Wooly Wooly and away I go!!!

JERSEY WOOLY

A few blogs ago I mentioned Pete & Mary, the old Dutch couple that lived up the road from me when I was a child.  Pete Used to keep rabbits in his backyard (!)  I never knew they were there until he showed me one fall day.  Looking back I smile because this man must’ve trusted me.  We lived in a lake community where there were definite ‘rules and bylaws baby’ about what you could and could not have.  (Ah! to finally get to my own dirt where I can have what I want: bees, laundry lines, chickens, rabbits, goats, naked bonfires – joking ….well you know what I'm saying!)

So here was Pete with these modest cages in the back of his property.  Quiet wabbits!  You never would have known they were there.  He showed me that one had babies.  They were the cutest thing I ever did see.  I think I said something along the lines of – ‘why do you have pets that you can’t play with?’  That was the end of the tour. 

 A few years later I learned he kept those rabbits for meat.  It didn’t bother me so much, but I remember asking my mother when we went food shopping if we could get rabbit meat to try like Pete did.  My mother was dyed in the wool City Brooklyn – A glorious Tomato garden was one thing…Rabbit meat was something else entirely.  I tabled that question for the duration of my childhood.

ANGORA RAH RAH RAH!!!

Fast forward to a 17 year old with a gorgeous ski-looking sweater.  Angora.  Rabbit.  Hmmmm.  Fast forward once more to a grown woman looking at the wool blanket her grandmother made.  Crochet.  Wool.  Hmmmmm.  A visit to a farm –these gentle quiet creatures in pasture on the lawn.  Fiber rabbits – You don’t say?  2+2 equaled 22.  I want fiber rabbits!  Yes! Yes! Yes!

O YES

Joe (My significant other) talks about being a boy and being around rabbits and rabbit stew and breeding and culling.  We talk incessantly about getting our own dirt one day and He said he would love the taste of rabbit stew again – WHOA – FIBER RABBITS.  It began a heated discussion on the Fiber/Food debate – so we agreed to disagree and it seems we will keep both…

Angora’s seem huge and very very fluffed out (I remember high school pal Jennifer carrying a bottle of visine in her purse so she could wear her Angora Sweater to school and not have her eyes bleed out of her head).  We are in a townhouse!  So I stumbled upon a breed called a Jersey Wooly – (AW!)  they are smaller, not as fly-away-fuzzy. They still give wool but a bit less and seemingly more condensed AND they seem like they would not kill our dog (Bella-the Crazy Chihauhau/Jack).

A trip to Farmside Supply the other day showed me I am ready to take the plunge in a big way – They had rabbits and one in particular looked Jersey Wooly-ish.  I asked the young man working if it was indeed a Jersey Wooly and he said flatly ‘No’ (left out the duh lady –thank you.) and told me these rabbits were pets or feed.  Ah-hem I see.  I did get to hold one and it didn’t rip my face off – It was so soft and timid…maybe he had heard the ‘feed’ comment?

So I am currently emailing for leads for my Woolys!  Wish me luck! Chickens and Rabbits and Wool...OH MY!!!

Good Energy to you and your Fibers!