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Is
this what you've been waiting for . . .
?
Have
you dreamed of someday moving to the country to
live the good life and raise some animals? To
finally live your dream of being a
farmer?
Here's
the perfect opportunity to step into that life and
try it on. See for yourself how it feels to live
and work with sheep and other farm animals. See how
rewarding life can be when the rhythms of the
natural world determine your daily activities!
Are you already living the farm life, but
want to move into sheep for wool and meat? Want to
raise them using organic and sustainable methods?
Want to learn how to direct-market their products
and stay off the commodity treadmill?
A
Farm Immersion at SkyLines Farm will give you
the first hand knowledge and practical skills you
need to raise happy, healthy, productive sheep by
organic methods. You'll also get an understanding
of the mindset and skills you need to be successful
in direct marketing their products.
What SkyLines Farm
is About
I've
been raising sheep using sustainable and organic methods
since 1992. Over the years I've slowly and carefully grown
the flock to a peak size of nearly 100 vibrantly healthy breeding ewes.
In recent years I've scaled the sheep operation back to my current size of 40+
ewes and their lambs and added a few beef calves and horses to the mix.
We all live and thrive on this beautiful 65-acre farm in remote northern Idaho.
The animals
generate three products that I direct-market to consumers
locally and nationally:
>
Premium natural-colored and white wool for
handspinners across the country
> Hardy & productive breeding sheep for
other farmers in the region
> Lean, healthy, 100% grassfed lamb and beef for
local families
How it Began
for Me
I've
wanted to be a farmer since I was four years old, but it
didn't happen until much, much later (read early 40's). As a
city girl with no agriculture background it was a struggle
to create a new life that expressed my own sustainable
farming vision. What I would've given during those years for
a real-life farm experience with a real-life farming mentor
who understood what I was going through!
I've
learned a lot over my 20 years of small-scale
farming...plus more years of research, learning, and
growing...and now you can share and learn from my
experience!
Is it Your
Turn?
Are
you ready to take the leap? Are you willing to try on a
new life and see what it feels like? I vividly recall how it
felt to be standing on the precipice of a new life. I've
drawn on that experience, plus my background in adult
education, to design a hands-on, real-life program for
passionate would-be farmers like you!
What's a Farm
Immersion?
A
Farm Immersion is a short term of study at
SkyLines Farm - from 1 day to 10 days. It's a unique
and intensive educational experience for one or two persons
at a time. Every day you take the gorgeous drive out to the farm
and learn and work one-on-one with me, following a
custom designed program of study in sustainable farm living
and livestock production. If you live out of the area and need housing,
accommodations are available at private or state campgrounds,
motels, or B&B's that are located 1/4 mile to 30 miles from the farm. Contact
me for more details.
What Does a
Farm Immersion Include?
Your Farm
Immersion includes individual instruction & hands-on learning,
resource materials, and lunch every day.
The
learning is customized to each participant's particular
interests and needs, whether you're considering a radical
life change to farm/rural living and raising livestock and
need a complete overview....or if you're a more experienced
farmer looking for very specific knowledge about sustainable
sheep production.
Every
Immersion starts out with a walking tour of the entire farm to
see the operation and meet the animals. I'll take you
through an in-depth explanation of what we do here, why, and
how.
Design
your own learning experience. Before you arrive I
develop a customized program of study just for you, based on
our previous conversations. We'll
spend each
day of your Farm Immersion working together while you
Learn What you Want to Learn and Need to
Learn about caring for livestock and farm by
sustainable methods.
The
shepherdess explains why & how to treat a
newborn lamb's navel with
iodine.
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Possible Topics of Study for your
Immersion
Depending on the time of year, your particular interests,
and the time you have to spend, your Farm Immersion can
explore a wide range of important farming activities,
including hands-on experiences during the appropriate
season. Some of the major topics you can choose from
are:
Do you want to learn
about . . .
- Growing and marketing
premium wool for handspinners
-
Shearing sheep & preparing raw fleeces for sale to spinners
- Washing, carding, and
spinning raw wool into yarn for knitting, weaving, and other crafts
- Lambing season management
Do you want to learn
about . . .
- Planning and using a rotational grazing system for pasture
management & parasite control
- Building & maintaining a variety of fencing styles
- Low-stress livestock handling
- Planning winter rations & getting hay in
Do you want to learn about . . .
- Trimming sheep hooves & other maintenance
- Using garlic/molasses/DE for organic control of internal
parasites
- Evaluating and selecting lambs for market and breeding
stock sales
- Planning ram/ewe pairings for breeding based on production
records and production goals
Do you want to learn
about . . .
