By April the goats are very shaggy. Their mohair fleece is certainly long enough to cut; Misty’s gone totally rasta. It’s only the threat of a cold spell that stops us from shearing — actually, it’s clipping; we use a pair of hairdresser’s scissors.
Last time, in October, we left Vesle alone. We cut twice a year, but she was shivering last autumn and we were worried she would be too cold during the winter. Now she has a full year’s growth and she looks like a bearded collie.
She usually goes all floppy and Ghandi-like when we try to do anything to her — a dead weight — but today she just stepped right up.
You can see her wool has got seeds and bits of hay fastened in it; I’m sure it itches.
Though Vesle was keen at the start, in the picture below you can see the battle of wills that has been going on since she stepped into the salon. Ms Passive-Resistance thinks she’s winning. Even so, her haircut was completed in under an hour — that’s pretty fast going for us (the world record for sheep shearing with mechanical clippers is held by a New Zealander, it’s under two minutes/sheep).
In this picture you can also see the length of the wool. One year’s worth of Vesle’s finest mohair, it’s nearly eight inches long, or 20cm.
Now comes the odd bit…
…When she’s clipped, Vesle changes from being a fat little goat into this waif:
She’s tiny without her coat; only slightly bigger than Topsy.
Size isn’t everything. Vesle had a tough basic training from her larger peers, almost literally a survival course. A stronger-willed goat would be hard to find.
A Bad Guide 
That is an impressive time for goat-shearing. I have several friends who were 350-400 per day sheep shearers in their prime, but I doubt they would attempt goats. From the VERY little I know of goats it seems unlikely that they would submit to the sort of rough-housing needed for the converyor belt speeds of commercial sheep shearing.
Stuart, you’re too kind. Thanks. I’ve seen sheep sheared in Australia and as you say, it’s a strenuous business. I’m embarrassed to have to admit that when we were clipping their hooves today it was a three-person job; they just hate it (but they’re glad afterwards).
Great pictures. They might give some of us the idea of practising on the dog.
It reminds me I desperatly need a haircut too.
Alma & I went on a weekend course about how to become a dog hairdresser. Perhaps I mean a hairdresser to dogs. She retained it, I’ve forgotten everything except that I quite liked the car of the woman who drove us there.
I have saved a small fortune during the past thirty years by cutting my own hair. The real advantage is that I do it whenever I feel like it. It’s a bit hit or miss, though, I admit.
Goats’ Milk Gossip: now our local Co-op is selling the stuff, though so far only full and semi-skimmed. It therefore joins on the shelves Cows’ Milk, including Jersey “Gold Top”, Organic Cows’ milk, and Soya milk.
I have yet to see an inorganic cow.
The thought of what might happen to your own ears is hair-raising.
Didn’t you try to train Vesle to do it herself?
Neat! How do you get the straw and stuff out of the clipped wool? Do you need to hand pick it out? That must take forever.
Yes, that’s called carding. There’s some mechanical method that was invented during the industrial revolution, but we — I say ‘we’, it’s my wife — do it with a three- or four-inch square, shallow metal brush. My wife loves to spin the wool, I think she finds it relaxing. She’s planning to do some this summer.
Do they still sell Jersey gold top in bottles? Yes, we can buy ordinary chicken or ‘organic’ chicken. What do they mean, organic? We can buy ecological eggs, too — as opposed to?
I do wish they could file their own nails.
So far, I’ve never made an error that big.
We grow teasels in our back garden – such as were used for carding in Olden Times. They attract lots of pretty wee birds.
Our Co-op sells Jersey Gold Top in large, but plastic, bottles. It may be that out milkman would deliver it in glass bottles but we daren’t enquire for girth-related reasons.
Thanks, Dearie, I didn’t know about the teasels. I was wondering, when I mentioned carding, what they had used before metal combs were available.
I’m glad to see that Britain still has the National Health Service and milkmen — milkpersons as they surely are by now.
