Western North Carolina: Chasing Craigslist Sheep

Old North Acres Farm in Old Fort, NC

Tucked off a highway in Western North Carolina on a road that quickly earns the label “country,” Old North Acres sits on a bucolic hill. Once fields where families ran cattle, it fell quiet and unused in recent years. It’s now the home of a flourishing flock of sheep, some cows and pigs, and about 60 chickens. If you listen close you can hear the place exhale in relief.

Dana, Jordan, and little Juni live there too.

Recently, I had the opportunity to water their pigs (give water to their pigs?), and then shoot the shit on the back porch of their nearly century-old white farmhouse.

I sat on a cozy chair with Mars (ehm… the skeletal remains of Mars), their first ram, on the table next to me. I may have elbowed him a few times. He was quite patient, which (I hear) is in direct contrast with his previous personality.

I wanted to know how two people go from high-rise apartments in the city to endless days cultivating well-loved farmland. They’re first-generation farmers with a love for fiber sheep, and well… why?

If there was one refrain we kept coming back to throughout the conversation, it would have to be “It’s complicated.”

And I’d say that applies here too.

They didn’t just start out shearing sheep and watering hogs. It started as most good stories do - random Craigslist purchases. Theirs just happened to be five fiber sheep that they’d hoped would cut their grass for them.

Way out of their comfort zone (and realm of knowledge) they nearly collapsed when they heard the sheep bleat for the first time. The cuteness. They couldn’t take it. They were hooked.

From there they started down a path of holistically-managed farming, aiming to care for the land while caring for the animals while caring for themselves. And if care work is anything, it is complicated.

In another sense, however, the farm journey was quite straightforward. We all have moments in life. The kind you can’t turn back from.

For Dana and Jordan, their moment came in the form of a little girl.

Merrill, their first daughter, came one cool day in April 2022 riding a wave of joy. For reasons unknown, that same day she left just as quickly, carrying Dana and Jordan on the wake of sorrow her absence left behind.

Experiencing death has a way of altering you, almost down to your DNA. For a while everything pales. Fog is too thin a word. When you find your way out of it (however long that takes), you’re not the person you were when you went in.

All Dana knew, though, was that she couldn’t get out of bed.

In an act that many women may find familiar, Dana’s mom sat with her in the thick and taught her how to crochet. Shortly after, Dana headed to Black Mountain Yarn Shop for backup lessons and some yarn.

“My brain was broken. Like I could not have conversations. I could not function. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t do anything, but I could crochet.”

Crocheting when nothing else made sense, when nothing else was even possible. The slow rhythm of it. The grounding of working with her hands. It slowly brought Dana back from something which you can’t recover.

It may have started with a raggedy flock of sheep, but now the heartbeat behind it was growing into something more. And here Merrill was, holding their hands through it all. Helping confirm the importance of fiber and the intense meaning that comes with handling it.

“She is the soul that guides me along in the fiber world.”

A child changes things. Most parents will agree. While expecting your first, you start to question your values and how well you live them out. They wanted an earth-driven childhood for Merrill, but she helped them focus on what that meant so they could offer it to Juni.

And there it is. A pretty solid why.

So, they do it for Merrill and her little sister, Juniper.

They do it to create a family that cares for the earth, not just in romantic sentimentalities, but through grit. Showing up when they don’t want to. Loving their flock even when it breaks their hearts.

There’s no corporate backing here. No boardrooms calling the shots. Just a family trying to stretch their paychecks so they can continue to love the land, and in turn, love their children.

And that does make it very complicated, because farmland is being lost at alarming rates, especially in North Carolina. Food security is (at best) insecure, especially in small communities. Wool is regenerative and sustainable but losing out to its plastic counterpart, and in the process stockpiling that plastic in our bloodstreams.

The work they do, that they’ve chosen to do, matters. It matters for the health of their community, and the health of the planet that little Juni inherits. It matters if only for the peace that making with our hands instills in us. And that’s a peace they want everyone to access.

So why give up a life of relative ease for the hard-earned rewards of farm life?

Well, it’s complicated.

But through a little girl’s eyes, I think it’s pretty simple.

Dana and Jordan own Old North Acres Farm in Old Fort, NC. Their flock of Leicester Longwools, Bluefaced Leicester, and Ramboillet mixes are made into gorgeous yarns by Blue Mountain Family Farm. If you’d like to support their efforts (or if you want to get your hands on some gorgeous yarn), you can visit their website here or purchase through Black Mountain Yarn Shop.

Follow them on Instagram too!