Episode 8: Learning How to Shear Guanacos (& Spin Their Fiber)

“When he awarded you the championship ribbon, he said, this is exquisitely spun,” Anne Barry said. Anne is a master knitter and spinner who gave Lisa some great advice.

“I’m shy. It’s embarrassing,” Lisa said.

“No, it’s not embarrassing,” Anne said. “You should be really proud of what you accomplished with this skein,”

“I am. I am proud,” Lisa said.

I think of it like this:

Pride is a tricky thing for many of us.

We’ve been taught to dismiss compliments to keep us from attracting too much attention or getting a big head.

We’ve been warned that focussing too much on accomplishments can suck the meaning out of living. But there are times in life when we do something really great. Sometimes it’s a blue ribbon or a dear spinner friend who validates our accomplishment. Other times, it’s just a quiet moment of acknowledgment between partners. Whatever it is, when these moments happen, we need to soak them in. Proud moments are truly special and when we find a place in our hearts to store them, life shines just a little bit brighter.

In this episode, we are going to tell you about what goes into shearing our guanacos.

After all, we did get these animals for their special fiber. We are going to tell you about our brave shearer, Clint, and all the many things we’ve tried to make shearing a better experience for everyone. Then we are going to tell you a bit about this exquisite fiber and exactly why making yarn out of it is so challenging. The story of my championship ribbon and the spinners who shared that moment with me is wonderful. And, finally, I’m still working on the pride thing, but because this is the last episode of Season One of A Fiber Life, I hope you can cheer us on as we share our amazing journey and all that we’ve learned during Our Guanaco Adventure. It’s been so wonderful to share it with you.

We shear our guanacos once a year. This means, since we’ve had them for nearly 4 years, the shearing day has happened 4 times. Each time we have been rewarded with amazing fiber. However, each time has come with some challenges. As with many of our experiences in raising our herd, we did some learning that taught us how we DIDN’T want to shear these animals.

“Well, there was the year we tried without sedation,” Greg said.

“That was the first time that Clint came,” Lisa said.

“Right,” Greg said.

“And he was way brave. We had Kevin and Tony here also,” Lisa said.

“Right. And whoever was wrestling at that point, only Coacher was here as a male. And whoever was wrestling with him, finally turned to me and said, “I can’t believe the amount of fight that’s in that animal.” And I, I just all I could think of, “I can’t believe the amount of determination that’s in both of you, because to get him down without getting somebody hurt. Or the animal hurt. It was. It was too much for me,” Greg said.

“Yeah. Yeah. Determination and bravery. Boy, I remember Anthony. Somehow using the other gate. We didn’t have the restraint system yet. Somehow using the other gate to pin Coacher, sort of behind and he went behind with him. And he was in there for a while,” Lisa said.

“And he went into that little house where he hangs out sometimes. That little shed. That’s not really a shed. Coacher went in there and Anthony had to go in and get a hold of him,” Greg said.

“And he came out running with him,” Lisa said.

“Well, no Coacher was running. Anthony was,” Greg said.

“Being dragged. Oh. So I mean, I think the thing is, those times taught us a lot. We didn’t want to treat our animals that way. We wanted to find a safe way for them to be sheared, and also make sure that our shearers were safe,” Lisa said.

“Right, and it was even too stressful for the girls too. I mean, shearing the girls without sedation was just too stressful for them.

“We even had handle-able enough girls, what Kate and Georgia–was Angie standing too?– where we could lead them into the barn into a corner and they could be sheared standing up. But it was sad. They were so upset about it,” Lisa said.

“I mean, Georgia was screaming, peed all over the place. Yeah, it was, it was just too bad,” Greg said.

Each year, when the shearing day has neared, we’ve taken stock of previous years.

