Brian McCauley / bmccauley@miconews.comLittle Dickens (left) and White Stuff are just two of the nine Shetland sheep that will be on display at R&R Farms this weekend during the tour. Some Pilgrim geese also can be seen on the farm.
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The Art of Farming
Shetland sheep highlight one of the eight stops on the Miami County Fall Farm Tour this Saturday and Sunday
By: Brian McCauley, bmccauley@miconews.com
Evidence of Vivian Robinson's hobby can be found throughout her farmhouse on her rural property that straddles the Miami and Franklin county lines.
Fluffy balls of wool lie scattered on the couch, a spinning wheel sits in her living room and a row of soft, plush dolls are perched on a counter welcoming guests as they step inside.
Robinson loves her toys, but she loves the animals they come from even more — her Shetland sheep.
It's tough to pick out a favorite among Thor, White Stuff, Baby Doll, Noodle Head, Booger Butt and all the others, because each one offers a unique wool coat, which Robinson is finding new uses for every day.
Her most recent passion has been creating decorative dolls using the wool from her sheep and a needle-felting technique she picked up about five years ago from a friend in the Osage Weavers and Spinners Guild.
The process itself is quite simple, as a special barbed needle is used to compress and shape the wool, but the results are far from ordinary.
“It's basically like sculpting,” Robinson said as she talked about some of her most recent creations. There are a friendly frog, a friendly Santa Claus and a Halloween witch, who looks suspiciously like she's friendly, too.
Robinson took her homemade dolls to the Sugar Mound Arts and Crafts Festival in Mound City earlier this month, and they also will be on display this weekend when Robinson opens up her home to visitors for the Miami County Fall Farm Tour.
R&R Farms, which Robinson runs with her partner David Reece, is one of the eight stops on the self-guided tour this year, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Besides showing off her wares, Robinson also plans to teach visitors the process of shearing wool, washing wool, carding wool and spinning wool into yarn. Guests also will get an up-close look at her seven rams and two ewes.
Most of the rams will be up for sale, although Robinson plans to hold on to her two ewes and Little Dickens, the ram that has fathered most of her other sheep.
Robinson began taking care of Shetland sheep about 10 years ago, when she bought three in Gardner, but her passion for the animals and their wool began much sooner. When she was about six, Robinson got a young sheep she called Lamb Chops, and although the animal eventually died of pneumonia, a lasting love was instilled in her.
In 1975, Robinson took a spinning class and began learning the intricacies of what you can make from wool. She and her mother purchased her current home in 1978, and although her mother died in 1994, Robinson decided she couldn't leave the farm she has grown to love.
Not that she hasn't made a few improvements to meet her taste, such as planting several trees across her property, many of which are now leafless toward the bottom.
“They love to eat leaves,” Robinson said, as she looked into the fenced area housing the sheep. “They'll eat about anything.”
Besides seeing the sheep, farm tour visitors also can take a gander at three Pilgrim geese and a Muscovy duck, along with a pot-bellied pig and a large but friendly Great Pyrenees dog named Uffda.
“They say they're (Pyrenees) supposed to protect the sheep, but she just likes to play with them,” Robinson said with a laugh.
R&R Farms is at 27274 Timber Lane Road near Wellsville.
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Fluffy balls of wool lie scattered on the couch, a spinning wheel sits in her living room and a row of soft, plush dolls are perched on a counter welcoming guests as they step inside.
Robinson loves her toys, but she loves the animals they come from even more — her Shetland sheep.
It's tough to pick out a favorite among Thor, White Stuff, Baby Doll, Noodle Head, Booger Butt and all the others, because each one offers a unique wool coat, which Robinson is finding new uses for every day.
Her most recent passion has been creating decorative dolls using the wool from her sheep and a needle-felting technique she picked up about five years ago from a friend in the Osage Weavers and Spinners Guild.
The process itself is quite simple, as a special barbed needle is used to compress and shape the wool, but the results are far from ordinary.
“It's basically like sculpting,” Robinson said as she talked about some of her most recent creations. There are a friendly frog, a friendly Santa Claus and a Halloween witch, who looks suspiciously like she's friendly, too.
Robinson took her homemade dolls to the Sugar Mound Arts and Crafts Festival in Mound City earlier this month, and they also will be on display this weekend when Robinson opens up her home to visitors for the Miami County Fall Farm Tour.
R&R Farms, which Robinson runs with her partner David Reece, is one of the eight stops on the self-guided tour this year, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Besides showing off her wares, Robinson also plans to teach visitors the process of shearing wool, washing wool, carding wool and spinning wool into yarn. Guests also will get an up-close look at her seven rams and two ewes.
Most of the rams will be up for sale, although Robinson plans to hold on to her two ewes and Little Dickens, the ram that has fathered most of her other sheep.
Robinson began taking care of Shetland sheep about 10 years ago, when she bought three in Gardner, but her passion for the animals and their wool began much sooner. When she was about six, Robinson got a young sheep she called Lamb Chops, and although the animal eventually died of pneumonia, a lasting love was instilled in her.
In 1975, Robinson took a spinning class and began learning the intricacies of what you can make from wool. She and her mother purchased her current home in 1978, and although her mother died in 1994, Robinson decided she couldn't leave the farm she has grown to love.
Not that she hasn't made a few improvements to meet her taste, such as planting several trees across her property, many of which are now leafless toward the bottom.
“They love to eat leaves,” Robinson said, as she looked into the fenced area housing the sheep. “They'll eat about anything.”
Besides seeing the sheep, farm tour visitors also can take a gander at three Pilgrim geese and a Muscovy duck, along with a pot-bellied pig and a large but friendly Great Pyrenees dog named Uffda.
“They say they're (Pyrenees) supposed to protect the sheep, but she just likes to play with them,” Robinson said with a laugh.
R&R Farms is at 27274 Timber Lane Road near Wellsville.