Hands on History

As most of you know our ram Merlin did not do his job of producing babies a few years ago, which in the past has been his claim to fame. 

His record was 16 babies in two week's time.  On our farm it is very difficult to have more than one ram.  Rams are very territorial and will actually try to kill another ram.

So the question was....what do we do with Merlin??

He had done his job well in the past but obviously he was past his prime.  A "real" farmer does not feed an animal that will take up space for a ram that can't produce....plus he had horns and knew how to use them.

....So I started to pray for a solution. 

 A few days later I got a random phone call.  The man said, "My name is Jimmy, and your number is in my phone and I am trying to clear out numbers that I don't need.  Do you know who I am?"

 I had no idea.

He asked me if I had sheep and I told him about my sad story of having no lambs born that year and I really needed a new ram, but Merlin is really mean and no one would want him.

 Jimmy told me that it was funny that I would say that because he was hired by the state of New Jersey to clear land with his goats.  He was apprehensive  to put his goats out in this fenced area because he was afraid that someone would steal them.  If he had an "attack ram" in with his goats, then no one would bother them.

 I told him to come and get Merlin for his new job.

 When Jimmy got here to pick up Merlin he had remembered coming to my farm about 3 years ago to pick up sheep for someone else, so that is why he had my phone number.   I told him to please be careful and he told me not to worry as he had once been in a rodeo.  He skillfully threw a lasso that landed right over Merlin’s horn.  He pulled the horn close to him as his buddy grabbed the other horn and they walked Merlin to the truck and drove off.

About one week later a girl scout troop came for a class and I shared this story with them.  The girl scout leader told me that the department that she works for, hired the goats to clear the land.  She explained that there is an endangered species of turtles that live in bogs that are being overtaken with briars and if the goats eat the briars there would be cleared bogs for the turtles to live.

Now I am even more proud of Merlin for having such an important job.   He is a state employee, with benefits and is not effected by the furlough. 

     It just makes me so happy to know that God cares about making all things work together for good. 

Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. 

As I am getting older and just got a new knee I am now trying to make the size of my sheep smaller so I will not have to wrestle such big sheep.  My new ram is a South Down Babydoll named Java.  He is much sweeter and easier to handle than Merlin and is doing a fine job at doing what rams do best.  

We now have two sets of twins and one single born, all ready to meet the world.  This year’s name theme is Wizard of Oz so our Lamb Celebration Day will begin on Saturday, February 16th from 10am til 2pm where you can meet Dorothy, Toto, Glinda, Almira and Hickory. 

     We look forward to you spending time and taking pictures with our lambs.

Blog #2

Why Baskets?  The prequel

     Most of my young life I wanted to be an animal behaviorist.  In 7th grade I was in an animal behavior club and one of my first jobs was working for an animal behaviorist at Princeton University actually taking care of slugs.  Not just taking care of them, but making them thrive.  I experimented with diet and conditions and weighed and measured them to find out the best way to raise them.  I know it sounds strange, but I actually loved it.  The only problem was, my second job was working in a flower shop and any slugs that I found ended up on the neighbors bushes.  I worked too hard keeping them live in my first job.

     So it was no surprise that when I came to Stockton that I was on my way to become an animal behaviorist.  One problem.  I was math-phobic, failed my first calculus class and was told that now I would have to take physics and chemistry.  I was devastated.  I thought that no one understood that I did not want math and science, I wanted ANIMAL BEHAVIOR.  I did not know that I needed math and science to follow my dream, so I had to find a new dream.  

     After a year of college I left to try to figure things out.  I moved back into my parents’ house, got a job at a gourmet food store and found someone who would allow me to be their apprentice and Batso State Park, teaching me to spin yarn and weave cloth.  My mentor told me that she would give me one class.  If she liked me, she would continue to teach me, if not, I would just have one class.   She lived an hour away.  Fortunately she did like me, and we spent 12 hours every Monday learning all of these wonderful things.  I learned how to card and spin wool, dye, using natural dyes, weave on a 4 and 6 harness loom, and design and weave on a Guatemalan backstrap loom.  We drank a lot of Earl Grey tea, and talked about solving many world problems that we mostly kept to ourselves.  It was wonderful.  

     My job in the gourmet food store also taught me so much.  I became an expert in cheeses from around the world, was taught how to make quiche which was highly acclaimed by the New York Times food editor and make various dips and beautiful platters for catering.  I am sure that this job was the beginning of my love of food, cooking, and feeding others.  

     After a year of this, I decided to go back to college.  I changed my major to Early American Crafts and Culture which was a combination of business, history and art.  I had independent studies in weaving, spinning and dying, art and design classes, learned some of what was needed to succeed in business, and how history tied it all together neatly.  I graduated with a Liberal Arts Degree and had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I finished, which is all my parents insisted on.

     During College I got a full time job working at the Historic Towne of Smithville. (at the time, it was a lot like Williamsburg is today) I was trained and perfectly suited to be their demonstrating weaver and spinner.  I went to school full time and worked full time.  I am not exactly sure how I did that.  Everyday I got dressed up in a long dress, bonnet and shawl if it was cold and pretended that I lived in the early 1800’s.  We all would come to work early and leave late, play instruments, square dance and spend our days making things and entertaining visitors.  It was there I met my husband Gary who was the decoy carver.

     I often tell people that our relationship was built on lies and deception.  He used to come to work early and pull a wedge out of my very large barn loom so it would move when I was trying to weave straight cloth. I would call on Mr. Gary to see if he could fix it, as he was a wood worker.  He would bring a knife and piece of cedar and masterfully carve a wedge that fit perfectly in the spot that it needed to be.  I was so impressed, not knowing that he was the one that sabotaged the loom to begin with, just to spend time with me.   The first 2 nights after payday we went out on impressive dinner dates and then I would not see him for the rest of the week.  He had spent his entire paycheck on those 2 dinners.  Forty years later, it is still never dull.

     Fast forward a few years.  We got married and had our daughter Amy, and then Megan, and then Robin.  I had my loom set up, but the girls would play it like a harp and motherhood robbed me of the brain that I used to use to weave intricate patterns.  One day I saw a show on PBS called The Wood Wright Shop and the host showed how to cut down a tree, shave off the wood to make it usable, and then weave a basket.  I thought that I should be able to do that….minus cutting down a tree.  I found a place that sold supplies for making a basket and from that day on, the second side of my sink in the kitchen was always full of water and reed ready to weave into a basket incase the phone rang or I had time in-between stirring a pot or tending to the girls.  If the girls allowed me to continue to weave cloth, I never would have needed to take up basket weaving but then where would that have taken me?  It is funny to think about.