Life in the Shepherd's Trailer
- Manda Walker
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
I value my personal space, especially at Deck Family Farm where everyone lives in a tight-knit community. We see each other daily: working, learning, relaxing, and eating together from dawn to dusk. It fosters amazing community and deep relationships, but every so often we need some alone time to reflect on life and recharge ourselves.
One of the ways we can have our own peace is with the housing options at Deck. They offer the students communal dorms, as well as separate, unshared cabins. The unshared cabins are quite nice because there’s no need for noise-cancelling headphones, whispering on phone calls, or being afraid to cough in the middle of the night.
Still, it is a special kind of alone time that you find in the shepherd’s trailer. I had the opportunity to stay in it for several months this spring. Given how I feel about personal space, it was perfect: peace and quiet, with no need to share anything. Hanging out under the stars with the sheep at night gives you all the privacy in the world! It was quite a serene and unique experience, and it’s not one that many people get to live out.
The shepherd's trailer was built by Eve Levi, a former Deck intern. The truck bed and wheels were once used to support a mobile chicken trailer with solar panels. Eve made it her student project to turn it into a tiny home for herself where she installed windows, a door, even insulation. Eve was able to transform the trailer for about $1,000 with secondhand wood and materials, which I think is quite impressive.
Eventually, when Summer Spell, another intern, arrived, she had the idea of using it in the sheep fields to guard against predation since it is transportable and can follow the herd. Summer was very fond of the sheep, and the idea worked out perfectly. It has stuck since then, and there have been a total of four shepherds in this trailer. Currently, the fifth owner is residing in the trailer and has been involved in the new task of rounding sheep into an electronet at night for even more security.
Our chicken flocks have guard dogs, but the sheep do not, so it is very useful to put a student intern out in the field to keep the predators away. The scent of a human in the field keeps them from hunting.
Living in the trailer is a great way to experience the farm, from sunrises in the morning, to watching the field grow, to seeing the animals thrive. Because it moves with the sheep, you are able to see the farm from new angles every few weeks as the sheep are moved to fresh grass.
It also comes with a few surprises, like waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of baaing and feeling the trailer sway when a sheep uses it to scratch an itch.
Using the trailer for shade and as a scratching post seems to be their favorite things. There are always plenty of wool decorations on the outside of the trailer just to remind you how much the sheep enjoy it.
Even getting to the trailer each night was fun. I always enjoyed seeing the glow of little eyeballs staring back at me when I walked down to the field at night. I knew I was home, and the sheep knew it too. It seemed as if they knew I was coming to protect them.
Overall, it was quite an experience. Who else gets to say they were a traveling shepherdess for several months? The sheep very much enjoy it as a cool spot in the summer, and I think they feel safe knowing someone is there. Without student intern shepherds, our sheep population would not be thriving like it is now. Thankfully this housing option is very popular, and many students like to take on this role. The sheep will be happy knowing there will always be a shepherd for them.
