S2S+BBQ - Planning - Feasibility Study

So the first thing I did was to start looking at weekends in September of 2014 around my birthday.  My birthday would actually a Sunday, so for the convenience of everyone potentially involved I decided to pick the Saturday before as the day.

I foresaw a few obstacles to pulling this off.  The first was where to stage this fiasco.  The second was who could I get to oversee the cooking (adult supervision) so we didn’t set fire to whatever location was dumb kind enough to let me try this out and course produce a safe yummy dinner.  And finally what farm was going to sell me both a sheep AND a fleece for this project.

1. Find a cook.
2. Location
3. Find an understanding shepherd (preferably another fiber geek).

So the first thing I did was set about trying to procure myself adult supervision.  The whole project hinged upon finding someone with the knowledge willing to come supervise the cooking process.  I was not going to have an animal killed and then waste the meat due to complete lack of preparation and ignorance.  I sent out a bunch of emails to some friends who I figured might have a clue and interest and also asked them to offer suggestions on whomever else I might ask if they were unavailable.  Well, I love SCAdians.  I got a tentative agreement on my first try.  A friend of mine in CT said pencil me in and ask me again in January I will have a better idea then.  YAY!  It was reassurance that I wasn’t complete off my rocker.  After all, someone else has just agreed it sounded interesting and might potentially be willing to help pull this off.

For next step, I started putting out feelers to friends with sheep and explained that I was looking for both fleece(s) and a lamb from the same breed and preferably farm and why.  The other question was um…  if they are willing to sell me a lamb around this date do they also have a butcher that could process the lamb for me.  Because um… I’m really not prepared to get that up close and personal with my food.

Surprisingly, the friends with sheep didn't think I was mean, cruel, or evil.  They explained that even though they had mostly fiber flocks, ram lambs are a byproduct and there are only so many extra wethers and rams they can keep around eating their heads off or sell off to kids looking for 4H animals.  And while most breeders won’t advertise that they have freezer lamb available, especially where they might freak out fairgoers, but if I take business cards and contact them privately I would most likely be able to find what I was looking for closer to wherever I was holding the party.  I kind of figured that was case, but it was good to have firsthand confirmation.  They also answered my questions about cost of a lamb, estimated live weight to butchered weight to weight of meat on the carcass, as well as the cost of butchering and what to do with the hide etc etc.

Originally, I was going to hold this at my parents’ house.  They live up in Northern Westchester on two acres, plenty of space to have an outdoor party and to dig a firepit.  Plus, there are a fair amount of sheep farms within a two hour drive.  I should be able to get someone to sell me fleece and a freezer lamb.  Then Pennsic XL happened and I met Harry.  When I told him what I was planning he said, why don’t you have it at my place?  I have a big yard and I’ll even dig the hole for the fire pit.  How could I not love him?  And I figured I’d get less flack from him than from Dad.

So the initial feasibility study looked good for being able to pull this off in 2 years.