| |
Wool
Several
questions have been asked of me about the "wool" part of
St. Ansgar Saddle and Wool Co. So...
|
I've been a sheep shearer most of my adult life,
so wool is important to me. If you get a chance
to visit the shop, you'll find lots of real wool
blankets and some good wool pads. I wear and
promote wool myself much of the time and also
handle several thousand pounds of all classes
and types of wool as a buyer for Groenewold Fur
& Wool Company. I'm also glad to refer anyone
looking for certain types of raw wool to my
clients who sell spinning or specialty type
wool. |
Matt's dog Tuff, while he was still a pup, and I
was using him on sheep, he actually was decent,
but would rather be in the mountains protecting
Matt and chasing coyotes! |
|
Shearing at Sheep
Improvement co. Rushford, Mn. Good people, good
facilities, and good sheep, it just doesn't get
any better!
 |
Shearing has been a great life for me. I've
traveled a lot and worked with some of the best
in the business. I opened the saddle shop with
the thought that I won't be able to shear
professionally forever, so I needed to start
building a supplemental business. We have had
the shop open only on the weekends through the
first couple of years, and it's been a great
success. Between the shop and the website, we've
sold well over 300 saddles and met a lot of nice
people along the way.
 If
you read the newspaper article attached to this
page, I would add that I realized my goal of 200
sheep in a single shearing day; I actually
sheared 211 in 8 hours back a couple of years
ago. I was in western Iowa working with a couple
of world champion shearers. My son, Bryce, paid
me the ultimate compliment when he looked me in
the eye and said "guess some people really do
get better with age". You'd have to know Bryce
to appreciate it, as he's a man of few of words
and means what he says. I've had several day's
over the 200 mark since then, but it gets harder
and harder to recover from that kind of a day.
So, while I always figure to shear, I'm thinking
the days of chasing down the big numbers are
limited, and I'll be spending more time in the
saddle shop. |
Hopefully there will be more wool products in the St.
Ansgar Saddle and Wool Company in the near future. I
have some all wool hats ordered, and am always on the
lookout for the best blankets and pads that I can find.
I still shear most week-days and am in the shop on
weekends, so I can't alway's get things listed (and
thankfully, oftentimes the saddles sell before I have a
chance to list them). Be sure and call or e-mail if are
looking for anything in particular that you don't find
on the website. We just may have it.
Thanks,
Gary Lumley
|
 |
 |
 |
Sheep in Texas, sheared there for 6 weeks- a nice break from the Iowa
winter. |
Loading out wool, 200 bags weighing 200 lbs, or 40,000
lbs to a load,
Bryce and Leo taking a break. |
Another load of wool leaving my farm, we usually load
out several times in a year |
|
|
