The Backyard Entrepreneur

How Cyndi Ball created sheep for shaw festival and the national ladies homestead gathering.

alison parker
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

The leaves on the trees are just starting to turn green again, the spring sun peaking through the clouds. This is the time of year when new beginnings start in the world surrounding them. The Sheep for Shaw festival does all this for people that have never experienced such an event before almost like it changes their lives. A place that brings people from the community in Statham and surrounding areas together to show what are agricultural friends in the backside of Statham have been experiencing and producing for their lively hoods.


Cyndi ball shearing the sheep in her backyard. (Photo by Ali Ball)

The start of the festival originated in the backyard of one of Statham Georgia's frarmers Mrs.Cyndi Ball. She started the sheep for shaw festival in her backyard by request of people in her fellow community who wanted to get the inside view on what it really takes to shear a sheep and all that goes into keeping the wool in tacked to transform it into a beautiful piece of wool yarn or clothing. Later she got a call from one of the people that came out to watch the first sheep be sheared and was told that she had more people interested in seeing the process of shearing sheep. So Mrs.Ball opened her gate to the interested party to watch the process of shearing happen.

“When I got the call I couldn’t believe what I was being told, why would people be so interested in sheep being sheared. I was amazed at how my community was and how they wanted to get involved.”- Cyndi Ball

When the next year rolled around she got a call from one of the towns leaders in event planning, they wanted to know if she would be intrested in expanding her event to allow the whole town of Statham to be able to come watch how a sheep was being sheared and also if she could share any other agricultural experiences with the town. Because of this Mrs.Ball agreed and started preparing some materials for this even for the town, she ended up calling another farmer just down the road to see if she wanted to do a demonstration on how to milk a goat. the event that started in her backyard grew ten times bigger than she imagined.

“ When i started i wouldn't have ever imagined it growing to the point the whole town of Statham georgia wanted to learn about things people like me do on a daily basis. This is my livelihood and my work and I was so excited to get the opportunity to share it with others in my community.”

The sheep after he had been sheard and all the wool removed. (Photo by Cyndi Ball)

These past few years Mrs.Ball has let the National Ladies Homestead Gathering organization take control over her festival so they can allow other people to grow and expand what the festival is about by bringing in new teachings of different animals and jobs that affect the agricultural community while being able to keep the people entertained and wanting to learn more. The NLHG is a group of hard working woman all around the United States that are invested in improving their agricultural opportunities and helping to share their knowledge with their fellow members and people in the community.


The NLHG was a organization created to help small agricultural businesses learn and share their knowledge with one another so they are better able to grow and expand their efforts in there businesses. Mrs.Ball started this group in her basement at her homestead with a few of the local agricultural producers and hobbiests. This first group was able to work together to not only help one another in building up each others dreams but also being able to give back to their community by hosting several events. Some of the events they did were, helping local elementary schools start cows in the cafeteria donating beef to the schools. Another activity they did was helping start the farm at Camp Twin Lakes and even running a farmers market in Statham for three years.

NLHG group of Statham Georgia. (Photo by Ali Ball)

The foundation of all these experiences starts back with its heart, in the backyard of Cyndi Balls homestead where she chose to share her dreams of helping people in the agricultural field grow and expand so one day they will get the chance to go out in their communities and do the same for someone else. These opportunities that were created gave people in the public a chance to learn and try something new while also getting to see all the blood, sweat, and hard work the people around them experience everyday trying to better their lives and the lives of everyone who experiences their farms and products.

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