Woolgather Farm Home Page

Welcome to the WOOLGATHER FARM Home Page

This page has music available that you may turn on by clicking the right arrow above.
You can hear "Web of Birdsong" (written by Bob Coltman and sung by Kathy Kallick)
You may also turn it off by clicking on the two parallel lines.
(With kind permission from Kathy Kallick. "Web of Birdsong" appears on Kathy's album, My Mother's Voice).

Above, Carole & David Presberg with (l. to r.) Flash, Chance, Bess, Kate, and Sage

virtual home of

Carole & David Presberg

and our Border Collies Bess, Flash, Chance, Kate and Sage

Our Willy (Highland's Willy Scott) herding ducks ca. 1980.

WILLY
1978-1994
"Highland's Willy Scott"
NASDS 27702
bred by
Maurice MacGregor

LINN
1980-1995
"Ettrick Linn"
bred by
Jack Knox

JUTE
1982-1996
"Watermoon Jute"
NASDS 36938
bred by
Dennis Moonan

MOSS
1984-1999
"Woolgather Moss"
NASDS 44344
bred by
Carole Presberg

CLYDE
"Corinlea Black Suede"
KC P1353801P01
1989-2004
bred by
Mrs. Karen Holliday (Dalgleish)
of Sheffield, England

BESS FDX CGC
ABC 34844
b. 1993
bred by
Francis Raley
of Crawford, Texas

FLASH FDX CGC
ABC49811
b. 1994
bred by
Francis Raley
of Crawford, Texas

FENN FDCh CGC
ABC 120802 b. 1997
"Westwood Fenn"
bred by Suzanne West
of Oliver Springs, Tennessee,
currently owned by
Kathy and Craig
Chittenden
of Sugarbush Farm in Stephentown,
New York

CHANCE CGC
ABC 183159
b. 11/13/2000
bred by
Christine and David Eisensmith
of Chafee, New York

KATE
b. 1/23/02
bred by
Anja Dassen
of Belgium and the Netherlands

SAGE CGC
b. 11/30/02
bred by
Chris Caswell
of Dyer Brook, Maine

These thumbnails link to larger images of each dog. (Photos of Willy, Jute and Moss by Tony Esposito of Bethany, Connecticut.) Our Border Collies are all working dogs. Linn was only with us for her first 5 years and then was adopted by Nancy Rothwell of Marblehead, Mass. Fenn was with us for three and a half years, and was then adopted by Craig and Kathy Chittenden of Stephentown, New York. Besides their regular "jobs" on the farm, Bess and Flash, have done flyball.

In 1984 we bred Jute to Willy and at the end of October of that year Jute whelped a litter of five pups. We kept Moss and sold the others. They are all sadly gone now but we have their photos on our website to remember them.

JESS
"Woolgather Jess"
NASDS44345

MAIZE
"Woolgather Maize"
NASDS44346

WIZARD
"Woolgather Wizard"
NASDS44348

RUBY
"Woolgather Ruby"
NASDS44347

MOSS
"Woolgather Moss"
NASDS 44344

We don't currently breed (been there, done that), and all our dogs are neutered. They help manage the Woolgather Farm flock.

For almost 15 years, we did Border Collie rescue. I (Carole) am the founder of the North American Border Collie Rescue Network (NABCRN) and one of the founders of New England Border Collie Rescue (NEBCR). In 2006 I retired, as president, intake coordinator, website manager, and a foster home, from NEBCR. My husband and dogs are happy to have me to themselves again. Still, we are likely to have other BCs around at any given moment.
See all the dogs we have fostered and/or placed over the years.

Bess herding duck in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.

ABOUT US

Woolgather Farm is currently located in Massachusetts where we had lived for 23 years before moving to New York State in 1992. From 1981-1992 we owned a much smaller version of our farm in Merrimack, Mass. When we moved to New York State we bought a 40-acre farm in Candor, south of Ithaca, NY. On Thanksgiving Day 1997 we moved to our new (smaller) farm in Tyngsboro, Mass., bringing with us our sheep, llamas and pony, our cats, and our Border Collies. We sold our farm in NYS in November 2001, almost 4 years to the day after moving away.

Carole is a fiber artist, writer, publisher and editor. David, a.k.a. "Pres", is a software engineer.

WOOLGATHER FARM IN TYNGSBORO, MASSACHUSETTS

A freight line runs behind our property.
We actually like having the train in our backyard,
as it runs infrequently, goes slowly and adds some interest to the day.
As you can see, it doesn't disturb the animals.

We have been raising sheep for their wool since 1981.
Our sheep were mostly colored Border Leicester crosses and a few Jacob's sheep.
Currently we are no longer in the sheep business,
and the last old ewe, Doris, a Jacob's, who appears at the front of the photo above, died on June 19, 2006.

Our fleece was sold to handspinners
through our wool business,

or used by Carole for spinning, weaving and felting.
Carole is a fiber artist who makes small bags of wool, felt, and leather
Her bags may be seen on the Thistle Woolworks web pages

For ten years, from 1983 to 1992, Carole ran the Sheep to Shawl Tour of Scotland, a sheep and wool tour,
with Eva Lambert, who lives on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and now runs

In the summer of '96 we added two llamas (Ranger, left, and Hennessey) to our flock, also for their wool. For those of you who spin--their wool is absolutely beautiful, and also yields soft guard hair which feels like human hair and will be good for making soft cordage. Although we had been told that llamas work best as flock guardians if they are by themselves rather than in pairs, Ranger and Hennessey really have protected our sheep. We've seen them do it. They worked as a team. One day a friend's dog got into our pasture. Hennessey drove the sheep to one corner, and Ranger went after the dog. Sadly, Hennessey died in 2003.

Prince-the-Pony is about 35 years old. He was originally bought as a working (finished driving) pony, but, although he is still with us, he has long since been replaced as a workhorse by John D. Tractor.