Buffalo Week Six

But we were not done with Buffalo and the surrounding area.  We spent an afternoon visiting Mountain Meadow Wool, a local family-operated wool mill that prides itself on processing wool from a number of different breeds of sheep.  

On their self-guided tour, you can learn about the different types of wool and wool sheep, and see the scouring (washing), spinning and dyeing process.  

The mill produces not only skeins of beautiful yarn, they also knit sweaters, caps, blankets and other garments.  

We also got to meet “Yarnold, a young male of the Valais Black Nose breed.  He is the mascot at MMW.

Who knew there are breeds of sheep for each letter of the alphabet.

Another high point of our stay here was a visit to The Brinton Museum in nearby Bighorn, WY.  

The Brinton, housed partly in the beautiful Forrest E. Mars, Jr. Building (remember Mars Candies?) it features not only contemporary Native American art, but an outstanding collection of historic and expanding Western and American Indian art.  The views from the upper patio are magnificent as well.

A special surprise was a visit to the Brinton’s leather workshop.  We had expected to spend a few minutes touring the workshop before lunch.  We not only did that, we returned after lunch for another hour or so visiting with Jim Jackson, the resident leatherworker.  Jim is not only skilled in leatherwork, he is also an artist who has taught art courses at several colleges and universities.  His  style of combining tooled leather and painting is unique.  Here is one of his pieces I particularly like.  It is on display in The Brinton, and is entitled "Insubstantial Things"

After seeing samples of h is work, we were not surprised to learn he has led workshops all over the world in the “Sheridan Style” of leatherwork   

I was disappointed to learn that Jim no longer does commission, because I want a special belt to wear with the buckle Cody and I won at the Dick Grabo Memorial Sheep Dog Trial.  I have found another leatherworker to make the belt, though, and look forward to showing it to you.  

Jim worked for many years at King's Saddlery in Sheridan.  After he retired, The Brinton approached him to do on-site education into the art of leatherwork.  He currently is on site Friday through Sunday to conduct tours of the leather workshop.  We were fascinated by the hundreds of tools, many he has made himself from nails, and many that were made and given to him by Mr. King. 

Jim demonstrated the techniques he uses in his leatherwork, and gave Linda and me each a small hand-tooled flower as a memento of our visit.

It was a special day.  

And we followed it on October 1 with a visit downtown,

where the community-wide pumpkin-carving and decorating was in full swing.

And meantime, back at the ranch, we learned that we have four new baby calves.  They are shown here with Beauty, mother of one of them and the designated baby-sitter when Gage took this photo for us.  

And speaking Gage, he, Gabby and their dogs spent a weekend at the farm and rid the place of one more unwelcome visitor.  This two-foot rattlesnake was sheltering under the dog swimming pool.  We are glad he will no longer be a threat to us or our four-legged friends.  

And speaking of critters, when Gage and Gabby arrived, they saw a passel of porcine intruders near our house.  They said there was at least one sow and quite a few mid-sized youngsters.  Maybe one of them will wind up on our Thanksgiving table!