{May 14, 2011}

The kids and I went to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Grower's Festival this afternoon and, just like last year, we had the most fun petting and fawning over the livestock. Naturally my favorites were the sheep (although truth be told I go ga-ga over pretty much any animal) and I spent plenty of time loving on any who would allow it. Megan's favorites were the goats although sadly there weren't very many of them. Ian dug the bunnies, so I kept telling him to stick one in his hoodie. Alas, he's too upstanding to do that. ;o) We also thoroughly enjoyed watching the various types of dogs herding sheep around a large paddock. The intelligence, focus, and speed of those dogs is just amazing. One thing that surprised us was that alpacas make a sort of whining baby sound. There were two of them in a fenced booth that kept making the noise, almost as if they were talking to each other. I wasn't sure if it was an "I'm upset" noise or just what they do. I did take a short video of it and will post it later.

Despite being surrounded by literally tons of gorgeous fiber, I behaved myself and only purchased one skein. Course the fact I still have a huge bag of fiber just waiting to be spun, and plans to take spinning classes so I can actually spin the stuff, may have had something to do with my restraint.

These two ridiculously cute lambs (one ram, one ewe) were a mere 9 weeks old. Their wool was thick and soft and their pink noses totally did me in. I met their owner, a lovely woman, who told us the mother had died shortly after giving birth. The lambs have been bottle fed and hand raised by the family, thus making them extra friendly. We chatted some more about keeping sheep, then I finally said goodbye to the little darlings (to say I could have stayed with them all day would be an understatement). Naturally it just made me want them all the more...naturally.

Taken with my iPhone and edited with the Instagram app with the Hefe filter applied.

On to the pic...{click to view full size}