Here and There, This and That

We've had a very busy few days.  Friday morning I hit the road with Julie for a quick overnight trip to Maryland to deliver some Cotswolds.  Four rode in the back of the pickup in our fitted sheep container.  These two girls - a yealing and a lamb - are staying in Maryland.  We also took along two rams lambs - one will be going to Virginia and one to Pennsylvania.  The boys were too shy lazy to come to the open tailgate for snacks and pictures.  It was a pretty hot trip.

Once unloaded at the first farm into overnight accomodations they all perked up and dove into some nice hay.  The gray ram lamb near the back and the white ram lamb in front both were picked up the next morning by their new owners.

Besides talking sheep we got to pet this little charmer - a two month old cria from the resident herd.  Love his blue eye!

 

Part of the reason for the trip was to retrieve the yearling ram that I was getting in trade for the yearling ewe.  He's  a colored Cotswold and I'm looking forward to putting him with my colored ewes.  His registered name is Titan.

 

 

We have him in the livestock trailer for a while to serve as quarantine.  Since he was vetted before he left Maryland I don't have any reason to think he'd become ill but it's always a good idea to make sure some sickness doesn't pop up from the stress of travel.

 



 

He has a nice head with a blocky, square muzzle.

 

 

And good curls.  His fleece is nice and soft for a Cotswold which is important here.

 

 

We returned home Saturday evening and Sunday morning I washed a batch of lamb wool in preparation for dyeing then went to the last committee meeting prior to our Fiber Festival next month.  Everything is on track.  We still have some openings in the classes which we expect will fill soon.  Right after evening chores I went back up to the wool shed and dyed the lamb wool.  That was a long day.

 

Monday was my annual day to demo handspinning at the NY state fair.  It's two hours each way so Julie and I got an early start.  The route takes us right by the front door of our vet clinic so I stopped to have two prescriptions refilled - prednisone for Holly's seasonal allergies and hyperthyroid pills for Ivan.  Then on to the fair! 

 

The wool superintendant is very dedicated and makes the building a great educational display.  The skeins and all the hanging hats and mittens are also for sale.

 



 

 

All the bags of fiber on the shelves were prepared by the superintendant and her helpers and was available to all spinners to use for demonstrating.  It was replenished daily as needed.  It was a very busy building and just while I was there for four hours there were three spinners, five knitters, a fellow turning out spindle whorls and nostepinnes on a lathe, one person using the drum carder and the great wheel, a weaver, a needle felter and two people dyeing.

 



 

After spinning we took a walk around the fair to get some great fair food and check out a few favorite exhibits.  I always make a beeline (OK, the line wandered past the Bloomin' Onion booth) for the art and crafts exhibit which is huge.  I'm amazed every year at the collected display of talent.

 

A town full of knitted mice.

 



 

Painted birds.





 

Rug hooking whimsy.

 





 

We ducked into the DEC's building and admired the big display aquariums full of native fish.  These big tanks must have a heckuva filtration system because the water was crystal clear despite being densely populated.  The other fish were real active, darting around but that big catfish occupied the center of the tank the whole time, just hanging there like he was being entertained by watching the people on the other side of the glass.

 









 

And of course we had to go through the sheep barn.

 



"Why yes, I do have great hair.  Thanks for noticing."



 

I don't know if these two were siblings or just good friends.

 





 



This one is just so comfy.  It was that kind of heat - just makes you keel over and fall asleep.

 

 

Holly says.........

 



"If someone doesn't put something in my kong......"

 

".... I might keel over too!"

 

And we can't have that!