Historical reenactor is also a shepherdess
STOCKTON -- Besides being a volunteer and historical reenactor, Suzy Beggin Craft of Stockton is also a shepherdess. She has kept sheep for approximately eight years.
Interested in 19th century history, Suzy strives for historical accuracy in everything she does pertaining to the period. Suzy entered the sheep business when she learned to knit using 19th century patterns. Then, to be accurate, she wanted 100 percent wool yarn from sheep breeds popular to the period.
At her barn, Simon, a large llama with shaggy hair the color of burnt sienna, trots over with a look demanding to know who is on the premises and why. Suzy bought a llama to her farm when she found two sheep killed by coyotes within weeks of each other.
"The three things you can do against coyotes is get a dog, get a donkey or get a llama. The llama eats the same food he gets the same care. They're really easy to take care of," Suzy said as she pulled a piece of hay hanging from the side of his mouth.
Simon steps back once he knows there are no coyotes. If there were coyotes, Simon's job would be to round up the sheep, herd them into the barn and keep a lookout. He watches over 23 sheep, cross breeds of Cheviot, Merino, American Cormo, Dorset and East Friesian. Each have names based on characteristics that set them apart.
Suzy dips a bucket into a metal container filled with pellets, a sweet treat for the sheep. Once one sheep realizes she has pellets, they huddle around her, their thick coats of wool acting like buffers as they push past each other like bumper cars. Ewella and Lambert are the first to dip their face into the bucket. Both were Suzy's first sheep. She tosses the pellets that cannot reach into a trough. The sheep bolt toward the trough. Sheep in the back clamor for whatever it is the other sheep want. One sheep jumps up onto the trough and looks for a spot over the heads lowered in the trough.
"They have such a herding instinct. They don't even know what it is, but they see that `Oh, these guys want some so it must be good,'" she said.
"As far as livestock go, sheep are easy to care for," she said. "So much history involves farming. Part of the reason I raise them 19th century farming is I don't know that much about modern farming."
In the wintertime, she feeds them hay and checks that their water does not freeze. In the summer, they graze.
The "spokes-lamb" of the flock is Fred. Fred travels with Suzy in a large dog crate to craft shows and historical reenactments so customers can see where their wool comes from. Hand-raised and bottle-fed because his mother rejected him, Fred became comfortable around people. Suzy said mothering is an instinct that some sheep do not have.
Recently Suzy, her spinning wheel and Fred stopped at One More Row in Freeport to show the beginning; Fred growing the wool, the middle; Suzy spinning the wool, and the end product; a knit sweater.
"Children are removed from the process. They don't know where their clothes come from," she said.
The different breeds of sheep have different wool characteristics.
"The merinos have a greasier wool," Suzy said pointing to a Merino sheep. "That's part of the reason their wool is so soft. It's like if you had hair conditioner on all the time."