Fiber Farm & Studio Tour~Day 1

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the East Mountains Fiber Farm & Studio Tour. John took all 3 of our kids to T-Ball and Baseball activities, so I had some fun free time to explore my neighbor's farms and fiber studios.

There were 13 locations to visit. If you visited at least 10 of the locations, and got your booklet stamped at each, you were entered into a drawing to win a gift basket filled with items from each of the farms and studios on the tour!
And you just know that my goal was to visit at least 10, don't you? hehe

The first day I was able to visit 9 of the locations, all farms were located within 10 miles of my home.

The first location was Good Fibrations fiber store. Here I signed up for a spinning class and bought a new Hand Carder.

My second stop was at the owner of Good Fibrations Fiber Store, "Earthways Fiber Farm & Studio", where they had spinning, knitting and weaving demonstrations and plenty of fiber to buy, as well as livestock, including pretty Angora Goats.


My next location was Robin Pascal's Studio where I enjoyed watching yarn hand-painting demonstrations, spinning, weaving and dichroic glass button making. She had a beautiful fiber studio upstairs and down, too. It was also my first time seeing and feeling yarn made from bamboo. Amazing stuff!

My third stop was at the "Stable Investments Alpaca Ranch", where they, of course, had beautiful alpacas. I spent mucho time here visiting with the wife owner of the ranch. We had actually met via online before the fiber tour and we had alot in common.
Some of the beautiful alpacas. This one was very friendly.
And this funny one was very curious.
And all good fiber ranches should have a good guard animal. Great Pyrenees dogs work hard at protecting their livestock. And they are beautiful and friendly.
Other critters at "Stable Investments" were an adorable donkey.
And a horse full of personality. This guy would smack his lips together to get your attention. Then he would rub his face on you and drool on your arm. He was very cute but also a little annoying. haha

The next stop for me on the farm and studio tour was at the Garcia Shaggy Wagon & Ba Ba Shop. Where they had beautiful churro sheep.
A handsome Churro Ram.
I kept trying to imagine my sweet little Churro Lamb as big as this girl! Wow!
Lots of chickens in a unique coop. They also had a few goats and some horses.
I spent a bit of time here getting to know the owners, who are also homeschooling their children. The husband is also a prefessional Shearer, so it's a good thing to make these connections in my community. My critters will need to be sheared one day soon....
Inside their big workshop/garage I enjoyed some scrumptious handmade bean burritos and green chile stew with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert! Yum!
As I sat and enjoyed my meal, I couldn't help but ogle all of the huge burlap sacks stuffed full of wool and fiber. Wow!
The owners have several of these stands to help make the loading of fleeces much easier. All the kids had a great time climbing into these huge sacks, too.

The next farm on my tour was called "Shooting Star Farm". I've 'met' the owner of this farm online, too. She has a fiber classes on her farm sometimes and often has animals for sale. She tried to tempt me into buying one or two alpaca females with a very good deal, but I stayed strong. Of course, when I got home and I told my husband how strong I was, hoping for him to be proud of me, instead he wanted to know why I didn't bring home an alpaca! Yoy! I did end up buying something, though. A cute little embroidered llama bag.
See those two brown alpacas? Those are the two for sale.
And you know I was happy to find they had a llama!
And some precious long ears, too!


I left "Shooting Star Farm" and headed for "Enchanted Sky Alpacas", quite an impressive and well organized small ranch, with many beautiful animals and a lovely little fiber studio.
Many beautiful alpacas.
All sheared for the summer.
This odd little alpaca was a rescue. He was kind of pitiful, but also very cute and funny.
They also raise Baby Doll Sheep. Talk about cute!

Then it was time to head for "Milagro Moon Ranch", also someone I've spoken to online about my llamas. I enjoyed meeting Cynthia & Jim very much and chatting about critters and mountain life. I also bought some of Cynthia's wonderful goat's milk soap.

This is their first alpaca. And a lovely girl she is, due any day actually. I fell in love with her ear tassles and the way she crossed her legs in front of her.
She also had Angora Goats: the typical white fleece and this beautiful one, called a Navajo Angora, which tend to have color and are tougher and more disease resistance.
I had to take a photo of this friendly La Mancha goat. Her coloring reminded me of our cute little Moon Pie!
I was awed by the pure white coloring of this La Mancha goat. As some of you know, I've been on the fence now for several months trying to decide whether to choose a Nigerian or a La Mancha as our family dairy goat. I do love the coloring and those cute ears of the La Manchas. But they sure are big girls! (This particular La Mancha will come back to 'haunt' me a little bit later in the day....hint, hint)

My final stop for the day, ranch #9, was Prairie Wood Ranch. A fellow Southwest Nigerian Goat Club member, breeder of beautiful Nigerian goats and Paint horses and now friend.
My friend, Deanna, of Cornerstone Nigerians, birthplace of our sweet Moon Pie, was also at Prairie Wood Ranch helping out Lora and Dan and selling some of her awesome goats milk soaps, fiber projects and yarn. I had a terrific time visiting with her, talking goats, homeschooling, and wool processing/spinning and knitting.
Of course, we also got to talking about my quest for the 'perfect' dairy goat, too. And she mentioned that Lora had just gotten in a herd of goats as a trade, and in that herd were some goats that she wanted to sell as she had no need for them. One happened to be a Mini Mancha. Which is a cross between a Nigerian goat and a La Mancha. As my friend Deanna kept reminding me, "You've got the best of both goats. A manageable, easy-keeper size, those cute ears, and great personalities and the excellent milk from both goats.

I didn't commit myself right away, as it wasn't my intention to come home with any livestock, though, John had told me to keep an eye out for either an alpaca or a dairy goat. But I was open to looking at this little doeling and have a tour of beautiful Prairie Wood Ranch.

The goat paddock. You can actually see the little white Mini Mancha in the pen on the right side of the photo (beside the picnic table).
A breeding pen.
The handsome Buck-a-roos! hehe
And here she is: Our new Mini Mancha Doeling! Lora wormed her, trimmed her feet, and gave her the CD&T vax before sending her home with me.
Thanks Lora!

Of course, my friend Deanna took a lot of ribbing for encouraging me to buy this goat, too. I mean, here I was on a FIBER tour...not a dairy tour. And I come home with a Dairy goat! haha! Deanna's very cool, though, because she also has two beautiful, milky Nigerian does for sale. One is Moon Pie's sister. I was even considering buying one of them from her, until she told me about Lora's Mini Mancha. It sure was fair and nice of her to point me in the direction she knew was a good fit for me and my family, when she could have just focused on getting me to buy her goats instead. Deanna.....You rock, girlfriend! Check out her terrific blog: Cornerstone Nigerians. Deanna, let's make plans to get together so you can teach us some of the Showmanship techniques to prepare us for showing Moon Pie and now, our Mini Mancha, Latte.

And here are a few photos of our sweet little Mini-Mancha Doeling, who happens to be a registered Dairy Goat, too. Here she is after we got her home. We named her latte because she looks like steamed milk with just a few hints of creamy coffee.
Look at those gorgeous blue eyes!

And here are the goodies I purchased during Day 1 of the Fiber Farm and Studio Tour.


And I also got a little package from a fellow blogger, 'Just Like Sew', from a contest I won not too lng ago. Actually it came over a week ago, but my hubby 'lost' it in the truck. sigh.
These are handmade push pins. I love the horse pins, don't you? Thank you, Just Like Sew!

I'll be posting my photos and stories from the second day of the Fiber Farm and Studio Tour on Tuesday or Wednesday. Stay Tuned if you want to see Fiber Camels!