The fair itself is rather huge, given that Spokane is the second largest city in Washington state. We must have talked to a couple hundred people, most asking how our male, Romeo, can see through his dense bangs, and chatted with our fellow llama and alpaca farmers. The barn hosts were awesome, working their rear ends off while also taking care of their adorable baby girl (who gave out smiles like they were going out of style).
After our second year at this I've learned that there are a few main types of folks at the farm. There are the city-folk - who point at the alpacas and say things like "what a funny little llama" or "don't you have to trim his bangs?". There are the greenie city-folk - the people who talk about urban beekeeping, goats milk soap, and organic veggies but whose fingernails are spotless and hands are uncalloused. There are the country-folk - who can't for the life of them figure out why we would want to raise what look like long-necked sheep. There are the self-righteous, telling us that keeping our animals in such small pens is cruel and that naming an animal with human names is insensitive to their culture (seriously, only one person said this to me but it was funny enough that I had to mention it).
For the most part, however, people were pleasant, curious, and engaging - asking all kinds of questions and generally having a good time. We arrived on the day when schools took kids on field trips to the fair, and those were the best visits. Indy, our first alpaca, love children and she reveled in the oohs and ahs and general expressions of "how cute!" Her head is three sizes bigger now and it will be a while before we can convince her she is not the queen of the castle, but she appeared to have a good time so we're happy.
Thanks everyone who came out to see us. We can't wait to be back next year - hopefully with more babies this time.
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