Monday, July 16, 2007

roadtrip part 4-Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Ranch!



okay-i was gonna make you all wait for the fibery stuff for my last post- the grand finale-but i just couldn't wait-i am soooo excited to share this with you all. besides hanging out with family members i hadn't seen in awhile, the highlight of our trip was visiting Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Company in Belgrade, Montana(near bozeman). how wonderfully awesome this ranch is. we met one of the proprietors-becky weed who graciously gave us a tour- i had arranged a tour with the manager and we were late(sorry!) and she had to leave. thank you so much becky for our surprise visit. their wool is organic and "predator friendly"- meaning they do not kill native predators such as coyotes, mountain lions,bears,eagles, wolves etc. this is way cool for me as i love predator animals too! the mill is solar powered -hurray!-you've got to check out their website and support this wonderful ranch-the yarn they produce is wonderful -they use natural dyes!-the colors are FABULOUS! and-they do wool processing too! and you can buy rovings and other stuff too! i bought some yarn and some undyed roving for spinning. i wanted more but my car was soooooooo full. so let's get on to the photos! wow, life can't get better than this:
here's the solar powered mill:

oh yes, i forgot to mention-i might go over-board with photos in this post. i can't resist!
notice the gorgeous guard dog!!!!!!!
here's the inside of the mill-for processing the wool.



now, none of this is right order and we missed a few machines.

remember my issue of capturing true color when photographing yarn -well, it's still happening and this picture does not do it justice as the colors are simply scrumptious!
i wanted to move right in and become their personal slave-ha! on our way back to idaho we stopped off at an antique store that was to die for! if i had an extra $1000-okay let me correct myself-if i had an extra $999(there is no sale tax in montana) i would have bought this pair of mohair-(did you fiber loving folks hear me?) MOHAIR- ANGORA GOAT CHAPS from the 1800's-i was drooling-trembling-i have old photos of cowgirls wearing these-check these babies out:
i love montana!

2 comments:

Birdsong said...

The pictures are just wonderful and I would have wanted those chaps too!

Sharon said...

I think you exercised remarkable restraint in the view of how much you could have shipped. My favorite is the guard dog. What a funny boy and if you hadn't pointed him out, I'd have missed him entirely. Big Sky Country is wonderful - I'm so glad I'm in it.