Oh, right. I never really thought about the process until I saw all those bits of hay and leaves. Vesle sure is cute. In upstate NY last summer I went to the Saratoga State Fair (wonderful!) and fell in love with pygmy goats. Your blog is intensifying my interest in goats. Here in nearly the center of Moscow there is an older woman who clearly keeps a goat in her apartment and walks it under the concealing veil of darkness in the local park. It is always disconcerting to come across them at night on the way home from the metro after too much wine.
They have this bad rap of being associated with the devil, so that wouldn’t help. But that’s really interesting, partly because goats are afraid of the dark. I wonder how she does it? Perhaps she has a balcony or a terrace. I love having the goats in the house, but I’m always worried they’re going to pee. Ideally, Vesle would sleep on our bed.
I’m not sure how she does it, since I think zoning laws make having a goat in an apartment illegal, but here “legal” and “illegal” are kind of loose concepts. I didn’t know they were afraid of the dark. Of course, there are streetlamps, but it’s not brightly lit. The goat wanders around foraging and seems pretty happy.
Perhaps they don’t think of the middle of Moscow as being dark, but ours get uneasy about being outside as soon as it’s dusk. It’s common sense: they’re prey to many animals and don’t have good night vision.
If you ever get on speaking terms with the woman who takes her for walks I’d be interested to know what she does about the pee and droppings problem. A house-trained goat sounds too good to be true. On the other hand, Alma and I saw an English family on Animal Planet the other day who had quite a large sheep living with them. They took it for walks and it seemed quite content. There was no discussion of whether it was house trained, even though that would obviously be The Big Question to anyone who’s considering keeping a sheep indoors.
A lot of people have miniature pigs as pets. They have two (outdoors) at a kindergarten near here. George Clooney had one that recently died.
I too like to spin wool. I haven’t done it for a long time, but it is relaxing and the hum of the spinning wheel is very pleasant. I have only used sheep’s wool, but the long, long fibers of your goats would make really nice yarn.
Although I can only speak from the consumer’s point of view it’s very good wool. Similar to cashmere, only fuller and shaggier.
Don’t assume that I am a football fan dreaming to become a goalkeeper — in fact I have come to hate soccer — but, A.J.P., don’t you need a goatkeeper? I’m seriously looking forward to changing job. I’ve had it today. (Ouh, I could just gore that architect!)
What would one need to work in Norway, far away from the people that he cannot stand anymore? Would one need to have a tag in his left ear too?
An architect who doesn’t do everything possible to make the structural engineer’s life a smooth and happy one, is a fool.
I’m sure you could get a great job at an interesting firm like Snøhetta. You’ll probably have to cut back on your octopus fishing.
Yes, but there must be a limit to intelligence as well as foolishness!
Are you suffering from too much intelligence as well as too much foolishness?
It could be the case, but I don’t really know, not being clever enough to work it out.
Incidentally, accidentally, Vesle is a female, isn’t it? Just saw that on the BBC website:
Female hairiness health warning
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the cause in 70% to 80% of cases.
(…)
In addition to PCOS, rarer causes of excessive hairiness include certain tumours and thyroid dysfunction, as well as the use of certain drugs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8002579.stm
(No, I’ll never get used to the English habit of calling women ‘females’. Even for a goatess [mit uns] I think it is derogatory.)
Vesle isn’t addicted to drug, no?
Vesle hardly suffers from excessive hairiness–she is just right. We don’t know what the boy goats think of her, though. But maybe we’re not ready to find out about her marriage plans just yet. BTW, I found sheep and goat ear tattoo supplies and what they call in the army “dog tags” for around the neck:
http://www.hambydairysource.com/xcart/home.php?cat=198
I can’t see the goats in dog tags. It’s like dressing boys in frocks; think of the psychological damage. And I’m suspicious of a dairy supplier called ‘Hamby’, who knows what’s going on there.
“They need to look at themselves in the context of their family and ethnicity and what is ‘normal’ for them.
I agree with this. We let them decide.
Vesle does take drugs regularly, there’s some kind of de-worming liquid she imbibes twice a year.