Oh that is good news! Many do better with face to face support groups than online. Nice that you found one!

@goatherder Oh, the group is online but it is live, using Zoom, a discussion meet/greet with a topic each month. I am really looking forward to it! And sometime maybe I will physically go there. It’s an almost three-hour drive from my house.

@goatherder Oh, and I was going to tell you this - my brother’s goat gave birth to two babies/kids earlier today. He is very excited! He will probably send me a picture soon.   

@llholiday Ah OK, but will be very useful none the less!

@llholiday Way cool! I love baby goats. Just helped birth a friends babies.

@goatherder 

@llholiday What kind of goats? I am a hand spinner and weaver so I’m always on the lookout for angora goats. There was a time that I couldn’t drive past a sheep farm without knocking on the front door.

Laurie

I had to ask my brother - they are Angora goats. He lives quite a ways from here and I have never seen them in person, but they look so pretty in the pictures he sends. His wife gave my mother a little skein of their yarn for Christmas - very soft.

@llholiday I thought they looked like angora goats but I wasn’t sure. It sounds like there’s a hand spinner in the family already. Yes, their fibre is very soft, and so shiny which is why it is sought after. Two kids is a double blessing - kid mohair is even softer. 🧶

Laurie

Posted by: @llholiday

I am very excited to have found a regional support group that has been meeting monthly face-to-face online! 

Really glad to hear that! Let us know how it goes =)

@llholiday Awww so sweet, thanks for sharing that!

@tigerlily Yes, I believe she spins. They bought a little farm several years ago from someone in the original family; the house is very small and old. They have goats and chickens.  My mother, who is almost 91, has been quite a crocheter - she doesn’t do much now, and I think she is holding on to that yarn and not doing anything with it because it is “too good” - and I understand that concept completely!

@llholiday I understand that concept too. Some things are just special regardless of their utility. I hope it brings her a lot of joy. The softness can be a pleasure to touch, as well as the kindness of the gift being from her family. 

Laurie

@llholiday  . . . Aaawwww... baby Goats are amazing little things. I'm such a sap for Goats!! As a child I had eczema from head to toe. Apparently I used to ditch my clothes & run free as a breeze with the babies in the sunshine on the Goat farm across the street from where I grew up.  My nephew just bought 2 baby Goats to add to his 6 pigs & Chickens. 

Congrats to the human parents on their TWIN Babies! 

Is Goat Wool as itchy as Sheep wool is?? 

@llholiday . . . Wow! Congrats on your detective work!!  How great to find a support group you get to actually see, hear &  meet the people  involved!  Face to face would be fabulous too. Three hours is a good drive but you could make a great short or longer trip out of it. Oh! How I would love to go away anywhere!!!! 

On my last Iron Infusion I recently met a lady in our area who also has an ostomy.  That was a FIRST in 13 years! Lol! On my next appt. I was happy to learn that she was interested in exchanging phone numbers.  I had planned on asking our nurse to pass mine on to her if she was interested also.  

I'll admit that just meeting someone else who knew exactly what we deal with was a pretty cool experience but even spending time with her on the phone has been just as pleasant.  I'm so grateful to have met such a lovely & kind Lady. 

If you can make that trip at some point, I would love to encourage you to go.  You may enjoy it so much more then you think.  If your comfy with it let us know how it goes with the online meeting & what it was like & then ofcourse in person.. eventually!

@dlkfiretruck The skein of yarn they gave to my mother is very soft, and a light brown-gray color. I have not seen the goats in person because my brother and his wife live even further away than the  support group I found - but he takes movies of them with his camera. Those baby goats, just hours old, look so precious, with their mother.

@dlkfiretruck Well, I would like to take a trip there - they are having an indoor picnic this summer and it would be a nice outing, for sure. About the group: There were at least 10 people attending online via Zoom,, and it looked like about 20 or more people there in person. Those who were physically there looked very social when I tuned in, very chatty, and when the session ended an hour and a half later they were going to have something to eat and started chattering again right away! There was a presentation by a representative from Coloplast - he said that he was not there to sell anything but to talk about various types of ostomy appliances and accessories, and to demonstrate how they work. That was really very interesting and informative, and while he spoke people could ask questions and comment.

I think this was their first physical meeting in quite awhile.  There was a variety of people - some new ostomates, some for more than forty years. Everybody introduced themselves and said a few words (one lonely man said a lot of words …. ). I really enjoyed it, will tune in again next month.

They do ask for $25 a year for dues. The money goes to rent the space (it looks like a room in a church or community center), Zoom fee, a mailing or two each year. Probably the cookies and treats for afterwards, too.