A Sheep Shearing Fest Is Baaa-ck This Spring

WOOL? It is just about the snuggliest stuff on this planet, and maybe every other planet, too. It keeps us nicely toasty when we lounge on the couch, it offers us a warm sweater when the air is chill, and finding a stylish scarf woven through with gorgeous woolly yarn? We're keeping that natty neck-protecting treasure forever. But we don't often find many opportunities to go to the sheeply source when it comes to learning about this wonderstuff, all to discover more about how the fibrous hair makes its way into so many products we humans depend upon.

123 FARM... is eager to offer some enlightenment, and make that education entertaining, and utterly adorable, too. And to help lift the wool from our eyes on this timeless topic? There is the 11th Annual Sheep Shearing Festival, which will be back, or perhaps "baa-ck" is more accurate, at the Highland Springs Ranch & Inn-based farm over a few March and April weekends. Visitors who call upon the farm between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays will get to observe sheep-shearing demonstrations, and learn how heavy wool is removed from these amazing ungulates.

ADDING CHARM... to the homespun happenings? The chance to see just what occurs next, once the wool is removed from a sheep, with "washing, carding, dyeing, and spinning" taking centerstage. Call it a springtime celebration with a deeper look into a centuries-old tradition, one that has improved so many lives in so many warming ways. When did you last wear wool? Get to know what the shearing process is all about, and see some sweet sheep, too, at this educational event in Cherry Valley.