Re: [Homesteadingfamily] Introduction (from a small farm in Virginia)

Hi Nancy -

Wow, we have a lot of similarities! I live in West Virginia, I raise
sheep, and I sell my goods! We live on a small farm and we also sell at the
farmer's market. That is really cool about the factory free items you make!
Do you sell on Etsy? From what I see soap makers do pretty well there. I
also don't get off the farm much. But I like it that way.

Nancy

In a message dated 10/15/2010 9:58:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
nchase@aol.com writes:

Hi everyone! I'm new to the list. I have a small historic farm in
central Virginia where I raise heritage breed livestock (Icelandic sheep,
American Guinea Hogs, and Orpington chickens).

I also make lots of different kinds of crafts and fiber arts using mostly
materials that I grow or gather here on the farm.

The biggest projects I'm working on right now (other than normal everyday
farm stuff like weaning the piglets, shearing the sheep, and getting the
breeding pens set up for fall) are:

I'm custom making a "100% factory-free" queen sized wool quilt for a
customer. "Factory free" meaning that every step of the quilt's creation, from
the birth of the lamb to the shearing, washing, carding, spinning, and
weaving of the wool, to the sewing of the quilt pieces are all going to be
done by hand, by me, right here on the farm. It's a huge job, but I'm
thrilled to be doing it. I've done other factory-free projects before---a scarf,
a purse, etc.---but never one this huge!

The other thing I'm working on is getting started making sheep's milk soap
using the milk from my own sheep. I've been selling the soap for about a
year already, and it's been really popular, but I always hired a local soap
maker to custom make it for me. Now my soap maker has moved away, so I'm
trying to make the transition into making the soap myself. (If you're
curious about this project, you can find more info here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1853684896/sheeps-milk-soap-straight-from-the-farm)

I don't get off the farm much, so it's important to me to be able to
interact with like-minded folks online. So, thanks for letting me join your
list! :-)

--Nancy
http://inglesideicelandics.com
http://www.facebook.com/InglesideFarm

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