ABOUT US
It all began in Iowa a long time ago...
I was born oldest of eight children on a small farm that had cattle, hogs (lots of hogs!), chickens, dogs, cats and kids and later ponies and horses! And you notice no sheep! It was a good life and I learned about animals from my dad and mom, but not about sheep!
My Dad would never let us have sheep as his father did not like sheep, so of course we could not have them. And I think therein lies part of the issue of my love for sheep, if you tell me I cannot, I will. Then again, there are those that say it is from my past lives. As for past lives, I will leave that to greater minds.
Knee High to a Lamb’s Eye
When I was small someone read me the story of Rupplestiltskin. That is the story of where the elf spins straw into gold. And perhaps sheep are my gold as ever since I heard that story I wanted to have sheep, to learn to spin and to weave. But had no sheep! Every time that one of the little old ladies in my home town that had looms would die or move, I would beg my mother to ask if they wanted to sell their looms. And either my mother did not ask or their families never wanted to sell.
Life went on as it does and I acquired a degree in Animal Sciences from Iowa State University taking all of the animal nutrition and sheep classes I could. That beginning lead to a Master’s of Science in Ruminant nutrition (cattle and sheep) and then a move to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln I acquired a PhD in Animal (again Ruminant) Nutrition that lead to a move to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1990. During all of those years (I was a late bloomer) I never forgot the dream of having sheep, spinning and weaving. It became my mantra, “When I retire I will have my sheep…” In the following years I taught animal nutrition in the Department of Animal Sciences and the vet school at Colorado State University. In my “free time”, I became the consulting nutritionist at the Denver Zoo, in the process becoming a comparative nutritionist working with all animal, bird and reptile species.
Down Under
In 1994, I took nineteen undergrads on a three-week Ag travel course to Australia. For the first time in my life I saw over four thousand sheep in a paddock at one time! I was enamored and this only served to keep the fire in my heart burning. In 1998 I returned to Australia on my sabbatical studying marsupial nutrition with Dr. Ian Hume, the leading marsupial nutritionist. Ian did not teach me about sheep but he did teach me to appreciate a fine glass of Australian red wine. My time in Australia changed my life, tempering me for the years ahead and creating a depth and patience I did not know could exist.
Fast forward to the year 2002. I had the privilege at that time to accompany a group of students on a study abroad program to New Zealand. New Zealand is the country where there are far more sheep than people (I think this is called Heaven…). It was in New Zealand that my sheep dreams began to come true. I was walking through a second-hand shop in a small South Island town, when I found a spinning wheel! From that fateful moment, my dreams began to come alive. As it happened, I was living within 45 km from the Ashford plant in Ashburton, NZ. Ashford just happened to be the company that made the spinning wheel I had found. With a quick phone call I found someone there to repair the spinning wheel, teach me to use it and also how to weave. Five months later I left for the States with the spinning wheel, two looms and a dream that burned in my soul.
A New Beginning
Upon my arrival back into the States, I immediately put my house on the market and began looking for land for me and my sheep. Retirement was too far away (being just short of fifty) and I knew that I would not ever be as physically strong as I was then. If I waited too long I would not have the physical strength that I would need to handle sheep.
I found forty acres in northern Colorado and was in the right place at the right time to buy it. The house sat on a wind swept ridge looking out over the mountains of northern Colorado. I moved in with the spinning wheel, two looms and a lot of dreams. Two months later after building fences, a barn and putting in a water supply, I brought 12 sheep home! Eight were from a disbanded flock in Wyoming and four ewe lambs from a couple that I have called Mama and Papa Sheep since then, Roy and Myrtle Dow of Black Pines Sheep (Eaton CO). Even with just twelve sheep, I had five breeds represented including Lincolns, Karakuls, Wensleydales, Teeswaters and Romedale CVM’s, all rare wool breeds. Mama Sheep had told me that hand spinners like to have diversity of fiber and I need to have all types available (more on that later).
Aniroonz
My whole life has been spent around animals, initially learning about cattle and hogs at my father’s knee. I had originally intended to go to Vet School like so many of the students I see even today, that know little of what life has to offer in the way of careers in animals other than veterinary medicine. It was in taking the first few nutrition classes that began to change my mind that led to a career in nutrition. I have worked with domestic food animals, companion animals and zoo animals, but always animals have been the mainstay of my life. Thus, “ANI” for animal.
My time in Australia impacted my life by fanning the fire that burned in my heart and soul, but slowing me down to give me depth. Thus “ROO” for kangaroo and my study of marsupial nutrition.
My time in New Zealand was the catalyst that gave me the initiative to sell my house and to buy land for my sheep. Thus, “NZ” leading to the name of my or our farm, ANIROONZ.
