Dreams And Bones

"Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones
We are made of dreams and bones
Need a place to call my own
'Cause the time is close at hand"
from David Mallett's Garden Song

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Dreams And Bones:
Yoncalla Oregon
Penelope Jacob & John Nanci

email Penelope (but note there are spamtrap hoops to get through!)

We are a small holding, a family farm, a homestead in rural Oregon, raising Jacob Sheep, Dairy Goats (mostly Alpine) (with their horns thankyouverymuch), and hens for eggs. We sell "off the farm" produce occasionally to friends or family who ask. We sell wool from our sheep washed and carded, or unwashed. We have Chicken Manure and barn refuse available if you want to haul them, but because all our animals are out on the land during the day, and most the ruminants during the night as well, their manure isn't so handily concentrated for collection.

If you're looking for a delicate, (or not so delicate) Jacob Sheep to mow your lawn, start your own flock, impress your neighbors, or preserve a small breed in danger of loosing genetic diversity, we have some we'll sell. Write to us! (You'll have to answer a "prove you're human email" from Spam Arrest unless I'm checking it and see your email that day.)

If you're looking for eggs, when we have extras we sell them for $1.50 a dozen. This may go up.

If you're looking for goat milk for pet consumption, when we have it, we sell it for $1.25 a quart.

If you're looking for wool, washed and carded white wool is $1.50 an ounce. Black or grey is $2.50 an ounce. Unwashed, as it comes off the sheep may be available by the pound, but we haven't priced it yet.

If you're looking for cull sheep or goats for meat, we have them occasionally, email to enquire. We'd rather find them homes where they can browse their lives away happily eating brush, but that doesn't always work out.

All our animals are treated and cared for with respect. They are fed appropriate grain or feed as needed, and allowed access to their natural growing foods as well. The are kept current on the shots needed to keep them healthy, but not medicated for no reason or routinely beyond being wormed once in a year, and they are provided with veterinary care to save their lives, or to offer them a kind and gentle death whenever possible. This year two doe goats were found dead of natural causes, peacefully curled up in the barn at morning feeding time, after no sign of problem in the evening. One was nearly eleven, the other younger. No farm animals have been euthanized in the past year, although some have made trips to the vet for care beyond what we can provide at home. Culls dealt with at home were killed with a calm person holding them and a single gunshot to the head by a second person. On the farm culls are treated with as much respect after death as before, and the parts that aren't put to use by John are returned to a wilder part of the farm for the wild scavengers and elements to finish dealing with.

Currently we keep no geese, duck, equines, llamas, or other fun animals besides the ones I've mentioned and house pets. With luck some day we'll add a few of those back in. If you're looking to get a little experience with farm projects as a volunteer, contact us -- we have a never ending list of things to be done. (It's worth a try, isn't it?) For example, once a goose and duck house is built, we can get goslings and ducklings.

Spring and Summer 2006 we have:

Fence mending, possibly some fence building to do. Currently some of our stock goes visiting our neighbors on multiple sides (Ken, Ken, Ken, and the man who rents his property out but comes to plant trees on it who's business card we've lost at the moment.)
A floor to put in the second half of our "cabin" building, which is currently a storage building / business / out building-with-kitchen-and-bath. Once it's floored, the kitchen, or parts of it, can move to that side, and be a summer kitchen, and walls of some sort can go up. (Straw bale? Cob? Cordwood doesn't seem as workable. Lathe and plaster? It's up in the air. And big windows and a loft.) Eventually it will be a building for a small business, and occasional "guest room", and be ~~moose~~ mouse proofed to boot. But, then again, the house has to be moose proofed too. I digress.
A rain shelter to build for the ram and buck who will be off breeding work this autumn, and fenced in to their own area away from the girls.
A trench to dig to put in new up to date telephone line from road to house.
A trench to dig to make sure rain drains out from under the house rather than pooling there.
Fencing or foundation to attach around the house to keep dogs, cats and rodents out from that area.
A deck to extend to cut down on the mud tracked in to the house during winter.
Sun shade to create to decrease heat in the house and allow me (Penelope) outside a little more during the day with less exposure to the sun.
Buy a farm truck (at long last!) DONE as of 22 April 2006 (THANK YOU Jerry Beau truck finder and fixer Extraordinaire!), a not exactly Earth Day friendly 1987 retired forestry Dodge Ram (maybe we can over paint "Dodge" to day "Jacob" Ram on the back) (And put a nice four horned masthead sheep on the hood. I'll be asking around the Waldorf school for some student artists who will paint our animals on it anyway. No one will fail to notice us when we're done with it!)