We are excited to say that we have had some beautiful sunshine on the ranch.

The alpacas, chickens and lambs all got a special guest visitor from the neighborhood once it was warm enough. Hunter is a local boy who got to feed the alpacas, hold a lamb and a chicken and enjoy the ranch while he visited with family friends. He also learned how to handle the animals and how to take care of them. He had a very fun time.

A few months back a young lady named Miranda McFarland contacted me looking for wool.  Miranda is a senior at Sierra Nevada College, majoring in Fine Art. For her senior project, she is working on converting her bus (Juanita) to mobile art van while focusing on sourcing material through her local community.  Miranda came out to the ranch and I was happy to donate a car load of fiber for her project.  I knew she had her hands full just getting the fiber ready to use.  It all had to be washed, dried, and carded before she could even begin her felting.
                       
Her first plan was to use the felted wool as insulation in the walls of Juanita.  While Miranda started dismantling the bus, she found that the walls had already been insulated. So she decided to leave it as it was; now her new plan is to use the wool for felted rugs and bedding for the bus.

You can see more of Miranda’s work by following her on instagram @juanitasmobilegallery or checking out her BFA Show coming up this April 2017
Title:  “in,sight.”
When:  Install from April 6th-14th, Opening & talk April 13th 5:00pm
Where:  Garage Door Gallery, Holman Art & Media Center, Incline Village, NV  89451
Description:  “People gonna be good. Practice your awesome. Girl. Actually you know, don’t you?! Crazy people we belong! Understand the flow, dance to babe. Play you, for that feels good”…If you have read this subliminal message, you are officially invited to “in,sight.”

We are sorry to announce that we will not be able to attend the interweave Yarn Festival in Loveland, Colorado.

We are still lambing here on the ranch and can not get away from our animals.

We still encourage anyone who can attend should and enjoy the other vendors!

We are happy to say that we will be doing the Sierra Valley Art & Ag Trail again!

It will take place on Saturday September 30th 2017.

To keep up on current news make sure you go and Like the page for the Art and Ag Trail on facebook!

March 30th - April 2nd: Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado. -Not Attending

June 3rd: Treadles to Threads Spinners Guild in Livermore, California.

June 10th -11th: Wool Market and Fiber Festival in Estes Park, Colorado.

June 23rd - 25th: Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon.

September 4th: Monterey Wool Auction in Monterey, California.

September 15th - 17th: CA National Wool Show in Boonville, California.
​
October 7th - 8th: Lambtown in Dixon, California.

October 12th - 15th: Trailing of the Sheep in Sun Vallley, Ketchum, Hailey Idaho.

November 5th: Southern CA Handweavers in Torrance, California.

We will update our schedule as the shows come up to let you know what is happening for us and the ranch!

Tahoe City Farmers Market: May 18th - October 12th.
It will be on Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Commons Beach, Tahoe City.

Romano's Farmers Market: June 2nd - September 15th.
It will be on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sierra Valley Farms, 1329 A23, Beckworth, California.

Truckee Community Farmers Market: June 4th - September 25th.
It will be on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Factory Outlet Stores 12047 Donner Pass Rd, Truckee, California.

We put all of the ewes and other sheep in the barns with dry bedding for a week prior to shearing.  Not only were they we most of the sheep had icicles hanging from their long locks of wool.  Some of the fleeces were still wet when they came off at shearing.  Those fleeces have to be unrolled onto skirting tables where heaters and fans help dry the fleeces.
​
This was the first and I hope last year that our ranch experienced some wool rot in our fine wool fleeces (green and peach colored wool) on the sides of the bellies and right between the shoulder blades.  They just never really dried out.  With all the wool on them they were very comfortable sleeping outside under the trees.  They were not seeking the shelter of the barns.
As we get the fleeces dried, skirted, and weighted we will add them to our website www.annagotwool.com so keep checking for that perfect fleece you have been looking for.  ​

We are in full swing with lambing.

We have had 47 Lambs so far and are only half way through lambing.

Every time we turn around we have a new baby on the ground.
​
The mothers are doing well with their babies and many babies are itching to have some good weather to get out of the barns and be able to frolic. 

Check out our facebook for more pictures and videos of the lambs playing around. 

​March 30th - April 2nd: Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado.

June 3rd: Treadles to Threads Spinners Guild in Livermore, California.

June 10th -11th: Wool Market and Fiber Festival in Estes Park, Colorado.

June 23rd - 25th: Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon.

September 4th: Monterey Wool Auction in Monterey, California.

September 15th - 17th: CA National Wool Show in Boonville, California.
​
October 7th - 8th: Lambtown in Dixon, California.

October 12th - 15th: Trailing of the Sheep in Sun Vallley, Ketchum, Hailey Idaho.

October 14th - 15th: Mt. Lassen Fiber Guild's Fiber Fusion

November 5th: Southern CA Handweavers in Torrance, California.

