Speaking Of Livestock

Somehow I ended up on fancy ranch real estate sites yesterday and look what I found:

It's the LaSal Wildlife Ranch--8,800 acres 50 miles east of Moab, surrounded by national forests, with 310 acres of water rights, herds of elk and deer, and views like this: There's even a lake somewhere in there:

Of course, its average elevation is 7,500 feet, it's mostly undeveloped, and it's currently not habitable in the winter, but if you can afford the ranch* I think you can afford to build a new ranchhouse and get this operation going. Who's in?


*Um, yeah, it's $8.5 million. Plus about $10k a year in taxes. (Oh yes, I downloaded the PDF.)

Let's Look At Some Alpacas

They're just so cute.



These are the new arrivals at Blue Moon Ranch. You can see them in person at the end of next month at Open Barn Days, or buy some yarn made of their fluffiness at the Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival at the end of this month.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Fair Report

I finally made it to the fair Friday to check out my entries. Check out first place in the not-so-competitive "Blouse" category:
And check out fourth place in the much more competitive "Cable Sweater" category:

I was a little bummed about fourth (and about the fact that they had put my sweater on a hanger and stretched it all out of shape), but then I saw third place, which was exponentially more elaborate than mine and only got third:

This year I looked at exhibits in the 4-H building and the Creative Arts building, which I usually skip, an it was really heartening to see all the nice work from the young kids in 4-H. And we can all heed the advice of this sign:

I know being a "cool" person and liking the state fair is supposed to be ironic, but I think the fair is great. You think farming is disappearing or becoming totally industrialized, and then you see the eight-year-olds showing sheep or the lucky, lucky teenage girls* riding their horses and you realize that it's closer than you think.

Maybe that's why I like the fair: If I win a ribbon for sewing, I can imagine that someday I might win a ribbon for an egg from my chickens, or even be one of the people who drive in from their ranch and show their animals. Someday, I guess. Until then, I can enter things in the fair.


*Teenage girls, I hope you realize how lucky you are to have your horses. Some people are still longing for one at thirty. I'm just saying.

Yay for Three-Day Weekends!

I really enjoyed that extra day off I took this weekend. Friday I ended up going to Antelope Island to see the lake (still stinky) and then stopping at a u-pick farm with my parents for some strawberries.

I think u-pick farms are the way to go: All the fun of a farm with none of the upkeep! It was nice to be out in the strawberry fields in the sun--until someone got "Strawberry Fields Forever" in my head. So now it can be in yours:



This video is kind of what Monday mornings look like to me anyway. More coffee!

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

What's going on at the alpaca ranch, you ask? Lots of baby alpacas! Karma the alpaca had a little daughter, Jasmine:

If I had bought Karma two years ago I'd have doubled my investment now. (Such a shame I lacked a spare $15,000 at the time.)

Be sure to plan on visiting during Fall Open Farm days, too--the last weekend in September.

Now It's Personal, Chickens

So Mr. Isbell's parents became chicken owners this spring, and the chickens are now big enough to wander their back garden freely. This is all kinds of cute:

They're really soft--even their feet--and have so much personality. They take sun baths and stick their leg out like Toby!
Obviously, I do not eat chicken. I do eat eggs, but I make sure they're at least cage free, if not Certified Humane. (I'm really looking forward to eggs from these girls!) But after seeing these chickens up close, I'm now hyper-aware of the eggs from unhappy factory farmed chickens used in things like mayonnaise and ice cream. So Mr. Isbell and I are exploring the strange new world of Vegannaise and Soy Dream.

It's a good thing his parents don't have a pet cow: I'd never buy shoes again.

World Got You Down?

Upset by the latest news? Feeling blue? I have two words for you: Baby alpaca! The first cria of the year was born at Blue Moon Ranch Saturday:

Tuesday Project Roundup: Because All Ranch Life Is Just Like "My Friend Flicka"

Something about shirtdresses make me think I could wear them on my imaginary ranch, while gathering eggs, visiting my loyal horse friend in the stables, standing at the back door looking out over the Wyoming mountains, etc. (Not, of course, while actually doing ranch work and getting dirty. Nobody ever mentioned that in My Friend Flicka.)

Anyway, here's the pattern--I added the sleeve cuffs on the left to the straight-skirted version in the middle:

Here's the fabric:

And here's a rumpled and dark modeled shot at the end of yesterday:
On the ranch I'd never be rumpled, though. I'm sure of it.

That's A Nice Farm You Got There, Little Lady

So the NY Times has a feature about women farmers up online. I read it because I, too, am a woman. And I like farms. (And because it's been slow at work this week. I've been reading anything.)

