Saturday we were on the Interstate headed north and began noticing the number of cars from out of state. Like the game we played as kids, counting license plates, we added up the amount until we reached our destination. I bought two pairs of paper “solar-proof” glasses in Montpelier several weeks ago before the supply…
Category: Musicians Farming Sheep
This Is Why
All night I dreamed shearing. I kept reviewing the list of things I needed to have ready for the next day and couldn’t find them. Not the happy, flying dream but the stress-indicating, spin-your-wheels kind of dream. We arose early, started a fire in the stove to warm the house. Good sugaring weather, cold at…
Beautiful Beasts
Winters can be difficult on our animals. Mrs. Chubbers, our head ewe, is getting older. She walks with a slight but persistent limp and has become long in the tooth, making it harder for her to chew. In the darker months I run my hand over her white back, and when I add weight into…
Boys On The Field
By the time I am done teaching at six each evening it is heavy dusk. Not quite full-on dark, but getting there. I walked down the road to gather sheep and stood by the garden looking up at a melon sky surrounding a fringe of clouds still lit by a far away sun. As I…
Woolen Mill
We grabbed the three dark bags bulging full with wool. Some that hadn’t found its way into our last shipment to be made into blankets and some from a recent shearing. We’d decided to use this smaller batch to make some specialty yarn from a small Vermont mill that we had heard good things about….
Magnificent, Mischievous, Magical, Maniacal Muir
I headed down to the garden this afternoon, vegetable basket in hand. It has been a month since thegarlic scapes were cut and the leaves are now beginning to brown. Time to harvest. I stuff my feet intomy brilliant yellow Crocs and begin walking down Magic Road. Following close behind are all threeBorder Collies; Sam,…
How To Retire Like A Boss (by Sam Perley)
While reclining under the dining room table one afternoon I overheard my family talking about certain athletes and performers who decide to retire and then soon afterward, decide to unretire: coming back to a game that they have clearly grown out of. I shook my head and not just to scratch my ears. I just…
The Other Side Of The Fence
“When the grass is waving in the wind” is the standard for when sheep can begin to go out to graze in spring. We have had some very warm weather with cooler nights which has made the grass grow even faster than it might normally this time of year. Around June first is when I…
Wanting What You Have
I shut the barn door for the final time Monday evening. As the wooden bar thunked into place, three ewes crowded close to be sure that I didn’t have one more feeding in me. I stood in the dark, looking up at the millions of stars and breathed in the temperate spring air. I woke…
For The Love Of A Dog
The warmer weather means more than just ruts and mud boots; driving past the pond on some of these newly-above-freezing nights we begin to put our windows down in anticipation of the familiar sound of the peepers. For about a week or more in April we’ll pass the pond in the evening, roll down the…
Finding Your Farm
We climbed into the truck yesterday morning and headed north to Shelburne farms, one of my favorite places on earth. Before leaving we checked temperatures for the day and, knowing that we were going to be in a barn for about three hours, began layering up. There are odd little things that Vermonters take pride…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Cold
In the summer months, heading out to do morning or evening chores means sliding on some barn boots. In just a few minutes we can be up to our knees in straw, hay or poop. In the winter months it takes time to prepare ourselves to greet the cold: it is all about the layers;…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Losing A Farm Hand
The year is brand new and, as we turn the page of the calendar, the cold arrives. There are two kinds of cold; December cold which is moist: you can smell the possibility of snow but that can, just as easily, foretell rain, The weekend before Christmas we had a rainstorm that, because the temperature…