Hello everyone. This is Kim Bigler owner of youthful fiber farm and mill. And I am sitting here in the wool mill. In Holsey, Oregon on a Friday evening, kind of wrapping it up. At the mill. But wanted to pop in and talk to you all a little bit. And this episode is a tiny bit different because there will be some good fiber talk and content, and it may add a few things to your bucket list of places of travel to. But this is a little more storytelling than details about processing cyber how's that.
And before I forget, If you are interested, I do have a Patrion community. Youthful has a Patrion community, and it starts at $5 a month and you can get early bird access to fibers because all the fibers I make here get sold. They get sold. A lot of them just don't make it to the website. So. You can check in there. We are doing a wool washing workshop. That is a lot to say at once next Tuesday. And it will be recorded too. If you are a Patriot member at the. Kuhnian Shetland level.
So go check it out, go check it out. If you don't have interest in that community, then head to my website and get on the newsletter. A pop-up will come up. Join the newsletter and that's where you'll get next. Next best information on new things happening. So, okay. So I titled this episode have wool wheel travel because I love upon. Anyway. I do love a pun, hence the name, but I was standing yesterday. I went out to a town about 45 minutes away from me to pick up wool from somebody.
And I've met this person once before and via wool. And I was standing in the parking lot of the library of this town. Town, not a very big city whose. And we were talking exchanging wool first off, which always peaks peoples interests. And then we were just standing talking for, you know, 15, 20 minutes. Sort of just talking about life and things going on with each other. And this is somebody I have just met. And it was really interesting as we were talking.
And I was getting to know a little bit about this woman and some of the struggles that she's gone through and she's currently going through, but also lots of the positives and what a powerhouse this woman is. And. We exchanged WOL, we talked, we hugged. And then I drove away and I was thinking as I drove away on a beautiful drive home. It's so interesting. How. Will has affected not only my life in that I am a hand spinner and I get to dive into wool all the time.
But the places that I traveled to and the people that I meet along the way now, many of whom are just regular constants in my life. That never would have been there without the wool. So hence have wool we'll travel because I do a lot of traveling. If I get a line on Goodwill, I am happy to travel for it. And I usually try to plan it with somebody. To make it more fun, right. To make it more fun.
So I thought I would share with you all three of my kind of top favorite wooly experiences in the quest of looking for wool, and they may be places that you decide, Hey, I got to add that to my list, but we're going to start off. This is one of my favorites. And it is a road trip I did with my dad. He lives on the east coast and comes out to, to visit about once a year. And he came out and I was like, Hey. Do you want to go on a little road trip with me to pick up wool and he was game.
And I said, it's supposed to be really beautiful where we're going. So we were going to Kimberly, Oregon. Which. I didn't know existed and what a great name it has. Ha. Anyway, I looked up Kimberly and I was like, whoa, my dad would love this. So. Kimberly Oregon is out in Eastern Oregon. Basically you take a highway. A lot of people would take it, not a lot, but maybe not a lot of people, but it is a highway you can take to get to Idaho. When you're an Oregon. So. I had never been before.
It's absolutely gorgeous. It is the home of the, one of the homes of the John Day fossil beds. National monument, which are national parks. There's three units. There is the Shiprock unit, which is actually in Kimberly, Oregon, and that is eroded clay stone. So you can kind of see all the levels. In the geography is the geography. Typography, whatever that word is. My dad. I hope he's not listening to this.
Anyway, you can see all the different levels basically of time in the rock formations that are there. And that's right by Kimberly, Oregon. And it's also across the street from the Thomas Condon paleontology center, which was really cool. We didn't even know it was there. We didn't get enough time in it, but my dad and I both really enjoyed it. There is the painted Hills unit, which we did make it to, which is ancient. Fossilized soils again. It's absolutely stunning.
And we were there in the evening and it was really beautiful. And then there is the Clarno unit, which is basically volcanic cliffs. So all of these areas, it's just like, you can see. Just how old the earth is. You can see at the museum, they have things that have been uncovered in the area. It's absolutely not only fascinating, but. Stunning. And the whole time we were driving, my dad usually falls asleep in the car. Dad, if you're listening, you know, that. But he was just in awe.
I was in the oddest trying to drive and be in all of all the beauty that was around me. It's just an absolutely gorgeous place. So if you ever get out to this part of Oregon or you're going to be in Oregon and you need to make a special trip, I think it was probably about five hours out of five to six hours outside of Eugene. Oregon going east. So about the same from Portland, Oregon. Really stunning.
So. It was not only fun because I had my dad with me and I was getting to go to a new place with him. And really, I knew he would just love this, but then also we were buying wool and I had bought this Shepherd's wool before from my shear. I had never actually been to their place or met them. So we got to drive out there where they lived. Lived, I think they have moved since was like at the base of this canyon. Beautiful. Beautiful lush green grass.
