GIFTS FROM ANIMALS

Best for ages 5 & up

How the Animal World provides us with “gifts,” and how we harvest those gifts without hurting the animals we care for. Activities may include:  Milk a goat, shear a sheep, feel the down on a duck, learn how to hypnotize a goose for down-gathering, pluck a molting Angora bunny, balance a peacock feather, and (in season) put baby birds down for a nap!  Length:  45 minutes for each group of 20 or fewer children and adults.

PETS DO OUR CHORES

Best for ages 5 & up

Nature provides us with animals to help us with our yard- and farm-work.  Sheep are our lawn mowers; goats, our weed whackers. Ducks mow around young trees; geese feast on orchard weeds and guard ducks and hens from foxes.  Guinea fowl eat bugs–including the deer ticks that cause Lyme disease–but not produce!  Guinea fowl and peacocks keep our vineyard nearly Japanese-beetle-free.  Donkeys stamp shut woodchuck holes and can protect sheep from dog attacks.  Chickens clean our crock pots and turn our compost piles looking for worms.  Meet our furry, feathery maintenance crew and learn how each species has its own special talents at keeping plant and bug life, as well as predators, in check. 

BABY ANIMALS

Best for ages 1 & up

Dwarf, small, and baby animals to pet and feed.

CRAFTS WORKSHOPS

FIBER CRAFTS

SHEEP TO SHAWL: HOW CLOTH WAS MADE

(From Ancient to Colonial Times)

Best for ages 5 & up

Play Sheep and Shearer to learn the five sheep-shearing positions. Learn how to calm a live sheep and safely hold the scissors so you can shear off a bit of wool without hurting it. Next, learn how to wash the wool. Comb out the tangles with hand carders curved to sit comfortably on your lap, then discover how strong fluffy wool becomes when twisted–and why. Next, twirl a drop spindle to spin roving into yarn. Program favorite: watch us gently pull molting wool from an Angora rabbit on our lap and direct it into a spinning wheel to create Angora yarn. Dye wool; learn to warp and weave cloth on a mini-loom you can keep and reuse. Learn how to load a boat shuttle and coordinate the heddles while weaving on a 10-treadle floor loom. Length: 2 1/4 hours for a group of 20 or fewer people.  

SHEEP TO “SNAKES ON SPOOLS”

Best for ages 7 & up

Play Sheep & Shearer to learn the five sheep-shearing positions. Learn how to calm a live sheep and how to safely hold the scissors so you can shear off a bit of wool without hurting it. Next, learn how to wash the wool. Comb out the tangles with hand carders curved to sit comfortably in your lap, then discover how strong fluffy wool becomes when twisted–and why. Next, twirl a drop spindle to spin roving into yarn.   Dye wool. Spool-knit a snake or colorful chain for a coaster or miniature rug. Length: 2 1/4 hours for a group of 20 or fewer people.

 SHEEP TO “FELT A COLORFUL BALL”

 Best for ages 7 & up

Play Shepherd and Shearer to learn the five sheep-shearing positions. Learn how to calm a live sheep and safely hold the scissors so you can shea a bit of wool without hurting the sheep. Next, learn how to wash the wool. Comb out the tangles with hand carders curved to sit comfortably on your lap, then felt fluffy wool into a ball that bounces for play or a necklace. Length: 2 1/4 hours for a group of 20 or fewer people.

MILK CRAFTS

MOZZARELLA

Best for ages 5 & up

Milk a goat, then learn to make mozzarella cheese from store-bought milk. Length: 1 1/2 hours for 20 or fewer people.

PIZZA

Best for ages 5 & up

Milk a goat, then learn to make mozzarella cheese from store-bought milk, grind wheat kernels for pizza dough, and turn fresh tomatoes into pizza sauch. Length: 2 1/2 hours for 20 or fewer people.

ICE CREAM

Best for ages 6 & up

Milk a goat, then make Kick-the-Can ice cream from store-bought milk. Length: 45 minutes for 20 or fewer people. 

HIVE CRAFTS

BEESWAX CANDLES

Best for ages  5 & up

Examine the inside of a honey bee hive (minus the bees), then roll your own beeswax candles. Length: about 35 minutes for 20 or fewer people.

METAL CRAFTS

MAKE A COPPER PENNY HOLDER AND PEWTER CIRCLE

Best for ages 5 & up  

Shape and decorate copper using metal punches, wooden anvils and hammers, and dapping blocks. Use sand-casting techniques to turn a pewter cube into a circle. 

 MAKE A DINNER TRIANGLE AND CLAPPER

Best for ages 7-11 (with help) & up  

Use real blacksmith tools to bend a 3-foot stainless steel rod into a dinner triangle. Feel how the metal gets hot at each bend by your shifting the molecules and creating heat. Make a clapper to ring your triangle. You get to keep the triangle and clapper.