VIRGIN WOOL BLANKETS FROM SHEEP RAISED IN CHIPPEWA COUNTY
Our family has agreed to exchange gifts this year that are made within 100 miles of our homes. Local agriculture is something that I passionately support – so when I discovered blankets made from the wool of sheep raised in Chippewa County, I figured I’d found the perfect gift.
Lake Superior Woolen Company in Rudyard in Chippewa County offers blankets or mattress pads made from the fleece of locally raised lambs like the ones in the photos that I posted. Eric Wallis (being nuzzled by a newborn lamb) and Selden Collins (with her guard donkey, Bea, who is making sure I don’t get too close to her sheep) pool their wool.
A thousand lambs are born on Eric’s farm every year. They arrive, like most babies, sticky and not particularly cute, likely to be ignored by their own mothers until confined to a small pen together for a few hours. But once they’re released to the barnyard to bleat and hop about in that stiff-legged way that looks so experimental, they are darling. His sheep spend the summer grazing on the grassy fields of Eric’s 100 year old farm and wandering about in big old barns and clean barnyards. They’re guarded by several Great Pyrenees, dogs as big, shaggy and white as the sheep. So whether they’re turned into meat or used simply for wool, these sheep lead contented lives.
Selden’s flock, on her farm in Pickford, is much smaller, raised nearly exclusively for wool. Some even wear jackets to protect their coats from manure and bits of hay. She sells this clean wool to spinners who are meticulous about their fleece. After losing several sheep to predators, she acquired a guard donkey andnamed her Bea. When I visited Selden, Bea stayed next to me, gently edging me away whenever I strayed too close to her sheep. At first Bea wouldn’t bond with her flock and was causing such trouble that Selden had almost decided to send her back to where she came from … until the night she was awakened by a braying from the pasture. She shined her flashlight out into the dark and saw Bea, her head hanging low, eyes on a coyote as it sidled back and forth searching for access to the sheep in a tight huddle behind the donkey. Selden didn’t lose any sheep that night, nor has she lost any since.
Go to Lake Superior Woolen Company’s web site www.lswoolen.com/blankets.htm. I bought three lap blankets to give as gifts. They’re beautiful.
(My son is more interested in a broomball helmet. Does anyone know of a local maker or local craftsman of anything to do with broomball?)
Lake Superior Woolen Company in Rudyard in Chippewa County offers blankets or mattress pads made from the fleece of locally raised lambs like the ones in the photos that I posted. Eric Wallis (being nuzzled by a newborn lamb) and Selden Collins (with her guard donkey, Bea, who is making sure I don’t get too close to her sheep) pool their wool.
A thousand lambs are born on Eric’s farm every year. They arrive, like most babies, sticky and not particularly cute, likely to be ignored by their own mothers until confined to a small pen together for a few hours. But once they’re released to the barnyard to bleat and hop about in that stiff-legged way that looks so experimental, they are darling. His sheep spend the summer grazing on the grassy fields of Eric’s 100 year old farm and wandering about in big old barns and clean barnyards. They’re guarded by several Great Pyrenees, dogs as big, shaggy and white as the sheep. So whether they’re turned into meat or used simply for wool, these sheep lead contented lives.
Selden’s flock, on her farm in Pickford, is much smaller, raised nearly exclusively for wool. Some even wear jackets to protect their coats from manure and bits of hay. She sells this clean wool to spinners who are meticulous about their fleece. After losing several sheep to predators, she acquired a guard donkey andnamed her Bea. When I visited Selden, Bea stayed next to me, gently edging me away whenever I strayed too close to her sheep. At first Bea wouldn’t bond with her flock and was causing such trouble that Selden had almost decided to send her back to where she came from … until the night she was awakened by a braying from the pasture. She shined her flashlight out into the dark and saw Bea, her head hanging low, eyes on a coyote as it sidled back and forth searching for access to the sheep in a tight huddle behind the donkey. Selden didn’t lose any sheep that night, nor has she lost any since.
Go to Lake Superior Woolen Company’s web site www.lswoolen.com/blankets.htm. I bought three lap blankets to give as gifts. They’re beautiful.
(My son is more interested in a broomball helmet. Does anyone know of a local maker or local craftsman of anything to do with broomball?)
6 Comments
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Comment by Alison on November 25, 2008 at 7:38am - I love this article-it was so descriptive I felt like I was there at the farm, and I learned some things too. I did not realize that donkeys could guard sheep. Way to go Bea! I like the site too, especially their wool fun facts. This was a great read!
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Comment by Debbie Lehman on November 25, 2008 at 12:00pm -
Leslie,
Thank you for directing me to the site. The blankets ARE beautiful...the lambs sound even cuter!
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Comment by Deb Fellows on November 25, 2008 at 4:01pm -
Leslie,
I had no idea donkey's could or would herd sheep. For some reason, that image is just hilarious to me although I'm sure it was not at all funny as Bea stared down the coyote. We have a Corgi who, frustrated by our lack of sheep, loves to herd our kids. I am often reminded of just what an inbred drive that is when I watch her running round them in circles or racing to the lake to check on a batch of kids and then back to the fort, then back to the lake again. It is a calling, and now I know it can be one for donkey's as well.
I've seen Seldon's wool before but not Eric's. Thanks so much for this post! And just in time for gift-giving this season!
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Comment by Russell McConnell on November 26, 2008 at 5:32pm -
Leslie,
This is a great article, as well as a terrific idea to support local products. Your enthusiastic and colorful descriptions
help me visualize Bea and her wards. Every community should have supporters like you. Well done!
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Comment by Michele on January 16, 2009 at 7:07pm - The sheep are lambing here in Oregon--it is so fun to drive along the road and see the lambs nuzzling their moms....makes me miss my childhood. M
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Great article, nicely written and a superb idea! I visited the site. The blankets are beautiful.