Two Shear Spirits

help wanted

We're seeking an intern, an editorial assistant, to help us with our new book project. Details here.

Interested? We look forward to hearing from you.

Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.- Pearl Buck

 

where were we?

Must be time for an update!
While Joan's been tootling around British Columbia on a new book project, I've been watching spring sprung and entertaining myself by opening an etsy shop, She Shoots Sheep Shots....by the seashore. 

So far I've got seaglass buttons, and photo art notecards in it. I think it's a symptom of a long winter  ! Come check it out.

Vote for Gale's Dream Assignment by April 3

If you liked Shear Spirit and the connection between people, animals & a livelihood, I hope you'll vote for  me in the Dream Assignment project- I want to take my storytelling approach to photograph the Heifer Project around the world.
Help me spread the word! Voting closes tomorrow, April 3,

on the wool trail

Well, no sooner did I get back home from Taos than I was off again to New York, to meet Gale – and so many of you – at Rhinebeck. For a fiber fair newbie like me, that's a lot of woolgathering. But thanks to the fall weather both in New Mexico and New York, I actually got to wear my Montana Tunic, (scroll down on that link for a shot of Joan in booksigning action )and even my Taos beret. It turns out Gale and I were mirror (well, sort of) images of each other. Happily, the chilly air was enough to get me knitting again – stay tuned for pictures soon of my Mendocino vest – though I've slowed down again since I got back to Santa Barbara, where fall means 80 degrees!!

Nanney Kennedy at her booth, center.

Anyway it was amazing to catch up not only with Nanney Kennedy at her Seacolors booth, but also to say hello to Harriet Knox and the Autumn House gang and Jody McKenzie from Botanical Shades. I even came home with a sweater commission from my non-knitting sister, Donna, who fell in love with one of Nanney's sweater patterns.

This knitting thing is catching.

reportage from the road trip, post #1

Somewhere along the way, at a book signing, it was observed that there we were happily traveling around New Mexico and we'd never met before getting a book contract together. I explained how it was an act of alchemy by a writer friend. 

Gale, Lisa Shell from Kai Ranch, and Joan at Lisa's booth at the Taos Wool Festival.

  Joan's explanation: "Just do whatever the photographer wants. They will never listen to you anyway."   I tell you, she is so brilliant.

Las Vegas, New Mexico with thanks to our hosts at Tome on the Range bookstore and Tapetes de Lana.

living off the grid

We're trying to post - often, we hope- some of the stories & photos we collected of life on the farms but then couldn't fit in to the book, either becasuse we went waaay off topic or there simply wasn't room. The writing's by Joan, the photos & italic comments by Gale.  From some farms, we'll  share a pattern that got  (sniff) cut . Enjoy! (gz)

When we visited the farms included in Shear Spirit, we were interested in the animals and the fiber, but we also came across some other fascinating aspects of pastoral life. At Old Mill Farm, in Mendocino, California, for example, while the organic sheep are in the pasture, the electricity comes from the sun.  

front view of the main house at the top of a mountain
Old Mill has made use of solar power since founder Chuck Hinsch first became interested in the technology three decades ago. “He started getting it in 1977 or ’78,” says Barbara Sochacki, who now helps her son Cas manage the organic farm.

the view from behind , the solar collectors and water tank are on the tower

“Chuck was really good about having a vision of what would make life easier,” though at first, she adds, his lights were about as bright as a flashlight beam.

Today, solar panels power the lights, computers, TV, and stereo in the main house, with a propane generator as backup. Solar power provides hot water in summer, though she admits you have to build a fire to take a warm shower in the winter.                                                             Barb Sochacki in the solar powered Old Mill office

The system has proved extremely reliable. When a recent windstorm cut off electricity in Mendocino, “we didn’t realize that the power was out,” says former intern Beverly Healy, since Old Mill Farm remained unaffected.

And visitors who rent Old Mill Farm’s Aloha Cabin can get a taste of life off the grid, notes Barbara. “People like to come for a week with their family. It’s not totally camping, but you can’t run DVDs or game boys there.” I stayed at the Aloha, left,  wish I'd shot some images of the inside- it's  pretty luxurious, like a Sundance catalog kind of aesthetic- a big double bed, woodstove and kitchen and sitting area, tons of candle lanterns, full bathroom indoors and dreamy outdoor shower too, and a sleeping loft up above, in it's own little clearing about a half mile from the main farm house.    

