| www.easygofarm.net All rights reserved. |
| Huacaya females Suri females Less expensive alpacas Herdsires & stud service Wool, yarn, & alpaca products Basics about alpacas Basics about alpaca fleece Sticker shock. Photos of our farm and an alpaca birth Links - friends & resources References - from people who've done business with us |
Home
See our sales lists:
Huacaya females
Suri females
Less expensive alpacas
Herdsires & stud service
Wool, yarn, & alpaca products
Basics:
about alpacas
about alpaca fleece
They cost HOW much?!!
Overcoming sticker shock.
Photos of our farm
and an alpaca birth
Links - friends & resources
References - from people who've done
business with us
Farm visitors are always welcome.
Please call or email to make sure
we're home.
Barry & Linda Bolewicz
16430 SW Holly Hill Road
Hillsboro OR 97123
503-628-2023
email us bolewicz at netzero dot net
click here for info and directions
See our sales lists:
Huacaya females
Suri females
Less expensive alpacas
Herdsires & stud service
Wool, yarn, & alpaca products
Basics:
about alpacas
about alpaca fleece
They cost HOW much?!!
Overcoming sticker shock.
Photos of our farm
and an alpaca birth
Links - friends & resources
References - from people who've done
business with us
Farm visitors are always welcome.
Please call or email to make sure
we're home.
Barry & Linda Bolewicz
16430 SW Holly Hill Road
Hillsboro OR 97123
503-628-2023
email us bolewicz at netzero dot net
click here for info and directions
EasyGo Farm
Hillsboro OR
Hillsboro OR
Odds and Ends
ODD NEWS from the fiber world
BBC online news reports that sheep in Yorkshire, England, have taught
themselves to roll over metal cattle guards in order to raid village gardens.
They lie down on their sides, or sometimes their backs, and just roll over
and over the grids until they are clear.
Personally, I find this hard to believe - I can't picture a sheep who, in most
circumstances, could roll completely over.
From Discover magazine:
Fourteen years after the discovery of the pencil-shaped molecules called
carbon nanotubes, scientists are finally learning to exploit their remarkable
properties. Nanotubes are nine times as strong as steel...but they are
difficult to manipulate because each tube is just 1/350,000 as wide as the
period at the end of this sentence.
In August Ray Baughman at the University of Texas in Dallas and his
colleagues reported a way to weave nanotubes into usefully large material.
With the help of Australian wool spinners, researchers had already
developed a method to twist the tubes into long fibers...the Texas group
created sheets of nanotubes so thin that an acre of the material weights
just a quarter of a pound.
BBC online news reports that sheep in Yorkshire, England, have taught
themselves to roll over metal cattle guards in order to raid village gardens.
They lie down on their sides, or sometimes their backs, and just roll over
and over the grids until they are clear.
Personally, I find this hard to believe - I can't picture a sheep who, in most
circumstances, could roll completely over.
From Discover magazine:
Fourteen years after the discovery of the pencil-shaped molecules called
carbon nanotubes, scientists are finally learning to exploit their remarkable
properties. Nanotubes are nine times as strong as steel...but they are
difficult to manipulate because each tube is just 1/350,000 as wide as the
period at the end of this sentence.
In August Ray Baughman at the University of Texas in Dallas and his
colleagues reported a way to weave nanotubes into usefully large material.
With the help of Australian wool spinners, researchers had already
developed a method to twist the tubes into long fibers...the Texas group
created sheets of nanotubes so thin that an acre of the material weights
just a quarter of a pound.
HAIKU from Woodland Woolworks
Fabric like cardboard.
Too many washing cycles?
You know how I felt.
HER:
Do NOT talk to me.
Counting again for the third time.
Four hundred eight needed.
HIM:
Who could read the mind?
Knitting silence demanded!
When she is counting.
Rhythmic treadling.
Productive Meditation.
I have peace of yarn.
Fabric like cardboard.
Too many washing cycles?
You know how I felt.
HER:
Do NOT talk to me.
Counting again for the third time.
Four hundred eight needed.
HIM:
Who could read the mind?
Knitting silence demanded!
When she is counting.
Rhythmic treadling.
Productive Meditation.
I have peace of yarn.
Whirr. Rhythmic pumping
Wheel turns, yarn flied, I'm spinning.
Bobbin fills - magic.
Fuzzy wool fluff
Water, soap and elbow grease.
Fabric like iron.
Relentless, manic
Creative urge gone awry
Yarn mountains quiver.
Pasture turns to wool,
Earth to linen and cotton
Miracle of life.
Baa! goes the white sheep
and with a spin of the wheel
Wool gets spun to thread.
Portland, Oregon, glass sculptor Andy
Paiko has completed a functional glass
spinning wheel.
The wheel is made of over a hundred
separate hot-sculpted glass
components.
Paiko spent 3 months working full-time
to construct the wheel.
While not a spinner himself, he is
inspired by the mechanics of spinning
wheels and "the metaphors that may
be inferred by such a well-respected
craft in relation to glass."The glass
wheel, including the distaff, is 60 inches
tall with an 18-inch drive wheel, and
can be dismantled for transport. It's for
sale at www.andypaikoglass.com.
