We are writing with some heartbreaking news that hits very close to our hearts. Many of you may know Amy Ross Manko and Ross Farm from their pop-ups and workshops here at fibre space. Her historic farm sits in Washington County, PA, the hometown of our owner`s family farm and her college town. For over 30 years, Ross Farm and Amy`s family have tended multiple flocks of heritage breed sheep, and she and her small farm have saved several rare breeds of sheep from threatened or endangered status.
Around 11 pm on Monday, February 2nd, Ross Farm’s main barn was engulfed in flames, from what is assumed to be an electrical fire. Nearly her entire flock of rare, heritage-breed sheep was lost, along with some farm equipment. In total, 152 sheep were lost, with many of the ewes only 12 weeks away from lambing. Melinda, the Ross Farm shepherd and shearer, lost her entire business of shearing equipment valued at $5000 and will lose her spring shearing business.
As Amy stated in the local newspaper, “Those sheep were our history and our future.”
The team and I are crushed, and want to support Ross Farm as much as we can—and we know our fibre community will, too. We`ve put their donation link in our profile and compiled more ways to help in a blog post on our Captain`s Log.
