First to say, I have not lost the thread of the dream of raising sheep. It still lives in me. But unlike a lot of other manifestations, it feels unrushed and easy and I will let it unfold in its own time. We have a few other large projects around here that take precedence, hello sauna, and a little cabin for moo. Our aspirations for building a Vermont Family Compound are pressing in and near and while this may not be the land that it all unfolds on, there is plenty to do here and now. Five years is at once nothing and also a lifetime so making things work as best they can for who we are today and who we are leaning toward tomorrow is our very best vision. And so.
In the meantime, it is extra cool and interesting to make a study of sheep and wool and the people and places that tend them. And truly, most shepherds think that their sheep are the very best kind of sheep which may possibly be true but is also 100% impossible to sort through. I have narrowed things down a bit and am now clear on the farms I want to visit and the wool I want to hold. Also, I am now able to have more cognizant conversations around it, like I am standing on my own two feet inside the dialogue. Even though a shepherdess did recently tell me that I am a red flag in one breath and that she is a vegetarian life coach and that her animals are her therapy in the other. Ahem. I digress.
For me, dual purpose is important. Sheep for wool and lamb for meat. It seems like not only the most responsible but also the most rewarding way to go. And I like for our family to be up close to life cycles and animal husbandry continues to be one of the most daily/functional ways to be there. Plus, lamb is delicious. And fiber is variable and wonderful for all sorts of different things. But I want to spin it into yarn that I can make things with and so wool suited for insulation or rugs is probably not my best bet. However, I do not love slippery overly soft yarn very much at all. I like crimp and catch, and in recent years: the woolier the better.
So the first breed of sheep that set this more earnest investigation into motion is, interestingly enough, included in one of the three that I have narrowed my list down to in the last year or so. Last fall a sheepy friend of mine back in Viroqua shared a post about a fellow local to me here - yes the world is small and weird and forever more interconnected than I can ever understand- who was looking to pass a flock of Icelandic Sheep on to their next shepherd. This breed, if not this particular flock, was already on my radar because they are well-suited to cold, northern climes. Not to mention that they are absolutely gorgeous with so much variation and uniqueness in their appearance. They also appear to be a little trendy right now with cute spotted flocks popping up here and there. There is a really incredible shepherdess that I follow back in WI who is raising stunning animals and I kinda drool over what she is doing. Also, near to me here- on the farm that I got a tattoo at last spring: Vermont is funny and strange, did I mention?- they are raising some very beautiful and robust Icelandics. I would love to visit that farm again this fall or spring, along with the others that I will mention in a bit, and get a better feel for the care and keeping of these animals. Plus, of the three on my list, this is the only breed that I have not yet held a skein of their yarn in my hands yet. I anticipate that it will be extra wooly and maybe best blended with something softer, and this is the piece that gives me some pause with the breed. I do not mind wool blends, but I would also love the option of making a high-performing breed-specific yarn. Ya know, goals.
Alrighty, moving on. When we were down at Vermont Sheep and Wool a couple of weekends ago I met one of the owners of Junction Fiber Mill, who happens to also be a midwesterner. Bless. She is raising Corriedale sheep on her farm, and what is very cool about her is that she is super friendly and helpful and would make an excellent resource for me. It is kind of a neat connection with her being a midwestern transplant too, plus our local yarn shop back in Mount Horeb was co-owned by a woman raising Corriedale. It’s all connected. So, it is familiar in a pretty cozy way. I haven’t visited her farm or the mill yet, but hope to sometime this fall, maybe when we are down there for a swim meet. What I like about Peggy is that she is pretty smart about the whole thing in terms of business and economy. She is raising dual-purpose animals and the breed she has chosen produces a huge amount of wool, like 11 pounds per animal per shearing. To put that into a functional perspective, her mill’s minimum for processing a farm’s fiber is 13 lbs. So just two animals would do it. I am planning on beginning with more like 4- 5 animals and maintaining at hopefully under 10, but that is a huge amount of wool at that size which is great. And the carcass size for lambs is significant as well. Clearly, she divulged the most info on this with me out of everyone I have chatted with so far. She was practical and accessible in a way that I really appreciate, without dumbing it down or being judgey at all. Odd I know but yes a thing. In all domains, it would appear. The only thing that I am not certain of is how much I love the wool. I need to make something with it before I can know for true. It is their mill’s house yarn so that part will be easy. It has a nice feel, soft and easy, without being too floppy, but maybe not quite rough enough for what I am hoping. I gotta see.
This brings me to breed number 3, Cheviots. This is the one I am probably most interested in and also perhaps know the least about. Junction Mill has a farmer that has her cheviot wool milled with them so I did get to see and hold some while we were at Sheep and Wool. I liked it. It is sturdy and wooly in a way that I enjoy, but again, I probably need to see it knit up. This flock lives in Northern New Hampshire and making a visit to her farm should be relatively easy. And I can grab some skeins when we are down near the mill for the aforementioned swim meet. I really like the size of this breed and they have such a cool history. Also, one of my old Driftless buds EVL raises these animals and she is smart and practical and my most reliable mentor on the topic. They are dual-purpose, like the other two, and well suited to the cold and rugged north. Ahem. They are similar to the sheep living on islands off the coast of Maine;
worth an investigation for sure.
I think that is what I’ve got for now friends. Maybe a little bit more of my checklist might be useful to share so I’ll wrap this up with that. Here we go. Breed size is important, I want to be able to handle them with relative ease myself. So, while larger is cool in terms of production, I also do not want to gas myself by not being able to tend and move animals around mostly, if not entirely, on my own. A consideration. Also, for a hot second I was looking at Finn Sheep, popular in this area as well. But they are known for many lambs, like 3-4 per ewe and no thank you very much to that. One or two is great, ok? I fully anticipate that I may not even want to breed every ewe anyway. Keep my pace steady and my size smallish. Wool is key, as I have mentioned, but also I want animals that are robust and as EVL says: not too fussy. I do not want anyone who is parasite prone or has soft hooves here. A lot, if not all, of sheep management, and herd health, has to do with the land they are on and so that is really our starting place in terms of moving in the direction of the vision. I want shelter, water, electricity would be ideal, and several permanent paddocks to rotate them through. I have done moveable netting before when we had goats and honestly, I rather not. And because I want this level of infrastructure- rare for me, I know- we are taking our time and being methodical and clear. Maybe we have sheep in the next 2 years, or maybe it is more like 5. I am ok with that. It is nice to have a dream with a steady and solid pulse, and this feels like that.
That’s it for now. Hope it was interesting!
xxx,m