We didn’t like the stress that the girls experienced when we sheared them in a standing position. We didn’t like the stress and danger that came from having to chase and wrestle Coacher. So, over the years we’ve added some new strategies or tools to help try and keep everyone safe and chill. One year, Greg designed a gate that we can install inside the boys’ pens when it is time to halter them. In essence, it’s a brilliant gentle restraint system.

“We have an eight-foot gate that hangs on a post that’s actually outside the pen. So the post isn’t in the way, and we move them against one side of the fencing and then close the gate on them. The gate is removable. So when we’re done, we just remove it and we move to the next one. But we closed them against the side of the fencing,” Greg said.

“So basically, it’s like you’re making them in this teeny tiny enclosure with this really great, sturdy gate,” Lisa said.

“That’s right, they’re squeezed into an area that is the width of their body,” Greg said.

“Exactly. That’s right,” Lisa said.

“So that they’re up against the fence and you’re pressing them, it’s literally like you’re squeezing them gently. Well, a little more than gently sometimes. So they can’t go anywhere,” Greg said.

Another year, I decided to sew a hood that fits on the guanacos’ heads to keep them from seeing while shearing is happening.

“You had made those wonderful little hoods that gave them all pageboy haircuts around the back of the head,” Greg said.

“Basically, if you take away their eyesight, they’re going to calm down, and they’re not going to, they’re not going to know where to run, basically. So I worked very hard on sewing a well-fitting, Blackout, Velcro-ized hood,” Lisa said.

“That could go over the top of the halter,” Greg said.

“That could go over the top of the halter. That had room for their ears, and also went around the back of their neck so it wouldn’t slip off. Which is exactly why they ended up with mullets in the back. Because Clint said, “Do you want to take the hood off? And I can get the back of their head?” And I said, “No, don’t take the hood off. We want them to still be in the dark.” So that was good. We had that. Sort of it was like a handy tool, handy shearing tool,” Lisa said.

“Yes. It was and it went better. I mean, the boys are always more of a struggle than the girls to work within that way,” Greg said.

And then, there was another trial shearing. This one was a bit of a disaster, but a story worth telling.

“Okay, do you want to talk about our project, “Hey maybe we don’t need to shear our guanacos, cause…,” Lisa said.

“You remember how it started… Well, okay, so I made a friend who has guanacos in New Zealand. A friend over the internet. His name is Keith. And he has been enormously helpful. Because most people who have guanacos here in the United States have one or two. And they have llamas and alpacas. And there are some similarities. But there are also some major differences. And getting advice from llama and alpaca owners was so different from the advice we got from Keith about a lot of things. And it was very helpful for sure. But one of the things he said to me was,” Oh, I never shear my guanacos. I comb their hair out” And I went, “You comb their hair out, how do you do that?” Greg said.

“Because we can’t even touch our animals,” Lisa said.

“Right? So how are they tolerating you actually breaking off the dead or dying hair and pulling it off? And he said, “Oh, I just trained them to do that. And somebody holds them and I comb them or I hold them and somebody else combs them and we just comb the hair, the fiber out.” And I said, “Oh, okay!” So since he had been so right on in the past, we decided to try that.” Lisa said.

“So the story of the boondoggle as I remember it is this, we go down, you get a comb,” Greg said.

“I had a pick,” Lisa said

“like a natural comb,” Greg said.

“Exactly,” Lisa said.

“So I have my comb,” Lisa said.

“You have yours, and we say okay, well let’s go down and try and we’ll try Katie first because she’s the most stoic. And maybe we can get her to put up with this,” Greg said.

“Uh-huh. And she was ready because she was already sloughing off her,” Lisa said.

“So we go halter Katie, I halter Katie and I get a lead on her, and I get a hold of the lead with one hand, and my right arm is around her neck so I can hold her in place. And I say, “Okay, start.” And so you start. And Katie starts spitting. And it’s not just– first of all, it’s green. It’s bringing up the rumen. It’s the real deal, right? And she’s spitting up her rumen. And it’s not just once or twice. It’s like a machine gun, Kelly. And she literally, she’s in front, we’re in front of this post in the barn, and she paints the post green. And at this point, I’m getting,” Greg said.

