2014 MDSW: Part 1

Friday night, Pup and I spent the night on Daddio's kitchen floor (it's a long story). Saturday morning as soon as the sun came up, I slipped out the back door leaving Pup behind for The Sisters to watch and headed out to pick up The Mister for our long trek upstate to the festival. On the way, I worked on my Hermoine's and tried to get in the spirit of the thing.

The Mister improved my mood immensely by surprising me with an envelope of money he had been saving for me just for the occasion.

Even though I was pretty worn out after several extremely difficult days with the old man, when I saw the sign, I was all go.

 This year they welcomed you with a donation request of $5 a person (a real deal) a pin and a booklet.

There was also something else new. There was yarn bombing by the Central Maryland Knitting Guild. It was everywhere and it was brilliant.

I made my customary mad dash to the fleece sale only to find it wasn't there. It had been moved to another bigger and better location. The lines were so long I left. I wasn't going to spend my precious time waiting in line for something I already had a shed full of.

 Up near the front we passed this food stand. This particular booth, while new to MDSW, is legendary at Rhinebeck. People stand in line for hours to get a bite of whatever it is they sell. We passed by a nearly empty booth only to regret it later when the line was around the block.

 I made a tour of all the booths coming up empty handed and then spent some time with the sheep. Meet my buddy Jacob.

 I have forgotten what breed this sweetie pie is but I fell in love. I swear she was smiling at me. It made my day.

There was plenty of shearing going on.

There were also sheep being herded by dogs.

 This year the sheep got even with the dogs. They would not stay in the arena. They discovered rather quickly that they could go under the fence and be gone in a flash. The crowd thought it was hilarious but the shepherds did not. Especially since the arena backs up to a major highway.

It was the first nice weekend in ages and the crowds were immense.

 To escape the crowd, we took a tour of the building that houses all the ribbon winners. I love the posters done by kids even if they were hung up with duck tape (!?!).

We ended our day watching the auction. The amount and the quality of the things they had this year was impressive. Next year we might give it a go.

 I spent the whole day feeling terrible about not getting a fleece so just before leaving I stuck my head back in the door and found no line at all. I picked out two, paid and home we went so I could do the night shift with you know who.
I'll show you what else I bought tomorrow.