Sheep & Craft festival

Rolled out of bed at 5:00 a.m., woefully regretting my decision to be a vendor AND bring animals to the annual Southern IL Sheep and Craft Festival.

"What was I thinking?"

But -- it was an awesome day with lots of fun and surprises.

There were the wonderful sheep dog trials -- where the herding dogs are given the task of containing 4 sheep and herding them into a small pen. It is a thing of beauty to watch these dogs "do their thing."

Amanda and I sold plenty of hats, purses and yarn -- and it was so exciting to see kids running around with our "creations" on their heads.

Becca was helpful in unloading, talking with customers and especially in describing the animals to visitors to the pen.

Krista was helpful at our booth and was also the inspiration for the hat looms in the first place.

Vision, the llama; Mason, Punchau, Temujin - huacaya alpacas; and Gabriel, the suri alpaca; were all awesome in their calm demeanors during the event.

Some excitement for the future: THREE spinners took advantage of my "spin a bag, get a bag" of alpaca fiber. Can't wait to see the results of their work.

The sheep owners next to us got to see Vision strut his "guardian llama" behavior. Everytime anyone walked by with a dog -- he would stand up -- make himself as tall as possible -- and walk along the fenceline until the dog retreated. Pretty impressive.

The sheep folks talked to me about a guardian llama. It was wonderful to share the information about how valuable a llama can be in a herd of sheep.

I'm sure I'll be there next year.