HMI is excited to announce our newest Certified Educator, Rhoby Cook from Hoopa, California. Rhoby has experience with community gardening and supporting family food farms as Director of the Klamath Trinity Resource Conservation District, and has practiced Holistic Financial Planning and Holistic Grazing Planning on her property for the past decade. She is also a producer-member of the organization Fibershed and is working toward Climate Beneficial Wool verification by increasing carbon sequestration in their pastures.
As a Certified Educator, Rhoby especially enjoys working with Native Americans and other families and individuals to empower them to gain mastery over their finances. In communities where money and conventional employment are less abundant, Rhoby believes creativity, diversification, and good decision-making can help people make good lives in line with their values. It is an honor for Rhoby to hear your stories and be of assistance.
Rhoby is a wife, mother, grandmother, and community member on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California. She loves social science and making things, and is good at details. She also has a partnership with some sheep to create sweaters out of sunlight and grass.
Rhoby has a small flock of 20 head, more or less, of California Heritage breed Romeldale CVM sheep in variegated natural colors of cream, tan, brown and grey. She doesn’t raise market lambs. Most of the sheep live out lives of 10-15 years and are humanely put down when they can no longer functionwell to walk and graze.
As a student of Holistic Management, Rhoby is constantly learning to apply the principles and practices of managed grazing to 3 acres of irrigated permanent pasture. The animals divide their time between pasture by day and a predator-proof barn by night. They receive supplemental alfalfa and grass hay from mid November to mid February when the grass is dormant. Rhoby sells her wool products through Rhoby's Ranch.
Congratulations, Rhoby!
Click here, to learn more about HMI's Educator Training Program.