This Sunday I had the honor of being invited to demonstrate spinning at Heidi and Randy Oversons angora farm near Coon Valley, WI. Although it was a blustery and rainy day, Heidis’ Skjonsbergdalen Farm is in a lovely setting and her shearing day festival was well attended.
Guess I never realized that goats are horned and as you can see from the picture above the males are pretty impressive. As was the shearer, David Kier, he maintained total control of the goats during the process and used their horns to his advantage. This is a man of incredible strength and skill and he seemed to honor the history of sheep shearing and was great at sharing that knowledge with the kids and adults who were gathered there. It was quite a wonderful experience to see this in action.
I wish that my camera batteries hadn’t died because the little black baby (kid) goat was sweet as can be. Go to Heidi’s website to see some great pictures of her goats. Also in an effort to promote her farm and the sale of her lovely mohair, she has started a goat adoption program. Kind of like a CSA for fiber. It seems like a great idea, and a fun way to help support a local fiber producer. There is lots more info on her website or ask her to send out a brochure.
They do a shearing twice a year and hope to continue to share this event with everyone. It was especially fun for me to see because I so admire mohair as a spinning fiber, it has great lsuter and just takes dyes so beautifully. But even if you have no idea what to do with mohair, just seeing a shearing, seeing the care and respect Heidi and Randy have for their animals and of course watching that sweet baby goat frolicking around ; is well worth the drive to their lovely farm.