Dear Ravelry Community,

I am the Granddaughter of John Teal Jr, the man who domesticated the Musk Oxen and started a market for its amazing and exotic wool, Qiviut.

Our non-profit farm in Palmer Alaska is in great danger of being sold and dissolved, and I am doing everything in my power to keep it going as a sustainable and viable operation.

But I need help. I have to raise funds to prevent the sale, to keep the grazing land of our herd of 55 Musk Oxen, and to prove to the board that our project is valuable to the greater community. The knitting and fiber community is an important part of our support network.

Please help save the farm and make a donation today!

Any amount will make a difference.

Thank you!

Quill Teal-Sullivan
Granddaughter of John Teal Jr.

Dearest Friends-

As many of you know, I have been working hard for the last several months to save the Musk Ox Project from dissolution and to prevent the sale of the beautiful 80 acre farm in the Mat-Su Valley of Alaska.

For those of you who don’t know, the Musk Ox Project, a non-profit 501(c)(3), was founded in 1954 by my grandfather, John J. Teal, Jr, who believed that viable regional agriculture must come from the domestication of native species. Over sixty years ago, he set out to domesticate the Musk Ox (Obivos moschatus), a wild ungulate native to northern Alaska, the largest surviving mammal of the ice age whose underwool is softer than cashmere and warmer than sheep’s wool. Although he passed away before I ever met him, my grandfather’s presence looms large in family lore and the shelves full of Time, National Geographic, and New Yorker profiles of his arctic exploits in pursuit of his mission:the domestication of the musk ox for the purpose of establishing an ecologically appropriate agricultural practice in the far north and expanding income opportunities for native people living in remote Alaskan villages.

Today the Musk Ox Project cares for a herd of 55 Musk Oxen who live on 80 acres of pristine farmland in Alaska’s prime agricultural valley. The fine underwool of the musk ox, called qiviut, is collected on the farm and delivered to our partner native knitters’ coop, whose members knit luxurious garments in traditional village designs. The garments are sold world-wide, and provide a much needed supplementary cash income to the knitters’ largely subsistence lifestyles.

The farm has been under the oversight for the last decade of a board of directors whose lax leadership has nearly sunk the organization. Upon learning of the severe trouble the farm was in-- on the verge of a forced land sale and dissolution of the organization, I took a seat on the board and, with the help of many other inspired and enthusiastic folk, have launched a massive effort not only to rescue the project financially, but to re-invigorate it with new members, new leadership, and new vision for a stable future.

As a child I spent many summers on the farm assisting my Uncle Lans in caring for the orphaned calves. Now I have dedicated my time and energy to saving one of the places I love most in the world, and a project that is my family legacy. With the help of my mom, family friend Nicholas McElroy (a former herder on the farm), my sister Perrin, and a host of other generous individuals who have offered countless hours of hard work and valuable counsel, we have prevented the fire-sale of the farm, recruited a fantastic group of energetic new board members, and identified a highly qualified candidate for executive director who is willing to re-locate from the southwest and donate his services for the first year to get the farm back on its feet!

The possibility of this bright future depends on overcoming some short term obstacles. The current board has agreed not to make further motions to dissolve as long as we meet a series of fundraising goals: the first being $10,000 by the end of March to cover farm overhead (feed, vaccines for this year’s expectant musk ox mothers, two fantastic farm staff who care deeply for these animals, etc). This will keep the farm running as we apply-- with the help of a talented and experienced new group of board members--- for a host of federal, local grants and private foundations to reach our major fundraising goal of $350,000.

Thanks to all of you who have pledged assistance already!
The paypal/credit/debit card donations page is up and running at www.muskoxfarm.org/support.html where your tax-deductible gift to the Musk Ox Farm, a 501 (c)(3), will be processed securely.

Please support our efforts and the mission of this promising and valuable project by giving whatever you can right this very minute. The board convenes April 2nd, and we if we can reach the $10,000 mark by then, we have a VERY good chance of being able to set this incredible project back on course.

I thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and sincerely hope that every single one of you are able at some point able to come visit this absolutely beautiful place and meet these musk ox: each one a humorous, charming, and absolutely unique individual unlike any other animal I have ever interacted with.

With bundles of love and bushles of gratitude,

Quill Teal-Sullivan
Member of the MODC Board of Directors
Granddaughter of John Teal Jr.

More ways to support us:
Please forward the link to our donations page along to everyone you know! You never know who has a secret musk ox fetish and might want to chip in.

Prove to the current board that there is a large network of support for this project by joining our new non-profit Facebook page, and encourage others to do the same! We will be posting both historic photos and stories there, along with new photos and videos of the farm and its Paleolithic inhabitants.

In-kind donations: Do you have a product or service you can donate to the farm, or sell to us at-cost? We need everything from printing services, to farm equipment! Let me know if you want to discuss ideas. One of the things I would love to get going ASAP is an artist series of rad t-shirts and gift cards for the farm shop… the stuff they have here now is, honestly, designed for a quick trip to a landfill or goodwill (besides the qiviut items from the knitters’ coop, which, obviously, are some of the most beautiful garments I have ever seen or touched). If you are interested in submitting a musk-ox based design please contact me for details.

The Musk Ox Farm, 80 acres in the spectacular Matanuska Valley, ringed on three sides by jutting peaks, is home to our herd of 55 musk ox. Besides providing the yearly wool to the knitters coop, the farm is continuously breeding animals selectively for traits such as wool quality, good health, and easy handling. This difficulty of this domestication project is compounded by the fact that new genetic material must constantly be introduced to the herd to prevent in-breeding, and the new genes generally come from animals that are not descendants of a domestic breeding program. A possible new initiative: to encourage other farmers to take up the raising of musk oxen and act as a resource and knowledge base for them… this way, there will be more musk ox breeding programs that can share gene pools that have already been selected for specific traits and the number of generations required to reach a domesticated animal will be greatly reduced.

The farm is located in one of the hot-spots of Alaska, just forty minutes outside of Anchorage, surrounded by the Chugach and Talkeetna ranges. The area is being built up quickly, and land value has skyrocketed. McMansions are appearing where once there were colony farms. Beyond the Musk Ox Project itself, it is extremely important to us to preserve this agricultural area as an open place where the Matanuska Valley community can still experience and participate in working farmland.

The farm offers educational summer tours, as well as local community events, to demonstrate and promote an ecologically appropriate agricultural practice for the far northern regions. The small fees visitors pay for tours, as well as their purchases in the gift-shop, cover much of the farm’s basic operating expenses. With the decline in tourism due to the economy, this income source needs to be supplemented with additional grants and private funding: one of the bulls we look forward to taking by the horns with an invigorated new board!

Perrin has put some videos from this last week up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMuskOxFarm so you can see these contemporaries of the giant sloth, saber toothed tiger, and woolly mammoth in action.

Go have a gander. After you donate!
The most important part: www.muskoxfarm.org/support.html

Call me with any questions/ concerns/ winning lottery tickets, etcetera! Thank you!
Love,
Quill Teal-Sullivan
206-788-5607

Our mailing address is:

Musk Ox Development Corporation
PO Box 587
Palmer, AK, 99645

Phone: 907-745-4151

Copyright (C) 2010 Musk Ox Development Corporation All rights reserved.