Sheep Shearing Fun

Yesterday I remembered at 12:30 that our local wildlife sanctuary had a sheep shearing festival.

So after setting honey bunny buns to rise and getting some house things done, we set off.  There were sheep being shorn (they are amazing compliant about this, and Joe does it the old fashioned way which is very cool to watch.  Rob manned the camera, so he is not in any of the shots.  After watching and petting sheep (including a baby lamb), scoping out the wool arts displays, petting puppies and a baby lamb and eyeballing chickens, we went for a hike.

The second picture is one Rob took of some tadpoles that appeared to be fighting one another.  I didn't know tadpoles would do that!  The pond was overfull and some of the water seeping through the granite around the edge and under the ground where you could see it reappear as a stream to the lower bog.  The kids were fasincated and we spent a long time there watching tadpoles, fish and searching for turtles (none of those yet!) 

Then we hiked a bit more but the trails were really too wet for us to do too much.  Lissa did not want to go home.  She said that we could go and just leave here there!  Yeah, right. LOL  But all my kids have felt that deep connection to this place.  This sanctuary was an old working farm and it blends those old time farm remnants with all that nature has reclaimed in the many years since the farm's closure.  About 12 years ago beavers moved into the area and flooded a lower part of the trail system.  We were one of the last people allowed to hike the trail (which actually involved wading through thigh deep water at that point!) and then in later years you actually could canoe there.  Now the beavers have begun to move on and their structures are deteriorating and long missing trails are again becoming visible.  Maybe my younger kids will walk on those trails yet! 

Rob took this last shot just before we headed home. You can't really tell but it is a chair made out of a stump and it sits right under a huge spreading hemlock tree where zillions of birds and squirrels come to the feeders strung there.  If you sit quietly enough, they don't even notice you after a while!