In the northern California mountains where we live, the climate is often determined by elevation. Enough so that the seasons are accelerated (or decelerated) going from one altitude to another.
For us, town is on the coast and as we travel over 3000 feet down to sea level, we drive visibly into the future. I may drive out of snow and ice bound winter into blooming cherry plum and daffodil springtime! There is about a 3 week difference between and we get a sneak preview into the coming season. In autumn, the reverse is true.
So, this most recent trip to town was full of spring glory, including one of my favorites: frolicking lambs. They always remind me of this little ditty my mother used to sing and that I learned as a nonsense song as a small child "Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey" - only much later to learn the real meaning:
Mares eat oats and does eat oats,
And little lambs eat ivy.
A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?
My first "commercial" craft was hand spun yarns and hand knitwear. We raised sheep for years and the spring lambs, with their buoyant antics, were an annual delight. There is nothing so pastoral as sheep out grazing. I love their mellow demeanor and, of all our livestock, they were probably the easiest to tend.
However, of the larger livestock, they were also the most vulnerable to predators (only poultry are more delectable to a broader range of varmints). From Mountain lion to coyotes, they were targets, but dogs were the worst. After 15 years of sheep raising we gave up due to a particularly persistent pack of dogs in the neighborhood who thought running down sheep and maiming them was a grand sport. Sigh.
So now I enjoy the lambs in other people's pastures.
But I do I keep my hand in the wool work, spinning and knitting for my own pleasure and family.
So, what do you get when you mix wool and soap? To perpetuate on a small scale my earlier business, "Sheep Thrills", we craft felted soap!
A soap in sheep's clothing, our Woolies are the perfect travel soap and help me meld my two favorite crafts. Check them out.
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Update: Speaking of time...
Remember to set your clock forward this Sunday morning for Daylight Savings Time!
3 comments:
i'd always wondered what that song really meant....
Such a shame about your sheep. I am glad you found a way to still enjoy other's. Hope your flu bug is gone by now!
Dottie,
I love your post, this is awesome that you are doing this. KEEP DOING IT!! It's so valuable to hear from someone who has really succeeded in the back to the land dream, and is still there after 40 years!
I experience the same seasonal changes when going from Brannan Mtn into town ... even just going down the hill 4 miles from my place to the river in March and April is an amazing difference of season ... nearly a month, from 2400 feet to whatever it is on the river... 600 ft?
That is a shame about your sheep ... back in the 70's on the South Fork, people held the right to shoot on sight a wild running dog that was harassing one's animals. We had a gorgeous white shepherd that someone from the city had left with us - Silver. He was the best dog we ever had, til he started chasing our neighbor's horse and herd of deer that he protected on his land. He warned us he would shoot Silver if he saw him chasing his horse again. We had to keep him at home, and then he killed a fawn one day, and Bamboo took him to the Animal Shelter (I think we just called it the "pound" then.) It was a sad loss for us, but I understood how my neighbor felt, and after Silver brought that fawn down, Bamboo said he would keep doing it; eventually our neighbor would have ended up shooting him.
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