OFI: 1274: Replay OFI 153: Knit And Spin Wool From Your Own Sheep | Cleo Gallinger | The Sheep Shed

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Today’s show is a replay of a person who deserves our admiration. After the passing of her husband, she is not only running her farm alone, but is finding new and creative ways to diversify and offer quality, hand spun wool to her customers.

Original Show Notes:

Twenty Five years ago Cleo Gallinger decided that she wanted to raise sheep. She has Greek heritage and thinks that is what created this desire for her. Today she is retired from nursing and managing the farm by herself since her husband has passed. To be involved in agriculture and continue to raise sheep, she has diversified her income sources in a fantastic way.

She has a hay field on the farm that she leases out but gets enough feed from for her animals. She has her lambs sheared, she cleans her own wool and spins it. She also felts her own wool and makes products from it. She sells cleaned wool, dyed wool and the products that she makes. In addition to selling products she teaches others how to spin, felt and do many other things with wool. In addition to her classes she shells spinning wheels and other equipment for anyone interested in working with wool.

I met Cleo in the Winter of 2016 when my daughter’s, Hattie, 4H group went to her shop for a class on working with wool. Hattie is in the foreground watching Cleo spin wool in the video above. After she explained all of the things she was doing to remain in agriculture and work with sheep I knew that she would be a perfect guest for the show. She embodies exactly what we talk about on the podcast: she is doing everything that she can to be involved in agriculture, and she is being creative in how she generates her income to do this.