“I don’t think I even combed anything before she started that,” Lisa said.

“Well. No, I think you had the comb on her when she started. But it didn’t take long for her to just, I mean, literally, it was, what 20 seconds at the most. Okay, so then my eyes are watering. I’m starting to throw up because it smells so bad. I say, “That’s enough. I can’t take any more”. So I get the halter off of her as I’m retching. And we walk away and Katie wins that one,” Greg said.

“Yeah, we’re not plucking her, not combing her,” Lisa said.

“So then we say, undeterred. We say,” Oh, let’s try Angie, after all, she’s the most trusting and she lets us touch her the most” So maybe Angie would be a good candidate for this. Right? Okay. So we go into a little smaller area of the barn where we can shut it off, and I halter Angie and get a lead on her. And I’m holding her around the neck the same way. And I say, “Okay”, to you, “Try it.” The first little touch you made of her. She bolted and almost lifted me off the ground. Alright, so I grabbed ahold of her a little more tightly. And I’m really kind of trying to pin her with my hips against the gate against the fence. And I say to you, “Okay, try again now.” And I discovered that guanacos can kick forward with their hind legs with amazing accuracy. She got me right square in the butt, and almost knocked me off my feet. And at that point, I said,” No,” Greg said.

“We’re not combers,” Lisa said.

“We are not combing. This is not going to happen. So I’m getting Angie under control, and I’m getting the halter off of her. And you go next door in the other little area, next to where Angie was,” Greg said.

“We were very determined,” Lisa said.

“You were very determined,” Greg said.

“I wanted the fiber,” Lisa

Right? And you say, “Oh, I’ve got a better plan with Georgia.” And so I’m standing in there with Angie getting the halter off. And you present Georgia with pellets,” Greg said.

“I put a banquet of pellets in there. In her bowl,” Lisa said.

“In the bowl that you had in front. And we have to say pellets are a magic way of working with the animals,” Greg said.

“They’ll do anything for pellets,” Lisa said.

“Right. It’s like giving them dark chocolate-covered caramel. They just go crazy for them. Right? And they are somewhat nutritious for them. So you present Georgia with a bowl of pellets. And Georgia, of course, is like “Oh, I’ve died and gone to heaven.” She sticks her nose in the bowl. And when she does you reach around on her side, and you pluck with your hands,” Greg said.

“It was easy. It was just that I was just starting,” Lisa said.

“It comes right off,” Greg said.

“It’s like you know it was wanting to come anyway. And she was preoccupied with the pellets and there we go,” Lisa said.

“There we go. And you would pluck and she would pull back chewing on the pellets and go what was that? But then you would offer the bowl of pellets again. Her nose would go in and you’d reach around and pluck out some more fiber and you would bring it as little plastic thing you had,” Greg said.

“I made a plastic covered box with a little hole in it so it was like a Kleenex box so that I could just stuff it there and store it,” Lisa said.

“And so I’m watching this and going, “Oh, this is incredible.” And I know what you’re thinking because we’ve lived together our whole lives. I know you’re thinking, “These men try pinning the animals down when all you have to do is give them something they love. And you will encourage the behavior you want, right?” Greg said.

“Right. You can just pluck away, all day long,” Lisa said.

“And you can just pluck away and get this fiber off. And so there’s this nice rhythm that’s developing between you and Georgia where she sticks her nose in the bowl,” Greg said.

“You are continuing to do it. And you snatch a little bit of fiber and she sticks her nose in the bowl and you snatch a little bit of fiber. And then suddenly, she went to stick her nose in the bowl and realized that she was going to get her fiber pulled off of her. And she pulled back and spit on you. With this perfect pattern of birdshot pellets that went from your chin to your knees. With your offending plucking hand as the bull’s eye. And yeah, she covered you. You turned to me and the only thing you said was, “Shower!” Lisa said.

