Townsend, TN

We were in Townsend, TN for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival. I wish I had more time to sight see, but there was just so much to do... The festival was located at the Heritage Center, a very nice place with a lot of displays and items from local artisans.

 It is always nice to see a few familiar faces...

Cheryl McLane from Purdy Thangz

purdythangz

Brenda Horrower from Woodenspinner

WoodenSpinner

I had a booth upstairs where I was spinning and meeting a lot of wonderful people! These were taken the day before the show, I had to sneak away to the Smoky Mountain Spinnery!

What a sweet Thursday afternoon playing with fiber, Nancy was such a wonderful hostess!

smokymountainspinnery

I stayed in Pigeon Forge, here are a few of the sights on the strip...

Titanic Museum

Drive thru wedding anyone???

It was a great time, I hope to be back next year...perhaps I will find a quieter place than pigeon forge.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see me and supporting a fiber farmer!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Blue Goose Farms has been published in the latest issue of the Goat Rancher! We can be found on page 23. Magazines can be found online at the website or at a Tractor Supply near you. The Goat Rancher has a lot of important information and very interesting articles (like us haha) get your copy right away!

The Goat Rancher

2012 BABIES!!!!!!!

They are here! Our 2012 babies have started! We never thought they would get here, running out to the barn every few hours. Listening to the baby monitor wondering if that is a getting comfortable grunt or a labor pain. We have a few does that are huge and naturally we thought they would be the first ones to kid...NOPE the little skinny doe cloud was the first to show us what she was hiding. Both of these are boys, The Buck was Comet and the Doe was Cloud.

From Sunday on we have had babies every day. The second Doe was Cami she gave us a 7.14 pound boy.

From there it was Arabella's turn to show off our only girl we have had so far... She is very cute and so tiny! This little girl likes to lay on her side so when we come into the stall area of the barn my husband and I naturally almost have heart attacks! I am sure she does this on purpose to make the other kids laugh, we will see. I hope she looses that habit very soon.

After Arabella was Winter's turn. She was bred to Pi and this was our first look at what he can produce. Why yes, these are boys too.

We have two first time moms in the flock Carmella and Screach, well Carmella beat Screach to the chase and gave us these nice looking boys

Here are a some pictures of the three remaining does, but as I am uploading all of this I received a phone call saying that Cameo & Pi also gave us two boys.

Here is Cameo a few hours ago

Alice

Screach

That is the main excitement on the farm right now. We have been incubating some eggs and have hatched out over 70 buff chicks. You will have to keep an eye on this blog for some pictures of those babies. I can't spoil you all at once.

Lots going on!

We have found an awesome Farm who is in the process of buying our herd of sheep!

ANGORA ACRES

Right now they are busting their tails getting the fencing and shelters ready to go! We predict this transfer to take place in March/April. So Alabama, watch out! you are getting a great addition to your fine state!


In other news, we are working with knit1 Oxford and selling a lot of our hand spun yarns. Located in Oxford, MS it is a great store that supports a lot of local fiber artists. SHOP LOCAL! Here are just a few pictures of our wares...100% Angora Goat!

knit1Oxford

I will post more details soon, but you can see Blue Goose Farms in the Smoky Mountains March 16 & 17 located in Townsend, TN

Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival

I will talk more about this as well as it gets closer...

national goat expo

There will be a lot of seminars on Parasites, Genetics and even an inspection class! This is a great place to meet other Goat farmers and to learn a lot! We plan on being there...especially for that inspection class.

Saying good bye to sheep...

Blue Goose Farms is in the process of majorly reducing our Sheep Flock. We are selling our sheep for $75.00 per head (except Tundra). I was really hoping we could keep everyone, but as a lot of you did not know I was laid off from my job a while back. We are selling as much as we can to prepare ourselves before things really get tight. A lot of these pictures have been posted on our facebook page, but they are so pretty you need to see them again.

Lily-registered shetland SOLD!

Baby Ruth-Icelandic/Shetland Lincoln cross SOLD!

joleen-registered shetland RESERVED

joleen up close RESERVED

patience-registered shetland RESERVED

RESERVED leise-registered shetland already bred with tundra

almond joy (back)-Icelandic/Shetland/lincoln cross. Sister to Baby Ruth SOLD!

Autumn-registered moorit shetland. daughter of avery RESERVED

Autumn RESERVED

How did that goat get in here! He is a registered angora buck $150.00 SOLD

RESERVED Avery-registered shetland already bred with tundra

RESERVED edelweiss-registered shetland. We plan on keeping her unless she goes to an awesome home. She is our oldest ewe. Already bred with Tundra

flock shot RESERVED

ALL RESERVED three bred ewes-Avery, Leise & Edelweiss

Another Angora Buck, registered white- $100.00 AVAILABLE!!!!

Registered apricot Angora buck $150.00 AVAILABLE!!!!

Tundra registered Shetland Ram $400.00 RESERVED

Thanks for looking! Please contact us with any questions. Please note that it is only the Sheep we are selling out of. Our Angora Goat Herd is going strong!

More Stuff

As I am typing this some of the bands of Tropical Storm Lee is slowly saturating our pastures. It is very upsetting about the flooding along the gulf, but much needed here. We have just finished shearing our kids and have a lot of mohair available. I may keep one fleece for myself to get more experience spinning kid mohair but the rest will be sold.

Here is picture of our stand and one of our boys...


This is Roman (before)

After

Next month we will be shearing the Does and the Bucks. Speaking of Bucks...we have decided to part with one of our herd sires. It was a tough decision because he is very gentle and loves animal crackers, but we have a lot of his off-spring here at the farm and it is time for him to go to a new home. We are asking $300.00

Update on babies

HOLY HOT!!!!! We have been having some record heat this past month....it has been pretty rough out here and I am sure for others as well. I have been outside everyday spraying the trees down and and shady spots trying to keep everyone as cool as possible. So far we are okay but keeping a close eye on everything. We opened a new pasture around the pond for our ewes and now we rarely see them..just some baas every once in a while when they are trying to find each other. I am so glad we are able to offer them this full pasture and shade at this time. We have other pastures closed off so they can find those when it is time.

All of the animals are doing very well...a few hot spots on the dogs that we are on top of. Nothing to complain about (except for the heat)!

Here are some updated pictures of our babies for sale...

ABBEY SOLD!!!

PAXTON SOLD!!!

NIBBLES#1

 NIBBLES#2

ROMAN    SOLD!!!  I must add that I can not believe how dense his fiber is. He is our youngest little guy. That is is mom next to him (Truckee genetics)

ARABELLA'S BOY-Jake    SOLD!!!

CLICK & CLACK from Cameo and Comet

I must leave you with a picture I took a while back. Every Doe gets their own birthing stall and then we move them into a larger holding area and after that the pasture. I was out feeding one morning, I came around the corner and in the holding area shelter I saw Eloise and Roman taking a nap.... These are the little moments I seize and love...these are the moments that make the losses (at times) worth it.

Now it is once again hoof wrestling...I mean trimming time for our farm. I wish everyone else well and that everyone who needs rain that they get all that they need and those who are getting too much I hope it comes this way and give you a break.