Before I Had Sheep

I used to demonstrate spinning at the Fairmount Sheep Festival in Oldwick, New Jersey. It was a benefit for the Oldwick Presbyterian Church and thousands would come. I would drag AJ and Mia there until they got old enough to put up a serious protest. I loved the whole scene and wanted my own farm. I surely do have one now...Matt says I have bit off more than I can chew, but admits I am still chewing. He says I am the hardest working woman he has ever known. I take that as a compliment. (My mother always called me lazy...) I attended the sheep festival several years before I became a demonstrator. I would bring my angora bunnies for children to play with, and felt like quite the star with all those kids and parents gathered around. It also offered a kinder and gentler alternative to the shearers across the barn. I have mixed feelings about little kids watching sheep shorn...and it seemed the parents did too once they got an eyeful. When this picture was taken I was wearing a cast on my leg. Bodie, my Golden Retriever puppy, was running around the yard playing when he collided with me from behind. The buckets I was carrying to the bunny cages flew out of my hands and I was propelled forward. I heard a POP, like the sound of a champagne cork, and knew it was bad. Bodie thought I was on the ground to play with him. Anyway, I got the cast and kept my commitment to the Fairmount Sheep Festival. I was spinning on my single treadle Louet and it worked out fine. My overalls covered the cast and no one knew. Seven years later, I bought my own farm and here I am.