Cause there's two rivers that meet up out there. And it was stunning and the sheep. We're so WellCare, they actually had their flock because they had hurting dogs and they use them. They did a lot of herding trials and so their sheep, they got. So that they could help train their dogs, but they're super gorgeous. They're border Lesters and border Leicester crosses.
If you've ever hands on any of my Prineville blend, you've probably hand spawn some of their yarn or when I used to spin, I actually had the Prineville yarn and that was their wool that was in that yard. So. Gorgeous gorgeous area. And in addition the shepherd was a veteran and my dad worked with making, ensuring I could get this wrong, dad. I apologize. But w before he retired, he kind of helped veterans make sure that they were getting the benefits that were due to them.
That was part of what he did. And so it was really fun. He got to also talk with him a little bit about that and give him some information. The shepherd that is give the shepherd some information about resources that might be available. And then on the way back, he fell asleep. But. We stopped in Prineville. We had dinner at this restaurant and then we both went back to our hotel rooms and crashed. I don't know if he fell asleep on the way to Prineville.
He definitely fell asleep the next day on the way from Prineville. Oh. And also we stopped in sisters, Oregon. At the sisters, I think it's the sisters bakery. If you have not been there, add that to your list. We had some of the most delicious sweets and the doughnut I had there rivaled. Any of the donuts I've had in my life. And I am a donut, FSE and auto self-proclaimed on a 15 auto. So another thing to add to your list, if you are out in that area.
Okay. So that was a fabulous trip because I was with my dad. We were going somewhere new. I love a good road trip. We got to meet a new shepherd, hear their story, see their animals in their land. And it was, it was awesome. Something that would not have happened if I was not in the wool world. Okay. So next trip. Of traveling for wool is with my husband. And of course that is always a joy to me hitting the road with my husband is like, it doesn't get any better than that.
So we went to trailing of the sheep. And that is in sun valley, Idaho. And it's a festival that started and actually hold on, you don't have to hold on. I have to hold on. Cause I wanted to pull up what I was going to read to you. Okay. So trailing of the sheep is, as I said, it's in Sun Valley, Idaho.
It, this is like kind of a little blurb of what they talk about for the event, how it started in the fall of 1996, the PVS invited people to meet for coffee at a local cafe and then help walk with the sheep through the valley to learn about this historic tradition of trailing the sheep and an effort to To minimize conflicts between users of the bike path in this area and the sheep. Along the way, the shared stories of the rich history, heritage, and cultures of the Wood River Valley.
It was a small, informal and educational moment and people loved it. So that's how it started. Like there was a conflict about these sheep are they're up high and then up high in the hills and in the mountains and then they have to bring them down. And so There was a conflict over, well, the sheep are like slowing down traffic. They're slowing down people on the bike lane. It seems a little crazy for those of us in the world war. We're like, what? Stop for the sheep.
But this is kind of how this event started. It's grown and grown and grown. And we decided to vend at this. It's been a while now. It's been a while since we went, but we've vended at this. It's an early October. I think it's the first weekend or so of October. And so road trip, we did. We packed our car with my entire booth and somehow like closed for us and we headed out and this is, it was, we stopped and stayed the night.
I think we were in, I don't remember if we were in Idaho or not, but it was a solid, it was a solid drive. It was like two days to get out there and it was, and we had heard so much talk about it and it was truly amazing. Fantastic. Even as a vendor, I didn't get to partake in a lot of events, but there are shepherds dinners. There are all sorts of little tours you can go on. You can go out on like nature walks and get more history.
I mean, it is a weekend full of information about shepherding, about wool, about just everything. There are sheepdog trials, which we did get to, and it was so fun to watch. And those sheep, because these sheep are out, I mean, they're like out roaming. And so they're, they're not feral, feral because they are brought in, they're shorn, all of that, but they are not used to, you know, they haven't been worked with, with dogs a lot.
So when they come down and they're in these sheepdog trials, they are doing their absolute best. They're not trained on how to get away from these dogs. They're doing their absolute best to stay away from these dogs. So watching the dogs work with this level of, of Just wild ish sheep. It was really fascinating and a little like tense. You're like, Oh, I think we only saw one dog actually get the sheep into the pen, which is the ultimate goal of sheepdog trials. So anyway, it's an awesome event.
There's a one day huge vending event. And there's just stuff going on between, like, three towns all weekend long. And then, I think it's on Sunday, they have the actual trailing of the sheep, where they bring the sheep through town. It is amazing, like, the energy. Now, here's the thing, like, Mitch and I see sheep move, you know, like there's a lot of commercial farmers around us.
We could stop on a lot of given days and watch sheep get moved down roads because they're moving them from a field to field if they're not going too far around us. But it's very different when there are just Thousands of people lined up with this energy and excitement over what's happening and watching the sheep come through town. It's just so well orchestrated and so lovely to see the energy behind the wool and to learn so much. So we did this wonderful trip. We drove up there.