- Direct marketing
breeding stock and/or freezer lamb to consumers
- Farm recordkeeping
- Caring for other farm animals
including horses, cattle, goats, chickens
- Living with, working with, and training livestock guardian
animals
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Three of the
SkyLines Farm Great Pyrenees livestock guardian
dogs
(LGDs) hang out with their stock on a warm fall
afternoon.
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Other
Possible Topics for your Immersion . . . Farm
Living
Your
Immersion can also be customized to explore more general
topics. Over the last 25+ years of rural living, mostly as a
single woman, I've had to develop an amazing array of skills
just to survive without calling for help every other day.
You can spend part of each day learning about useful skills
for a self-sufficient life, such as:
- Living with wells and septic systems
- Acquiring and handling firewood (including buying
firewood, chainsaw use and safety, felling trees, splitting firewood, storing
firewood)
- Using & maintaining wood stoves for heating
- Plowing snow & maintaining farm roads
- Working with basic power tools
- The joys of an ATV and small tractor
- Organic vegetable gardening techniques
- Composting farm waste materials
- Living with and training livestock guardian animals
- And much, much more.
Choices. Choices. The bottom
line is this . . .
You design your own experience.
Decide what you want and need to learn, how much time you
want to spend - and together we
create a custom Farm Immersion that fits you!
View from the
deck in early summer. Here, the organic vegetable
garden is just about
ready for planting, while some of the ewes and
their lambs spend a day grazing
a small paddock on the other side of portable
electric fencing.
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Typical Daily Schedule for your Farm Immersion
This
may vary somewhat based on your interests & the
farm workload for that season, but it's a blueprint for
most days . . .
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8:30am
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Morning cofee/tea
and review plans for the day.
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9-10
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Lecture/discussion
on farming topic for the day.
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10-12
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Work and learn with the animals.
Various farm projects of the season.
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12-1
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Lunch
break.
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1-5
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More
work/learn projects or lecture/hands-on
experience with your specific topics of
interest.
Includes doing evening chores:
Feed animals during feeding season,
or visit pastures to check on grazing animals and
feed livestock guardian dogs
(LGDs).
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Heads Up!
This is a one-of-a-kind educational opportunity on a
real working farm. You need to
be prepared to help with the inevitable emergencies that
arise, such as dropping everything to usher the cows home
after they break through a fence and then repairing the fence, or
maybe even helping to doctor a sick or injured animal . . . it's all part
of real life on the farm!
Rates for a SkyLines
Farm Immersion . . . the customized, one-on-one
learning experience
of a lifetime!
First day $150/person, Additional days $100/person.
Second person half price.
Example:
One person comes for 3 days of learning. Cost = $350
Two persons come for 3 days of learning. Cost = $525
(For a lambing season Immersion in March/April add $50/day/person)
Rate includes one-on-one instruction,
hands-on learning, access to my extensive library of reference books on organic agriculture
and livestock production, take-home resource materials, and a delicious lunch each day.
Payment
Terms
50% nonrefundable deposit to hold
your reservation, with the balance due on the first day
of Immersion. PayPal or personal checks are gladly accepted. Please contact me
to confirm availability before sending
any payment.
Immersions Available March 1 to November 1
Please contact me to discuss question, your interests and
preferences for an Immersion, and dates you would like to
reserve. Contact me well in advance of your anticipated
start date, because designing a custom program for you takes
time.
- Children 12 and over are welcome, and must be supervised
by an adult at all times.
- Sorry no dogs or other pets allowed on the farm.
For more info or to schedule your customized
Farm Immersion,
contact me at 208/875-8747
or
melissa@skylinesfarm.com
Getting
Here
The farm is located in the panhandle of northern Idaho,
about 45 minutes north of Moscow, 90 minutes south of Coeur
d'Alene, and 15 minutes east of Potlatch.
As
preparation for an Immersion you may want to visit each page
on this website.
Be sure to see SkyLines Farm's Management
Practices
for in-depth discussion
of my sustainable and organic approach to sheep production.
Write
for more information or to get on the mailing list for all
SkyLines Farm educational opportunities.
SkyLines'
Angus
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SkyLines
Farm employs working
Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs.
Please leave your dogs at home.
SkyLines
Farm 4551 Highway 6 Harvard, ID 83834
208.875.8747
Purebred Romney & Romney-Cross
Sheep
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