Goat Girls

Knit and Purl love school day mornings. They know we are out early and the kids are running around and interesting to watch. It also means that they get me in the pen visiting with them and feeding them earlier than those two other days that I don't seem to show up until they are completely starving!! They even recognize the sound of the school bus and try to show off a bit when the kids come home in hopes they will come into the pen to play with them. I think they might need more friends! Soon all the visitors will keep them better socialized than this small crew of goat herders.

Hopefully the girls will get used to being on tie outs so they can munch on the grass and weeds and visit people. They are a bit skittish when I walk them on their leashes around to different areas that they haven't seen before. I really would love to just let them wander around but they will totally trash my gardens and eat everything that looks remotely like vegetation!

Belle sees me taking out her leash to walk the goats and gets all excited thinking she is going for a walk and then depressed when she sees it's for the girls. The girls are always cautious of poor Belle because after all she is a dog, very dangerous creatures, apparently for goats. Everytime I've taken the girls for a walk on their leashes and Belle tries to tag along, Knit constantly rears up on her back feet and tries to head butt poor Belle. She has only made contact once so Belle has learned the painful lesson to avoid goat heads & horns.

The girls are pretty wet in the video I took of them this morning and goats never like to be wet! The will be happy when the snow is gone and all the greens start growing. Of course the green stuff will disappear the instant the goats find it. It's amazing to think that pen area before the other goats arrived was so thick with greens you couldn't even see through it to the barn!

Laughter is ALWAYS the Best Medicine!

It is once again that time of year when the blues starts creeping in around us. Not enough sunlight and too cold to be outside, unless you don't mind your nostrils freezing together everytime you try to sniff away a runny nose because it's so freaking cold!

I tend to go the way of the blues in the month of Jan. and Feb. and haven't yet been able to escape to somewhere sunny during this time of year but I'm always hopeful that it will happen!

I'm leaving tomorrow for Toronto for the big gift show, which is combined with the toy show and a few others. My mission is simple, run around like a maniac to the 4 shows find all the cool unique things and buy, buy, buy but don't over spend! Oh did I mention I only have 3 days to do it in?

Thankfully my girlfriend is on the same mission for her newly opened gift shop Sacred Circle so we get to drive together and share a hotel room and catch up and lots of girl gossip. This way we both have a sounding board for what we think we might be acquiring for our businesses. It's a bit scary just jumping into this arena and all these helpful salespersons and their helpful suggestions of what else I should add to my order that would be fabulous!

So the list is long with "have to find these", "try to find something like this" and a few "does anybody make these?". The hard part is the booths are all gorgeous and professionally displayed that it is completely distracting and you end up looking at stuff that is completely not what the shop needs! But it is so fun! It's probably a very good thing you can't actually buy the items on display to take home for personal use or it would be very dangerous.

I do like going and seeing my funny sign lady and her husband since we do a whole lot of laughing and she always shows me all the newest signs. I also share with her some other sayings and funny signs I've seen around so she can go on the hunt to carry those as well.

I also think this line of vintage images with Anne Taintor adding in her brilliant lines are beyond hilarious! Anne Taintor you have a wicked sense of humour and I would love to have coffee with you someday! You are, I bet a fun person to hang out with!

For updates, Tim is now diligently pursuing his favourite thing to do, illustration and graphic design. This is a link so you can check out some of the things he has worked on. If you need anything along these lines created for yourself or business we would love to work with you. Long distance jobs are easy to do with the joys of the internet, anything is possible.

I'm also working out the details for the 2nd year of the Galloping Goat Art Camp for kids. We are going to have the camp at Mt.Tabor so we will have a better space to work in and a playground to use! There will be 4 weeks (Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm) this year with each week a different theme, which at this point I haven't exactly figured out yet! The cost has gone up a bit since things like insurance, summer students and renting a space have all become a factor. The good news is we have some way cooler art projects in the works! $180 a week plus GST, with 10% discount for any sibling also attending the same week. After July 1st payments will be subject to HST (13%). I need to do more research in regards to the HST and the camp fee but I think this is how it will work.

