Homeadow Song, "Repurposed Chicken Coop," 2012
Nomadic Farming Association, "Mobile Greenhouse," 2003/2012
Patricia Johanson drawings
Dan Devine's "Sheep Farm," ongoing since 2007, "Cleaned and Carded Wool," 2012, "Sheep Farm Genealogy," 2007-2012
Starting with four ewe and one ram, Dan's Sheep Farm began as a project meant to address “the meaning of local,” in that everything sourced to produce it, including the first five sheep, originated within a 25-mile radius. Its more recent focus concerns self-sufficiency, since sheep populations effectively double each year, requiring constant human attention from multiple actor-recipients.
Stakeholders not only provide sheeps food and water, but they remove ice from their troughs in winter, dock their tails, administer shots, harvest wool, and attend to dam/lamb troubles that crop up during birth.
As Dan’s "Sheep Genealogy Chart" (2007-2012) indicates, he began with five sheep in 2007 and still has only five sheep, although these five ewes are all new, the offspring of Caesar, the original ram, and two original ewes Helen and Lailah. The severe 2010 drought forced Dan to sell off or butcher seventeen sheep, while two others died natural deaths around this time.
One remarkable story concerns Athena, who killed her lamb one day, only to die a natural death later that day. An autopsy revealed that she had brittle lung, leaving Dan and others to speculate that she somehow knew she could no longer care for her newborn son.
Stakeholders not only provide sheeps food and water, but they remove ice from their troughs in winter, dock their tails, administer shots, harvest wool, and attend to dam/lamb troubles that crop up during birth.
As Dan’s "Sheep Genealogy Chart" (2007-2012) indicates, he began with five sheep in 2007 and still has only five sheep, although these five ewes are all new, the offspring of Caesar, the original ram, and two original ewes Helen and Lailah. The severe 2010 drought forced Dan to sell off or butcher seventeen sheep, while two others died natural deaths around this time.
One remarkable story concerns Athena, who killed her lamb one day, only to die a natural death later that day. An autopsy revealed that she had brittle lung, leaving Dan and others to speculate that she somehow knew she could no longer care for her newborn son.
Copyright 2017 Sue Spaid