Hailey celebrates wool with 'Trailing of the Sheep' Event continues today

Ford literally wears her passion on her sleeve. The underwear she wears is made of soft merino wool. Her sweater is "a mix of all my children." And her scarf is a mix of Angora rabbit and wools from her various sheep. The merino wool is finding a market in the underwear the United States uses for its troops in Afghanistan and Iraq since the wool can be machine-washed, Ford said. Fortunately, for sheep ranchers, American-grown wool and lamb meat is enjoying some of its best markets in years - in part because the weak American dollar is keeping imports from countries like New Zealand down, said Carey Flat Top Sheep Rancher John Peavey. That said, the weak American dollar didn't keep dozens of tourists from traveling from as far away as Florida to the Wood River Valley this weekend to take in the three-day Trailing of the Sheep Festival. The visitors enjoyed an array of free lamb nibbles - from Moroccan stew to lamb curry - at Ketchum art galleries on Friday night. And then they dug into lamb chops at the annual Basque Dinner served up by Hailey's St. Charles Catholic Church on Saturday...read more