Carol Rutledge is partnering with me in the running of the art camp and bringing along her amazing skills in music and theatre to add to the art mix so it is going to be so awesome! Carol has worked with kids, for years and worked with the Mummers drama camp, directed a number of plays, like Annie, Cinderella's Christmas and tonnes more whose names have currently become lost in my head. Not to mention she is a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to working with her!

I have actually started a list of names of kids that already know they want to attend Art Camp since last year we ran out of spaces rather quickly. If you want to add your child's name to a week email me your contact info and I'll add them to the list. Please email your info instead of phoning, phone messages through my kids end up being a bit of a muddled mess sometimes. I will also email you all the specific details of themes in the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to have all the details worked out before March break so I can hand out flyers to all the afterschool Art Clubs that I teaching.
Go and play in the snow if you can, it helps make it a bit less annoying! Not to mention it's a serious workout trying to haul yourself up the hill you just went flying down on your sled!

Snow Goats!

Here are Knit and Purl standing on their ramp with Knit at the top. Knit has this funny thing about using her hooves to paw at you. We can't quite figure out what she wants. She does it to her sister all the time too, as you'll see in the video. Knit has tonnes of personality and loves to do her little prancing, leaping into the air and has become very talented with walking on her hind legs trying to check out the food bucket when I come into the pen in the morning.

Knit really wants to play but she doesn't quite know what to do with me. Or maybe it's me not sure what to do with them. I'm cautious of those horns which they have no problem using on each other. Also I can't figure out if Knit racing around is because I'm scaring her or if she is just having fun.

I need to take the camera out and put it on the tripod and then play with her and get it on video. She loves to do these whirling leaps off of the little house and then race up the ramp but I need to clap my hands and sort of get her going which doesn't work so well when I have the camera in my hand. Not to mention the camera seems to be irresistible to them both trying to nibble on.

Purl has the curly coat and all the curls on her cheeks like big mutton chop sideburns. Knit has taken more after her mother and has no curl just this fuzzy straight hair that seems to stick straight out from her body. This should look pretty funny in the spring when it's twice the length!

The girls and the rest of us in the Galloping Goat Gang wish you a very Happy New Year!

Busy Hands Christmas Craft Show - This Weekend!!

This should be another excellent craft show since I know a few people that are bringing their wares to this show. Tim has been working hard on all his concrete sculptures so he has lots for the show. I have been knitting like a mad woman so that I have my crazy hats and some very funky scarves made from this new funky yarn with pompoms and also a few pairs of fingerless gloves. I even pulled out my sewing machine and started playing with some bright and cheerful polar fleece to make fingerless gloves that seems to be the new hot fashion accessory this year.
I'm also whipping up some yummy chocolate bark with cranberries and nuts for a little treat to pop in some lucky person's stocking.

Hope to see you there!

And the Winner is...

Knit and Purl!
Congratulations to Leslie Hetherington who submitted the winning names!

Thanks to all that participated.

Here they are, actually in this photo Knit is on the right and Purl is on the left.



In truth Leslie suggested Kit and Purl, as knit could be seen as a rather buggy or pest-like name. However, if you enter their pen and stand there for any length of time, Knit (or Kit) will start nibbling on your pants or shirt tail or whatever else happens to look tasty to her. Therefore a pesty name isn't quite so far off the mark.

We already have a small bag of their mohair in the house, and will soon begin the process of washing, carding and spinning it. Look for it in Lesley's hats in the spring!

In the meantime the goats will be proudly hosting their first December sale. December is our annual 'no tax' month, so come on over and say 'Hello' to Knit and Purl offer them an oak leaf from the lawn, and browse the shop. We're open Thursday to Sunday and our last day open this year is December 19th, so don't delay!

Let the Voting Begin!

We are all very excited to find out the names of our goats! We've gotten a great response and have a big list to choose from, so let the let's get voting!

Here is the link to vote for your favorite goat names:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8WBFHSS
You can only vote once, so make it count!

And no, I can't tell them apart either...

2 Days Left to Name Our Goats!

The deadline for submissions is Friday Nov 20th at midnight, then the voting begins!

Get your name suggestions in today!! They are too cute to go nameless for much longer. How else will Santa put them on his list??

(See the next post for details)