Alicia Reed

Did you find anything? I am in N ID and putting out feelers to find like minded folk to make a community with. I am also a single mom with 5 kids. 🙃

Emails sent to both of you!

Email sent.
Thanks for nudging me again, haha.

It may be a small consolation, but as a beginner looking into basketry I hear that bindweed may make a decent basket. 😅
This of course does nothing to eradicate it from our yards and gardens. The only things I can think of for that have been listed here (obstructing light from them with plastic, carpet, etc or sheet mulching with a ton of cardboard maybe and then adding a green mulch on top of that perhaps, to outcompete and further enrich the soil?).
However, if you have a lot of it anyway, and might have ever considered basketry as a hobby, then it might a good opportunity to give it a go. Haha.

Good luck!

Carla Burke wrote:
I'm quite a distance from any part of Idaho - and though I'd love to some time, it's not a trip that's even a remote option for the next few years, at least. BUT!! I can check in with some of my fellow Nigora breeders, and see if any of them are up in your neck of the woods, and willing to have visitors.

Well at least I have now heard of a new and interesting kind of goat to look into. 😁

Anthony Powell wrote:A former colleague of mine had a jumper made from his very woolly dog's trimmings.

Yes, dog wool!!! I have heard of it before, it's called cheingora! People worry about wet dog smell when I mention it to them, but then I inform them that wet sheep don't smell like a bed of roses, either, and their wool cleans up fine. 😂 I haven't actually seen or worked with any dog wool though. My one dog sheds plenty but is short hair, and the shepadoodle we adopted has wiry, hair-like fur. Not sure it would work. That really would be a good way to multipurpose your critters though, haha. Maybe I will seek a wooly dog next time. 😂😁

r ranson wrote:Fibre rabbits and silk are some of the best space savers.  

Silk has the advantage of being seasonal.   I grow the mulberry trees next to the chicken run and it gives them lovely shade.  If you are in the USA you can buy chow so you don't need the trees.

I had just started trying to grow some mulberry plants! I had not considered silk worms in our climate. That is fascinating!

r ranson wrote:This might have some inspiration https://permies.com/t/47272/fiber-arts/book-designing-permaculture-farm-focus

This was very helpful and full of fun inspirations, thank you! I had admittedly not thought that a plant fiber would be a good fit for my mini farm since I had assumed it might take a lot of space like grain. But for a passive hobby amount of fiber it would be lovely to dabble in and this conversation made it sound surprisingly doable!

Anna Thomsen wrote:I used to have a small farm with dairy goats and I had llamas for fibre. There's a big variation in llama fibre quality so you want to ideally find one that has been regularly sheared. I learned to shear them myself and got some beautiful fibre for spinning and weaving. I also raised angora rabbits and would not recommend them if you're short on time. They require a lot of upkeep and most of the fibre ended up in the garbage cause I couldn't keep up with the grooming. Hope that helps!

A Llama could be a lot of fun! Do they co-house with goats well?