Pioneer Day at Chinsegut Nature Center

Yesterday, Jody, Melody and I spent the day doing a spinning demo in pioneer costume. It was actually our "first" anniversary - I met Jody and Melody at Pioneer Day last year. We had a great time. There were so many people that stopped by and were fascinated with what we were doing.

We were set up in the middle of the farm animal petting zoo, the gentleman that makes turkey calls and the cow milking demo...so we had the sounds of a "real" farm around us all day - quack, moooooo, cock-a-doodle doo, moooooo, baaaa, hee haw, quack - well, you get the picture.

At the beginning of the day, the lady from the petting zoo came over to chat with us. She happened to mention she had a cashmere goat (Aladdin) with her. I had never seen a cashmere goat, so I went over to see. I would have been content to look on from the outside of the pen, but she led me inside. One of the other goats started eating the corner of my apron, which, amazing, I found amusing rather than annoying. As this is Florida, Aladdin does not grow a very long coat, but when asked if I would like his fleece after the next shearing in March, I readily agreed. During the conversation, it was mentioned that they had 2 or 3 large bags of wool from their other sheep they wanted to get rid of...I readily agreed to those too. I want to learn to prepare a fleece, so what better way than with free wool. Also, it would be interesting to have some of their wool at Pioneer Day next year to demo the preparation and spinning of.

Here is what you have been waiting for.....

Me


Jody


Melody


Aladdin