Wool Days come to area museum

The sheep on the farm are giving birth to baby lambs and the various gardens are being planted.

The museum is preparing for Wool Days on April 26-30, during which everyone is invited to come and see the new baby lambs and to see the wool sheared on the museum farms from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The museum will charge its general admission during Wool Days.

"We take a big pair of scissors and clip the wool," said Marcus Buchanan, agriculture director. "We try to spread it out over time so more visitors are able to see it. We have several baby lambs on the farms already and we are expecting more sheep to deliver lambs any day now. I have one black sheep called a Hog Island Abby in our flock."

The museum already has three baby lambs that have been born.

"I have three more about to be born on the American farm," said Buchanan. "I have a Costwold that has white fleece that is five to six inches long and curly. This one is rare. We send the wool off to be put into roving so it is ready to spin. We sell the wool in our gift shop as a way of bringing money back into the educational programming we provide here."

Buchanan said the farm has many animals housed year-round at the various farms.

"During the winter from late December to early March, I kind of consolidate the animals so they are sharing bedding to cut down on the tasks," he added. "But they are now on their perspective farms ready to greet our visitors."

The museum has quite a few animals to boast about.

"We have English sheep and English cattle, we have cows and a lot of different chickens. We have those that have top hats," he said.

The museum is also known for its English ducks, geese, island hogs, horse and milking cow.

"We normally get locally raised hogs here," he said. "We change breeds every now and then. We've had various kinds."

The museum is also working on spring planting on its farms.

"We sow tall oats here that are 36-40 inches tall; tall wheat and rye," he said. "We've had 200 head of field crop cabbage in the German farm because they liked coleslaw. We've taken truckloads to the food bank sometimes. Some of the vegetables we raise are dried, like tomatoes and apples that were used in the winter. We sell packaged flax kits so visitors can plant and harvest from the seed in the gift shop. We have had Irish potatoes and have sold them. Some of the gardens are medicinal plants or are herbs. We have a little over 200 acres here to spread out our farm."

In addition to Wool Days, the museum has several key events on its schedule.

On May 20, there will be a hymn sing; on May 25-28, the museum will be celebrating Historic Garden Days on all the farms, with general admission being charged for all these events.

Starting June 1, the museum will feature First Fridays, with music on all the farms from 6 to 8 p.m. This event will free to the public.

The museum is located adjacent to the intersection of I-81 and I-64 in Staunton off exit 222 to Rt. 250 West. The museum entrance is a half-mile on the left.

For more information, call the Frontier Culture Museum at 332-7850 or check out their Web site at http://www.frontier.virginia.gov.