Monday, April 30, 2007

Saturday afternoon was filled with fun fibery goodness! I accompanied SheepsPyjamas and her little smidgling to 20th annual Sheepshearing Festival. I have never been to such an event, so it was a very informative and exciting experience for me. We witnessed sheep being shorn with electric clippers (so fast!) as well as the traditional shears (which reminded me of Shear Genius’s Evangeline giving her client a hair cut).






The highlight of the day for me was watchingsheep herding. Lesson learned – dogs are smart, and sheep are…. Sheep. By the time we witnessed the herding demo, they woolly gals had already been chased around the field for a few hours, so they were a bit tired.









At first we couldn’t even tell where they were, until the dogs were summoned to round them up. They came darting out from a great pine tree, where they had been enjoying the cool shade (did I mention it FINALLY really truly felt like spring?).





The dogs responded to a variety of commands and whistles and herded the sheep into a pen, then got a few sheep out of the pen, then kept the rest of those sheep separate from the two already loose while they were being herded onto a ramp…. It was impressive.








There were other creatures on the farm: we saw a llama, chickens, three adorable alpacas, a miniature pony, bunnies, and a large herd of goats. The air smelled of spring, rain, and animal scents, which is a relief from the city air I usually inhale.







There were plenty of things to purchase, but I
limited myself to a foot long hotdog and a small shopping bag of fiber. I can’t wait to see what this looks up all spun up! SheepsPyjamas and I are planning a spin along using the neon green fiber, I am oh-so-excited to see what happens! I also got some yummy Blue Face Leicester (oh the dying possibilities….)






It doesn't get any cuter than little baby lambs. They were adorable!









It was a successful day: I got some sunshine, goodies to take home, and I had a most lovely time with friends!

1 comment:

SheepsPyjamas said...

Sorry it took me so long to check in with you -- nice documenting of the day; the Dots spent a large portion of their evening last night poring over your pictures :*)

It's been so hard not to spin the green (not that there aren't a gazillion other things I should be doing instead, but it's there, and it keeps giving me that .look.!) Hopefully we can get together and give in to it fairly soon. Have you had a chance to give your wheel some time?
Spinn lyckligt!