We had an amazing time. We Did very well as vendors. It was a little slow to begin with and I thought oh, but then everybody just kind of poured in after that They also have wooly themed classes that you can take workshops and stuff. So it was fascinating and it's gorgeous It's gorgeous out there. So that may be something else to add to your bucket list trailing of the sheep in Sun Valley, Idaho Really fun a really fun adventure Really? And gorgeous country. So there's another one.
Okay. So here is my final one. I did this. If you're new, if you've been in my world for the two years or so, I did this just last year, Maryland sheep and wool. So I have been wanting to go to this. I grew up in Maryland in Rockville, Maryland and moved when we were young, but my dad was still there, my dad and my step mom. And so we would go back all summers. We just, you know, it was still, it's still home in a lot of ways.
So Maryland sheep and wool, I didn't even know it was a thing because I wasn't really into wool. But when my dad lived there, it was like a 45 minute drive from his house. And now I kick myself because he's moved, but it's okay. So I finally was like, I'm going to Maryland sheep and wool. And this is in May. I believe it's early May and you can just fly into, I believe I flew into BWI and it's like a 40 minute drive out of BWI. depending on the time of day and everything.
But you drive out into the country a little bit out into the country of Maryland, not that far. And then all of a sudden, boom, here you are at the fairgrounds and there's just, Thousands and thousands of people coming for this wool festival.
And the fun part was that I convinced my sister to come and meet me there so we could drive, do a little road trip south, a very quick road trip, but a road trip south to visit my dad and see my brother along the way and his family and my sister and her family and my dad who are in North Carolina. So, again, I'm like, hey, I'm going to a wool thing, you wanna travel with me? It was so fun.
The festival itself, you all, if you have not, if you are a woolly, woolly person, a hand spinner, especially, but definitely a knitter, crocheter would enjoy it too. It's very ag focused. There's a lot of sheep. There's a lot of wool. There's a lot of vendors like, holy cow. Are there a lot of vendors? And it was, A little overwhelming for me, actually, I only had one day there. And honestly, I was probably there for only maybe six hours or so. And it was fabulous.
The other fabulous part was that I got to meet a bunch of people from the East coast who I've met online or who are in the youthful community in some way or another Instagram, all the different places that I am. And so I said, Hey, come, let's meet up, you know, and meet me along the way. So there were so many people that I got to meet along the way that I hadn't thought of. scene, you know, that I've only met online and even somebody from Washington, Cheryl.
If you're listening, I got to run into Cheryl and we see each other here on this coast, but not so much on the east coast. We just happen to both be there the same year. So it was fabulous. If I were to go to one festival a year and could make it happen, that would probably be it. But, there's a lot of festivals I want to go to. But I would definitely recommend that one. There are, I mean, it's all two days. You could happily spend two days at that festival. They have tons of workshops going.
There's, the fleece sale is like nothing I had seen before. I mean, I was in awe. And because it's on the east coast, it had a very different variety of fleeces. Some of them obviously overlapped. But, just It was mind blowing to me and just lots of stuff. One of my most favorite things was that they had an auction that was going. For used equipment. So when you go to a lot of festivals, they'll have spinning wheels, just all these different fiber things. And they were doing like a live auction.
So the guy was up there and people were just bidding and buying things. Oh my gosh. I could have sat in a lawn chair there all day. And it was sunny the year that I was there. I was lucky. It was beautiful. I think it was in the seventies and everybody was just like, they had their lawn chairs out and they were bidding on things. Oh my gosh. You all. So fun. So add it to your bucket list fiber people. You will love it.
The people that you are meet and even on the the shuttle from the airport to my hotel, I met a woman who had done a lot of the volunteer coordinating for many, many years, which is a huge feat. And that was just like, On the shuttle the night before. So it was so fun. And then my sister showed up and my sister knits, but she's not anywhere near the level of, of fiber craziness that I am.
And so she showed up a couple of hours after I'd been there and she was like, her and the cab driver were like, why did we just, what did we just, what just happened? Like we just rolled, turned a corner and all of a sudden we're in the country and there's thousands of people here for wool. Does it get any better? So anyway, then we had a wonderful, fun time. Driving south, my sister sang her little heart out to the radio the whole way down, and we had a blast visiting family afterwards.
So, all three of these trips were amazing for the places that we went, and were also amazing for the people that I got to go with. So, none of these things would have happened, really. Not in the way that they did. for sure if I hadn't gotten into wool.
So it's just like another, you know, as I was talking to that woman to this woman the other day, it just got me to thinking like all the people and the stories that I get to hear from all these people around the country and sometimes around the world that are now in my world because of wool, it's really, really exceptional. And I consider myself very lucky and I'm very grateful for all these experiences.
So. something to think about for you all in your wool adventures, and maybe a few things to add to your list of places to go. So I think that's all for this week. I thank you so much for joining me and I hope until the next time. You make so many pretty things. Be kind to everybody around you and stay healthy. Stay, stay healthy. All right. Please message me, email me, go to the Google form and let me know the awesome places you have traveled to for wool. I would love to hear.
Thank you so much for listening next week. I'll be back.