Sheep Shearing

I should have posted about this last Saturday but I've been involved in some deep navel gazing regarding my paper for class.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I went to a sheep shearing festival on a Saturday morning with my Flower Child Hippie friend, who for the sake of brevity I'll call Flower.
And because anywhere I go so goes DN2, she came along as well.
There's a farm in the area where they do lots of things for the kids. It's a Christian-oriented operation, but the farm is there to create opportunities for many kids who don't have any.
And trust me, in this area where the gas is at $3.75 a gallon and a gallon of OJ is $6.99, we need some opportunities other than the Devil's Store.
Here are a smattering of pictures:



Here we are with Lilac.



Here is Martha who had something to say about everything. And like a sheep you'll see in a bit, Elliot, she left a trail of crumbs behind her.




This duck and goose are cooling off after a hard-fought game of Duck, Duck, Goose.
It was hilarious. They really were chasing each other around.



Things to remember for next year: don't wear sandals unless you want to constantly shake goose poop out of them.

This is Elliot.
(Say it in an ET voice and it's funny. Say it with a sheep's baa and its even funnier.)






Elliot also got his toenails clipped.
And when the guy shearing Elliot lifted Elliot's tail, lots of little things came dropping out. The guy says, "Well, it's my fault, I pulled the lever."



When Elliot was done getting a haircut, everyone was allowed to take some wool.
Imagine, wool straight off the sheep - and free!!
I sent DN2 to grab me some handfuls.
Here's what I got.



She asked me, in a totally incredulous voice, you know how 9 year olds sound, "What are you going to do with all this?"
I replied, "You never, ever turn down free wool."
Silly girl.
Things to remember for next year: #2, bring plastic bag so inside of handbag doesn't smell like a sheep.

The picture of the three of us at the beginning is with a wonderful ewe called Lilac. We didn't watch her get sheared but she was very friendly.
Things to remember for next year: #3, stick around and get more free wool. Those kids won't know what to do with it anyway.

Well look! It's Nancy from our church!





I did not know that she was so involved in spinning and dyeing. I truly do live in a vacuum. She also told me that a group of women get together the last Tuesday of every month and spin from 10:00 AM until they get tired of each other. Figures, a daytime group. She asked me if I was a spinner and I told her I hadn't quite embraced that obsession yet.
Yet.

These wonderful ladies were very friendly and explained their craft.




All in all we had a great time and we left just before the big thunderstorm rolled through the area.
We'll have to go back next year for sure.
And now I have some wool that needs cleaning.