Paiko has completed a functional glass
spinning wheel.
The wheel is made of over a hundred
separate hot-sculpted glass
components.
Paiko spent 3 months working full-time
to construct the wheel.
While not a spinner himself, he is
inspired by the mechanics of spinning
wheels and "the metaphors that may
be inferred by such a well-respected
craft in relation to glass."The glass
wheel, including the distaff, is 60 inches
tall with an 18-inch drive wheel, and
can be dismantled for transport. It's for
sale at www.andypaikoglass.com.
Also from Discover:
Hyperbolic space is an unimaginable concept, unless you're a Latvian mathematician who's handy
with needle and yarn.
Hyperbolic geometry describes a world that is curving away from itself at every point - the opposite
of a sphere, whatever that might make it look like.
But shapes that cannot be imagined can be crocheted by Daina Taimina from Cornell University.
Scientists are asking Australian farmers to report any ugly sheep in their flocks.
The "Xtreme Sheep" campaign is part of an effort to improve the quality of the country's wool.
"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile,
the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to find genes critical to wool
formation and synthesis."
The project asks farmers with unsightly lambs that have uneven wool, bald patches, wrinkled skin,
and other irregularities to send them to the institute for examination.
Median Fugitive:
A sheep living in the median strip between two interstate highways in Massachusetts for up to a
year and a half has been safely captured.
Wandering Woolie was caught in a six-foot enclosure baited with food. Earlier attempts at capture
by the Animal League of Boston were unsuccessful, and officials were concerned that the sheep
could cause an accident if he wandered into traffic.
Geezer Ewe:
An Australian sheep continues to set records as the oldest of her species in the world - or as one
reporter put it "the toughest mutton on the planet.
"Lucky was born April 25, 1986.She was still going strong as of late 2007.
Toothless and arthritic, she lives on a farm in Australia and is fed crushed grain, grass, and milk
thistles.
Her owner says, "Lucky could see me out, mate. I'm going on 78. Everyone reckons she's going
like a bomb."
Lucky died in 2009 at age 23 years, 6 months, and 28 days, the victim of a week-long heat wave.
She was a bummer lamb, abandoned by her mother, and hand-raised. She was buried under her
favorite nectarine tree.
Small farms
7/24/09 The East Oregonian
A farm's size has nothing to do with its profitability or its longevity.
OSU Economist Bruce Sorte reached that conclusion after his four-month study of Umatilla County.
His 24-page report says it's due to the scalability of inputs and dramatic changes in
communications, marketing, and distribution systems.
How much Greenhouse Gas does livestock really produce?
The 2006 UN Food and Agriculture reported that 18% of global greenhouse gases are caused by
animal agriculture.
Sounds a little high.
Buried in the report is that deforestation - mainly in the Amazon - is included in that figure. Without
it, livestock's contribution falls to less than 12%.
Still a little high.
The EPA released a report: 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions is from all of agriculture, not just
meat production.
Separate the emissions into two categories, livestock and non-animal, and you find that livestock
production in the U.S. accounts for 2.58% to the total.
from the Center for Consumer Freedom.
Which doesn't mean that we can't improve - buy local meat, eggs, and produce from low-input
producers, for instance. Visit localharvest.org to find farms near you.
On the other hand:
Eating Veggies Shrinks the Brain ;-)
Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain - with those on a
meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of Vitamin
B12 are meat, milk, and fish. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods that provide good
levels of the vitamin.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists, who tested 107 people between the ages
of 61 and 87. Five years later, those with the lowest levels of B12 were also the most likely to
have brain shrinkage.
It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.
The Baacode
Icebreaker, a small outdoor-apparel business in New Zealand, uses merino wool for all its clothes.
Icebreaker clothes will be tagged with a unique Baacode that matches it with the batch of wool
from which it was produced. The customers will be able to enter their Baacode on the website and
trace the fiber back to the sheep stations where it originated.
Customers can see the farmers and the living conditions of the sheep, follow the fiber to the
factories that knit, dye, finish, cut, manufacture and ship the garments.
Icebreaker let me know that they have a store in Portland at 11th and Burnside; their U.S. offices
are in the Pearl.
from Fibre2fashion - India.
Hyperbolic space is an unimaginable concept, unless you're a Latvian mathematician who's handy
with needle and yarn.
Hyperbolic geometry describes a world that is curving away from itself at every point - the opposite
of a sphere, whatever that might make it look like.
But shapes that cannot be imagined can be crocheted by Daina Taimina from Cornell University.
Scientists are asking Australian farmers to report any ugly sheep in their flocks.
The "Xtreme Sheep" campaign is part of an effort to improve the quality of the country's wool.
"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile,
the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to find genes critical to wool
formation and synthesis."
The project asks farmers with unsightly lambs that have uneven wool, bald patches, wrinkled skin,
and other irregularities to send them to the institute for examination.
