A Weekend Get Away

Our family had planned a family reunion for the Memorial Day weekend.  In Eastern Washington - about a 500 mile round trip - you go about 60 miles south on I-5 to Everett, then go east on SR 2 over Stevens Pass - and up the hill from Wenatchee to where I grew up - not a big deal, until the day before you are supposed to leave, a truck runs into a corner strut on the I-5 Bridge over the Skagit River, about 30 miles south, and the dang thing collapses - ALL FOUR LANES - splash, right into the drink.  Luckily there were only two vehicles on the bridge at the time and both of the drivers & one passengers got out OK, with a minimum of physical injury - only possibly having the c**p scared out of them when the bridge disappeared out from under them.  This has completely closed the Interstate 5 freeway at Mt. Vernon, WA and will push about 70,000 vehicles a day onto the side roads and alternate routes that the state has figured out.    (I took this picture Saturday a.m. out the car window on the fly, but I think you can biggafy my picture and see on the right side of the bridge, where the metal "x"s disappear - that's where the bridge "disappeared" into the river)

The Shepherd is a planner - and he doesn't much like heavy traffic - (it took one of my co-workers over an hour and a half to get through the detours on Friday afternoon) but, since we left home at about 8:00 on Saturday morning, we hoped that we wouldn't have too much trouble - luckily we breezed right through the detours, and were on our way - only a few minutes extra added to our trip.

We figured since we were going to E. Wash. and due to the fact that The Shepherd is looking for a new ram, we would make a little bit of a sheepy tour out of the trip and contacted a couple of Shetland breeders in East Wenatchee and Rock Island - just a few minutes from each other.  

First we went to see Amy in Rock Island.  She and her husband and kids have both Shetland sheep and Dwarf Nigerian Goats (and a few other goats that we didn't meet)  Very nice animals, and can you believe that I left my camera in the car?  So when we went over to Amanda's I had to take a few extra pictures to make up for it.

I can't remember what this little HST ewe lamb's name is, but she is a real sweetie!  It must be a personality trait, because she was a lot like HB - just a little politician -  she comes walking up and acts like "Hi - how are you, what's your name, will you pet me???"


 As you can see, she had everyone's attention - That is Jackie C. in the blue - we met her last year at Black Sheep. 

That is Amanda in the brown coat.  She will be bringing some of her sheep to Eugene in June so we'll get to see her again soon. 

A big thank you to Amy and Amanda for showing up their flocks. 










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"Ya'll come back now, y'hear?"