An up close collaborative portrait of a sheep farm in Liberty, North Carolina. Houck’s photographs and Joseph’s poems, and their keen powers of observation and ability to conjure majestic beauty, bring readers onto the farm with intimacy and grace. This unique collaboration documents one of the last small scale working sheep farms in the Southeast, honoring all of the participants, the rituals, and the work—and the many emotions and moments of beauty taking place daily in a quiet corner of North Carolina’s Piedmont region.

Ann and Ron are in their early eighties. Ron has served as headmaster of a private school in Nashville, Tennessee; and, more recently, in Albany, New York where he and Ann maintained small farms. Ann worked as the director of Development for the school in Nashville, and oversaw farm operations when they lived in Albany. When they retired from academic life, their three children enthusiastically urged them to move to North Carolina.

They settled on Randolph County, in the middle of the state, and together with one of their children and her husband, purchased the 128 acre Rising Meadow Farm.They restored the nineteenth century farmhouse, enlarging it and and repurposing it as a bed and breakfast. Ann and Ron eventually placed a conservation easement on their share of the farm with the Piedmont Land Conservancy. 

The greatest numbers of livestock tended in the past decades have been two hundred sheep, twenty-five cows, a bull, six llamas, five alpacas, two horses, a dozen or so chickens, and a best friend Labrador Retriever. The production flock currently consists of twenty-nine ewes, and six rams. This operation generates close to fifty lambs annually, harvested for meat, replenishment stock, or sold to other farms, while providing wool to a variety of folks.

Houck Medford is a Southern documentary artist residing in the mountains of western North Carolina where he was born into a rich world of storytelling traditions. His experiences with his father and grandfather who were bear-hunting and fish-catching storytellers instilled the values of good timing, imagery, and the power of a well-crafted story. Making pictures, honing the craft, and embracing photography as an art form has become an extension of his compassion for others and enthusiasm for life.

Joseph Bathanti, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012–14) and recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature, is the author of seventeen books including (Sonnets of the Cross, published by Jacar Press, which H&B designed and produced with hand-printed letterpress covers and a hand-sewn binding. Bathanti is Professor of English and McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education & Writer-in-Residence of Appalachian State University’s Watauga Residential College in Boone, North Carolina. He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, North Carolina, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program.

Clothbound, sewn hardcover binding. Printed on a five color offset press on 100lb uncoated text pages, with printed endsheets. 96 pages. 9 x 12 inches. Limited Edition of 500 copies.
$50.