Shepherdess: Notes from the Field

by Joan Jarvis Ellison

In Shepherdess: Notes from the Field, Ellison tells the story of her journey from research associate and mother to shepherdess. With humor directed mostly at herself, and a growing understanding of sheep behavior and health, Ellison deals with the thorny problems of what to do with too much manure, whether or not to eat your own sheep, and how to find self-respect in a farmyard." Shepherdess: Notes from the Field is funny and sad. You'll learn more about sheep than you ever imagined you'd want to know, and more about life than you knew before you opened the book.

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction

172 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Carol Bakker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellison, like my son's family, was a novice at raising sheep. If there is hope in fixing our food supply, more folk need to start farming in a similar fashion: without generations of wisdom and experience behind them. Of course, Joan Jarvis Ellison, was not without resources.

Friends are an important part of farming. I'm not sure it would be possible to farm without them. Dave and I certainly wouldn't have learned to farm without friends. Friends listen when you complain, they lend you equipment, they share your natural disasters, they help you physically if you need extra workers, and they give you advice.

I'm as ignorant as can be of agriculture. I gleaned little quips like this three-part lambing ritual: clip, dip, and strip. Clip the umbilical cord to one inch, dip the stub into an iodine solution, and strip milk from the ewe's teats to help the nursing lamb.

The pitch and cadence of her writing was particularly pleasing. She is unsentimental about her work; yet, her early losses are laden with emotion.

I was learning to see the sheep in general as farm animals rather than pets. I didn't have the emotional resilience to mourn each individual lamb when I took them to market. I still thanked them, but I can't mourn them. I had come to accept that planned death as well as unplanned death was part of being a shepherd.

Her mom, seventy, comes to help with castration, ear-tagging, and tail-docking chores.

Mom smiled up at me from her bucket. What a wonderful thing it is to share the most exciting time of the year with my mother. For all my life she has given to me, taught me wonder and curiosity and joy. Now I have something to share with her. Through my sheep I can feed her wonder, satisfy her curiosity, share with her my joy.

My favorite quote of the book, especially since I've witnessed this in the lambs in my kids' pasture:

Gamboling is happiness in motion.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is near and dear to my heart: one I read every year as I prepare to welcome our own lambs into the world. It centers around the author's attempt to become a shepherdess herself: the purchase of her first sheep, her first experiences in lambing and shearing, and the people she comes across in the process. It is a thoughtful, sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking look at life with sheep - the closest I think one could get without buying one's own flock. This book is a quick read - a short little volume that provides a peek into someone else's very interesting way of life.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a straightforward description of the author becoming a shepherdess in northern Minnesota. The short chapters told specific stories about her trials with the lambs. After finishing this book, I wished for a fuller picture of the authors life and the lambs place in it. I wish she’d have zoomed out from time to time. Overall, it gave me a good day-to-day picture of a shepherdess’ life, which I appreciated reading about.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the account of a beginner raising a flock of sheep. Well written with short chapters.

[Lelayna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love memoir type books; i receive a special type of inspiration from them.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I learned from this book: I could see myself living a very happy, fulfilled life in the middle of Minnesota raising sheep and spinning wool.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shepherdess in Pine City MN>