The article...left something to be desired. Do you think a journalist would use the following sentence when talking about a male farmer? "[She] flits effortlessly between trimming vines and fixing the tractor, a farmer at heart." Um, wouldn't the fact that she's trimming vines and FIXING A TRACTOR make her a farmer in actual PRACTICE, too? Seriously, "flits"? Come on.

And get this sentence from the intro:
"Whether raising heritage livestock, combing the woods for exotic morsels or coaxing delicacies from the ground, these women forge new bonds between field and table, strengthening the connection between things we love to eat and the stewardship that makes them possible."
Awww, who knew farming was so nurturing? And did you know WOMEN are good at NURTURING and these are LADY FARMERS we're talking about? God.

I would expect this from, well, a women's magazine (with a little sidebar about "Get The Farming Look!" telling us to buy an Hermes headscarf); but not from a newspaper. Farming is hard work. I bet any of these little ladies could have told the reporter that.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Back In The Saddle Again

I was wondering last week why I felt so thwarted (creatively speaking) and realized I haven't finished any new sewing projects in a month. (The denim dress I was working on the last few weeks did not work. Goodbye, denim dress.) I also realized I hadn't had a day off just to be home and sew in a month, so I took Friday off to pick up the bike and make a dress.This reminds me of cowboys, for no particular reason. Maybe it's the topstitching, which is getting lost in the print but can be seen if you click on the picture below.

On a roll from the Friday/Saturday dressmaking (that worked! and was cute!) I made some placemats on Sunday from oilcloth:

They're reversible, although my camera didn't like taking pictures of all that blue and tried to make it pink:

So a good weekend. I can wear my cowboy dress and serve huevos rancheros on my placemats and sing Gene Autry songs.

Agricultural Monday

Continuing the "Where Does Your Food Come From/Are We Doomed?" theme of the past few weeks, here's an an article by Michael Pollan for the New York Times online titled, "Why Bother?"--which was part of the angst of that trip to the Midwest:

The realization that all my efforts aren't doing anything--that no matter how much I try to eat eggs from happy chickens, or buy organic parsley, that there will be thousands more people buying the cheapest eggs and parsley, with no thought as to where they come from--was really discouraging.

So imagine how happy I was to find an article telling me why I should still bother. Read it and see why you should bother, and we'll resurrect the 1970's back-to-the-land movement!

"The Grapes Of Wrath" Is One Of The Best Titles Ever

I took The Grapes of Wrath with me on my trip last week, thinking it would be a good mix of travel and agriculture. (I had forgotten how sad it is, though; I had to stop reading in the Denver airport because I was getting weepy.) Reading it now, right after all my other books about alternative farming and eating locally, and after visiting the family farm that miraculously still struggles on, I'm really struck by how current it is--Steinbeck saw the writing on the wall in 1939:

"...crops were reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted. Then crop failure, drought, and flood were no longer little deaths within life, but simple losses of money...[until the landowners] were no longer farmers at all, but little shopkeepers of crops, little manufacturers who must sell before they can make. Then those farmers who were not good shopkeepers lost their land to good shopkeepers. No matter how clever, how loving a man might be with earth and growing things, he could not survive if he were not a good shopkeeper. And as time went on, the business men had the farms, and the farms grew larger, but there were fewer of them."

Wednesday Project Roundup: Dresses For The Prairie Edition

I was able to finish the both dresses I wanted to make and wear to the family reunion this weekend--yay for days off prior to camping trips!

The plaid dress is for the airplane and has handy big pockets. (It was inspired by this version from A.P.C. for $120.)

And the beige linen check dress was inspired by meandering poetically through the pasture land, avoiding cow pies and thistles:
I used my new initial labels on it, too. Because it's important to have a monogrammed linen muumuu in which to wander the prairie. Just ask the pioneers.

Tuesday Project Roundup: I Know What I'm Wearing To County Fairs And Derbies This Season

I'm wearing gingham, like generations of farm women behind me!
My gingham has a mandarin collar and a 70's feel (I modified the duck dress pattern), which hopefully keeps it from feeling too literally farm-like.

I'm extra pleased by how I got the checks to match on the front: They match horizontally across the collar and across the front inset, and (mostly) vertically from the inset into the body. That's a lot of 3/8 inch checks to keep track of while cutting out.
Toby, however, was underwhelmed by it last night:

(He's on the ironing board here. Yes, I give my cat plastic bags to play with and let him sit on the ironing board while I'm ironing. It's a good thing he's not a human baby.)