Sam on farming in an increasingly industrialized world
“I feel more and more disconnected and more like I’m from another century. You know, it’s, I had this epiphany the other day, this is too personal. But it’s like, well, those of us who do this work, agriculture and work with, we don’t fit anywhere else. You know, it’s like, I can’t, I couldn’t fit in the digital world, I’ve got like, no interest, in that. Everything I do is very tangible, and very much directly connected to nature. And it doesn’t it doesn’t feel it doesn’t feel at all connected to industrial agriculture. And that’s the way agriculture is going. And I thought, with the pandemic, and how it showed that how fragile the industrial food system was, and there was all these breakdowns and everything that well, this is our moment, you know, for like local food and that kind of thing. But it doesn’t seem to have, industrial agriculture has only gotten stronger. It’s like there’s, you know, what, Jeff Bezos bought Whole Foods. You know, it’s like more conglomeration more industrialization. So I can be pessimistic about it, but I’m glad I’m here. You know, I’m glad this is where I get to live and what I get to do.”
Lee on the fulfillment of her lifestyle
“Well, the way I live is not for everybody. I’m a bit of a hermit. I live far from town. But I love my work. I am happy here weaving and planning more weaving. It’s a it’s a good life, and it may seem idyllic. But it is tricky. being your own boss, I have to stay very motivated. Because I work at home and it sounds like that would be comfortable and nice. But it’s very easy to get distracted. And my big family is extremely distracting. But I am motivated, i’m always thinking about it. And sometimes I’m laughing at myself. I’m a little embarrassed. Like, I am thinking about string all day long from when I wake up in the morning till I go to bed at night. I’m thinking about string and it seems so silly sometimes. But on the other hand, I’ve made a life out of it. It keeps me very happy and busy every day. So I guess you can’t really argue with that.”
Tammy on the variety of being a farmer and artist
“It’s very organic how it all came to be. I love it. It’s so suits my personality because I like mixing things up. I like different seasons. I like all the colors. And so I enjoy variety so that I am able to meditate with my sheep every day, you know, and reset. But then if I have to deal with a bunch of correspondence or I don’t know, you know, nitpicky things, like whatever, an order that’s messed up, you know, and I have to fix it for somebody or whatever sometimes, you know, customer service. I want to say, you know, it’s okay because it’s not all of one thing. It’s some of everything. So I love that I get to be a farmer but I also get to create colorways you know, using… right now I’ve got a really pretty project going on where I have like a sort of a charcoal gray wool worsted yarn that I had been dying with marigolds for several days. And now it’s just the rich kind of goldish green that I wanted. Now I got my, this morning I worked very hard to get my indigo kettle back up to snuff because I kinda had to doctor it. And I’m gonna go after this and go overdye that goldish, olivey wool into the indigo and hoping it’s going to give me that green like a forest green. So like those kinds of projects are part of my every day as well as to like stack hay and fill water buckets and collect eggs. I love that variety.”