Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard fishing pier… views from front, side, rear.
Baby sheep and goats at the watering hole.
Sheep and goats.
Kids in a bucket.
The Cosmic Photo Challenge : Three views from one spot…
Category Archives: sheep
RDP Wednesday – WOOL…
From the shearing of the goats and sheep to the final product, this is the story of wool. My daughter and I went to our first shearing event several years ago and it was beyond interesting. The way the animals sort of zone out while they’re being sheard to the softness and warmth of the lanolin drenched wool fresh off the sheep and goats. The last picture is of sweater my daughter made.
The shearing…
Roving to yarn to dyed yarn to sweater…
NY State Sheep & Wool Festival 2014 …
… otherwise known in knitting and spinning circles as ‘Rhinebeck’ (no pun intended)
Saturday, Oct 18…7:30 sunrise…
9:30 a.m. arrival at Rhinebeck… already a jagillion cars there…
and people…
even though it was mostly cloudy and even spritzed a few times the foliage as usual was beautiful…
these friendly looking folk caught my eye…
they were in front of the museum which I had never been in …Â the exhibits included old milk wagons, baby carriages, wash tubs, and a man making caned seats…
there’s more to the sheep and wool festival than livestock and yarn…there’s a lot of other things to be looked at, admired and coveted.. for years I denied myself the small, orange, felted pumpkins… and then 2 years ago I got one… and then last year another one… and this year a third one….
but they’re not the only thing I had my eye on… there were these baskets too… my daughter had one, friends had them, almost every third person walking around Rhinebeck had them… they were great to put stashes of wool in, or food, or a small animal even… so this year my first stop… after coffee… was a basket…
here’s my treasures from 2014 Rhinebeck.. 🙂
the sky on the way home at 4:30 was just as beautiful as the morning sky was…
A Shearing …
In April 2008 my daughter Deb, her dog Chappy, and I went to a shearing on Martha’s Vineyard, our first shearing ever. The weather was gorgeous… low 70’s, bright sunshine, soft breezes, good food, good friends… it was great.
The sheep and goats and the older kids (goats, not humans) were already out and about when we got there a little before 10 am. You’ll notice in the bottom picture the adults have closed ranks around one of the young kids and are all focusing their attention in one direction…
They are staring at Chappy, our Boykin Spaniel who to them is a predator. Chappy on the other hand is looking at them increduously and wondering, what the heck are these animals?
Whenever Deb and Chappy moved to another spot the sheep would move and face them… it was really interesting,
I’d never seen shearing before and it’s very interesting. The sheep and goats look almost in a Zen state while they’re being sheared and having their hooves clipped. The wool is mostly in one piece when the shearing is finished, it’s amazing. The wool is so soft you can hardly feel it, it’s also still a little warm to the touch.
They seemed really happy to get their coats off.
Random pictures from a lovely day.
In the beginning of my post I said the ‘older kids’ were here at the shearing… the ‘little kids’ were not.  The following day however we got to meet them up close and personal at the farm.
Cuteness overload.
The moms kept an eye on us, especially on Chappy, but they let the kids come and sniff at us and let us pet and snuzzle them.
It was a great weekend for all of us.
MV Obsession 