Hello Dolly! Dolly's fleece is first on the table! The fun begins...Sheep | Llamas | Goats
Our Mohair Goats
Our goats are now officially registered with Colored Angora Goat Breeders Association.. Look for Marny Pavelka and Casa de Cabra (House of Goats in Spanish) on the CAGBA website! Marny has registered goats for sale. Contact her at info@sistersheep.com if you are interested or just want to talk about her beautiful goats!
Currently Marny has 12 goats, a multicolored herd with white, charcoal, tan and almost-red-but-actually-taupe!
Kids Born in May and First Locks Shorn in November 2011
Four of our ewes had kids in May 2011.
The jo
y began on May 3 when Hershey had a male kid that Marny named Kahale which means house - he was born behind the house, outside of the pen. He was a beautiful light brown and has turned white as he has grown. His fleece is very dense and curly.
Fifteen minutes later, Dylanne had a beautiful white female kid, Lolani (bird from heaven). Isn't she precious?! Her fleece is a lovely bright white and these days she'll cuddle with Marny.
The following week. our beautiful black doe Willow produced a female kid named Anela. She started off reddish, but her fleece has grown in as a rich taupe color.
Francesca was the last to kid and she had twin black kids, Nanala a doe and Mahalo a buck.
Here's Nanala's cute face and Mahalo scrambling up a rock.
November 2011 was these kids' first shearing so this is the softest their hair will ever be. The fleece are available whole on our Etsy site. Or feel free to contact us at info@SisterSheep.com
Bear Attack
The f
all of 2010, our goats lived with our sheep after two black bear attacks on the herd at their home near Morrison, Colorado. Sadly, we lost three of our beautiful goats, and we are heartbroken. Sarah and Kuzco, our guard llama, took good care of them on our sheep ranch in NE Colorado until winter cold sent the bears into hibernation and the goats returned home. Now Marny has built a bear-proof fence and a great big Maremma dog named Bella.
Meet Our Does
Here is Hershey with the beautiful brown face. That's what makes her fleece such a lovely pale champagney taupe color. And it's an extremely soft fleece with a wavy curl.
Willow and Francesca were acquired at the Estes Park Wool Market in June 2010. They each produce a silver grey to black fleece that is very beautiful.
Farrah and Dylanne
Summer of 2010 brought another pair of goats to Marny - Farrah and Dylanne, with their lovely creamy fleeces. Dylanne's the one whose hair grows over her eyes - we think she's excited to get sheared!
Farrah is the youngest of our does. She has not yet been bred, but her turn will come.
Two Male Goats
Jelly Bean, the little kid born Easter Day, 2009, has grown into a big boy. But he still has his gorgeous fleece of white ringlets. And it remains shiny and lustrous!
Pele is new to our herd, purchased at the Estes Park Wool Market in June 2011.
About Angora Goats...er, Mohair Goats
Oh, this can get confusing. Angora goats produce mohair. Angora rabbits produce angora. Many goat breeders are beginning to call Angora goats mohair goats, lessening the confusion. We are doing the same.
A brief history of Mohair Goats: The ancestral origin of these goats is thought to be Central Asia. Gradually they spread to the Middle East and were domesticated early on in Turkey where most families kept them as pets and people learned to spin and weave with their fiber. Mohair became Turkey's luxury fiber and was used in the making of Oriental carpets.
The best mohair producers came from the Angora province in Turkey and that's how they got their name - Angora goats. These goats are some of the most efficient fiber producing animals on earth. They produce up to 25% of their own body weight in fiber each year; thus, mohair goats are usually sheared twice a year.
About Mohair
Mohair is a smoother fiber than wool because the scales on each fiber are about twice as long as the scales on wool and the scales barely overlap (unlike wool which has a great deal of overlap). This makes mohair a more slippery fiber to work with. The smooth surface reflects light, making mohair the most lustrous of all natural fibers, after silk. Like silk, mohair takes dye beautifully.