“And I was laughing so hard. I almost couldn’t stand up. I had to walk out of that area of the barn and sit on a five-gallon bucket and try not to pee myself. I was laughing so hard,” Greg said.

“Yeah, so I guess the moral of the story is that combing and plucking just didn’t work out so well for us,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, we’re never trying it again, as far as I know,” Greg said.

“No, thank you. Keith can do it all he wants. I think we have a fairly good system at this point. And, you know, it feels safe, and it feels calm, and it feels reliable and stuff like that. So it’s good,” Lisa said.

“It is good,” Greg said.

The fairly good system I’m talking about uses the hood and the gate restraint system, but we also decided to give them all a bit of sedation to take the edge off.

“So this last time, Anthony was here again, and Clint was here. And John was helping, and I think it was more peaceful because everybody, we weren’t, but they were everybody was a bit stoned, you know?” Lisa said.

This is how it goes. For the boys, we use the gate restraint system and herd them into their pen, squeeze them and put their halters on. For the girls we halter them. Then,

“We give them a little bit of sedation,” Lisa said.

“Moderate sedation,” Greg said.

“Yeah. And then, do we have a lead on them as well?” Lisa said.

“Well, we then put the hood on them.,” Greg said.

“Oh right. So we shut the lights out for them,” Lisa said.

“Right. And then put a lead on them. And then once they get stoned, which doesn’t take that long. They’re very cooperative to open the gate and lead them out. They’ll sort of reluctantly go along. Yeah, they go along,” Greg said.

“Okay. And then. So either the girls or the boys. There’s this one very swift move that Clint does. Usually with his assistant,” Lisa said.

“It’s kind of a tackling way to get them on the ground,” Greg said.

“It’s a flip, it’s a hip flip. And then gently attach hackles on their feet, front and back. They’re restrained on the sides. And then he starts shearing,” Lisa said.

“And I think that when Clint makes these long, smooth strokes with his clippers along the back of one of our animals, and it reveals that undercoat of the fiber, and it’s like froth. It’s so light and fluffy and soft, and it just flows off of them. It’s so beautiful,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, it is,” Greg said.

“It’s so beautiful,” Lisa said.

A friend of mine who raises Merino sheep told me that shearing day is like Christmas. You wait for it all year, and on this one day, you get more presents than you could ever imagine. I absolutely love to see what our animals have grown on shearing day. But, as with all fiber, in order for it to become something that keeps you warm–a sweater or a hat or socks–you have to know how to process it. And guanaco fiber grows in such a way that it creates a bit of a challenge to processing.

“I think what’s special about guanaco fiber is the fact that it has two fiber elements to a coat,” Lisa said.

“They are double-coated,” Greg said.

“They’re double-coated. And the guard hair is very, very coarse. It’s like, it’s really, it’s horsehair or human hair. You know, it’s coarse and long and colored. Often red or caramel-colored.
But the undercoat,” Lisa said.

“Is cream-colored,” Greg said.

“It’s cream. Sometimes it depends on the animal too. It goes even towards like a latte. Very, very milky latte. And it is basically, how would you describe it? It’s like a warm cloud. It’s like, what would you say?” Lisa said.

“Well, it’s so fine. It looks when you look at it on them. It looks like sheep’s wool. You can’t see their skin. What you see is this wool that covers their skin that’s below the guard hair. And it’s so fine. It keeps them warm in freezing weather and cool in hot weather. You know what we found with people who own llamas and alpacas is when it gets too sunny, they need to be cooled off all the time. They need to have their legs and their tummies squirted with water to cool off. Our animals seem to survive the heat and the sun excellently and they must have in the Andes,” Greg said.

“They have to endure big ranges of temperature,” Lisa said.

“Yes. And the power of the sun,” Greg said.

