Getting to the Source of Cloth: A Day at Slide Ranch

Exploring the many facets of cloth and its by-products to the Orange Band to one of our prettiest excursions yet: the always wonderful Slide Ranch in Marin. While our destination was new to some and familiar to others, the Orange Band got to participate in a pilot program with a focus on wool and yarn on the ranch, with the steady hand of Amelia leading our investigations.       And then set out to recreate the wool-to-yarn steps: kiddos washed wool,carded, or combed, the wool,and hand spun their wool pieces!Kiddos even had an opportunity to test out some natural dyes from fruit and veggies (that turned out to be less successful, though.)No trip to Slide Ranch would be complete without a little goat milking and garden excursion!!Soleil, Sadie, and Lily each took a turn milking Dream.Soleil and Lily even tried some fresh goat milk -- REALLY fresh!! (It was warm!!)[embed]https://youtu.be/Ey6l-9pvGUE[/embed]The other kiddos were content to gather treats for Dream to eat while she was being milked - Dream DEFINITELY expected the treats!Slide Ranch treats are not just for the livestock; Orange Banders got to wander and sample the MANY delicious offerings in the garden, collecting fragrant herb bundles to be tied up with their hand-spun yarn.It was a truly magical day on the ranch - from sheep to wool to yarn, the Orange Band got the chance to see wool through its rudimentary steps of basic production, and get a little goat and gardens in, to boot!