Message from the President
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August 2003 -- By Jill Gallagher

Hello all and I hope your summer is going well! My husband Jim and I left California in June, with 12 Pygora kids for Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Has anyone ever traveled with horses or a puppy? Traveling with goats is a joy over a puppy or horses anytime in my book. I mention the puppy, cause we also had our 4-month-old Golden Retriever puppy with us. Oh, he was as good as a puppy can be riding in a car for 6 hours or more a day.

Our first stop was Colorado and Estes Park. The fiber and wool market there is always a treat. It snowed and rained on us as we drove there, but the goats were snug in the stock-trailer with their own home water and straw beds. Estes Park is a beautiful setting for a show. Along with my Pygora Booth, there were colored and white angoras and cashmere goats in the goat barn. We all talked about our breed of goats to the public, showed fiber samples to each other and had a great time visiting and enjoying our goats. I got to meet a few of our PBA members there as well. I think I was the “if you are lost, go to Jill’s booth and I will find you” place. Which was great for me, cause having a booth means you don’t get to leave very much.

I can’t believe how many times I’d hear, this is a Pygora, I have read about them, and they are better then I thought! Or, this Pygora fiber is the softest fiber I have felt at the show, and then I have them feel the dehaired stuff and watch them almost purr…. It really makes the 1339 miles (one way) to get there, worth it! This is our third year at Estes Park and it is fun to see friends we have met the years before and see fiber buyers that are very glad we returned ready to buy more fiber after they tried the fiber the year before.

After Estes Park we stayed the night with one of our new Colorado members and then headed to Yocum-McCall’s (YM) fiber testing Lab in Denver Colorado. YM is testing the PBA samples this summer for our membership. I saw those boxes, they are there and we should be hearing about those results in the next few months. This was really a neat tour and please look for my story about it in this issue or the next. We then headed down to New Mexico and the Mill Canyon Fiber Processing. I have been sending some of my fiber to them the last few years and was that fun to see those machines that make my Pygora into yarn and dehaired! Steve and Betty that own the Processing Plant are wonderful helpful people. I took photos of which I hope to have an article about them in the next PBA newsletter. I can’t wait to get some of my Pygora blended fiber and felted batts back in a few months. I am already thinking of all I can do with it!

Texas was a long state to get across and I thought California was long. We dropped off kids to new owners in Texas, and 6 kids to a new owner in Mississippi. The Mississippi owner is already trying to get a 4-H group together, so let us get behind those 4-Hers!!

We are home now and not looking forward to leaving again real soon, but I do want to thank all the PBA members that came and introduced themselves to me, it is nice to put a face with a name. Total trip miles were 5839 and 18 days! Gosh, I think the next time I drive to Portland Oregon; it will be a piece of cake!

We have a few PBA positions open. Susan and Jamie have been doing a wonderful job with the newsletter, but would like to move to other things, and therefore we are looking for a Newsletter Editor. Also, we would really like to get committee members for the 4-H or Youth committee from other regions so we can all help each other out. We are also looking for an Educational Grant Chair Person. If interested, please contact me or Pat Copa and we can send you a job statement.

Summer fairs are underway, take your Pygoras!!!

Jill pbajill@hhollow.com