A Feature Interview with Kari Lusk

HOOKED ON SHEEP, HISTORY & LODI

By Paulette Likoudis

Visiting the secluded Traphagen Road log cabin that is, for now, the home of Bill and Kari Lusk was, in some ways, like taking a step back to Lodi’s pioneer days. There is no passing traffic, and it is very quiet there. The remnants of stone foundations in nearby woods are evidence of what was once a neighborhood with its own post office on Lodi Center Road.

Winter had arrived late, delivering its first blanket of snow to the Lusks’ Sheepish Grin Farm in mid-January. Fifteen sheep wearing heavy fleeces were cozy and warm on a thick bed of grass hay in the barn. Although it looked like winter, spring lambs were due.

Inside the small, wood-heated cabin, a plate of homemade molasses cookies was waiting for a young neighbor who likes to stop in after school. Baskets of soft wool, as well as beautiful and useful wool items crafted by Kari, were all around us as she explained how her passion for sheep developed.

“Three years ago, I started wool rug hooking classes in Clifton Springs with my mother, Linda Milliman,” said Kari. “Then my stepdaughter, Emily, and I began making regular stops at Skyland Farm in Burdett to feed sheep there. Emily really wanted us to get some sheep at that time, and we were looking into it.”

One night, a customer of Bill’s Seneca Marine supply store and marina in Watkins Glen called to say twin lambs had just been born at his home. On a sub-zero degree night, Bill told Kari he wanted to go for a ride to show her a surprise. “Once we saw the lambs and had several sheep nibbling from our hands, we were hooked,” recalls Kari.

A few months later, Fred Caslick was transferred – via his job – from his Keady Road farm in Lodi to Oregon, and he offered his three rams and two ewes to Kari. She accepted, and temporarily moved her small flock to a farm in Burdett, as she had no where to keep them.

After searching for a suitable place to live with their sheep, the Lusks moved to a cabin with a barn in Monterrey, NY. A year later, the couple was offered the chance to rent the Traphagen Road cabin owned by Bill and Martha Twarkins. Martha had been transferred from her position as District Ranger of the Finger Lakes National Forest. Since Lodi was a lot closer to work for Bill and Kari, they made the move.

If the Twarkins reside out of Lodi until Martha’s retirement nine years from now, the Lusks will probably remain on Traphagen Road until then. They hope to make Lodi their permanent home, one way or another.

Kari has been an employee of the United States National Forest Service for a number of years. In 1995, her first assignment in the Finger Lakes National Forest was at the Blueberry Patch, where she had enjoyed picnics and hiking with her family while growing up in Waterloo. She was working at the Forest Service’s Milwaukee office after the 9-11 attack in New York City, but not coping well with big city security measures. “I didn’t like it and wanted out.”

She eventually returned to the Finger Lakes National Forest, where one of her major accomplishments has been detailed research of the historic Fossenvue campsite at Caywood Point, the parcel of land most recently added to the forest.

Kari is continuing her interest in area history as an assistant specialist in Heritage Resources for the Finger Lakes National Forest. One of her current projects is the cleaning and maintenance of small cemeteries, including some in Lodi, located within the forest’s public land use area. She hopes to enlist local boy and girl scouts as helpers, this spring. 

The enthusiastic 41-year-old has also joined other groups in the area’s growing movement of historical endeavors. During a summer 2006 meeting with Interlaken Historical Society president Allan Buddle, the Backbone Ridge History Group was formed for the purpose of gathering the history of those who lived on the land within the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Historical society representatives of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, interested community residents, along with faculty and students from SUNY Brockport, the University of Rochester and the University of Buffalo plan to collect documentation of the lifestyle of those who lived within the 16,000-plus acres of the forest.

“We hope to gather oral and written histories from people who lived on the ridge. We’d like to find diaries and pictures,” said Kari. Instruction will be provided for volunteers who wish to help with the project.

SUNY Brockport has conducted several historical excavations in the Finger Lakes National Forest over the last few years. Kari has participated in “digs” at some of the old homestead sites there. Another dig is planned for summer 2007. “We encourage the public to come out and see what we’re doing,” said Kari.

Through her membership in Seneca County’s Cultural Organizations, Museums, Events & Trails (COMET) group, Kari is working with Seneca County historian Walt Gable and other members to develop a curriculum that teachers in Seneca County schools could use to kindle students’ interest in history. The focus will be on the importance of sheep, apples and wheat throughout the county’s past. “Our goal is to have this available by next year,” said Kari.

As for goals closer to home, the Lusks plan to sell breeding lambs and wool produced by their flock of “natural and colored” sheep, Border Leicesters and Cotswolds – a breed valued for its wool, milk and meat since ancient history. The luminous white wool of Cotswolds is prized because it is long, soft, and dyes beautifully. “It’s used for Santa Claus beards,” Kari points out.

A sheep yields about ten pounds of wool after soiled areas are trimmed away. Wool is then washed, carded and formed into long ropes called roving, which can be dyed, spun, felted or used in braided rugs. A minimum of 50 pounds of wool is needed for professional processing into yarn, explained Kari. “Next year, I imagine I’ll have enough for yarn.” She plans to keep some and sell some to needlework shops in Burdett and Watkins Glen.

What’s next on her list? Kari would like to share the knowledge and skills that have brought such joy to her by partnering with a neighbor to start a 4-H club for area children who want to work with horses, sheep, cooking and crafts.

(To contact Kari Lusk or inquire about programs, resources and services offered by the Finger Lakes National Forest, phone (607) 546 – 4470, ext. 316, or e-mail klusk@fs.fed.us.)