Crooked Fences is an exploration of finding our own natural wisdom. It is a reminder of the relevance and necessity of believing in Mother Nature in our agricultural lives. I write about my experiences of running this place and tending to a flock of sheep and a pack of dogs along with deeper musings stemming from living rural.
Crooked Fences showcases recent photography of sheep and dogs and many subscribers receive it for that alone. There is also updates on current artwork and wool felting so you will be among the first to see what is in progress and what is available for sale. Crooked Fences is sent out once a month and you can receive it automatically in your email inbox, you just need to tell me where to send it.
If you’d like a preview of what it’s about you can view archive issues in the link list below.
Crooked Fences Excerpt
…. The daily feeding of sheep in a prairie winters white landscape that holds for months. Moving snow from trails and gateways that the wind blows in every third or fourth day. Dressing in layers, feeding guardian dogs, exercising stock dogs, checking water bowls, filling bird feeders. Routines, sometimes wrought with boredom, sometimes wrought with wishes to be some where else or be some one else.
On one white winter morning I watch sheep make their way to feed. Following tractor tracks because snow blew in the evening prior and covered their existing trails again. They start out as a long mob, then thin to single file through a low spot where the snow is deep. Each individual picks up pace once on the upslope again. Across the hill top, where the snow is light, they can run, and they do. The ewe lambs are the first eager beavers to reach the bale just as I pull the last twines free. The young ones are always hungry and impatient. The little obnoxious knee knockers crowd around the bale. Allen is here to help feed this morning and is already in the tractor and pulling ahead to roll the feed. A stream of woolies follows in the wake.
One of the gifts of living a relatively solitary life amidst acres and acres of mother nature is recognizing that no thing is counted as boring and no thing is measured in a linear fashion. Not time, not space, not the economies of life, not the end of an old year or the start of a new. There is no uselessness either. Every step is of purpose and every thing bends to reach it.
You come to understand that land and animal and the time and space in between are always unfolding and shifting according to the exchanges of gifts from each individual. No one species cops out of these exchanges, and the fallout of the give and take creates exchanges for others. It’s a circular nature and thus every species can exist and express in a manner conducive to the greater whole. …
What can I say? I am awe struck with everything you do, write, felt paint, feel. I have never read your words without tears. Thank you again for sharing so much and creating so much.
Bev
From your writing I sense the passion you have for the “land”. You have an evocative turn phrase, a sense of pace that is your writing voice which comes across as calm as the prairie landscape.
Peter
I just wanted to say that you’re a beautiful writer, … Thanks for creating something that provided me with such pleasure to read at the end of a dark, ridiculously linear workday.
Frances
Crooked Fences Archive List
There is a two month lag period between current issue and addition to the archive list, meaning the archive list will always be two months behind.
January 2022 Issue 094 Minimalist Farming
December 2021 Issue 093 The Pulse of The Prairie
November 2021 Issue 092 These Sheep Are Good
October 2021 Issue 091 Coyotes and Coexistence, Is It Possible?
September 2021 Issue 090 Why Is He Not With The Sheep?
August 2021 Issue 089 A Dry Land
May 2021 Issue 088 When The Why Fades
March 2021 Issue 087 Rural Riches
January 2021 Issue 086 Of Circular Nature
November 2020 Issue 085 Of Dogs and Wool
September 2020 Issue 084 A Summer Of Floundering
July 2020 Issue 083 The Restart