Introducing....the two newest members of our fiber family- Tea (pronounced Tay-uh) and Twizzler!
They are both pygora goats from Great Lakes Pygoras in Ravenna Michigan.
Tea sports the purple collar. Both of the T's are trained to walk on a lead...I'm blown away by this...
Of course, what this means is that they will get to go for walkies...
...and have specific lawn mowing and brush control duties.
The kids took turns walking them around and Lila said "you should have got three of them Mom so we each had one!" I would definately get another from Allison- she and her husband are great people and they have lovely animals that are well cared for. The sheep seem to have accepted them just fine...very few altercations and the T's butted back at them so they laid off! I can't wait to harvest their fiber....October!
Hey, congrats on your newest additions! I had been reading a little about pygoras in an old spin-off magazine.. I will be looking forward to hearing about your time with them. Will you be breeding the two t's? Can you breed them back to a pygmy, or angora, or should you breed them to another pygmy? Will be interested to know more about how you trim/shear them and process their fiber! Have a great one.
ReplyDeleteFun! I've never seen the fiber. I'd be interested in obtaining a sample later if you have any for sale.
ReplyDeleteI truely wish we had the space for breeding, but alas...it is not to be! I think in order for the kids to be considered registerable Pygoras they can't have more than 75% of either Angora or Pygmy goat. I'm not entirely sure how the Pygora registry works but it seems like as long as you don't exceed the dominant percentage then you could breed back to either of the original breeds to pick up more of their qualities. Both the T's are more heavy to the angora side (having an angora mother and a Pygora father), which is what I wanted for that smooth silky fiber... The fiber sample I had from Great Lakes Pygora's was lovely...very fine handle that took me just a bit to get used to spinning! Not unlike mohair, more like kid mohair I'd say.
ReplyDeleteI'll be happy to send both of you a bit to play with once they are shorn. I'm planning to do that by hand late September!