New Wool Requesting Directions.....

Thanks for the update.

Scott Burr in rainy Ben Lomond,CA

>Your a good man Bill. Is there a good way to store a lifetime supply of wool?

love the sightings shot

Tom Sontag - St. Louis

>Us city folk don't get the same kind of connection to natural processes like birthing livestock. Thanks for sharing it.

The other side of the coin

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I agree.That's why I'll decline. Up where I live there are plentiful sources of raw wool.Alpaca farm right down the street.My wife loves shopping in their store.

Great gesture,I love this forum.---Jack

no special storage necessary

bill tindall

>I suppose moths might eat it. You could put it in a zip lock with a moth ball. I just keep it in a paper bag. Will last centuries.

Of course you also miss the pleasure

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>of chasing the chickens back into the pen after they somehow open the gate, all the while trying to keep the dog from sampling a little free range chicken; and manifold other joys of life.

We're not rural here (7,000 people in town), though we can drive to it easily enough, but we had some livestock (mainly avian - chickens and ducks) when the boys were little, and it was a great experience for them.

Reminds me of a Roy Underhill quote

Brad in Ottawa

>One of the quotes regarding fences in an Roy Underhill book goes:

"Bull strong, Horse high, Pig tight and a goat will still get through it!"

I could be a little off because I am quoting from memory. The quote is pretty true from what I remember from the farm!

Brad

slight error

bill tindall

>Having raised both I am sure the quote must have been sheep THROUGH it and goats OVER it. Sheep are immune to barbed wire. But they don't like involvement with electric fencing. We had a goat that would climb the gate, reach over and unhook the latch and let himself out. Not speculation as we watched him do it one afternoon after pondering how he was getting out.

He appeared in the basement family room one day *left door open) and hopped on the couch. Looked up and saw the deer head, eyes froze and he slunk back out the door never to do that again.

I'm going to do this, but . .

Doug Littlejohn

>could someone post or point me to the instructions on how to use the wool to make pads?? I seem to have missed out on that boat and whil the idea intriques me, I am at a loss on the "hows".

Thanks,

Sherwood

Re: slight error

Greg B�tit, Crown Point

>My friend Stanley once told me: "Goats are as smart as sheep are stupid." I had a dozen Cheviot/mixed sheep, and knew what sheep-stupid was. I took Stanley's statement as advice. From all the stories I've heard about goats, I'm grateful for it, too. There have been a number of occasions where goat ownership might have been thrust upon me but for his warning!

Greg

Re: I'm going to do this, but . .

Wendell @ Murphy, TX

>There was an article in issue #97 of Woodworkwork Magazine about making a shellac applicator. It is really pretty simple. They took some raw wool (thus the fuss about Bill's wool) and a piece of linen cloth. I want to say they used a 12" square piece of cloth. They place the wool in the center of the cloth and drew the sides of the cloth up around the wool to form a ball. Once the cloth is tightly formed around the wool, sew the opening at the top of the ball shut with some heavy thread and trim the extra fabric. The key to using the applicator was to store it in an air tight jar between uses and not to clean it like you normally would a paint brush. Basically don't let the thing dry out and they said it actually works better over time. The other thing the article suggested was to wrap a piece of cheese cloth around the applicator when using it to keep the linen from getting too grungy. The article inlcuded lots of pictures.

Wendell