The First Drop in the Bucket

Well, we've officially spent money!!

This week we purchased the triple stack cage kit I wrote about last week. We also discovered that their feeders and water bottle kits were cheaper than what I had priced at a local store, so we went ahead and ordered them too! We also got a bale of hay from a local farmer, so we're nearly ready to go! Sometime this week we hope to purchase rabbit food and minerals so we will be completely ready. We will have to have a Cage Assembly Party in a week or so.

Also, we finally got a book we ordered a few weeks ago. Basic Angora Wool Farming by Carl Nagel, has arrived, and we will begin devouring it immediately!

This past weekend I spent several hours online searching for any angora breeders in our state or the surrounding states. It was actually harder than I thought it would be, as many breeders do not have websites for their operations, and many farms have websites, but do not belong to any professional organizations that would make it easy for me to find them. I compiled all of the names, email addresses, and websites into an Excel document for future use. I'm planning on emailing all of them in the near future to see what connections I can make.

The poly-clay experiment is on! This past week my mother played around with creating shawl pins out of the clay and trying out different colors and styles. We've discovered that certain colors do not turn out the way we anticipated, but we are encouraged by the fact that they are light-weight and hardy, so once we have some specific designs churning out, we should be successful. We are very lucky that each of us has unique talents to bring to the table in this fiber farming adventure!

This week I read a couple more chapters of Crafty Superstar. I learned more about customer service and production of your products, plus how to get involved in craft shows, both locally and nationwide. The book encourages crafters to start a show in their own area if there is not one readily available. Not something we're interested in immediately, but an interesting thought for the future.

The weekend of Thanksgiving we're going to our first breeder. They have Giant, French, and Satin angoras, and we're very hopeful that they have something that will spark our interest. We have also contacted another breeder that lives near my parents that has English angoras, so if we come up short at the first place, we'll definitely be contacting the second breeder. I'm also excited to see what I can drum up with the new breeder list I compiled. My only disappointment: We still have not heard from a breeder in a neighboring state that we are VERY interested in. I've emailed them several times from different email addresses, but I haven't had any luck, despite the fact that they have a fantastic website that they update often. At this point I guess we have to give up on them.

Tip of the Week: Join professional organizations. Not only do they have valuable information that they can share with you, but they also often have directories that you can add your name to for free or a small fee. The advertising is great, and prospective customers may take you more seriously if you show that you value the professional organizations available to your business. We may be joining the National Angora Breeders Club in the near future!