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The shepherds of Saltmarsh Ranch

The shepherds of Saltmarsh Ranch

Welcome to The Chronicles, the musings of an accidental shepherd. Borne and raised in a tiny rural town in Iowa by the home economics teacher and the large animal veterinarian, she couldn’t wait to get out of town and morph into a city girl. Her loss. After spending far too many years in school, mostly related to music, she practiced law in Chicago while enjoying music around the edges. Meanwhile, her husband of 42 years, Steve, was an academic geneticist/molecular biologist at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Saltmarsh Ranch in winter

Saltmarsh Ranch the week we moved in

In 2004, they threw over the traces and moved to a sweet farm in southern Oregon they had bought some years earlier “just in case.” Plan A was to continue flower gardening (Steve) and return to classical piano studies (her). One day during their first full year on the farm, they spotted a flock of little bitty sheep in a nearby field and were intrigued enough to acquire four of them. And thus began the Great Soay Sheep Adventure, a.k.a. Plan B.

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Faithful llama Llucy greets the former city girl

Faithful llama Llucy greets the former city girl

I hope you will enjoy my posts about the joys of raising the oldest breed of heritage sheep in the world — the always intriguing, easy-to-raise Soay sheep. With few exceptions, I have tried to intersperse useful information (as in either outright practical or at least pleasing to the cerebral side of shepherding, or both ) with bits of whimsy. Feel free to comment on anything you find here. If you prefer to send a private message, that’s okay, too. (priscilla-at-saltmarshranch-dot-com, you know the drill).

Meanwhile, on to The Soay Sheep Chronicles! Priscilla Weaver

Saltmarsh Ranch in the spring sunshine

Saltmarsh Ranch, home to the Great Soay Sheep Adventure

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