Urban Farmer, Police Wife, Mother, Potter, Fiber Artist...Living in the Mountainwest

I graduated from Westminster College with a dual degree in Art and Mathematics. I have taught pottery and worked as a potter for over 15 years. My functional clay work is heavily influenced by Utah's beautiful landscape, and I use local clays for much of my work. I lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation outside of Blanding, Utah as part of a pottery internship, learning the traditional Navajo pottery way, and also how to bead and weave. I fell in love with Navajo-Churro sheep while living on the Reservation. I've participated in multiple national gallery shows in the past 17 years, and taught pottery for many years at the Pioneer Craft House in Salt Lake City. I'm also a full-time statistician. Sixteen years ago, our little family started with a tiny apartment garden and the vision of a simpler life. Two acres in suburbia, an 11-year old son, a 100-year old house, some deeply troubled roosters, heritage turkeys, endangered chickens, a couple of goats, some gorgeous dairy cows and a flock of Navajo-Churro Sheep later, we are fully embracing the simple life. We actively breed many endangered livestock breeds and are members of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC). We homestead in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains. The views are beautiful and the challenges never-ending. Currently, we raise almost all of our own food, including meat.

Mar 1, 2013

Making Spring Feel Welcome...

It may be March 1st, and the groundhog may have said that this month wouldn't come in like a lion; but it is definitely still winter here in Utah.

We had snow again this past week. Lots of it. We are still wearing layers and layers of coats and socks and scarves and boots when we work outside. Which is a lot of time.

We feel like we've done our part here to make Spring feel welcome.

We are butchering a beef steer this weekend to re-fill our freezer after a long winter of feeding ourselves (and the steer). We have a batch of quail in the incubator, fertile and growing and ready for Spring.


We are still keeping a close eye on all of those pregnant sheep and cows, waiting for individual deliveries. We are expecting an awful lot of Spring babies this year.


And I've been making plenty of Spring-themed jewelry and pottery.



Are you already enjoying Spring weather where you are?

3 comments:

Sandy miller said...

Hoping Spring arrives soon..... This morning we a having a good snow. 16 degrees with wind, if the wind would fall back I think we could make the 20's. Ha! Peas are supposed to be planted by st. Patrick's day..... Good day to make soup and head to the studio......
Rest up for lambing and all the other critters arriving..... Good luck!

March 02, 2013
Rian said...

Have to tell you that we are expecting it to be in the 70's today here in Texas... and to this southern girl, it is welcome. I don't know how you survive all that cold weather. Guess it's just a matter of knowing how... layers, etc.

Love the egg photo. Took me a minute to figure out what it was.

March 02, 2013
cookingwithgas said...

Happiness is warm spring days. Btw...your pictures on f.b. are spectacular.

March 02, 2013

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