I say “our” now, as it was within two years after buying the land and the sheep that I re-met my now husband Steve. I had met him 30-plus years before at Iowa State and had not seen him for twenty-eight years. Fate? Who knows? But we are happy here with all of our sheep at ANIROONZ in northern Colorado. Who knows what is ahead… All we know is that there is a spinning wheel, three looms (they propagate when you are not looking), more than one-hundred sheep, a llama, two burros, nine horses, a plethora of cats and two dogs – Blue and Mille.
There are many reasons for my husband and I to have these sheep! The first and foremost is that we LOVE them and take great joy in working with them and our associate sheep people! The other is to help young people get started in wool sheep. What we have found is that most young men and women – if they have worked with sheep – have only worked with meat breeds the Suffolk and Hampshire breeds. For the most they have no concept of the wool breeds and what can be done with them. So we – my husband and I – rationalize having all those sheep just to help young men and women get involved! We work closely with interns and those just interested. We help them get started and answer their questions. That is the way of sheep people!
And as time goes along so does change...
In the Fall of 2016, it was decided that I would retire from Colorado State University. And as I looked for what to do, by chance – or called – I was offered a part-time teaching position at Washington State University. I looked at my husband and asked, “What do you think?” And so, in our 60’s we started a new stage of ANIROONZ. Now why would anyone do that…..? There are a lot of answers to that question, but sometimes, it is not what people imagine, that is the most fun!
Thus, on a very HOT evening in late July 2017 we fed the animals for the last time in northern Colorado. My husband Steve had steam cleaned the livestock trailer and we broke 21 small bales of straw in it for a soft nest for the animals. Heat is hard on animals when hauling, so we decided to move at night to keep it cooler. So, after the animals had eaten, drank water, and started to bed down for the night, we started loading them onto the trailer just before dark. It was difficult loading until the guard llamas decided to lead the way into the trailer, and only then, did the sheep quickly loaded. By 10 PM that evening we were in Cheyanne WY and by daybreak we were running across Montana’s Interstate 90 heading west. There were three of us so we could rotate driving and keep rolling in the cool of the night for the animals. Actually, as we crossed the highlands of MT, the air moved through the trailer and the sheep were content traveling in luxury in their bed of straw. In total we had about 160 head of sheep (and a few goats), and a horse trailer with the horses & burros plus a few chickens and turkeys sprinkled in for fun.
The funny part of moving across country was when the chickens got out of the horse trailer at the Pilot Truck Stop in Billings. Do you know truckers are cool people?! A bunch of them helped us chase down chickens laughing like a pack of hyenas! We did not lose a single bird…..but we probably are still the talk of the town!
By 6:00 PM Pacific time the following day we were backed up to the chute at our new Idaho home on the Washington border. Again, the sheep needed the llamas to assure them that this was where they needed to get off and stay! Here was our new beginning among the wheat covered hills of Idaho. As for recommendations for moving a farm 1200 miles across the country? Frankly I would suggest that you think about that potential long and hard. We did it, and if I were to do it again, I would do it differently, but when you are called it is time to go.
Our animal numbers have increased a bit over the few years that we have been here, and at one time we had over 600 sheep and goats. For heartbreaking reasons, we decreased in numbers but are now to a more reasonable 230 counting our pregnant ewes and does. As lambs are born, those animal numbers are slowing increasing again. More students will be here tonight to assist in lambing and for some, it is the first time to actually “touch” a sheep, and the first time to see an animal born! Every birth is a small miracle as we watch the wee creatures take their first breaths with their Mama’s encouraging song. As we look back to 2004, we often have wondered just how many students have come though our doors and learned all things sheep! We estimate that we have touched the lives of well over a thousand students – young and old – and we have enjoyed every moment.
Two years ago, we started participating in the local Moscow Farmer’s Market and we love the people that we meet and get to talk to! The booth allows us to meet people that we would never have had the opportunity to, and for us to share the wonderful world of sheep and wool. And it gives us an opportunity to sell fleeces, pelts, yarns, and all that goes with raising sheep today. We have begun the onerous task of creating an online store, and we MUCH appreciate the younger minds that are more than up to the task!
But now, as we both are pushing the 7th decade of our lives, we again have begun reevaluating our lives and have asked if there is one more task that we need to do, one more place that we need to go? Our steps are slower, and it takes a bit more effort to “get-er” done each day. And in this reality of aging, we are not alone, but we believe work with the animals has kept us younger than our physical years! So, in our last years we will continue to teach ALL those students that we can in the time that we have left, but with a lot fewer animals! And if we are called to move one more time, we will step up and answer the call. Blessings.
The following hotlink was written by one of my Colorado State Master of Agriculture students.