“So there’s this sort of spongy undercoat. The way I would describe it is when a dog sheds, and they shed the fluffy, soft part. And that’s, that’s the part that is so wonderful. And that’s why we shear them is that we want that part, not the guard hair apart,” Lisa said.

“Right? Exactly,” Greg said.

So because guanaco fiber is double-coated, the first step in processing is to remove the coarse guard hairs. Which is easier said than done.

“Even before learning how to spin or what to do, we had to figure out how to separate the guard hair from the downy undercoat, because the guard hair is useless. Well, you can make rope with the guard hair. If you want to go that far. But the downy undercoat is what is so precious. And what that requires is dehairing,” Lisa said.

“Which you bravely tried to do by hand. Fortunately, I got exempted from that, because I can’t see well enough to see what’s one and what’s the other? I can’t believe you did that,” Greg said.

“Well, and your hands, they’re their worker hands and you have to have a very delicate touch to pull those fibers out and separate them out. And, yeah, it takes quiet meditative patience,” Lisa said.

“I lack that as well,” Greg said.

“And you have to sort of be in the right zone. Like, you know, you have to have the right audiobook on or the right phone conversation going on or whatever, because it’s a bit of a mindless task. But it’s also very rewarding,” Lisa said.

“Yes. So how much of it did you dehair by hand?” Greg said.

“Well, that first time I did all four of those. And all four fleeces and I can’t even imagine how many hours it took. I started in Sacramento and then we moved up here and I was still dehairing and I had a whole big stash of clean, you know, undercoat. And the honest truth is, I’ve never been able to collect that much by hand dehairing now, because I want to spin it so bad that it never lasts. I never collect so much. I get a little bit and then I go spin, I get a little bit and I go spin. When we started, I didn’t know how to spin. So I was just collecting. I was doing what I knew how to do,” Lisa said.

“And so then you learned how to spin it,” Greg said.

“Well. Yeah, I mean, that was the next project,” Lisa said.

“I found an old one from the 1980s. Ashford, traditional single treadle wheel. That was within an hour driving distance of us. So do you remember, you and I went up to Anacortes and bought that wheel, right. And I hadn’t ever spun. I hadn’t ever tried. And the only reason I got that wheel is that somebody told me that’s what you should start with. So I was like, okay, whatever. And so I had guanaco fiber and now an Ashford wheel. And I felt like I was the real deal. It’s just so funny. And I went on Craftsy, a web platform that has different craft classes. And there was a learn to spin class on that. So I watched that video,” Lisa said.

“And then I dove into the guanaco and spun and spun and spun and spun. And guanaco is very short and very fine. So you end up with something that looks a bit like sewing thread, because it’s so fine. And that’s all I would do is spin guanaco fiber, spin and spin and spin,” Lisa said.

“I was going to the Weavers Guild and just sort of seeing other people spin, but I didn’t know really, like how I could improve my spinning or whether it was any good or what I could do to get better or you know, and so my MO is you make something and then you ask for feedback. Right? So I learned that one of the ways you can get feedback is you submit, you’re spinning or you’re knitting, or you’re weaving in fiber festivals, and they have like contests,” Lisa said.

“And many people probably don’t know about these fiber festivals. A lot of them are contests about who has the best fiber. Who has the best weaving, who has the best, right?” Greg said.

“It’s like a State Fair, like it’s sort of like, you know, it’s where you take your animals to get judged. It’s where you take your handcraft to get judged. you’re not in the fiber festival, your jam to get judged on your pies, you know, all of that, right. So people are, that’s where you get feedback. I didn’t know that either. But I heard about it. And I was about to go to my first fiber festival and the weavers guild, part of them were going, and some of them had submitted in years past and they were like, “Oh, now we’re done with that. We’re not doing that.” And I thought you know, I could get some feedback and that would be really good because I didn’t have a teacher. I was going off of Craftsy videos to figure out how to make something you know. I didn’t really have any comparison. So I paid my $5 fee and filled out a form that said this was 100% guanaco,” Lisa said.

