Susan Allred

It’s our LUCKY month as we get to know Susan Allred, our March Women of Wool feature a little better. Enjoy as she shares a little bit of her story with us all...

“I was born and raised on a dairy farm. I as the sixth child of ten children - seven girls and 3 boys. My older brothers had extremely bad hay fever so it was up to us girls to get the hay put up. I was use to hard work so when I got married to Phil and moved to Fountain Green, I thought I was on easy street, NOT SO. Phil was gone a lot to the herd and there was not a camp for us to stay in so I stayed home until we could acquire one. When the children started coming we spent a lot of time on the mountain and on the desert. One experience on the mountain was when Dusty and Ricci took their horses fro a drink at the Gooseberry Reservoir and the horses just kept going into the water. Ricci baled off and swam back to the shore and Dusty just kept going with his horse to the other side. One experience on the desert was when Tina and Perry were following us in a small truck with Tina driving (she was 13). Perry reached over and took this pistol out from the pocket of the seat cover and it went off shooting Tina in the leg. When our first child was born we would bundle him up and go herd sheep taking turns holding him. Phil stayed home on the farm when our children got older taking care of the crops, irrigation and such. He would come up when he could, he would count the sheep making sure we had them all and giving much needed advise! Our oldest, Perry, and I would herd the sheep. We had a fifth-wheel trailer at the time and moved it up on a knoll at Gooseberry Reservoir (above Fairview_. Perry and I would get up early, saddle our horses and head out. Perry to one herd and I to the other one. Tammy, our oldest daughter, would stay at camp taking care of the younger children as we have 7 children. Perry and I would get back to camp usually about the same time. We would eat breakfast, clean up and then do chores that consisted of splitting wood for our camp, getting fresh drinking water from the spring, repairing hobbles and such. Around 2:00 we would saddle horses for all of us and then take the salt back to the sheep. When salting them we would clear the trails, and make salt troughs. Sometimes the younger ones would go back to camp and Perry and I would stay and make sure the sheep were headed the way we wanted them to go. When we were in Fish Creek and Phil was there we would catch fish by reaching under the banks, also skinny dipping (with underpants on) by the beaver dams. We had a lot of memorable times. We bathed and washed our clothes in a #3 tub with a scrubbing board. I still have scares on the knuckles! We all hated it when we had to come home for school and so looked forward when summer was back again. All of our children have campers and we still meet up at “Home-Sweet-Home” (property above Scofield_ in the summer. We all enjoy the outdoors. Three of our boys have their own outfits now and we all work to help one another. When shearing time comes I remember the round wool bags and how hard it was to roll them into the train cars, stack them up with sweat rolling down your face – OH WHAT FUN! Around the age of sixty-five I would haul water during lambing time – It would take all day, but I enjoyed it. In 2016, Phil sold most of the sheep to the boys and we put in our mission papers. We served in Martins Cove, The Willey and Martin Handcart Co. Then in 2018 we were called to serve in Nauvoo, IL. Phil was a teamster and I served at many sites. It was a wonderful experience. I am so grateful that my family was able to be raised on a sheep ranch, learning good ethics, how to work and get things done and support their families.

Phil is the 5th generation, our boys the 6th and our grandchildren the 7th!

Thanks to all who have contributed to our way of life.”

Susan is a great example of the work ethic, love and raising a family who works together in the sheep and wool industry.