Browsing all posts in September, 2009.
Yaks in Berthoud Colorado
BERTHOUD — When someone mentions yaks, thoughts surface of hardy, cold-weather animals helping Sherpas carry gear up Mount Everest — not grazers on land west of Berthoud.
But if you think you spot the long-haired pack animals on the Colorado country, don’t blame your glasses.
Punching Yaks and Sour Butter
They make the women tough round here.
I kid you not, we saw one punch a yak, full in the face.
I guess the yak wasn’t doing what it was told. And it didn’t seem to take too much notice of the punch either.
We got the impression it probably happened on a fairly regular basis.
The female yak-herder just clenched her fist and pow! She gave the animal one, right on its nose.
Ode to Matthew the Yak and Escapism…
Folks, this is a great song inspired by a young bull yak we sold to some folks in Florissant CO. He was a bit rambunctious and escaped to the Fossil Beds National Park were we could not drive in and get him. We were able to walk up and feed him a number of times but we could not catch him. Finally his new owner was able to bring him in and Matthew is now happy at this new home. One thing we have learned is that yaks have to know they are home or they will try to go back where they came from, making friends all along the way!
From our Friends at Bijou Basin Ranch
Eileen and Carl Koop can’t knit a stitch, but these ex-New Yorkers – he’s a former software engineer, and she’s a chemist — know from yarn. Their Bijou Spun skeins are spun from pure yak down, or yak down mixed with wool, bamboo, nylon or alpaca. Each spring, they painstakingly comb their 15 yaks on Bijou Basin ranch in Elbert County, and send the collected fiber off to be washed, processed and spun. We talked yak recently with Carl.
Alaska Zoo welcomes newborn Tibetan yak
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Zoo welcomed a newborn Tibetan yak Monday morning.
The baby yak was born around 8 a.m. and is calf number four for his mother, Priscilla.
Most newborn yaks can walk within one hour and run within three hours.
The zoo says everybody, including the other yaks, seems to be very interested in the new guy.
Yak Butter from Textures of Seoul
It was by chance that I tasted yak butter, and it was not because I became so comfortable as to walk up and milk one of the roaming lady yaks myself, closing my winnings into a glass jar and shaking it forever and a day. We had gone horseback riding–this was included in our tour package–and the horse herder who guided us invited us back to his ger for tea. We met his two young boys, whose heads were clean shaven like their daddy’s and who, at a stature half of my own, handled our horses like they were puppies, and his wife served us cow’s milk tea, home baked bread (because that is all there is so far from town) and yak butter.