“The cost of information was five dollars,” Greg said.

“It was great. That was like such a great thing,” Lisa said.

Now I couldn’t help but bring Anne Barry into this story because if it wasn’t for her, I would never have had the guts to actually go through with submitting my skein for judging. She is a master knitter and spinner and recently I went to visit her so she could help me remember the story. She is so dear, I got the story, and also some sage advice.

When we first saw you, I thought that you were an amazing spinner. Because my recollection of you when you were spinning this is that this is incredibly short fiber. And you were with the, with the forward draw on this, it was not even the width of my fingers, it was not even an inch, it was like, an eighth of an inch,” Lisa said.

“And you were just, you’ve just sat there with this pile, you know, this little pile of fiber in your lap. And you just, you talked to us, and you were hardly watching this. I mean, we thought you had been spinning forever,” Anne said.

“Did you really?” Lisa said

“Yes,” Anne said.

“I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was yeah, I just I don’t know. But, the thing was, I didn’t have any comparison, right. And so I just did it. And I was so shy. And I desperately wanted feedback. I mean, I showed you guys all of the skein and I said, “What do you think?” And everybody would go, “it’s so lovely.” And I thought you were just being nice,” Lisa said.

“Oh, Lisa, if you only had been through what the rest of us have been through with our first spinning. My first spinning is as fat as my little finger in some places, and as thin as this in other places. And I have, you know, I’ve always said to new spinners, you have to be sure and keep your first skeins of yarn because you will never spin that kind of novelty yarn again,” Anne said.

“Right,” Lisa said.

“And yet, after you won the championship, you know, and told us that this was your first skein. it was like, oh the rest of us are doomed,” Anne said.

“Okay, so do you remember I said, I think I’m gonna submit my guanaco skein for judging, but I don’t know how to do it. Do you remember that? And I was like, not sure. And I think I had paid the thing and filled out the form. And you just took me like, we’re going to go do this. And you guided me, do remember?” Lisa asked

“I do? I do,” Anne said.

“Because even at that point, even before I knew this was your first skein. I knew that this was an exceptional piece of work,” Lisa said.

“And it had taken the blue ribbon. I knew it would. And you said,” Oh, that’s nice.” And you got up to leave. And I said, ”Lisa sit down. There’s more,” Anne said.

I remember that,” Lisa said.

“Yes. And, you know, then the women who were helping him brought these armloads of first, you know, place skeins from all of the rest of the judging. And while we couldn’t really hear what he was saying to these women, I knew that what he was doing was asking them where this skein was. And when he found it, he held it in his left hand as he kind of continued to go through all the rest of the skeins looking for the second and third place. And I knew where this skein was going to place. I knew because I had held it, and I could see what he was doing with it. And when he awarded you the championship ribbon, he said, “This is exquisitely spun.” He said, “This is a three-ply. And I can hardly spin a single that is this fine,’ Anne said.

“Again, I didn’t know you know, but what I thought was the most special was to sit with all of you back there. And you had tears in your eyes. I felt so special. It was like you were so happy. It was so sweet,” Lisa said.

“We were so excited for you. I mean, none of us had ever come even close to what you accomplished with the first skein you ever spun and entered into a competition,” Anne said.

“You were about to get up and leave.”Oh, okay. I won a blue ribbon. I’m done.” No, you’re not Lisa. Sit down. Because I knew what was coming. I really did. Because I had what we had watched him most of the skein judge and he had gone through it But when he hit this skein, he just lit up you know, and he had the accolades that he bestowed on this skien during the initial judging of it we all knew what was coming. We all knew,” Anne said.

“Funny. That’s really good, right,” Lisa said.

During my visit, Anne took me into her studio, she wanted to show me something. There, while her antique clock chimed, I got to view her ribbon wall.

