G is for Goat!

Introducing our two new angora goats, Dawn and Eve. As I've mentioned before, my ultimate goal is to someday get a dairy cow. I thought I would ease into the cow thing by getting goats first. Not milking goats, not meat goats, but angora goats -- the kind that get sheared twice a year to produce mohair. Does the word 'mohair' bring horrible flashbacks of groovy 1970's clothing? If it does, take a pill and look at the calendar -- it's 2008, ya man, and G is for Goat!


















Dawn and Eve are colored angora goats. 99% of angora goats are white, but occasionally a bit of their kurdish blood comes through and a colored baby is born. Up until recently, these colored babies would be culled, as the mohair market was exclusively white, since white can be dyed to any color. Now, however, folks realize that naturally colored mohair appeals to natural minded buyers. So the effort is on to get finer and finer quality colored mohair.

Aside from the cow thing, the reason we got goats is for weed control in our old garden bed. Goats are fantastic browsers. They will eat just about any plant out there, and actually prefer stemmy weeds to lush grass. I'm counting on this, because right now we have lots and lots of weeds, just waiting to get et.