Set on fifty-five acres of beautiful farm and forest land, Pheasant Creek Ranch is home to a flock of purebred Romney sheep established in 1979.
Our History
In 1975, after living for three years on the Navajo/Hopi Reservation in Arizona, our family moved to North Douglas County in Oregon to raise our kids in the country and near extended family. I had sheep in 4H when I was young, and it made sense to have a few sheep to provide our daughters the experience of growing up around animals. While in Navajo country I had become fascinated with the natural colored Navajo/Churro flocks and the incredible textiles made by local spinners and weavers. Returning to Oregon, I discovered that some shepherds were working to develop variety in natural colored wool in response to the flowering handicraft movement. A family friend told me about Sachiye Jones and the Black Sheep Newsletter, and our former Extension Agent let me know that I lived just a mile or so from Morris Culver, a nationally known Romney breeder who had just started experimenting with introducing color back into his flock. I learned that color had been bred out of most breeds of sheep after the industrial revolution, when the textile industry rejected colored fiber in wool crops because of the desirablility of all white wool for uniform dye lots. I met Sachiye at the first big scale Black Sheep Gathering at the Lane County Fairgrounds in tandem with the national Handweaver’s Guild annual show. We hit it off, and at the end of the show Sachiye said “I’m never doing this again; it’s too much work.” I said, “I’ll help you”, and the rest is history.
Some of our Romney ewes and lambs
Sheep and Wool
Our flock of purebred Romney sheep was established in 197 on a foundation flock of 9 yearling ewes of the Mereoak line from Morris Culver’s farm. These ewes came bred to a black Mereoak ram; their lambs carried the recessive gene for color. Over the years we have introduced only rams with this genetic pattern, from Culver, Silvercloud Farm in Ashland, and most recently from Silver Creek Lambscapes in Silverton Oregon.
Fleeces carry classic Romney traits of high lustre, long staple, broad crimp, and strength. We have introduced finer fleeced rams for variety in softness, still maintaining the Romney character. The lamb fleeces are generally softer and finer. Our sheep are coated year round and the fleeces are well skirted and very clean.
Carded and dyed Romney wool blended with other fibers for sale at the Scio Fat Lamb and Fiber Festival
Other Products
Our wool products include dyed and carded fiber in batts, washed wool and lambswool, and fancy blends with alpaca, angora, mohair and silk. We send our pelts out for tanning and have gorgeous natural colored and white sheepskin rugs, and custom made sheepskin slippers. We are always looking for new ways to make something beautiful and useful from the fruits of the farm and flock.