With its working grist mill, footbridge over the Pocantico River, and little lambs scurrying about, Philipsburg Manor is perennially popular with the younger set. This year, the PM powers that be are offering a new tour geared for children 6-12 and their parents.

The "Hands on the House" tour, offered weekends at 11:30 and 2:30, focuses on the site's Manor House, its inhabitants, and the tasks they had to perform during the 18^th century.

There are numerous opportunities for kids to literally put their hands on the house (and its non-artifact stuff). To cite a couple, in the dairy, all of the items are reproductions that allow children to feel first-hand, for example, a butter churn and milk buckets. In the house's warehouse rooms, a number of reproduction objects let visitors appreciate the wide variety of goods available during the colonial period and the vast network of trade that allowed these goods to make their way around the globe.

Tickets for ALL Philipsburg Manor tours, including Hands on the House, are now available in advance online. Rather convenient, particularly when you can only visit at a specific time or want a specific tour.

OK, I couldn't help posting this. Just in case you are on the fence about coming to Sheep-to-Shawl today (or tomorrow) at Philipsburg Manor, just try and resist this guy, who was snapped last week by one of our primary photographers, Bryan Haeffele.

For those of you who haven't been to the site, that's the Philipsburg Manor house in the background, circa 1680 (with a circa 1720 addition). Tours of the house are ongoing during Sheep-to-Shawl.

Cute animals, scrappy border collies chasing geese and sheep every which way, wool shearing and spinning...what's not to love about Sheep-to-Shawl at Philipsburg Manor ? Well, if it rains the ground gets a bit soggy but other than that...

And of course, check out those newborn lambs. If that doesn't grab ya...

The big event is next weekend. So big Historic Hudson Valley has to host it over two days, April 26 and 27, cause there's a lot of sheep to be sheared and a lot of people that like watching that happen. Keeping with the historic nature of Philipsburg Manor, everything is done using 18^th-century techniques - no electric powered clippers here, the folks at Philipsburg leave that for the amateurs.

Besides the shearing, Sheep-to-Shawlers can see the entire process of making woolen cloth and participate in many stages of the process once the sheep are sheared: picking and carding the wool, spinning and dyeing the yarn, and weaving it into cloth. About the only thing you can't see is the final product being sold to a Bloomie's buyer. (Just kidding, no really.)

Please send me your cutest sheep-related photos from the event and we'll post the best ones here.