the shepherdess painting

Below is an article I wrote for the Grovestead Newsletter. Go to the Grovestead.com to subscribe to the printed publication!

“A man may choose his path, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

My current course is one I bucked, ignored, and resisted for years.  I forged a path I thought would take me in the opposite direction but, like a boomerang, I flew right back into the middle of the work I was avoiding.  But with a plot twist: the work I tried so hard to ignore has become (what I consider) the most important work of my life.  

I am a shepherdess, a farmer, and an advocate for entrepreneurship in small-scale farming.

My background is in business management and digital marketing.  In fact, those are still my main sources of income and that which funds my farming effort.

In early 2020 I found myself with the rest of the world: at home.  Home for me was 23 acres, in the country, with a flock of sheep.  That flock of sheep was one I wanted so badly to get rid of.  Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately!), this flock did not belong to me at the time.  The sheep belonged to my parents.  

My dad has always been one to resist the norm.  Most of our neighbors raise beef cattle, so when we moved to the country he decided we would raise sheep.  We were beginners in farming so we assumed that the size of an animal was synonymous with it’s difficulty level.  “Sheep are way smaller than cows, so they must be way easier to raise!”  I can hear sheep people laughing right now.

Unfortunately, from the moment the sheep arrived they did everything in their power to die, or escape our barbed wire fence (our neighbors were entertained by the rodeo!).  Due to subtropical conditions in East Texas, internal parasites are the bane of ranching operations for miles around.  Being that sheep are doubly susceptible to parasites, the health of the flock was a perpetual tug-of-war.  By spring of 2020 we did not expect the flock to make it through the summer.  I watched the struggle from my home office, thinking “What a waste.  Hopefully they all die this year!”.  

I know that level of honesty puts me in a bad light, but I hope it showcases the Lord’s mercy and power to change a hard heart.

In addition to quarantine, 2020 brought to light “flaws” (mildly put) in the US food system.  We saw millions of pounds worth of pork and chicken euthanized and sent to waste.  Headlines covering this dismal waste were paralleled by photos of empty shelves and further headlines citing nationwide “food shortages”.  As I looked at these reports side-by-side I realized the problem was not a “food shortage”, but a complete systemic failure.

Neither Covid nor the government were to blame for this failure.  We the people of the United States of America have relinquished and neglected one of our most fundamental responsibilities: growing food for ourselves.  In fact the United States, which boasts a population of 355 million, relies on a farming population of 1.3%.  This is down from a 50% farming population in 1900. 

As I watched the supply chain crisis unfold, I realized I was accountable.  I had resources in front of me to do something.  I knew I couldn’t fix the problem for the whole world, but I could probably fix it for my family, and maybe a few neighbors.  

And thus it began.  

My initial plan was to raise beef.  My family has eaten grass fed beef for 12 years.  When I looked at 23 acres of grass my thought process naturally defaulted to beef as the means of converting it into a food source.  Raising beef would also allow me to continue ignoring the sheep.

These 3 books got me started as a beginner in rotational grazing!

I didn’t know anything about farming, so I went shopping for a book about cows.  I found the perfect book: Salad Bar Beef, by Joel Salatin.  I deemed the book “perfect” because the front cover had cows and dollar signs on it (my two primary points of interest at the time).  

Within 5 chapters my mind was blown by the concept of Intensive Rotational Grazing.  I read how moving animals on a daily basis had the capacity to increase forage production by 300%, rapidly revitalize soil health, and disrupt the life cycle of internal parasites.  Then I put down the book and looked out my window at a flock of sheep that was dying of internal parasites.

At that moment I realized I had been given the information I needed to save those dying sheep.  

I finished reading Salad Bar Beef on July 20th.  By August 15th I had installed electric perimeter fencing, mapped out a plan to section our 23 acres into 100 temporary paddocks, and taught the sheep what it felt like to disrespect hotwire.

I became their shepherdess and moved them to fresh pasture every two days.  

The results still give me goosebumps.  Hollow frames became plump, rough coats began to shine, and heads that hung low under unseen internal burdens were lifted up.  A flock we thought would die out over summer entered a season of new life as we approached Autumn.

But the biggest change took place inside of me.  I fell in love with these animals, the land, and the way that both improved under my management.  After a few months of shepherding, I went to my parents with my entire savings and bought the flock.  The flock I had avoided for 2 years.

My dad is a generational woodworker.  In his younger years he refinished and rebuilt ornate pieces of furniture for a living.  On occasion he would give me one of his pieces as a gift.  To be responsible for something that my dad created was an incredible feeling.  In my work on pasture I am responsible for land and animals that God, my Heavenly Father, has created.  It produces that same feeling… but on a scale that far surpasses any material experience.

I feel like David could have easily written Psalm 8 on pasture.  I am going to include a portion of that Psalm as the final word in this article. 

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ^“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.   Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  Psalm 8:4-9

-the Shepherdess at Harmony Farms