New Year's Part Two, or Chester and Josh have Stolen My Heart

Okay, so I'm doing two posts in one day, but you have to read the other one first or this one won't make as much sense.  

Anyway, to continue the story, we went to Will's dad's sheep dairy farm - these sheep are Dorset Down breed.  We got to look at the equipment, then we went to look at the LAMBS!  I wanted to snuggle one so bad.  The boy lambs get numbers on their left side and the girls get numbers on the right.  They kept running away and Josh was trying to catch me one to pet.  I picked up one for a moment, but it jumped down.  Then, another one, No. 98, walked right up to me.  I picked it up and snuggled it a bit, rubbing its little sweet ears and it kissed me and nuzzled my neck.  It was quite content to be held and I was loving just holding it.  

Then, talking to Will, I found out something terrible.  No. 98 was numbered on his left side.  He would not get to live the sweet life of a dairy sheep.  He would get fattened up to 40 kg of organic, grain-fed fleshiness, then they chop his head off, take his innards out and sell him for £100!  I am no vegetarian, and I like veal as much as the next person, but the thought of this sweet little lamb dying so someone could enjoy chops and kebabs made me want to cry.  

To make matters worse, when I put him down, he wouldn't leave.  He followed me to the edge of the pen and bleated pitifully when I left, as if to say "Please help me, Wendy!  Don't go!"  I can't let him die!  I immediately came up with a plan to save him, and a name, Chester.  I always said if I got another cat (or dog) I'd name it Chester, but this lamb is special too.  Anyway, Tom and Will's mum had pity on me, and if I pay the £100 for him, they will keep him as one of their lawnmower sheep and let him live a wonderful long life.  

Please, please help me save Chester!  You can join our Facebook group or just mail me a dollar (every little bit helps) - Save Chester! Facebook Group  

As if it weren't enough, here are pictures of me and Josh and sweet little Chester.

Hopefully, this next picture will also appeal to the depths of your Grinch-like hearts if that didn't.  The mum of the little sheep in this picture died, and one of the ewes lost her baby, so in order that he wouldn't starve, they put the skin of the lamb that didn't make it onto the one who has no mom, and now they make a family.  Are you crying yet?

Scrooges.  Anyway, the next day, we met our friend Laura from Manchester and travelled around rural Dorset and saw Milton Abbas, a big fancy boarding school with lovely buildings, and I ate my first ever Ploughman's Lunch, which is a British institution.  Then we went to Badbury Rings, a prehistoric village with lovely views (and more sheep).

This is the Sailor's Return, a proper "country pub" with a thatch roof and everything.  Dorset (and maybe the southwest in general) is known for cider, and I drank several (okay, four) pints of cider, which, as it turns out, has just as much, if not more ABV than regular beer.  We went back to Tom's house in the middle of the night, and even though it was a straight shot walking 1/2 a mile in the pitch-dark, Josh practically had to drag me back (and he says he was carrying me at one point, but I do not remember that).  Lesson: do not drink lots of cider with boys at quaint country pubs.  Two pints is more than enough to be sociable.  These pictures were presumably taken by said boys while I was in the loo.  Note that Josh is wearing an I LV NY shirt.

This is Josh's dad, Pete, and Charlie the puppy at Milton Abbas.  This was the most well-behaved the dog was the entire time.  :)

Here are part of the remnants of my Ploughman's lunch.  A ploughman's consists of: bread and butter, cheese or ham (or both), salad, pickled onion, pickle (which is actually a kind of relish), an apple, and a boiled egg.  I think the original ploughman's lunch, which presumably was fed to people plowing, was bread (a bap, or what we would call a bun), butter, cheese and pickle.  It was delicious, authentic and "mint" to use a British word.

Also, I am in love with Josh. That is all for now!