Paonia is a real center for people doing interesting artisinal work, and we were very lucky to get some insight into this world through Art and Erin’s friends. One day we visited their friend Oogie’s Black Welsh Mountain Sheep farm, called Desert Weyr. Oogie showed us all around, starting with the girls’ dormitories
and the boys’ dormitories
Oogie breeds this variety of sheep and, as an computer engineer by training, creating an app called LambTracker that will allow them, and other sheep farmers, to manage data about the flock much easier. She also shears the sheep and spins the wool into yarn, and has an impressive fiber workshop with looms and knitting machines. I bought some black wool, not dyed but from one of her black sheep, and it’s particularly charming because it has flecks of gray — since it was from an aging ewe that was getting a bit gray 🙂
More about Desert Weyr farm at http://www.desertweyr.com/dwbwms/dwbwmsindex.php!
Of course it’s charming when one has flecks of gray 🙂