happy time,” she recalls. She liked sci-
ence and math and graduated in 1969
in a class of 15.
Looking for a small Christian col-
lege, she started at N.W. Nazarene
College in Nampa, ID. Coming from
Texas and with a ranching back-
ground, she was a popular figure. She
moved on to Bob Jones University in
SC, a bigger institution, where she
was a nobody. “The best thing that
ever happened to me,” she says. She
graduated in 1973 with a BSc in
Home Economics.
From 1973-1982 Largent taught at
private Christian schools, including a
school in Fort Davis that she started
with 15 students. In 1976 she met
Wayne Baize, a popular artist, who
was visiting her father’s Point of
Rocks Ranch to buy land. They mar-
ried in 1982. Three of their four chil-
dren Elizabeth, William and
Jonathan work on the land, and the
youngest, Charles, is a flight mechan-
ic.
Rust Largent successfully raised
miniature Hereford cattle and in
1991 he bought 10 Shetland sheep.
These are small, sturdy sheep with
patterns of wool colors, originating in
the Shetland Islands off Scotland.
The breed is thought to be around
1,400 years old. This flock was the
first in Texas.
During the 90s Baize devoted her-
self and her four children, who were
being homeschooled, to learning the
Shetland sheep business. She was a
knitter and learned spinning and
weaving. All the children learned
carding (brushing the wool with a
paddle to straighten it) and dyeing
with native plants. Shetland wool is
not traditionally sheared but plucked
by hand, called rooing.
In 2008, following a bad local fire
in that year, Baize purchased three
Shetland ewes and a ram to keep
down the undergrowth on the Baize
land. The sheep were happy, the flock
grew. This flock of 34 sheep is the
12th
Shetland flock in North
America. As it grew, she sent the wool
to a mill in New Mexico. The result-
ant yarn and knitting kits she sells in
Fort Davis at Fort Davis Outfitters
and the Hitching Post in Midland,
TX. Demand now exceeds supply for
Shetland wool.
Ellen Largent Baize accidentally
got into Shetland sheep raising. She
never imagined she would become a
successful
breeder.
But
she
researched, consulted and learned,
just at a time when Shetland wool was
becoming popular. Her two goals are
to inform others about this ancient
sheep species and to teach knitters
about Shetland yarns. Many would
bet she will succeed.
PILAR PEDERSEN
Olympia, WA was not a place Pilar
Pedersen wanted to live in for long.
She was born there in 1953, the eldest
of three children of Carole and
William Pedersen, a first generation
American who worked in manage-
ment consultancy. In third grade,
Pedersen was already writing poetry
about escaping urban life.
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High school in Palo Alto, CA was
worse, although she enjoyed 4H and
learned Spanish, graduating in 1971.
This was a time of political unrest and
Pedersen wanted to participate and
achieve something. She joined the
United Farm Workers Union and
worked in various positions for two
years, including three months in the
office of César Chavez, whom she
remembers as a kind, gentle man.
From 1973, eager to taste life, she
“bounced around” in various jobs in
different places, including one year
spent in Guatemala learning weaving.
Three years later, urged by her par-
ents, she enrolled in the Museum
School of Fine Arts in Boston. She
loved art school but, still rebellious,
quit after four years without graduat-
ing.
In 1979 at a party in Boston she
met Jon Lutz, a radar engineer.
When Jon said “Let’s go and see the
world,” she agreed. They moved to
Boulder, CO in 1980 and married the
following year.
Life in Boulder, however, was not
the yearned-for outdoors life. She
grew vegetables, baked bread and sal-
vaged furniture. Two boys, Isaac and
Travis, were born in 1984 and 1988,
further tying her to an urban lifestyle
as a stay-home mom.
In 1990 the family visited Big
Bend. “This could be my place,”
thought Pedersen. On that visit she
met M.R. Gonzales of Fort Stockton,
with whom she would later partner in
the Chaa Ranch near Presidio, TX.
Divorcing Jon in 1997, she
remained in Boulder until Travis
graduated from high school in 2007,
commuting between Boulder and the
ranch. Her new life started that year
when she finally moved to Texas. It is
anchored by a strong sense of place
and a passion for the boundless, raw
landscape of the borderlands south of
Chinati Mountains, where the Chaa
Ranch is situated.
Along with a new, inspiring loca-
tion, came rediscovered bonding with
horses. She had ridden all her life, but
now she had a herd.
Two events changed Pedersen’s
recent life. A visit to a ranch in
Arizona opened her eyes to the need
for water conservation. She is fully
committed to restoring water systems
to her desert property.
Across the border in Chihuahua
she learned the needs of the indige-
nous Tarahumara in the sierra. An
expert fundraiser, she first raised
funds for food for the Tarahumara
during the drought of 2011. She
insisted on personally distributing all
the food she purchased. Next, with
volunteers from the Big Bend region,
she started repairs on a run-down
rural Tarahumara school in
Bacabureachi, Chihuahua, which she
continues to work on. In addition, she
rode the historic Silver Trail 8 times,
a 240-mile horseback ride across the
mountains.
Webpage: www.amigoskorima.org.
Watch out, Big Bend area, there is
no stopping this woman.
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Cenizo
Third Quarter 2017
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