Median Fugitive:
A sheep living in the median strip between two interstate highways in Massachusetts for up to a
year and a half has been safely captured.
Wandering Woolie was caught in a six-foot enclosure baited with food. Earlier attempts at capture
by the Animal League of Boston were unsuccessful, and officials were concerned that the sheep
could cause an accident if he wandered into traffic.
Geezer Ewe:
An Australian sheep continues to set records as the oldest of her species in the world - or as one
reporter put it "the toughest mutton on the planet.
"Lucky was born April 25, 1986.She was still going strong as of late 2007.
Toothless and arthritic, she lives on a farm in Australia and is fed crushed grain, grass, and milk
thistles.
Her owner says, "Lucky could see me out, mate. I'm going on 78. Everyone reckons she's going
like a bomb."
Lucky died in 2009 at age 23 years, 6 months, and 28 days, the victim of a week-long heat wave.
She was a bummer lamb, abandoned by her mother, and hand-raised. She was buried under her
favorite nectarine tree.
Small farms
7/24/09 The East Oregonian
A farm's size has nothing to do with its profitability or its longevity.
OSU Economist Bruce Sorte reached that conclusion after his four-month study of Umatilla County.
His 24-page report says it's due to the scalability of inputs and dramatic changes in
communications, marketing, and distribution systems.
How much Greenhouse Gas does livestock really produce?
The 2006 UN Food and Agriculture reported that 18% of global greenhouse gases are caused by
animal agriculture.
Sounds a little high.
Buried in the report is that deforestation - mainly in the Amazon - is included in that figure. Without
it, livestock's contribution falls to less than 12%.
Still a little high.
The EPA released a report: 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions is from all of agriculture, not just
meat production.
Separate the emissions into two categories, livestock and non-animal, and you find that livestock
production in the U.S. accounts for 2.58% to the total.
from the Center for Consumer Freedom.
Which doesn't mean that we can't improve - buy local meat, eggs, and produce from low-input
producers, for instance. Visit localharvest.org to find farms near you.
On the other hand:
Eating Veggies Shrinks the Brain ;-)
Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain - with those on a
meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of Vitamin
B12 are meat, milk, and fish. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods that provide good
levels of the vitamin.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists, who tested 107 people between the ages
of 61 and 87. Five years later, those with the lowest levels of B12 were also the most likely to
have brain shrinkage.
It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.
The Baacode
Icebreaker, a small outdoor-apparel business in New Zealand, uses merino wool for all its clothes.
Icebreaker clothes will be tagged with a unique Baacode that matches it with the batch of wool
from which it was produced. The customers will be able to enter their Baacode on the website and
trace the fiber back to the sheep stations where it originated.
Customers can see the farmers and the living conditions of the sheep, follow the fiber to the
factories that knit, dye, finish, cut, manufacture and ship the garments.
Icebreaker let me know that they have a store in Portland at 11th and Burnside; their U.S. offices
are in the Pearl.
from Fibre2fashion - India.
From the Portland Monthly, September 2008:
"Since 1989, the beaver has reigned as Oregon's state animal...But as we near our state's
150th birthday, we want a change.
Specifically: Out with the beaver, in with the alpaca....consider that Oregon has more alpacas than
almost any other state..."
The article mentions cruelty-free shearing (beavers are trapped), valuable fleece (who wears
beaver hats nowadays?), no pasture trampling (beavers make mud pits), dispositions as sweet as
their looks.
"Lucrative, green, and cute: We rest our case."
"Since 1989, the beaver has reigned as Oregon's state animal...But as we near our state's
150th birthday, we want a change.
Specifically: Out with the beaver, in with the alpaca....consider that Oregon has more alpacas than
almost any other state..."
The article mentions cruelty-free shearing (beavers are trapped), valuable fleece (who wears
beaver hats nowadays?), no pasture trampling (beavers make mud pits), dispositions as sweet as
their looks.
"Lucrative, green, and cute: We rest our case."
Excavations at a cave in
western Asia suggest that, as
early as 32,000 years ago,
hunter-gatherers made wild
flax fibers into cords,
probably for sewing clothes,
weaving baskets, and
attaching stone tools to
handles.
Gentler winters shrink sheep.
Weights for wild female Soay
sheep on an Atlantic island
dropped about 5% during the
past 2 decades. Normally,
bigger body size is a plus;
sheep draw on fat reserves
during winter, and larger
lambs are more likely to
survive.
However, milder winters have
swamped that trend, as more
small weak youngsters
survive.
western Asia suggest that, as
early as 32,000 years ago,
hunter-gatherers made wild
flax fibers into cords,
probably for sewing clothes,
weaving baskets, and
attaching stone tools to
handles.
Gentler winters shrink sheep.
Weights for wild female Soay
sheep on an Atlantic island
dropped about 5% during the
past 2 decades. Normally,
bigger body size is a plus;
sheep draw on fat reserves
during winter, and larger
lambs are more likely to
survive.
However, milder winters have
swamped that trend, as more
small weak youngsters
survive.