Oh, Sadie!

I was given some alpaca and wool a couple of years ago. There was seventeen bags worth, but the alpaca fiber looked like all of the thirteen animals were sheared with the fiber being tossed on the barn floor with no sorting or separation. It was heartbreakingly full of straw, barn debris and prime blanket mixed in with seconds, but I started the long process of sorting through the bags for the better parts and bagged up the waste to use in the garden as mulch.

The wool was a Suffolk fleece, only good for stuffing with staple length of only an inch, and 2 Rambouillet sheep fleeces. At least the sheep fleeces was bagged directly from the sheep as it was sheared. But because they were not skirted before bagging, there was a lot of debris in the better parts. Skirtings and debris was bagged up for mulching. I ended up with 5lbs of alpaca fiber, four bags of alpaca fiber to sort through yet, three pounds of wool stuffing and the two Rambouillet fleeces. Not a bad return for just my time.

So how does this relate to Sadie, you ask. Sadie is our new rescue dog. She’s a beautiful large dog with lots of energy, so we have fenced in the backyard for her to have more running room and space, but there was something I forgot. Yes you guessed it, those bags of waste fiber. Sadie has gotten into the waste wool and spread it far and wide through the yard :) . I can just imagine the fun she had with the new smells and chasing the fiber. They say to add stimulations and challenges to a dog’s day and Sadie has certainly had plenty.

The weather is nice this week, so some clean-up will have to be done before it gets cold again. But at least, Sadie enjoyed it!

May all your fiber dream come true!

Shel