Book: Living With Sheep

I just finished an AMAZING book called Living With Sheep by Chuck Wooster. Within the first few pages I fell in love with his style of writing and as someone wanting to dive into shepherding, he wrote in a no-nonsense, uncomplicated way about every aspect of sheep keeping.

He has an uncanny knack for soothing the worries of unsure shepherds, especially when writing about the potential problems that can develop in a flock. Since he himself was thrown into the world of sheep on a whim, he writes from experience about having no experience.


Another aspect I enjoyed was that although the book is not touted as an earth-friendly guide to sheep keeping, he did include many tips on how to work in harmony with your land rather than against it. He warns against things like letting sheep run wild in forested land as they will girdle the trees, eventually killing them.

Overall, his easily read style of writing and the wonderful full-page color photos make this what I thought to be a very thorough and enjoyable guide for the shepherd who is just starting out. He even includes a calendar in the back reiterating all the seasonal items he mentioned throughout the book (when to increase food, inoculate, deworm, sheer).

Here is an excerpt from the introduction. You can read the whole introduction at the Living With Sheep website here.

"Why sheep? Because sheep are soft and fuzzy and big enough to be challenging--yet not so big they can kill you with a kick or a butt. Because sheep have lambs. Because sheep are easy companions who require little beyond understanding. Because the wool sheep produce in abundance can be used for everything from sweaters to comforters to felt slippers to home insulation. And because, finally, as you sit in the hay on a spring morning with a warm, dry lamb sleeping in your arms and a watchful ewe breathing in your ear and nickering in the back of her throat to comfort the little fellow, you'll realize that you've grown unwilling to live without sheep."

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in keeping sheep, or anyone who is simply interested in learning more about our ovine friends.

But don't take my word for it.

An Entirely New Endeavor

Recently, I have been transitioning towards a significant change in my life. I have decided to pursue the life of a fiber farmer, hand-spinner, knitter, fiber artist, entrepreneur, and shoveler of animal droppings.

The Fiber Flock is going to catalogue the most interesting aspects of the millions of things I will be learning on this grand new adventure with all these new labels.

I have always had childlike affection for sheep, goats, and other farm animals. As I have become more involved in the world of crafting, self-sufficiency, sustainability and homesteading- all of these concepts have collided in my head as a gleaming vision of me in Carhartts and knee-high Wellies proudly holding up the newest lamb in my flock.

I don't currently live on a farm, and I am either inexperienced or a complete novice at every one of the aforementioned labels, but I have plans to make the dream of running my own fiber farm a reality in about a year (two at the most). Until then, I will be learning as much as possible about being a shepherd, and about the ins and outs of processing fiber and making them into raw material and finished pieces. I will be posting interesting finds, great books, amazing artists, and whatever else I am learning about or find to be particularly interesting at the time. I could write about spinning wheels one day, and tractors the next. I never really know what I'll come across in a day's research.

So, here we go.