“Okay, tell me what you have,” Lisa asked as the clock struck the hour.

“This wall contains all of the extra special pieces that I have won with knitting and spinning,” Anne said.

“I want to look at them. Let’s look at them. Look at you,” Lisa said.

“There are a number of first places in Black Sheep Gathering. This was the first thing I ever entered. This was fourth place at Oregon Flock and Fiber. And on the back is always written what piece it was and the date. There are handspun adults and knitting adults and best of show and people’s choice. You know, all kinds of things here,” Anne said.

“Fabulous,” Lisa said.

“And I want you to find a wall where you can begin doing something very similar,” Anne said.

“I don’t know remember I’m shy,” Lisa said.

“Tough toenails, my dear,” Anne said.

“Shy is one thing, but you know, you need to be proud of your accomplishments,” Anne said.

“And you need a spot where you can put up that very first ribbon,” Anne said.

“You need to put it in a place where you can look at it and be proud of what you accomplished,” Anne said.

“Okay, I’ll work on that,” Lisa said.

Like I said, Pride is a tricky thing for some people. And I’m still working on it. And Anne was a big help.

“So, I don’t know. Are you proud of what we’ve done?” Lisa said.

“In my heart very much so. How about you?” Greg said.

“I mean, I think I am proud. And I think that’s a hard thing for me to acknowledge,” Lisa said.

“I’m very proud of you, I mean I really am. I’m proud of the way you’ve learned to spin. I’m proud of how much organization you’ve put into how to color, the fiber, how to dye it, all this experimentation you’ve done. I’m just proud of how you have organized this whole thing. Of the website. Everything that you’ve done has been really inspirational to me,” Greg said.

“Thank you. I think when I think about it, I mean, all of that is good stuff. But I think what I’m most proud of is doing it with you. You know?” Lisa said.

“Well, I’m proud of how we have managed to work together through this even if our attempts end up being just funny stories that we’ll pass onto the kids,” Greg said.

“I know. I mean. I think it’s been the perfect project for us to just get to know each other more and keep showing up for each other more and learn more and celebrate more,” Lisa said.

“It has been an opportunity. And I am proud of this. For us to get to know one another a little bit better. I think in our older age. Our romance was so whirlwind we had children before we knew it,” Greg said.

“True,” Lisa said.

“And I just think it’s been a real process of having a project together that meant so much to both of us,” Greg said.

“Yeah, that’s something to be really proud of, I think,” Lisa said.

“Yeah,” Lisa said.

“Yeah for us,” Greg said.

So, whether it’s a little tiny Yay or a Tough Toenails type Yay, pride and celebration are a wonderful thing. When you take a moment and acknowledge your accomplishments–big or small–it feels good. And it just makes everything a little sweeter. A little brighter.

Maybe you have something that you could celebrate–go ahead. Say Yay. Soak it in. I see your smile and it makes me proud.

This is our last episode of Season One. We are going to be working on Season Two next…so, I’m wondering if you could help us out. There’s a link to a short survey in the show notes. If you haven’t already done so, will you go there and answer those 3 or so questions? It will help us know more about what you’d like to hear next!

And, just to make sure you don’t miss the start of Season Two–make sure to follow us on your favorite listening app. And while you are there–it would be great if you wanted to say Yay for us and give us some stars and a good review.

Also, If you’d like to check out our fiber, there are some beautiful pictures in our shop on our website. It’s available from time to time, and you might just love to find out what it feels like to hold a warm cloud.

As always, I want to thank Bright Sighted Podcasting. Steve, you are the most awesome audio editor and mixer. You have an intuitive sense of word and sound that I just love. And Christine, your artwork, your organization, and most of all your support is so great. You get it and I just love that.

Okay–last thing. It’s the thing I really want to say. The emails and messages that many of you have sent blow me away. It makes my heart so full to hear how our stories touch so many of you. Thanks for listening and sharing.