All over the property, solar panels on wheels are positioned to face the sun. The mobile units electrify the movable temporary fencing that creates mini-sheep pastures wherever they’re needed. A small solar panel is also mounted on the vehicle that Cas Sochacki has brought to farmers’ markets; it fuels the freezer that holds the organic lamb and pork for sale.

Even the water system is tied to solar energy: The well has a solar pump at the end of the garden that sends water to the Aloha Cabin, fills that tank, then fills the other tanks. It provides enough water for the houses and to irrigate plants in the greenhouse, though the pastures rely on rainfall.

The farm’s trucks and tractors run on bio-diesel, and the houses and cabins are heated by wood stoves. Generally there’s an emphasis on self-sufficiency here, which may be one reason Cas Sochacki has acquired a reputation as a proficient brewer of beer and also why he was interested in planting a vineyard.

some of the greenhouse' daily organic harvest, being washed & sorted for local restaurants. needless to say, we ate well at Old Mill

He’s even experimented with making soap. “We sold it at the farmers’ markets,” he says, “but mostly we used it ourselves.”

More photos after the jump

buttoned up in Taos

By the time I left for New Mexico a couple of weeks ago I had just finished my Montana tunic. But there was no time to look for the buttons that were the last step. So I packed a tiny swatch of yarn and hoped to find something perfect along the way.
I thought surely Taos, with its active arts and crafts community, would offer something just right. And indeed when I stepped into La Lana Wools (where Laura was unwrapping a gorgeous selection of first-cut Wensleydale yarn that was unbelievably soft) I found a mesmerizing display. There were beaded buttons, shell buttons, handcrafted buttons in myriad shades. There were so many, I actually had to come back twice before I could make a decision. but I finally chose some medium size antler-horn buttons that had a kind of western look and went with the yarn I was happy I brought!
Here are the buttons. As soon as I find a minute to sew them on, there will be photos of the sweater, too.

and there's THREE of them

I was planning a post about a fun magazine shoot I did last week,.

This is an out from the take while waiting to get started, you'll have to look in TV Guide in a couple of weeks to see the real thing.
So instead of  behind the scenes with Jon Stewart or NY or knitting or reminiscing about meeting Joan in Arizona a year ago to visit our Navajo sheep herding subjects for the book or anything else remotely interesting I will say no more.

Because I am home with the flu. With my whole family. All the guys. And me. It isn't pretty.   I think this sums it up.

time flies

And so do kids.

I learned that a year ago this week, at Kai Ranch in Blue ,Texas. That's where Lisa Shell,  fiber farmer and artist,  raises colored angora goats for mohair and does her beautiful dyeing , spinning and weaving.

When we started working on Shear Spirit we realized the only way to get real life photos was to invite ourselves to move in on the fiber farms for a few days.  Nervy, yes. Also magical. Because fiber artists live art filled lives that we wallowed in. And lots of the good stuff happens just after dawn, or around the dinner table with a couple of bottles of wine, after all the animals have been coralled and no one is worried about impressing each other anymore.  It is kind of weird to be showing up on a stranger's doorstep, in the middle of somewhere, based on a couple of emails and a love of knitting.  I'd never been to rural central Texas , and when Lisa told me I'd be on a dirt road turning right just past the ninth turkey barn, I was too chicken to admit I wasn't sure what a turkey barn looks like, anyway.  When I pulled up and saw Lisa's front door, I knew it was going to be just fine.  Wouldn't you?

Why Lisa agreed to have us show up on such short notice I don't know but I am so glad she did. The farm we thought we'd be visiting had dropped out, and with only two weeks warning, Lisa said "sure".  If she and her husband Randy lived nearby, I'd be popping by often. ( Not just for the locally made pecan ice cream and Texas beer they serve. Really. )

 

You need to know that all this fab color is set in the sagey browny green of Texas range land, with scrubby bushes, and thick woods with tall spare Texas-y trees surrounding.

 

 

 

 

I love the tea towels, embroidered by a neighbor.
And the bathroom? If there hadn't been a drought , I would have taken twice the showers just for the pleasure of stepping out onto Lisa's downy handspun crocheted rugs.

That little airborn guy at the top is now  a handsome year old buck, reports Lisa. She's got thirty-one new kids in the tribe  flying around this week. sigh. Wish I was there!

hanging in

Mittens at 13 Mile Farm, Belgrade Montana.

If you're reading this, send us some comments love!  There's something strange about hitting the publish button and realizing....no one knows we're here.

Joan is off exploring the southwest - I'm not even sure what state - and I'm fighting the entropy that is my office this week. I'm thinking I may need to set up some reward knitting on this or I'll never get the desk cleared.