Please Hold All Comments About The Bad Haircut Until The Very End...

Say hello to my little friend.

Oh come on, seriously, what the hell else was I going to use for a caption?

OK! Shepherd's Harvest in 3-2-1 and GO!

I haven't been to a fairground since....well, it's been a while. And I'm not counting the State Fair because I haven't been to any barns on the State fairgrounds--not in at least 10 years. Wait a minute--not ever. I remember the children going to barns with friends of mine but for some reason I didn't go. And that was ten years ago. Before that, when I was in radio, yeah, you "do" the fair every year--no matter where you live. You have some booth or some building or the back of a van somewhere on the grounds and some live broadcast equipment that miraculously ONLY works during the fair, and not at any other time you need it to work, and you do an entire show just talking to people about what kind of bizzaro food they just ate or what's their favorite part of the fair. That's The Fair.

Anyway...Shepherd's Harvest, obviously there are sheep involved, so, Fairgrounds.

You know what's funny? I grew up in a very rural part of this country, in North Dakota, and today my city-raised 14 year old was warning me about where to step, like the whole idea of animals having bodily functions had just suddenly occurred to her. And the fact that she was nervous about reaching out an touching a sheep gave me pause--how odd that she would not know anything about touching a farm animal! We definitely had different teenage years. I didn't grow up on a farm, either, but I know what pre-sweater wool feels like--she just found out today, two months shy of her 15th birthday.

Washington County fairgrounds is small, and we blipped through everything like lightning. Some insanely gorgeous yarn over here, and, over there, goats milk soap, and here's some food vendors, and there's a guy shearing a sheep, and here are a few buildings filled with fuzzy buddies, and here are some dogs herding sheep, and in the middle of it all, a dude playing a mandolin (he was quite good) but, he was placed far enough to not get any interference from the hillbilly band that was playing in one of the quonsets, and YES, my child did ask me what the hell a quonset was.

Just a little slice of clean livin', that's what that was....

Long story VERY Whittled Down: Every time I tried to take a picture of a cute farm baby (talkin' sheep and goats, here...) they turned away from me and toward my daughter, who got ALL of the adorable baby pictures today. Case in Point:

The exact same animal, photographed by me at the top of the page, where he's all, "Nah, I'm just going to stand way over hear if you don't mind" but as soon as the kid raises her camera? "Hey! Hi! How ARE you? Let me come over to where you are so you can get a better shot!"

Jerk.

Also? I didn't hug any llamas. However, it is entirely possible that I will be snuggling with some alpaca soon, since I broke down and purchased The Most Ridiculously Soft Yarn I have ever felt in my entire life, from LGF Suri Alpacas. Yow.

Ran into fellow Blogger Lady Christina out there--just totally an accident, not like we planned it or anything. OK, that's actually bullshit--we planned.

As I type this, my house is filled with the scent of lavender, which is the most beautiful smell a house can smell like, which means exactly what you think it means, that being that I bought lavender soap from more than half of the people who offered it. Oh, and we came late to the fudge table and damn-it-all, they had nothing left but white chocolate praline. Never mind...happy accident that white chocolate praline. Too delicious to actually describe....but I have to try...white chocolate fudge on the top and the bottom, and in the middle caramel and praline.

I know, right?

OK, we can talk about Leopold's hair now.

No, I don't know if that's his actual name, but it seemed to fit. He startled me, I'm not gonna lie--looked a bit like a miniature giraffe in a Halloween wig and furry go-go boots. You probably think I'm just saying that because I'm angry that he didn't pose for me. You're right.