Spinning and Carding Class at Coggeshall Farm

Baby Nemo

Violet with our favorite rooster.

Penelope showing her friends how to hold the rooster.

Violet waiting patiently while the older children had their class.

Yesterday Penelope took a class with a bunch of her homeschool friends at Coggeshall Farm. It was great, and the added bonus was we didn't need to leave out town! The children could choose to sign up for basket weaving, candle making, or spinning and carding wool. Penelope chose the wool class, and happily that's what all her friends chose too, so it was a class of good buddies.

I didn't stay with her for the first part of the class, where they each got their own spinner and actually learned how to use it, because Violet was not signed up and I wasn't sure she'd behave. She and I walked around the farm with the other toddler sibling and his mom. But later the kids came out to meet the sheep their wool came from and when they headed back in we tagged along, mostly to warm up a bit. Violet was actually very well behaved and patient, so we stayed for the rest of the class.

The best part of the trip was getting to see Baby Nemo, the new calf born at the height of the blizzard he was named for. Less than a week old, he was the cutest, sweetest thing. His mother, Constance, is a first time mama and having a bit of trouble figuring the whole motherhood thing out. She was so freaked out by the storm that was raging and shaking the barn when her baby was being born, and when he arrived she didn't recognize him as her baby. The farm people had to hold her still and keep her from hurting him as he learned how to nurse. It took a few days, but she has come around and is becoming a good mama with the help of the sweet people who live on the farm. They are keeping him away from the public right now, but they let our group of well behaved kids go right in the pen and pet both mama and baby. It was pretty special.