Llamas, alpacas and goats, oh my!

Saturday dawned early. Although a morning person I struggled. We’d had Back To School Night on Wednesday, and it felt as though it had been followed by two Fridays. Getting up and functioning seemed nigh on impossible, and yet, I forced myself to the coffee maker. It was the day of the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival!

It was a beautiful day for a drive to Canby and things were well under way when I got there. Although I really wanted to look at the various yarns for sale, I decided to begin the day in the animal barns.

As an asthmatic, this can be problematic. I brought my inhaler but had no deed of it; the barns were well ventilated. I decided to start with the sheep, since most of the wool I use comes from sheep. I’m not an expert, but I know a little more about sheep, than I do about other animals.And yet, I saw some new faces.

And lots of fleece. These were some prize winners and they are a lot softer than they look.

From the sheep and goats, it was on to the camelids: the alpacas and llamas.

Even with all my wool knowledge, I was surprised to see angora bunnies and Pygora goats, a cross between pygmy and angora goats.

I didn’t get a picture of a pygora goat, but I bought a lovely skein of pygora yarn.

By that point I was feeling hungry, so I went over to the see what the food vendors had to offer. No surprise, lamb was the main item on the menu. I opted for the lamb shank sandwich, which, was excellent and really hit the spot.

I shared my table, but not my meal, with a young family. They’d just purchased an angora rabbit and the kids were happy to tell me about it. Refreshed and reenergized, I faced the crowds of the marketplace. There were tents outside and two buildings with vendors inside. There was lots of roving,  long and narrow bundles of fiber used to make spun yarn. I am simply a knitter. I don’t spin or crochet (though I am weaving-curious) so I focused on the vendors with yarn. I bought a few things I can’t mention, in case some people are reading, but I also picked up this lovely merino/ silk blend for myself.

By late afternoon, I was exhausted but content. The sun was at my back as I drove home, casting a lovely glow over the whole day.

 

 

An Unlikely Day

Yesterday, we had an author visit from Jennifer Holland, author of Unlikely Heroes which she is on tour promoting. She is also the author of Unlikely Friendships and Unlikely Loves and has written for  National Geographic.

Jennifer talked about her love for animals, and how she has managed to combine that with her love for writing. Her presentation was very interesting, but it was Rojo the therapy llama, one of the animals she talks about in Unlikely Heroes,  who stole the show.

He was incredibly calm in a gym full of excited kids.I guess that is why he is an effective therapy llama.

Too bad he had to leave after the assembly. We could have used him later when the fire alarm went off due to something in the cafeteria’s kitchen. It was raining, of course, and the kids had to wait outside until the fire department checked things out and gave us the OK to go back in. The 4th graders were especially outraged because they had missed their 10 minute morning recess due to the assembly. That morning I told them not to complain because they still got their 20 minute lunch recess.  Famous last words. The alarm went off right as that recess started.

A teacher joked that she couldn’t wait to get home to tell her husband, “we had a real fire alarm today. And oh yeah, there was a llama, too.” Definitely, an unlikely day.