K.Ruby Blume, Camelids +

K.Ruby Blume has attended the UC Davis shearing course twice and is a Junior level sheep shearer. Junior refers to the number of sheep a person can shear in a day, not the quality of the shearing. She says, “I am definitely not the fastest shearer in the world but I offer the caring touch of a woman–something rare in the world of shearing.  I will be extremely gentle with your animals, handling them with kid gloves, and will talk you through the entire process to set your heart and mind at ease.”

Ruby trained to shear Alpacas with Steve Murray and now handles any requests for Alpaca or Llama shearing.  She is available to shear herds of 1-50 animals in Southern Oregon as far North as Eugene, in Sonoma and Alameda Counties, CA and within 20 minutes either side of the I-5 between these two locations.

Besides working seasonally pruning fruit trees and shearing camelids, Ruby is an educator, gardener, beekeeper, artist and householder  with 20+ years experience in agriculture and traditional homesteading skills. She has studied everything from pollination ecology to sewing machine repair and has taught herself canning, cheesemaking and fermentation techniques as well as how to set tile, do electrical wiring, tend a beehive and repair a motorcycle.  An excellent maker of things she has extensive experience in graphic design, photography, ceramics, mosaic, fiber arts, warm glass, cheesemaking, winemaking and homemade goodies of all kinds.  Ruby is founder and director of   The Institute of Urban Homesteading, a small school of urban agriculture and traditional skills for adults and co-author of the book Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living.  She currently manages Faerie Road Farm, a 22 acre property in Southern Oregon.

You can visit Ruby’s personal shearing page at https://faerieroadfarm.com/shearing