Hi from Colorado

[RockyMountainHeathen]

Hello, I'm in central Colorado.... loving it here. Moved here almost 2 years ago from Texas. Been following the salty one for about 13 years. Working on getting large land to start a community.
My bio is as follows:
GenX 7th Generation Native Texan now living in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado.
Norse Heathen Shaman Spirituality.
Reiki/Sound/Crystal Reiki Master.
Certified Texas Master Gardener/Master Naturalist via Texas A&M. Now Colorado Master Gardener via CSU.
Clinical Herbalist, Wilderness First Aid/Austere Trauma Medic, (EMT trained back in 1996).
Birth Doula, Certified Emergency Birthworker, Death Doula.
Ceramics Artist and Fiber Artist. My fiber arts consist of the "sheep to shawl" skills. I can take wool from any animal, (or plant fiber), spin it into yarn on my spinning wheel, then weave, knit, nalbind, it into a wearable garment, etc.
Experienced in complete off grid living (with and without electric) Lived that way twice.
Very into primitive living skills.
Combat/ target archer and thrown weapons champion.
The husband is a Marine Corp Veteran, and former Sheriff's dept. Now working on a space force base in COS for the DoD.

 

[Bud]

Thanks for joining! You have quite the interesting background

 

[S0NWO]

Welcome! Yes, a very diverse and useful skillset.
I started messing with wool last year. The closest wool mill to my town is 1,000 miles away, and a local sheep farmer has been stockpiling wool for years waiting for the local mill to reopen, and it never did.

Last year, the barn was full, so he was selling the raw wool for $15 a car load (as garden mulch) if you picked it from the large bales and bagged it yourself. So I crammed my car absolutely full. I tried scouring in the bath tub, but figured there had to be a better way, and discovered suint fermentation, which I did a load in a 50 gallon drum last summer.

Then over the winter I made a swing picker to pick the wool. Next up will be getting some kind of carder working.

In the meantime, I'll be trying my hand at felting, and my daughter is dead set on making herself a cowboy hat with some of the wool.

 

[RockyMountainHeathen]

Welcome! Yes, a very diverse and useful skillset.
I started messing with wool last year. The closest wool mill to my town is 1,000 miles away, and a local sheep farmer has been stockpiling wool for years waiting for the local mill to reopen, and it never did.

Last year, the barn was full, so he was selling the raw wool for $15 a car load (as garden mulch) if you picked it from the large bales and bagged it yourself. So I crammed my car absolutely full. I tried scouring in the bath tub, but figured there had to be a better way, and discovered suint fermentation, which I did a load in a 50 gallon drum last summer.

Then over the winter I made a swing picker to pick the wool. Next up will be getting some kind of carder working.

In the meantime, I'll be trying my hand at felting, and my daughter is dead set on making herself a cowboy hat with some of the wool.

oh wow, a carload is a lot! LOL! I don't take anything to the mills. I just get whole bodies of wool from whoever has the animals. I do the cleaning, picking, and carding (if I do that at all) myself. A bathtub is too big for sure. You just do it in smaller batches that's more manageable. I've seen some really lovely felted items from friends. Someday, I'll have the hairy animals. There's a couple of really good wool festivals here in Colorado. The Estes Park one and the Salida one. Both are great. Nice Vegvisir in your profile pic. Are you Heathen/Asatru? I am.

 

[S0NWO]

oh wow, a carload is a lot! LOL! I don't take anything to the mills. I just get whole bodies of wool from whoever has the animals. I do the cleaning, picking, and carding (if I do that at all) myself. A bathtub is too big for sure. You just do it in smaller batches that's more manageable. I've seen some really lovely felted items from friends. Someday, I'll have the hairy animals. There's a couple of really good wool festivals here in Colorado. The Estes Park one and the Salida one. Both are great. Nice Vegvisir in your profile pic. Are you Heathen/Asatru? I am.

We have a young family on a homestead in my little SHTF community. We started a financial thing where other members could buy shares in livestock and get paid dividends in product. It helps the farmer raise capital without going to a bank, and it gives the community members access to high quality food.

They have a flock of Icelandic sheep which was established this way. They are small animals, so not a ton of wool comes off them, but they are multiplying pretty fast.