We will update our schedule as the shows come up to let you know what is happening for us and the ranch!

We have added a new guard dog to the ranch.
He is a maremma sheep dog mixed with anatolian shepherd and great pyrenees.
​We just got him about a week ago and we are in love and he is already starting to protect his sheep!
We look forward to watching him grow.

March 30th - April 2nd: Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado.

June 3rd: Treadles to Threads Spinners Guild in Livermore, California.

June 10th -11th: Wool Market and Fiber Festival in Estes Park, Colorado.

June 23rd - 25th: Black Sheep Gathering in Eugeune, Organ.

September 4th: Monterey Wool Auction in Monterey, California.

September 15th - 17th: CA National Wool Show in Boonville, California.

October 7th - 8th: Lambtown in Dixon, California.

October 12th - 15th: Trailing of the Sheep in Sun Vallley, Ketchum, Hailey Idaho.

October 14th - 15th: Mt. Lassen Fiber Guild's Fiber Fusion

November 5th: Southern CA Handweavers in Torrance, California.

We will update our schedule as the shows come up to let you know what is happening for us and the ranch!

Tahoe City Farmers Market: May 18th - October 12th.
It will be on Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Commons Beach, Tahoe City.

Romano's Farmers Market: June 2nd - September 15th.
It will be on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sierra Valley Farms, 1329 A23, Beckworth, California.

Truckee Community Farmers Market: June 4th - September 25th.
It will be on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Factory Outlet Stores 12047 Donner Pass Rd, Truckee, California.

In case you missed our last quick announcement, we are now selling our meat on our website!

It will not be shipped but will be available for pick up at three different locations.

​If you want to see what we currently have, just give a click here. 

We are sorry to say that we will no longer be doing the winter farmers markets in calpine.

There are not enough vendors or patrons to keep it going but we say thank you to our loyal customers who still came out in the cold to see us!

We are on facebook now.

You can see fun pictures and videos of what is happening on the ranch or send us a message if you would like!

  We have recently added meat to our online store. We are very excited to announce this and hope that it helps in getting products that are usually only avaible at farmers markets in the summers also available for purchase during the winter.

We will be continously updating the meat in the store to correctly portray what we have available.

We will not be shipping the meat but will be available for certain drop off and pick up locations. One location will be our ranch, another the winter farmers markets in calpine and possibly a third in Truckee. These will all be scheduled meetings and times.

To view our current selection of lamb just visit our online store!

When ordering Lamb, make sure to use our coupon code LAMBPICKUP to have shipping removed on purchases of lamb.

Farmers market at 151 county road in Calpine,Ca.

Don't forget to come see us at the winter farmers market.

It is the perfect time to pick up your meat! :)

Spinning at Ratzlaff Vineyards
Livermore, CA
June 4

Wool Market and Fiber Festival
Estes Park, CO
June 10-12

Blacksheep Gathering
Eugene, OR
June 23-26

Monterey Wool Auction
Monterey, CA
September 5

Southern California Handweavers
Torrance, CA
November 6

CA National Wool Show
Boonville, CA
September 16-18

Lambtown
Dixon, CA
October 1-2

Trailing of the Sheep
Sunvalley, Ketchum, Hailey, ID
October 6-9

Ventura Co Weavers/Spinners
Harvest Sale
Camarillo, CA
​October 22

Sierra Valley Romano’s
Friday 10-2

The Truckee Community Farmers Market
​Sunday 10-2

July is Half Over!
Here on the ranch as always a lot is happening.  We have weaned this year’s beautiful lamb crop.  I will have 3 new black and white spotted fine wool fleeces.   Let’s hope there are no wool breaks.  We will have to wait until shearing.  It will be very noisy on the ranch for a few days until the ewes and lambs have settled down. Check out our current selection of black and white fleeces.

Gold Discovery Days

Take a drive up to Johnsville for the Gold Discovery Days and meet Hope, our bottle baby.  

Eureka State Park
310 Johnsville Rd. Blairsden, CA
July 18-19 |10am-3pm

We Have a New Website!

View and purchase fleeces and blankets, plus reserve for next year! We've been hard at work this spring, creating a new, beautiful website to sell our fleeces and blankets.  You can even reserve your fleece for 2015 online! 


Shearing is Done

This year we started a little early.  We decided to take advantage of the beautiful warm weather.  We ended up shearing close to 100 sheep and 2 angora goats this year.  We have some very nice fleeces for sale.  They have all been carefully skirted for your hand spinning pleasure.  Whether you spin in the grease, wash it or send it out to be processed into beautiful roving you won’t be disappointed.

Our lambing season is in full swing.  With the exceptional warm February, our lambing percentage is 187%.  Four sets of triplets really helped the average.  Lots of twins and very few singles.  I am very happy with my numbers this year.  We have 84 lambs and there are still 24 ewes left to lamb.