorenus and his girls to come out this weekend.

We now have the world's most secure corral. This may be the Alcatraz of fencing. Not only do we have the standard steel stock fencing, but there are giant (and heavy!) boards securing the bottoms and the tops are secured with steel and the boards are screwed to other boards and well, these yaks are going nowhere. They kept asking what I thought of the fencing, and keeping in mind that some of the fences on my family's farm look like they've seen their best days during the Kennedy administration, all I could say was "That's some fence." And it is. It's pretty impressive.
This weekend the other side will get done so that Pullo and his girls can also come outside.

We're really excited to be able to let the crew out this weekend; I'm sure they're just as excited to get out of the barn and into some fresh air and grass.

This was the view of the back fields last night:


Note the utter lack of snow. Spring is awesome.

Meet the Yaks

Vorenus and his girls have now been with us for a week, and Pullo and his girls will be a week tomorrow. Adam has been working very hard to earn their trust and make sure that they are comfortable around him. This sometimes includes sitting for hours discussing the dinner plans, the books he's reading, work and any interesting tidbits from the news so that they can get used to his smell and the sound of his voice. As a result, our yaks are very well versed in life outside the barn. Yesterday he was able to take some pictures of them without spooking them, so without further ado, meet (some of) the yaks:


This is Vorenus. He is our largest bull, around 800 pounds. He's also our gentleman. Given his agitated arrival to the farm (unloading him from the trailer was reminiscent of a scene from Jurrasic Park), we expected that he would give us the most problems. However, he's proved to be the first to calm down and the easiest to get settled. He's now gotten to the point where he will walk right up to the window where Adam is working and let Adam open the door and walk into his part of the barn.


This is Octavia, one of Vorenus's girls. Both girls are still somewhat shy, and Vorenus is still protecting them, so we haven't gotten to learn their personalities as much.











This is Niobe, also one of Vorenus's girls.






Pullo. Pullo is our teenage boy. He's full of hot air, piss and vinegar. We were told that at the farm he came from, he was used to running with a "bachelor herd" of young males his own age, who pretty much did what all young boys do, hung out in the woods and tried to impress each other. As a result, he carries himself with the swagger of a boy full of hormones, but he has all the nervousness of a boy trying to look impressive without his friends to back him up. I think Pullo is not used to being the only male around and really has no clue what he's doing, but is trying to look mean and scary while he's doing it. We anticipate Pullo's attitude will change drastically once he meets Vorenus.

We don't have great pictures yet of Pullo's girls, mostly because he's a bit of a bully and tries to confine them to the back stall. We'll try to get some better pictures of those girls soon.