Wisconsin Life

sheep bleating

Carol

We started out with one sheep. And one sheep leads to another sheep, which leads to another, and here we are at multiple sheep.

Angela

Nestled in a valley by Valders is the Hidden Valley Woolen Mill. I grew up in this house and I was gone for about 20 years. The place had sat abandoned for two or three years. My uncle bought the farm, and he said he'd sell it to me. Threw me a price, and I told him I'd bring him a check tomorrow, and I bought it for no other reason than the fact that it was so cheap, and I knew I could make it livable. Told her I'd bought the home place, and she was pretty excited about it at the time.

Carol laughing

Angela

So, we had the house and two acres,

sheep bleating

Angela

and we started from that. Now we own 16 acres and run about 75, and right now, we're up to about 550 head of sheep with the lambs.

Carol

I read an article about the Coopworth sheep. They were developed in New Zealand. They had just been imported into the United States, and there still aren't many of them here. And they were long-wooled sheep that were supposed to be wonderful for hand spinning. So, of course, I had to get one.

Paul

These girls have been just fantastic. We learn more and more about them every day.

Angela

With so many sheep, there's a lot of wool. There was a little woolen mill about 10 miles from here, and they were ready to retire. I was there one day, and the discussion came around to getting rid of the mill. "Do you know anybody that wants to buy it?" And I said, "Well, I do." So I came home and told Paul that I bought a woolen mill,

laughing

Angela

and so we had to build a building, and it came at the right time. There used to be a variety of mills throughout the state. Most of them have since gone out of business. It's like years ago every medium-sized town had a brewery, and the microbreweries are coming back now, and hopefully, this type of industry will come back again. The woolen mill is an eight-ton, 1923 carding machine, which Paul is an expert at operating. I'm feeding the machine, and I have to control the rate of feed so that we have a consistent roving at the end, the size of what a hand spinner would want. The wool will get on the main drum, and then, as it goes around what we call the roll "workers," which are these right here, you can see the fiber being pulled and combed right there. And then the small rollers are called strippers. They take the fiber off of the workers and put it back on the main drum. And as it works its way over, there's eight rollers that work it, and then on the other end, it will come off on what's called a doffer. It will be combed off the doffer into the transfer unit to make the actual roving. As you can see, she rolls it into a half-pound ball, and she's really accurate.

chuckles

Angela

It's amazing. Dying wool is an art, which Carol has embraced from the start, being inspired by what she sees around her. I create colorways. When we started out, we would go to festivals and come home, and people would call and say, "Ya know, I bought this stuff, "and it's got some blue in it and some green in it, "and I want more." Well, that's nice.

both laughing

Angela

I can't picture, quite. "What do you want?" So we started giving everything a name, and that has made a big difference, because then, ya know, it creates a connection between the people that are purchasing it and what the inspiration was. A connection that is celebrated at farmers markets and wool festivals. We're really getting into a computerized world, with the Amazon attitude of buying and shipping, but fiber is a little bit different in the fact that people really want to feel it. And so, that's why I think the shows will always go... to some extent. My goal this year, of those 300 lambs that are down in the barn right now, is that not one single lamb goes into the system.

lamb bleating

Angela

Everyone will go with what they call the underground market, which is direct market to cuts, individual lambs...

lamb bleating

Angela

or of that sort. I was almost successful last year in marketing 100%, but that's my goal. And direct marketing is farmers markets, and Paul does the Downtown Appleton Farmer's Market while I'm doing the Downtown Green Bay Farmer's Market. So it's like nonstop marketing. I go to approximately 10 fiber festivals throughout the Midwest. I always laugh and say, "Have sheep, will travel."

Carol laughing

Angela

Our life has been a multitude of adventures,

both laughing

Angela

some good, some bad, some indifferent, but it has definitely not been dull. And we have our sheep to thank for that.

laughing

sheep bleating