Wool yarn, Icelandic Sheep, Keeping sheep,Vermont wool, mitten patterns, knitted socks: A Vermont Sheep Farm, wool and feathers.

  Resources and Links for Small Farms

Vermont Farm Women by Peter Miller: timeless and inspirational, by Peter Miller (2002). Nationally, the fastest growing group buying small farms is... women! These new farmers are not farmers by birth, or chance, but farmers by choice. This is a look at the lives of women who farm in Vermont, studies in black and white, with interviews. 13% of Vermont farms are owned by women, and the number is growing. See why, and be inspired.

The Icelandic Sheep Sheep Breeders of North America Home Page Good general overview of the breed, and some in depth articles on genetics. Database of all member farms.

Frelsi Farm's Resource Page: Solid advice on maintaining flock health, introducing sheep to a new home, even a glossary of terms for new shepherds.

MyLamb.com Is designed for the 4H member who is raising a sheep for show, but is a wealth of information, and is monitored. Yelps for help answered in a surprisingly short amount of time by people who know what they're doing. The site is for youngsters, but if you're in a bind, they'll probably help new shepherds.

GEMPLER'S Online Farm Store. A serious oneline farm supply house with some hard to find products (like automatically openning electric fence farm gates). Ready source of Carhart, steel toed boots, safety gear, truck chains... We're very fond of this place!

Hobby Farm Magazine for small fry. Good articles, with overviews of how other folks do it. Articles have included fence fixes on a budget, pasture management, what to look for when shopping for your dream farm, etc.

Fingerlakes Yarns Custom Mill Processes small lots of wool, guaranteeing they'll return your fiber to you ready to work into your next project.

North American Kelp Company Some Icelandic Farms swear by kelp, which is full of trace minerals and vitamins.

Small Farm Today Magazine Crops, livestock, direct marketing, one of the oldest of the Alternative Agriculture publications (since 1984). Small Farm tends to take an indepth look at a specific type of farm with each issue, a year's subscription will give you a broad overview of various small farm ventures with ideas and resources for operating them profitably.

Gardener's Supply is a Vermont company with a national reputation. We depended on their floating row covers and innovative products when we started gardening in the rocky dirt which passed for soil on our farm... now we rely on them for pesticide free pest control and some really nifty space saving "tools." With several acres to work, why would we care if we can grow 50 pounds of potatoes in one of their 3'x3' plastic raised beds? Because it means we only have to spade up 3'x3'... not a 20' row! Nor do we have to fence the 20' row. My seed starter is now 7 years old and still going strong. The raised potato bed was such a success, we may buy a second one.

Premier 1 Fence Systems. We bought our fencing from Wellscroft Fence Systems of Harrisville, NH, the Northeaster Rep. (603) 827-3464 but the web site is worth a visit if only for the bulletin board system. We learned where to have our raw fleece turned into blankets on this system. Worth checking out for more than just good fencing supplies.

Today on ebay: sheep and lambing supplies under "Agricuture:"

Tongue River Farm's Sock Collection A quick search of the web and Tongue River comes flying up the search engines. Large farm, nice people, but more to the point, one of the ONLY places to buy yarn and patterns to go with so you can test drive something besides Lopi Yarn. After our first pair of socks, we were sold on Icelanic wool as some of the most durable, easy to work with, yarn we'd ever handled.

Katie: FFC-257M, Katie, an AI ewe lamb sired by Dalur, with semen imported from Iceland. She is a favorite at Frelsi Farm Icelandic Sheep & Icelandic Sheepdogs
Elaine Clark & David Patterson
P.O.Box 54 Limerick, ME 04048
207-793-4640 phone/fax
www.frelsifarm.com

Tongue River Farm sells "flock in a box," a starter flock of 3 ewes and 1 ram. !0% off on the ewes, and half price on the ram, all carefully chosen from prime stock to meet your requirements and balance genetic diversity.

!tzalist Science Directory an eclectic directory of Science sites.